654 



NOLANACE^. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCLII. NOLANACE^E— Nolanads. 



Nolanacese, Lindl. Nixus PI. 18. (1833) j Martins Conspectus, No. 119; EncU. Gen. p. 655; Lindl. in 



Bot. Reg. 1844. t. 46. 



Diagnosis. — Ecliial Exogens, with regular symmetrical floioers, 5 stamens, 5 or more nuts, 

 distinct or jxirtly confluent, a nahed stigma, and straight inflorescence. 



Prostrate or erect, herbaceous or suffruticose plants. Leaves alternate, without sti- 

 pules. Flowers usually showy. Calyx 5 -parted, valvate in sestivatiou. Corolla niono- 

 petalous, with a plaited sestivation, 



usually thickened in the tube. Stamens ^ ""^ ^.^^^^ 



5, equal, inserted into the tube, alternate ' > 



with the segments of the corolla; anthers . ^ ' "' ^^^"^\ 



oblong, 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. J^ _ , ''~~^ 



Pistil composed of several carpels, either 

 distinct with a single style, or partially 

 combined into several sets with a single 

 style seated on a succulent disk. Stigma 

 somewhat capitate. Fruit inclosed in 

 the permanent calyx, constructed like 

 the pistil ; pericarp woody, often a httle 

 succulent ; seeds ascending, solitary ; 

 embryo curved, with either straight or 

 doubled cotyledons, in the midst of a 

 small quantity of albumen ; radicle next 

 the hilum. 



The genus Nolana, sometimes referred 

 to Borage worts, sometimes to Bindweeds, 

 has been erected into a distmct Order, 

 on account, on the one hand, of its regu- 

 lar plaited corolla and valvate calyx, and, 

 on the other, of its separate carpels 

 though united styles. Among the regu- 

 lar-flowered Echials Nolanads can only 

 be compared to Borageworts, from which 

 they are certainly distinguished by their 

 pentamerous fruit and straight mflores- 

 cence. There is some doubt whether 



the genera Falkia or Dichondra belong to Bindweeds or to Nolanads. With the 

 latter those genera agree in their separate ovaries, ^dth the forftier in the structure of 

 their embryo ; with both they disagree in the entire separation of their styles. If we 

 attend to the embryo, they will stand among Bindweeds ; if to the carpels, among 

 Nolanads ; but as their separate styles are nearly paralleled by those of Evolvulus and 

 others, it seems upon the whole better to refer them to Bindweeds. Schlechtendahl 

 suggests {Linncea, 7. 72) that Nolana may be referred to Nightshades, on account of its 

 affinity with Grabowskia boerhaaveifolia, in which the fruit contains two bilocular meno- 

 spermous stones ; and it must be confessed that some of the slu-ubby Nolanads have 

 much the habit of Lycium. 



This little Order is remarkable for the various modes m which its carpels are disposed 

 without ever being consolidated. In one genus there are but 5, and they are distinct ; 

 in another there are 20 combined in fom*s ; in a third the combination is in'egular though 

 the number remains 20 ; and in others they are all wholly distinct. The late Professor 

 Don thought that Triguera must be referred here. 



The species are all South American, and chiefly Chilian. 



Their uses are unknown, 



GENERA. 



Fig. CCCCXXXVIII. 



Nolana, Linn. 

 Walkeria, Ehret. 

 Zwingera, Hofer, 



Teganium, Schmidt 

 Neudorffia, Adans. 

 Alona, Lindl. 



Numbers. Gen. 6 



Dolia, Lindl. 

 Alibrexia, Miers 



jSorema, Lindl. 

 Aplocarya, Lindl. 



Sp. 35. 



Position. — Boraginaceae. 



ConvolvulacecB. 



-NoLANACE^.— 



Solanacece. 



Fig. CCCCXXXVIII.— 1. Alona coelestis ; 2. its pistil ; 3. a transverse section of it ; 4. section of seed 

 of Nolana prostrata ; 5. part of the fruit of Aplocarya divaricata. 



