Gentianales,] 



STILBACE.E. 



607 



Order CCXXXIV. STILBACEjE.— Stilbids. 



Stilbinea?, Kunth in verhandl. Koniyl. Acad. Wissensch. ^^ro^, (March, 1831); Martins Conspectus, 

 No, 109. ; Endl, Gen. cxxxviii. 



DiACTNOsis. — Oentianal Exogens, with no stipules, simple stigma at the end of a manifest 

 style, axile placentce, definite erect seeds, valvate corolla, and unsymmetrical flo^vers. 



Cape shrubs, \v\i\\ the habit of a PhyUca or a Fir. Leaves whorled, close, narrow, 

 entire, leathery, rigid, articulated at the base, without stipules. Flowers in dense 

 spikes at the point of the branches, sessile, 

 each with 3 bracts at the base, occasionally 

 polygamous. Calyx tubular, campanulate, 

 with a 5-cleft limb, the segments of which are 

 equal ; the two lower sometimes cut deeper ; 

 seldom 5-leaved or 2-valved ; persistent. 

 Corolla monopetalous, hj'pog^Tious ; the tube 

 enlarged upwards, with a ring of hairs in the 

 throat ; the limb valvate, 5-parted, spreading, 

 somewhat 2-lipped, I'arely 4-parted, and nearly 

 regular. Stamens equal in number to the 

 segments of the corolla, and alternate with 

 them, inserted between the lobes, the upper 

 one of five always rudimentary, or even obli- 

 terated ; filaments free ; anthers eUiptical, 

 oblong, attached by the back, 2-celled ; open- 

 ing longitudinally by their face. Ovary supe- 

 rior, sessile, 2-celled ; cells with only one 

 erect ovule ; one cell sometimes smaller and 

 empty ; style terminal, fihform, exserted ; 

 stigma simple, emarginate. Disk 0. Fruit 

 dry, 1 -seeded, indehiscent, surrounded by the 

 permanent calyx. [Seed erect, with a loose 

 cellular testa. Embryo short, in the axis of 

 very firm fleshy albumen, orthotropal ; coty- 

 ledons scarcely distmct ; radicle inferior. — 

 Endl.-] 



This little Order has never yet been well 

 examined, and no good figm'es of any of the 

 species can be foimd in books. The seeds 

 have been seen in only one or two cases, and 

 the whole of the details require verification 

 and re-examination. According to Kunth, 

 they diff'er from Selagids in little except ha^4ng 

 2-celled anthers, erect o\niles, and no hypo- 

 gynous disk, and he also compares them with Globularia, which I regard as a mere 

 form of the Selagids themselves. Endlicher compares them to Vervams. All these 

 comparisons have doubtless been influenced by the unsjTumetrical flowers, which 

 appear as if didj-namous. But in truth they are not so, in such mstances as I have been 

 able to examine, namely Stilbe pinastra and ericoides, or Campylostachys abbreviata 

 and cernua, with some others in the herbaria of Sir W. Hooker and Mr. Harvey ; and 

 ^at is more important, the stamens originate mvariably from between the lobes of the 

 corolla. In habit they may doubtless be compared to Selagids and some Vervains, but 

 they.are quite as much like Diosmas, or FhyUcas, or Bnmiads. If to these circum- 

 stances we add the presence of a mmute embryo with scarcely any cotyledons (which 

 according to Endhcher is the sti-ucture), Stilbids can hardly be associated with any of 

 the Orders hitherto suggested. To me they appear far more truly allied with the little 

 Order of Diapensiads, of which they seem to be an unsyrametrical form, rheir occa- 

 sional tendency to polygamy m the original species of Campy lostachys would be very 



Fig. CCCCXI.— Stilbe Pinastra. 1. a flower ; 2. the same cut open ; .?. a perpendicular section of an 

 ovary. 



Fig. CCCCXI. 



