ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 109 



B 



CAMPANULINEiE. 



Monospermous group ol 



VakriancBe, 



iJipsacecB ana Lomposit^, we enter upon the consideration of a new series of Epigynous 

 ^milies differing from_ the preceding in having several-colled ovaries with numerous ovules. 

 Ihese hare been associated under the above name, as being more nearly allied to each other 

 than to any other famdies. They were, in the first instance, combined into one order by 

 Jussieu, under the name of Campanulaceae. From this Brown separated Goode7wviecB and 

 Atyhdiec, and indicated BrumniucecB as the type of a new Order: but retained LoheUacecB as 

 a section of CampanulacecB, m which he has been followed by Alph. De Candollc and Arnott. 

 tiarthng, however, considered that section entitled to rank as a distinct order, and has been fol- 

 lowed by all subsequent writers. He, at the same time, grouped these orders into a class, which 

 he designated Camp.anulin^, which has been adopted by Endlicher and Mcisner. 



As a single order, the plants associated in this class would assuredly form a somewhat 

 heterogeneous assemblage, but notwithstanding they all appear so nearly related that I should 

 not be surprised to see several of these families reunited and reduced to the rank of sub-orders, 

 which, while they served all the purposes of practical convenience, would I think prove more 

 in accordance with the principles of a natural arrangement, the object of which is to form 

 circular groups, hnked together by few but comprehensive characters. Of this description 

 ±indlicher s character of his "class" Campanulinae may be taken as an example : 



"Herbs or shrubs, rarely arborlous. Leaves alternate or opposite. Stipules none. Flowers 

 bisexual, inflorescence various. Tube of the calyx adherent to the ovary, with the limb superior, 

 rarely tree. Corolla perigynous or rarely hypogynous, regular or irregular. Stamens inserted 

 ^n ^ Vk^*^? ' sometimes scarcely distinct from it. Ovary rarely 1-celled, usually several- 

 celled. Ovules rarely definite and erect from the base, very often numerous, ascending, ana- 

 tropous, attached to central placentae. Fruit capsular, baccate, or nucamentaceous, I- or 

 many-seeded. Seed albuminous, rarely exalbuminous. Embryo central, orthotropous radicle 



_ The plants embraced within this character are all nearly related to each other by numerous 

 intermediate characters, while they present various points of relationship with surrounding 

 orders, which however, are more or less weakened by sub-division into so many independent 

 lamihes. bub-division is however Indispensable to enable us to grapple with the host of species 

 It includes; but it still remains a question to be solved by the researches of the Philosophical 

 Kotanist, whether these sub-divisions ought to retain the rank of Independent families or of sub- 

 orders. This question it is not my intention to examine, as It would lead me into details incom- 

 patible with the object of this work, which is rather to place before the Indian Botanist a view 

 ot the science as it now exists, than to attempt innovations, which I have neither the means nor 

 leisure to work out to a satisfactory conclusion. 



LXXXVIIT.— LOBELTAGE.^. 



A considerable family of, for the most part, herbaceous plants, most abundant in the 

 tropical and sub-tropical parts of America, but also met with in Europe. In the tropical parts 



as 



freo 



tingu 



along the back, and by the anthers being united, as in Composita;, forming a tube round the 

 style. Being nearly related to CampnnulacecBy Jussieu placed the genera, known to him, in 

 that order, and Mr. Brown retained that distribution of them in his Flora of New Holland, but 

 formed a sub-order of them. Since that time, Botanists generally seem to have agreed in think- 

 ing that these two families should be kept distinct partly, perhaps, if not principally, on account of 

 the great difference in their properties which, in this, are intensely acrid and poisonous, in that mild 

 and innocuous. As regards habit and organization, they are very much alike, with the exception 



