188 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



wltli small, roundish, crenato-dentate leaves, and rather large, brownish-purple flowers. Sesa- 

 mum Inieunij Retz, Is still looked upon as an imperfectly known plant, as it does not appear 

 to have been found tsince he described it. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 163. 



Sesamum Indkum (DC). 



L A small flowering plant, natural size. 

 3. A very young flower-bud. 



3. A flower more advanced. 



4. One full blown. 5. Corolla split open. 



6. Anthers, apiculate. 



7. Corolla of fig. 2 detached and split open, 



8. Ovary of fig, 2 cut transversely. 



9. Ovary and calyx of an expanded flower. 



10. Ovary detached and slightly magnified. 



11. 12. Cut longitudinally and transversely, in ]2 a 

 little stretched to show the origin of the 

 dissepiment 



spurious 



13. Mature capsules. 



14. Capsule in the state of dehiscence. 



15. One valve of the capsule with the seed and spu- 

 rious partition in situ, showing the last free from the 

 intermediate true partition. 



16. Ripe capsule cut transversely, 



17. A portion of the placentae which separates after 

 shedding the seed. 



18. A ripe seed. 



19. The same cut across. 



20. Detached embryo. 



Wall 



division of the 



CXIIL— ACANTHACE^. 



This order was first indicated by Jiissieu, but was at that time so little known that seven 

 genera were found sufficient to include all the then known species. Brown subsequently added 

 a few, as did Willdenow and others; but still, in IRSO wlipn Rniflinrr T^nKlJcTiorl Vi,'o li'cf fliov 

 scarcely amounted to 20. About that time Dr. 



order in the hands of Professor Nees Von Esenbeck for description, when he, after an elaborate 

 examination, raised the number for the Indian species alone to 56 ; and in 1840, when Endlicher's 

 Genera Plantarum was completed, the number was raised to 80. In 1847 Nees puWished in DCs 

 Prodromus a monograph of the whole order, which embraces 155 genera and about 1500 species. 

 In this generally most masterly production he has on some occasions, perhaps, drawn the lines 

 of demarcation between some of his genera too fine, rendering it probable that some of them 

 may require to be reduced ; but on other occasions it seems equally probable that others may 

 and wdl be divided. But be that as it may, this order furnishes a striking instance of the rapid 

 advances now makmg in botany, and of the wonderful impulse which has, within the last 20 

 years, been given to this branch of science. To the Indian Botanist this is an interesting, but 

 ditlicult, order, owing to the number of indigenous species, which are found in all parts of the 

 country and m nearly all situations, inhabiting alike the marsh and most arid ground, the sea 

 beach, and the tops of the highest mountains. 



Chauacteb of the Ouder. Calyx pentamerous, the odd sepal posterior, sometimes the 

 two anterior ones united, hence 4- or 6-divided, sometimes, but rarely, nearly obsolete, entire or 

 Z^ v^^ Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, 5-cleft, the segments alternate with the 

 sepals ; limb usually bilabiate, but sometimes regular, S-lobed, contorted in estivation. Stamens 

 nsertedon the tube at different heights, sometimes near the base, about the middle, or on the 

 throat, either d.dynamous, the 5th rudimentary or altogether wanting, or often only two anther- 

 IrTlr ""' ' if?' ^^^^^'^^^.'^"^ted by pairs at the base, or even monadelphous ; two- 

 or sometimes one-celled, ces contiguous, parallel or superposed, or variously divaricated, 

 occasionally one of them s enle, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary free, dicarpellary, two-celled, 

 or s:iwhaf;Tn 1 f ' "^flexed margins of the carpels, either complete (m^eetin^n the axis) 

 o teHrrltlvT^- f' V''"%r^''M^^ ^""^ P''^'""'^^ with respect to the axis of inflorescence, 

 a the^rne^ %v'^ / 9'°°" ^^' o^iteration of the lower half of the cells, sometimes rostrate 

 P acenta? ^tVle tll'n rlrJ '"'''-^^ f '^'^ ''^^' ^'^^^^^ «^ ^^^'^^ ^^ Processes of the parietal 

 Sten'ce ^unlfo^^f ' ^'^f^'-^'.^^P^t ' "V-^"^^ ^^^''^ ^^ ^-lobed. Capsule 2-celled, of various 

 seXatino- in tfo n ?^^ ''f !!"' ''""V?^ elastically; dissepiment opposite the valves, 



Xs bu^omrtLer^nnr r^^^ T' (^^t.^id'iie sometimes open), usually adnate to the 

 valves, but sometimes separating from them. Seeds usually compressed, 1-2 or several in each 



