524 



BASELLACE^. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Fig. CCCLYII. 



Order CXCIX. BASELLACEiE.— Basellads. 



Basellaceae, Moquin Tandon Chenopod. Monogr. p. 10. (1840). 



Diagnosis. — Ficoidal Exogens, with distinct sepals, no petals, fruit inclosed in a 

 nous or succulent calyx, a single solitary carpel, and an erect seed. 



Climbing, herbaceous, or shrubby plants, usually somewhat succulent. Leaves 

 alternate, without stipules. Flowers coloured, naked, sessile or stalked, sometimes 

 mthout bracts. Sepals imbricated in two rows, fleshy, hardly opening. Stamens 



opposite the sepals, in- 

 serted into their sides ; 

 anthers 2 - celled, (in 

 Basella, opening out- 

 wards longitudinally.) 

 Ovary free, simple, one- 

 celled, with a single 

 erect, sessile, anatropal 

 o\M\e ; styles several. 

 Fruit membranous. 

 Embryo annular, or 

 coiled up spu-ally, with 

 mealy albumen in the centre, or separated into two superficial masses ; radicle inferior. 

 These plants, which have all the general characters of scandent Chenopods, have been 

 separated from that Order on accovuat of their colom-ed calyx, which scarcely opens, 

 and has its sepals distinctly arranged in two rows, and their perig^Tious stamens. 

 The anthers in Basella are moreover tm-ned outwards, but I know not how far that 

 is characteristic of the Order. BaseUads differ from Scleranths iu the want of a 

 hardened tube to cover over the seed-vessel, and from Aizoons in the perfect simpUcity 

 of their carpel. 



The spe&ies are all tropical, with the exception of Lophiocarpus, a Siberian plant, if it 

 really belongs here. 



Basella rubra and alba ai'e employed as pot-herbs in the East Indies, where they 

 are held in some esteem as a substitute for Spinage. B. tuberosa has a gi'eat 

 fleshy root, which is eaten by the w^omen of Quito, under the idea that it increases 

 their fecundity. Basella rubra yields a very rich purple dye, but it is said to be difficult 

 to fix. 



GENERA. 

 Basella, L. 



Gandola, Rumph. 

 Boussingaultia, H. B. K, 

 Anredera, Juss. 

 ? Lophiocarpus, Turcz. 



Numbers. Gen. 4. Sp. 12. 



ChenopodiacecB. 

 Position. — Tetragoniaceee. — Basellace^. — Scleranthaceae. 



Fig. CCCLVII.— Basella rubra. 1. a flower; 2. the same opened vertically; 3. ovary; 4. the lipe 

 fiiiit and inverting calyx di^^ded perpendicularly ; 5. the embryo. 



