PiPERALES.] 



SAURURACEiE. 



521 



Order CXCVIII. SAURURACEiE.— Saururads. 



Saurureae, Rich. Anal. (1 



08); Meyer de Houttuynia atque Saiirureis, (1827); Martins Hort. Monac 

 (1829); Endl. Gen. Ixxxii.; Meismr Gen. p. 335. 



Diagnosis. — Piperal Fxogens, with several distinct carpels, an erect ovule, an embryo lying 

 in vitellus, aiid alternate stipulate leaves. 



Herbaceous plants, growing in marshy places. Leaves alternate, with stipules. 

 Flowers growing in spikes, naked, seated upon a scale, § . Stamens 3 to 6, clavate, 

 hypogynous, persistent ; filaments 

 slender ; anthers continuous with the 

 filament, cuneate, with a thick connec- 

 tive and 2 lateral lobes bursting lon- 

 gitudinally. Ovaries 3 or 4, more or 

 less distinct, with one ascending or- 

 thotropal ovule and a sessile recurved 

 stigma, or connate into a 3- or 4-celled 

 pistil, with a few orthotropal o\ades 

 ascending from the edge of the pro- 

 jecting semi-dissepiments. Fruit either 

 consisting of 4 fleshy indehiscent nuts, 

 or a 3- or 4-celled capsule, opening at 

 the apex and containing a few ascend- 

 ing seeds. Seeds with a membranous 

 integument ; embryo minute, Ijang in 

 a fleshy lenticular sac, which is seated 

 on the outside of hard mealy albumen 

 at the apex of the seed. 



These plants are very near Pep- 

 perworts, with which they agree in 

 habit, but from which they difier in 

 the compound natm-e of their ovary, and theu' alternate constantly stipulate leaves. It 

 has been supposed that they destroyed the distmction between Exogens and Endogens, 

 but tliis opinion was formed upon incorrect views, and especially upon the erroneous 

 supposition that the genus Aponogeton, now known to belong to An-ow-grasses, was 

 a part of the Order of Saururads. If M. Decaisne is right in referrmg his Gymno- 

 theca hither, which is veiy doubtful, we shall have the smgular combmation in the 

 same Order of distinct one-seeded carpels, and an inferior ovary with many-seeded 

 parietal placentae. — See Loasads. 



The species are natives of North America, Chma, and the north of India, growing in 

 marshes or pools of water. 



Savirurus cernuus has been found to be somewhat acrid ; its root, made into a 

 poultice, is employed in North America in pleurisy. The leaves of Houttuynia are 

 regai'ded as emmenagogues by the Cochin Chinese. 



y^^^ 



Fig. CCCLVI. 



GENERA. 



SauiTirus, Linn. 



Matiitschkia, Gmel. 

 Houttuynia, Thunb. 



Polypnra, Loureir. 



Anemiopsis, Uook. 



Ammia, Nutt. 

 ? Gymnotheca, Decaisne. 



Numbers. Gen. 4. Sp. 7. 

 Position. Saururacej;;. — Piperacese. 



Fig. CCCLVI.— 1. Houttuynia coidata ; 2. flower of &:auruius ceinuus ; 3. its fruit; 1. its seed 

 divided perpendicularly. 



