ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



23 



Neilgherry and Pulney mountains. Royle considers his a new species and has called it C. cor- 

 daf a, mme does not appear to differ specifically from C. aljjina, either in character, habit, or in 

 the kind of locality where it grows. 



Remarks on Specjes. It is almost amusing to peruse the characters by which Botanists, 

 ever since the days of Linnaeus, have been endeavouring to distinguish between C. lutetiana 

 and C. alpina, which neither individually nor collectively would, in any doubtful case, enable any 

 one, except by chance, to tell the one from the other,even though the species are certainly distinct. 

 The genus until extended by Indian additions consisted of those two species only, the fruit of 

 the former of which is 2-celled, with an erect seed in each cell, hence the generic character 

 « ovarium 2-celled with an erect ovuhim in each cell : fruit 2-celled, 2-valved, 2-seeded. Such 

 being the case in one species it is inferred it must equally be so in the other, and the flower 

 being small and fruit rarely produced, this is taken for granted. By taking it for granted Bot- 

 anists have puzzled themselves in vain, for at least a century, to find good specific characters 



by which to distinguish them. The ovary at once supplies the long sought-for desideratum. 



Ovary 2-celled— C. lutetiana. 

 Ovary 1-celled — C. alpina. 



Circma alpina. 



1. Plant — natural size. 



2. A flower, front view. 



3. Flower and ovary, side view. 



4. Stamens. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 101* OR 112. 



5. Stigma. 



C. Detached ovary. 



7. Cut transversely. 



8. Cut vertically, showing the erect ovule— aWmor* or 



's magnified. 



The sub-order 



Suborder Hydrocaryes. 



This sub order, like the last, consists of only one genus, Trapa, and differs essentially from 

 it m the position of its ovules— erect in that, pendulous in this. They are floating plants, al- 

 ways found in water. The Indian species T. bispinosa is so very rare a plant, in southern 

 India, that I have only once seen it growing and that on the Malabar Coast. 

 is thus characterized by Lindley. 



'♦ Calyx superior, 4-parted. Petals 4, arising from the throat of the calyx. Stamens 4 

 alternate with the last. Ovary 2-celled ; ovules solitary, pendulous ; style filiform, thickened 

 at the base; stigma capitate. Fruit hard, indehiscent, 1-celled, I -seeded, crowned by the in- 

 deed solitary, large, pendulous ; albumen none ; cotyledons 2, 

 Floatmg plants. Lower leaves opposite, upper alternate ; those under water 

 cut into capillary segments ; petioles tumid in the middle. Flowers small, axillary." 



durafed segments of the calyx 

 very unequal. 



The species of this genus, 5 in number, are all natives of Europe and Asia, one is a native 

 of Europe, 2 of India proper, one of China, and one of Cochin China. 



Propertiks and Uses. " The great seeds of Trapa are sweet and eatable. Those of 

 T. btspinom form an extensive article of cultivation in Cashmere and other parts of the east, 

 where they are a common food, under the name of Singhara nuts."— Lindley. 



LXVIL-HALORAGE^. 



This is a small order of aquatic or sub-aquatic, herbaceous, very rarely sufFruticose plants, 

 but widely diffused, being found in every quarter of the globe. Their habit, generally, is so 

 peculiar, that they were at one time even placed among monocotyledonous plants by some Bot- 

 anists. Mr. brown was tlje first to separate them as a distinct order and determine their afE- 



1836, 



nities, so late as 1814. Since then all Botanists adopted his views until Dr. Lindley, iu 

 suggested that they might be reduced to a sub-order and ranged under Onagmrlae, 



tioned under that order. In this view he has been followed by Meisner and not without 



as men- 

 some 



