Piper ALES.] 



PIPERACE^. 



'15 



Order CXCVI. PIPERACE^.— Pepperworts. 



Piperaceffi, Rich, in Humb. Bonpl. et Kunth. N. G. et Sp. PL 1. 39. t. 3. (1815) ; Meyer de Houtturjnia 

 atque Saurureis, (1827) ; Endl. Gen. Ixxxi. ; Mtisner Gen. p. 335 ; Kunth in Linncea, 13. 561 : 

 Miquel in Ann. Sc. n. s. 14. 167 ; 15. 285. Id. ; Systema Piperacearum, 9,vo. 



Diagnosis. — Piperal Exogens, with a solitary carpel, an erect ovule, an embryo lying in 

 vitellus, and opposite or alternate leaves, with or without stipules. 



Shrubs or herbaceous plants. Stems articulated. Leaves opposite, verticillate, or 

 alternate in consequence of the abortion of one of the pair of leaves ; stipules 0, or in 



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Fig. CCCLI. 



pairs, or single and opposite the leaf. Flowers usually 

 sessile, sometimes pedicellate, in spikes which are either 

 terminal, or axillary, or opposite the leaves, naked, p , 

 with a bract on the outside. Stamens 2 or more, arranged 

 on one side or aU round the ovary ; anthers 1- or 2- 

 celled, with or ^\-ithout a fleshy connective ; pollen round- 

 ish, smooth. Ovary free, simple, 1 -celled, containing a 

 single erect, orthotropal owile ; stigma sessile, simple, 

 rather obhque. Fruit free, somewhat fleshy, indehiscent, 

 1 -celled, 1 -seeded. Seed erect, mth the embryo l}ing in 

 a fleshy sac placed at the apex of the seed, on the outside 

 of the albumen. 



However distinct the exogenous and endogenous 

 forms of vegetation may be in the majority of the plants 

 referred to those classes, it is v/ell knowTi that in certain 

 cases such differences are much enfeebled. Of this 

 Pepperworts are an instance. According to Richard, 

 they are monocotyledonous ; an opinion in which Blume 

 concurs, after an examination of abundance of species in their native places of gi'owth. 

 But if the medullary rays constitute the great anatomical difference between these divi- 

 sions of the vegetable kingdom (and I know of no other which is absolute), then Pepper- 

 worts are surely dicotyledonous, as is shown by Meyer (Dissertatio de HoiMuynia, 38), 

 and as may be ascei'tained by any one who will look at an old stem of a Pepper ; add 

 to this, the veins of the leaves, their distinct articulation with the stem, and the 2-Iobed 



Fig. CCCLII. 



Fig. CCCLI.— Serronia Jaborandi. 1. a cluster of flowers magnified; 2. a ripe fruit; 3. a vertical 

 section of the same, showing the seed and position of the embrjo. 



Fig. CCCLII.— Peperomia blanda. 1. a highly magnified view of a portion of a spike, with a few 

 flowers attached ; 2. a flower seen from the back, showing the ovary and two side anthers ; 3. a section of 

 the ovary, showing the ov'ule and its foramen ; 4. a perpendicular section of a ripe fruit, showing 

 the embrj'o lying in its N-itellus. 



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