192 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



dehiscence or rarely baccate. Placenta 4, either separating during dehiscence, or variously united 



ween themselves, or with the margias 



Seeds 



albumlnons; with the embryo straight, or rarely curved ; sometimes indefinite with the radicle 



ted 



radicle directed to the apex of the fruit. — Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs; lower leaves opposite or 

 whorld, the upper ones alternate, sometimes all opposite or all alternate, venation and clothing 

 very variable; stipules, usually, none. Flowers axillary or racemose, rarely spiked: peduncles 

 opposite or alternate, sometimes simple, 1-flowered, sometimes many-flowered in dichotomous 

 cymes. Bracts 2, opposite at the ramifications of the cymes, solitary under the pedicels, no 



Jicates 



caly 



Affinities. On this head 



more recent expositors of the natural arrangement associating this order with those immediately 

 preceding. Endlicher forms of them his class Personat{Ei Lindley's Bignonal alliance is, with 

 the exception of Orohanchacece^ composed of the same series of orders, and Meisner's class; 

 Lnbiati/lore, includes them and the other labiate-flowered orders. All of them however exclude 

 Solanacem from their respective groups, though so nearly associated by characters that Mr. 

 Bentham finds some of the genera can only be excluded by artificial characters, generally 

 esteemed of inferior importance. This exclusion rests on the circumstance of >yo/a7Zfiee6? having 

 tymmetrical, pentamerous flowers, while all the others have them unsymraetrical ; thus pre- 

 senting perhaps one of the best proofs that can be adduced of the importance of variations of 

 the^ floral structure in the formation, not of single orders but of groups of orders, where 

 individual variations become overlooked or lost in the mass and reduced to their proper level, 



Endlicher's 36th class of Tiibifli 



regular-flowered orders, at the end of which he places Solanacece ; while Scrophulariacece stands 



at the head of his 37th, PersonatecB ; thus placing these two Tery nearly allied orders next to 



each other while still preserving the distinction which the marked difFerence in floral structure 



furnishes. This arrangement I look upon as one of the best yet proposed, since the two orders 



very nearly coincide in the structure of their ovaries, fruit, and seed, while essentially differing 

 m their flowers. 



GEOGRArHiCAL DISTRIBUTION. Few Orders have a more extended distribution than this, 

 no part of the world, between Melville Island and Terra del Fuego, being without them. In 

 ±.urope and North America they abound, and are, if not positively common, yet everywhere to 

 be met with m India, but most frequently in wet or marshy ground. The number of species 

 found in India 18, however, inconsiderable, in comparison with the frequency of individuals of 

 each species. They however are found equally in the marsh, on the most arid plains, and on 



ttw 



of the forest. 



Propertifj. and Uses. These are not important except in the case of Digitalis, the 

 properties of which are very peculiar and, as a remedial agent in some forms of disease, very 



important. _ Acrimony and bitterness are qualities not unfrequently met with in species of this 

 order, and in such intpnsitv nc in />qiioa nrV.«.», «„ i i.. i • « , -, . . . ^ ... j 



^ofT^o^aic r»c +1 T J- '' . -"--.V-, "xx^xi v^icicBsiy aumimsterea, violent vomiting »u^ 



cathar^s. Of the Indian species, one has got credit for being a remedy in cases of Diabetes. 



Dlabtrpf T,7l **" ^^I'^y.^^'l tf^^T^^ r««^« i«' it must be confessed, rather inconclusive, but as 

 remed e I t ^ "1 ?1^^^' °^ diseases and at the same time allows ample time for trying 

 Wn tts ntn- ^^ ^ V^^f '^T'^ ^"', Illustrating the order, in the hope, that, by making it 

 Ltive ;fM vlori^^^ • ' '^'' '''' "^ well-conducted experiment, the plant is a 



"nreldin^ ifth! f ^^^^^^""^ provinces, grows among long grass or bushes up which it climbs, 



fS^Twhi^ch tht lf;r'' '^'''^^^ '^' '^^'"^^ ""l '^^^^^1 ^«^t a" '^^^^ the root^ The specimens 



accompanying 

 Bellary, in October and N< 



