Gextianales.] 



OROBANCHACE^ 



609 



Order CCXXXV. OROBANCHACEiE.— Broomrapes. 



Orobancheae, Juss. Ann. Miis. 12. 445. (180S) ; Rich in Pcrs. Si/nops. 2. 180. ; DC. and Duly Bof. 

 Gall. 348.; Bartl. Ord. Nat. 173; Endl. Gen. cliv. ; Walpers' Repert. 3. 457.— Phelyp»ace£e, 

 Horanin, Pr. Lin. p. 73.— Orobanchinae, Link Ilandb. 1. 506. (1829) a § of Personatie. 



DiAGNO-sis. — Gentianal Exogens, with no stipules, simple stigmas at the end of a manifest 

 style, parietal jylacentcB, and didyyiamous floicers. 



Herbaceous leafless plants, growing parasitically upon the roots of other species. 

 Stems covered ^^-ith brown or colourless scal<^s. Calyx divided, persistent, inferior. 

 Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, ii'regular, persistent, with 

 an imbricated aestivation. Stamens 4, didynamous. Anthers 

 occasionally 1- celled, but more generally •2-celled, the cells 

 distinct, parallel, often mucronate, or bearded at the base. 

 Ovary superioi", I -celled, seated in a fleshy disk, ^\-ith 2 or 

 more parietal polyspermous placentae, the 2 carpels of which 

 it consists placed right and left of the axis ; style 1 ; stigma 

 2-lobed, Fruit capsular, inclosed within the withered corolla, 

 1 -celled, 2-valved, each valve bearing 1 or 2 placentae in the 

 middle. Seeds indefinite, very minute ; embryo minute, at the 

 base of fleshy albumen. 



Broomrapes are generally compared with Gesnerworts and 

 Figworts, from both which they are very different in habit. 

 They are distinguished from Gesnerworts by the important cir- 

 cumstance of their seeds having only a minute embryo lying in 

 one end of fleshy albumen, and spherical pollen, while the em- 

 bryo of Gesnerworts is cylmdrical and erect, occupying the axis 

 of a small quantity only of albumen, and the pollen elliptical, 

 v\-ith a furrow on one side. In Gesnerworts the seeds are 

 attached by rather long funiculi, while 

 they are absolutely sessile in Broom- 

 rapes. Moreover, there is a tendency 

 in the latter to become pentandrous, or 

 even hexandrous ; not only does no 

 such tendency exist in the former, but 

 the reverse takes place, in the occa- 

 sional increased sterility of the stamens. 

 There is scarcely any trace in Oro- 

 banche of the glandular processes of 

 the disk of Gesnerworts, or at least 

 nothing more than a thin glandular 

 coating to the base of the ovary. 

 From Figworts, to which their didyna- 

 mous stamens have caused them to be 

 compared, they are known by their 1 -celled ovary and minute embryo ; as well as by 

 their habit and parasitical mode of growth. In this respect they resemble Fir-rapes, 

 from which they diff'er in their ovary being composed of 2, not .5 carpels, and in 

 their irregular unsjTnmetrical flowers, with epipetalous stamens. There can be little 

 doubt, however, that the nearest affinity of Broomrapes is to Gentianworts, with some 

 of which, as for example, Voyria, they even correspond in their leafless scaly habit, and 

 moreover in their corolla adhering firmly to the base of the finiit which it covers when 



CCCCXII 



Fig. CCCCXII.— Anoplanthus uniflorus. 

 4. the section of it to show the embryo. 



1. a flower cut open ; 2. a section of the ovary ; 3. a seed ; 



R R 



