Campanales.] 



DIPSACACE^. 



G99 



Order CCLXXI. DIPSACACE^.— Teazelworts. 



Dipsaceae, Juss. Gen. 194. (1789) ; Coulter Mem. in Act. Genev. 2. 13. (18"23) ; JJC. J'rodr. 4. G43. (1830) ; 



Endl. Gen. cxi.\. 



Diagnosis. — Campanal Fxoc/eti^, with a \-cellecl ovary, imhrkated corolla, free anthers, 

 pendulous ovule, and albuminoxts seeds. 



Herbaceous plants or under-shinibs. Leaves opposite or whorled. Flowers collected 

 upon a common receptacle, and surrounded by a many-leaved involucre. Calyx 



adherent, membranous, resembling pap- 

 pus ; sm-romided by a scarious involucel. 

 Corolla monopetalous, tubular, inserted 

 in the calyx ; limb obUque, 4- or 5-lobed, 

 with an imbricated cestivation. Stamens 

 4, alternate with the lobes of the corolla, 

 sometimes half-sterile ; anthers distinct. 

 Ovary inferior, 1 -celled, with a single 

 pendulous anatropal ovule ; style 1 ; 

 stigma simple. Fruit di'y, indeliiscent, 

 1-celled, crowned by the pappus-like 

 calyx ; embryo straight, in the axis of a 

 small quantity of fleshy albumen ; radicle 

 supei'ior. 



The relation of this family is obvaously 

 in the first degree with Composites, from 

 which it differs in its distinct stamens 

 and its pendulous albuminous seeds ; and 

 next with Calycers, which have imited 

 anthers and alternate leaves. The same 

 character of the capitate flowers, and the 

 presence of albumen, forms the distinc- 

 tion between Teazelworts and Valerian- 

 worts. What is called the involucel is a 

 cm'ious organ, reserablhig an external 

 calyx, and is to each pai'ticular flower of 

 the head of Teazelworts what the partial 

 involucre of Umbellifers is to each partial 

 umbel ; and, accordmgly, we ought to 

 expect to find instances of more flowers 

 than one being mclosed \\ithin this invo- 

 lucel ; and this is said by Coulter actually 

 to take place in the genus Gundelia. This 

 is, how^ever, not the only peculiarity of 

 the Order. Brown has the follo\vuig re- 

 marks: — «M. Auguste de Saint Hilaire, in 

 his excellent Memoii* on Pri- 

 mulacese, wliile he admits the 

 correctness of M. De Can- 

 dolle's account with respect 

 to great part of Dipsacea?, 

 has at the same time well 

 observed, that m several spe- 

 cies of Scabiosa the ovarium 

 is entirely united wth tho 

 tube of the calyx. But neither 

 of these authors has remai-ked 

 the curious, and I believe pe- 

 culiar, circumstance of the 

 base of the style cohering 

 with the narrow ajiex of the 

 tube of the calyx, even hi 

 those species of the Order in 

 Fig. CCCCLXXI. which the dilated part of the 



Fig. CCCCLXXI.- Sca])iosa atropuipurea. 1. a flower; 2. the involucre opened to show the ovary 

 and calyx ; 3. perpendicular section of fruit. 



