ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 219 



to one ? I think not, and neither can I reconcile my mind to all the deductions of a like kind, 

 and they are many, to be met with in botanical writings. The study of monstrosities has been, 

 if I may so say, the making of structural botany ; but occasionally it seems possible to over- 

 shoot the mark. 



On these grounds, then, I hesitate in adopting as legitimate the above deduction, that 

 a quinary gynaecium is the normal form of Lahiatce^ any more than that it is that of Gentianeoe^ 

 or any other of the dicarpellary orders we have been examining. To any one studying a 

 labiate plant, without reference to the analogies furnished by other orders, especially the 

 Borraginece and Verbenacece^ it requires a considerable stretch of the imagination to conceive 

 how four such perfectly distinct ovaries can be the produce of only 2 carpels; while in 

 OchnacecE^ where they are scarcely more perfectly distinct, each is allowed a separate carpellarv 

 leaf. But leaving the question of 2 or 4 or 5 carpels to be settled by future inquirers, I shall 

 now proceed with the consideration of the order in its usual form. 



r 



Character of the Order. Flowers hermaphrodite, usually irregular, calyx free, per- 

 sistent, 5- rarely 4-merous, monosepalous. Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, deciduous, 5- 

 merous or, through the union of the upper lobes, 4-merous, irregular ; aestivation bilabiately 

 imbricate, the upper hp exterior, middle lobe of the lower inmost, lateral ones Intermediate. 

 Stamens inserted on the corolla, alternate with its lobes, the upper one, and sometimes even 

 the upper or lateral pair aborting or altogethr wanting. Anthers various. Ovary free, seated 

 on a gynophore or thick disk, 4-parted or rarely 4-cleft, lobes erect, attached transversely, 

 or obliquely by the interior side, towards the base ; style central, erect, between the lobes, 

 usually bifid at the apex, the divisions anterior and posterior ; ovules solitary in each lobe of 

 the ovary, erect, anatropous. Fruit conformable to the ovary ; sometimes by abortion 3- or 

 Mobed, with one erect seed in each ; testa thin ; albumen sparing or wanting ; embryo straight 

 or rarely, in Scutellaria, 'incurved with the seed ; radicle short next the hilum ; cotyledons 

 fleshy, parallel to the axis of the fruit.— Herbs or uudershrubs or shrubs ; with opposite or 

 whorld 4-sided branches. Leaves opposite or whorld exstipulate, entire or divided, reticulately 

 penninerved. Leaves and calyx in many, and in some the stems and corolla, covered with 

 globose glands, filled with fragrant very aromatic essential oil. _ Inflorescence (called a thyrstis) 

 formed of axillary, opposite, centrifugal flowering, cymes, with a terminal flower, the rest 

 unilateral on the branches. Bracts two, opposite, under the branches of the cymes, with sohtary 



Cymes heteromorphous, namely : \st, normally loose, 



then the flowers are opposite and solitary .^ , . , 



The verticillasters (or pairs of opposite cymes) are sometimes a axillary, "«;f<>;2Jte'?hIt 

 in the axils of the cauline leaves ; sometimes t*^^ ^er ones are all racernose or sp c^^^^^^^^ 



is, disposed on the ends of the branches in the axi s of »>>^^f-l',k^ j^^^^^'^ .\°/ ^I^J -t""''' 

 they are spicate, or racemose, with the flowers alternate or scattered, not opposite. Benth. 



Affinities On this head there is not much room for remark, the order being so peculiar 

 in its 1nflore"c nee and fructffication that it may almost be .aid, if in -\^--/;^-^^^^^^^^^ 

 be allowable, to be sui generis. In this work I followed De ^j^i^es series of ^^^^^ d«jvn 

 to Gentian^ce, but the ''subsequent ones appearing less "^^nra ly d po d, T fdt J^ je<.e«s^^y 

 to depart somewhat from that arrangement, in the hope of thereby -|>\^^^^^^^^^^ 

 flowing series- and in doing so found that the succession of orders between Uwbnnctiaceoe 

 and si:;i7laH:feJ^^^^^ formed a group that can ^-f ^^ff f J^ ^^J.^^^^^^^^^^^ 



easily into its successor, and the whole forming a perfect circle all t^M together by their 

 in-e/ular un^vmmptrical flowers From ScrophulanacetB to Solanaceos the transition is so easy 

 tT,;? f unsymmetrical nowers. r ^" Z' ^ jj i^etween them though, viewed as 



that at some points it is scarcely possible to draw uxe ""''^ . , •ind the regular 



a whole, they are most readily distinguished by the irregular flo^eis of the one, and the regular 



