212 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 172. 



1. Trichodesma Indicum^ a small plant, natural size. 9, Ovary cut transversely. 



2. An unexpanded flower-bud. 10, Cut vertically. 



3. An expanded flower seen from above. 11, Mature fruit. 



4. The same, front view. 12. Fruit cut transversely. 



5. Detached corolla split open, stamens in situ. 13. A detached nut. 



6. Detached stamen. 



7. Calyx and ovary. 



8. Detached ovary. 



14. Nut cut transversely, 



15. Detached cotyledons. 



16. Portions of a leaf, upper and under side, 



CXIX.— VERBENACE^. 



f 



This large and complex order was first indicated by Jussien, tinder the name of Vitices, 

 which name he subsequently changed to the one now given. His materials for the elucidation 

 of the family, at that remote period (60 years ago), seem to have been more perfect than 

 those for most of his other orders, as the number of genera referred to it by him is exactly 

 half those assigned by Schauer in De Candolle's Prodronnis in 1847; the numbers in the two 

 works being respectively 21 and 42. It is an order which has long stood in need of a compre- 

 hensive revision, but no one seems to have taken sufficient interest in it to induce the attempt 

 being made as a new and original work. Walpers' account of it, in his Repertorium Botanicum, 

 was, up to the appearance of De Candolle's 11th Volume, the only one extant, and that simply 

 claimed the merit of being a compilation from the writings of others, not a revision of the 

 order, and as such, by bringing together what was known, was, at the time of publication, a 

 valuable contribution to the working Botanist, and was all I had to aid me in naming the 

 species published in my Icones, which will account for some changes of nomenclature which 

 became necessary on the receipt of the more complete work. 



Schauer divides the order Into three tribes, viz. 



Verbeke^e. Ovules erect, rising from the base of the cells of the ovary, anatropous. 



ViTE.E. Ovules inserted above the base on the central angles of the cell, pendulous, amphi- 

 tropous or sub-anatropous. 



Aticenni^. Ovules geminate in the cells, pendulous from the apex of the axis, amphi- 

 tropous. ^ ' ^ 



These distinctions, being for the most part accompanied by differences of habit and external 

 characters, are convenient and practically useful but, according to my observations, they are not 

 always quite correct The two first tribes are further divided Into 10 sub-tribes. In regard to 

 one of these, SymphoremecB, he seems to have taken an erroneous view of the structure of the 



r.tFw?;i f?n= ? 5 -^^ ''"^'!V ^^""^ i^""^ ^^^ ""'^'y ^""^ «^"Jes of that sub-tribe are iden- 



nnellf^th.^!ll l-frrT"^' ^^^^ ''' ^"^H"^'^^"^ ^'''^^'^^ ^^« Partition not reaching to the 

 apex of the cell, with the 4 ovules suspended 2 and 2 from the free apex of the placenta, and 



prolonged downwards till they terminate in a membranous subulate point ; hence they are in 

 neither case amphitropous, or^ in other words attached by the middle, so tha the two ends are 

 X Ihat It T.S' T"\"i ^T'lT^ The ovarial structure of these two tribes is so remark- 

 aci^u^^t to Lm^th/tZ ?' ^^r^'^ whether they ought not to be separated on that very 



rrVrdfrwoii'/a s ^JiyT:i^^^^^^^^^ ^'A ^^- *-,rr ^ 



"r^ 'tlTfZZlVl'h '^-^^^^^^^^ ^^"^Jt^U S ^^\: that 

 rank. As it now stands it breaks up what would otherwise be a natural group. 



havin?thf bwer\«Vnf Tl!""^ ^^ t^ese two groups differs from that of the true Vitece, in 

 Susv so Thl LfJ f T-^ ^"f^ ^:''"''^' ""^^^ "^^^t of the others have it only 



who have wHtten on hi n!t; ^'^"^ 1 'T'''% ^^'^ *^^ observations of my predecessors 

 wno nave A^ntten on this order, seems to demand some explanation. 



