356 



RESEDACEiE. 



[Hypogynous Exogens. 



Order CXXIV. RESEDACEuE— Weldworts. 



Resedacese, DC. Thdor. ed. 1. 214. (1813) ; Aug. de St. Hil. Ann. Soc. Roy. Orl. vol. 13. ; Endl. Gen. 

 clxxxiii. ; Meisner, Gen. p. 18; Wight Illustr. U 36. 



Diagnosis.— CiS^aZ Exogeiis, with definite not tetradynamous stamens, not tetra^nerous 

 flowers, exalbuminous seeds, and fruit usually open at the point. 

 Soft herbaceous plants, or in a few instances small shrubs, ^^ith alternate entire or 

 pinnately di\ided leaves, and minute gland-like stipules. Flo\vers m racemes or spikes. 



Calyx many-parted. 



Petals broad 

 fleshy plates, having lacerated ap- 

 pendages at the back, unequal. 

 Disk hypogynous, 1 -sided, glandular. 

 2 Stamens definite, inserted into the 

 disk ; filaments erect ; anthers 2- 

 celled, opening longitudinally. Ovary 

 sessile, 3-lobed, 1 -celled, many-seed- 

 ed, scarcely closed, usually wAih. 3- 

 6-parietal placentae, sometimes sur- 

 romidmg a free central o\'ule-bearing 

 body. Stigmas 3, glandular, sessile. 

 .. Ovules amphitropal or campulitropal. 

 Fiiiit dry and membranous, or suc- 

 culent, opening at the apex ; or apo- 

 carpous, with empty carpels sm'- 

 roxmding a central placenta ; or even 

 hooded and 1 -seeded. Seeds seve- 

 ral, renifoiTU ; embryo taper, arcuate, without albumen ; radicle next the hilum. 



The flowers of these plants, of which the common Mignonette may be taken as the 

 type, diff"er m many respects from those of other Orders, especially m the presence of 

 a very large glandular 1 -sided plate, out of which the stamens grow, and in the petals 

 bearmg a great resemblance to that disk. This led me, in the Collectanea Botanica, 

 and in the fii'st edition of this work, to describe the structm-e of Weldworts, as con- 

 sisting of an apparent calyx which was really an involucre, while the petals are abor- 

 tive male flowers, and the disk a calyx of one central bisexual flower. I am, however, 

 now convinced, by the arguments of Henslow, that this theory was eiToneous, and I 

 accordingly revert to the old view of the organisation and affinities of the Order. 

 These latter are chiefly mth Capparids, with which the seeds, the great disk out of 

 wliich the stamens arise, and the parietal placentae, agree. 



All these plants are weeds inhabiting Em'ope, the adjoinmg parts of Asia, the basin 

 of the Mediterranean, and the adjacent islands. A very few occur in the North of 

 India, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cahfomia. 



Little more is known of their uses than that Reseda luteola, called Weld, yields a 

 yellow dye, and that the Mignonette (R. odorata) is among the most fragrant of plants. 

 They were once regarded as sedative, as is indicated by the word Reseda. They are 

 generally sub-acrid ; nevertheless Reseda Phyteuma, the oxifTTpa of the modern Greeks, 

 is eaten as a kitchen escvQent in the Greek Archipelago. 



Fig. CCXLYII. 



Ochradenus, Belil. 

 Reseda, Linn. 

 Luteola, Tournef. 



GENERA. 



I Eresda, Spach. i Elimia, Nutt. 



Oligomeris, C'a»«&e**. Holopetalum, Turcz. 



Resedella, Webb et B. Astrocarpus, Neck. 



I Sesamoides, Tournef. 

 Sesamella, Reichenb. 

 I Caylusea, St. Hil. 



Numbers. Gen. 6. Sp. 41. 

 Position. Resedaceje. — Capparidacese. 



Fig. CCXLVII. — Reseda mediterranea. 1. a flower seen from above, much magnified ; 2. a section of 

 the same, showing the gi-eat disk on one side of the ovary, and within which the stamens arise ; 3. a cross 

 section of the ovary ; 4. a seed ; 5. a section of it. 



