528 



SCLERANTHACEvE. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCII. SCLERANTHACE^.— Scleranths. 



Scleranthese, Link Emm. 417. (1821) ; BC. Prodr. 3. 377. (1828) a § o/ Ulecebrese ; Bartl. Ord. Kat. 

 300. (1830) ; Meis7i. Gen. p. 133 ; Endl. Gen. p. 962. 



Diagnosis. — Fkoidal Exogens, with no petals, a tubular calyx becoming hardened and 

 covering the fruit, consisting of a single solitary carpel. 



Small inconspicuous herbs. Leaves opposite, without stipules. Flowers minute, 

 axillary, sessile. Calyx 4- or 5-toothed, with a stiff tube. Stamens from 1 to 10, in- 

 serted into the orifice of the tube. Ovary simple, superior, 1 -seeded ; 

 styles 2, or 1, emarginate at the apex. 0\Tiles 1 or 2, amphitropal, 

 hanging down from the point of a slender cord which rises from the 

 base of the ovary. Fruit a membranous utricle inclosed within the 

 hardened calyx. Seed pendulous from the apex of a funiculus, which 

 arises from the bottom of the cell ; embryo cylindrical, curved rotmd 

 fai'inaceous albumen ; radicle superior, but next the liilum. 



The weedy plants called Scleranths, are by most Botanists, and 



among the rest by De Candolle, referred to Knotworts, from which they 



diflFer in the absence of petals and stipules, in the indurated tube of the 



calyx, from the orifice of which the 



^ stamens proceed, and in the number 



of the latter often exceeding that of 



the divisions of the calyx. They are, 



in fact, perig}-nous Chenopods, rather 



than Knotworts. Their affinity seems, 



however, to be quite as gi'eat with 



Nyctagos, with which they agree in 



most respects except their truly peri- 



g>^lous stamens and small herbaceous 



ribbed calyx. 



Fenzl proposes to di\dde this tri- 

 flmg Order into two tribes, viz. Eu- 

 sclerantheee, and Habrosiese, but the advantage of doing so is not obAnous. 



The species are found in barren fields in Em'ope, Asia, and North America, and in 

 sterile places in comitries of the southern hemisphere beyond the tropics. A single 

 species is described from Peru. 



They are all uninteresting weeds, of no known use. 



Fig. CCCLX. 



Position. 



GENERA. 



Muiarum, Forst. 

 Ditoca, Banks. 

 Scleranthus, L. 

 GuUleminia, H. B. K. 

 Habrozia, Fenzl. 



Numbers. Gen. 4. Sp. 14. 



ChcnopodiacecB. 

 -Tetragoniaceee. — Scleranthace^. 

 Nyctaginaceoe. 



-Basellacese. 



Fig. CCCLX. — Scleranthus perennis. I. young calyx forced open; 2. perpendicular section of ripe 

 calyx ; 3. ovary ; 4. anther ; 5. section of seed . 



