ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY- 115 



XCI.— SPHENOCLEACE.^. 



This order, if such it be, rests on a single specios, the well known Spenoclea Zeylanica, of 

 Willdenow and Roxburgh, very common in moist, cultivated ground in this country. It is one 

 of those out-lying plants that declines associating with any, as yet known, farfiily, but which 

 seems to approach Cawj/ja«w/ocece more nearly than any other, wanting, however, several points, 

 deemed essential in that family, which precludes its admission as a genuine member. Dr. 

 Martins, who first indicated it as the type of an order, places it between Rubiacew and Cam- 

 panulaceae. Lindley, in the 2d edition of his Nat. System, adopted it as a sub-order of 

 CampanulacecB, in which he was followed by Endlieher. Meisner and De CandoUe adopt the 

 order, the latter placing it at some distance from the Campanulaceous orders; and lastly Lindley, 

 in his Vegetable Kingdom, has, for the present, reduced it, placing the genus with two others as 

 ^•anomalous genera" at the end of his Campanulaceoe, waiting the discovery of companions 

 better suited to indicate Its true station. 



Amidst such diversity of opinion, among the lights of the science, I do not feel myself 

 competent to arbitrate, but at the same time, considering that the readers of this work should 

 be put in possession of all the information I can furnish on such litigated questions, I, for the 

 present, adopt the views of Martius and De CandoUe, as affording an opportunity of furnishing 

 a figure and description of a plant which has provided materials for so mucli difference of 

 opinion. My own opinion, so far as my imperfect acquaintance with Campanulaceae justifies 

 me in expressing it, is in favour of separation. The deciduous corolla, the insertion of the 

 stamens on its tube, not on the calyx, the short styles, and capitate stigmas, without collecting 

 hairs; the central, pendulous, fungoid placentae, circumscissile dehiscence, and, above all, the 

 very sparingly albumenous or almost exalbumenous seed; form such a combination of characters, 

 as leave no room to doubt the propriety of keeping this genus altogether distinct, rather than 

 placing it at the tail of another order, waiting the discovery of companions, as, in that situation, 

 its peculiarities may not be so clearly brought to light. De CandoUe thus defines the order, with 

 the exception of one or two slight modifications I have introduced. 



Character of the Order. Tube of the calyx adnate to the ovary, limb 5-parted, lobes 

 round on the margin, inflexed, persistent, finally connivent over the ovary. Corolla deciduous, 

 5-parted, lobes inflexed. Stamens 5, sub-sessile on the sinuses of the corolla; anthers roundish, 

 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 2-celled, many-ovuled. Styles very short, stigma 

 capitate, bilobate, glabrous. Capsule membranaceous, 2-celled, cuniform at the base, many- 

 seeded, circumscissile. Placentse fungose, pendulous from the apex of the septum. Seed 

 tuberculate, minute, terete, sparingly furnished with fleshy albumen. Embryo straight, terete, 

 radicle about twice as long as the cotyledons. — Herbaceous, erect, ramous, glabrous, annuals. 

 Leaves alternate, lanceolate, exstipulate, entire. Spikes terminal or leaf opposed, pediincled, 

 cylindrical. Bracts 3 or 3-partite under the flower. Flowers small, white. 



Affinities. On this head I have nothing to offer. That this family, if such it be, is 

 nearly allied to CampanulacetB, seems certain, but that it does not belong to it is admitted on 

 all hands. The placentae are curious, two spongy, egg-shaped bodies, pendulous from the apex 

 of the septum. My dissections of the seed tend to confirm Gsertner'^s description of its structure, 

 as I find the embryo enclosed in a thin, fleshy albumen and very delicate, translucent, tuber- 

 culed testa. 



Geographical Distribution. So far as yet known, this order rests on a solitary species, 

 found growing in wet or marshy soils, in India, Ceylon, Eastern Islands, Egypt, Mexico and the 

 West Indies; thus, like other aquatic and sub-aquatic plants, enjoying a very extended geographi- 

 cal distribution. 



Properties. Unknown. 



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