ECHIALES.J 



BRUNONIACE^. 



657 



Order CCLIV. BRUNONIACEiE.— Brunoniads. 



Goodenovise, § 2. R. Brown Prodr. 589. (1810).— Bmnoniacea?, Ed.pr. cxcvii. (IS.Ki) ; Endl. Gen. c.x.xii.- 



Meimer, p. 238. ' ' ' 



Diagnosis. — Echial Exogms, with regular symmetrical flotvers, asaUtary nut, and indmiate 



stigma. 



Herbaceous plants, without stems, and with simple glandless hairs. Leaves radical, 

 entire, with no stipules. Flowers on scapes, collected in heads, suiTounded by enlarged 

 bracts, blue. Calyx free, in 5 divisions, with bracts at the 

 base. Corolla monopetalous, almost regular, 5-parted, inferior, 

 withering. Stamens definite, hypog}^lous, alternate with the 

 segments of the corolla ; anthers turned inwards, 2-celled, 

 collateral, sHghtly cohering. Ovary 1 -celled, with a suigle 

 erect anatropal o\^le ; style single ; stigma inclosed in a 

 2-valved cup. Fniit a membranous utricle inclosed within 

 the hardened tube of the calyx. Seed solitary, ei-ect, without 

 albumen ; embryo with plano-convex fleshy cotyledons, and a 

 minute inferior radicle. 



The solitary genus forming this Order was regarded by 

 Brown as a section of Goodeniads, from which it differs 

 essentially in the supeinor 1 -celled ovary and capitate flowers, 

 thus approaching certain Teazelworts, but differing in the 

 want of an involucel, in the erect orule, superior ovary, and 

 pecuhar stigma. With reference to this, Bro\\'n says: "Bru- 

 nonia agrees with Goodenovise in the remarkable indusium of 

 the stigma, in the structure and connection of the antheree, in 

 the seed being erect, and essentially in the aestivation of 

 It differs from them in having both calyx and 

 corolla distinct from the ovarium, in the 

 disposition of vessels m the corolla, in the 

 filaments being jointed at the top, in the 

 seed being without albumen, and in its 

 remarkable inflorescence, compatible, in- 

 deed, with the nature of the irregularity 

 in the corolla of Goodenovia, but which 

 can hardly co-exist with that character- 

 ising Lobeliacere. With Compositce it 

 agrees essentially in inflorescence, in the 

 aestivation of the corolla, in the remark- 

 able joint or change of texture in the apex 

 of its filaments, and in the structure of the 

 ovarium and seed. It differs from them 

 in having ovarium liberum or superum, in 

 the want of a glandular disk, in the imme- 

 diately hypog^-nous insertion of the fila- 

 ments, in the indusium of the stigma, and 

 in the vascular structiu*e of the corolla, 

 whose tube has five nerves only, and these 

 continued through the axes of the lacinire, 

 either terminating simply (as is at least 

 frequently the case in Brunonia sericea), or (as in B. australis) dividing at top into two 

 recui'rent branches, forming lateral nerves, at first sight resembling those of Compositrt, 

 but which hardly reach to the base of the laciniise. It is a curious circumstance that 

 Brunonia should so completely differ from Compositse in the disposition of vessels of 

 the corolla, while both Orders agree in the no less remarkable structure of the jointed 

 filament ; a character which had been observed in a very few Compositno only, before the 

 pubUcation of M, Cassini's second Dissertation, where it is proved to be nearly 

 imiversal in the Order. In the opposite parietes of the ovarium of Brunonia two nerves 



Brunonia sericea. — F. Bauer. 1. a complete flower ; 2. the pistil} 3. a ripe fruit ; 



Fig. CCCCXL. 



Fig. CCCCXL.- 

 4. embryo. 



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