246 PEDALIACEM. [CHAP. 



Type — The Til, or Gingeley Plant {Sesa?mwi indicujn). 



An annual pubescent herb, everywhere cultivated, two to 

 four feet tall, with entire or three-lobed leaves and axillary, 

 slightly bilabiate, pale rose-coloured flowers, forming ter- 

 minal racemes. 



This small Family may almost be regarded as a Tribe of 

 the foregoing. 



Observe the rudiment of the fifth stamen : the ovary 

 spuriously four-celled, owing to the margins of the carpels 

 being recurved so as to meet the dorsal sutures. The 

 Type of the Family is the familiar Gingeley-oil plant, culti- 

 vated very extensively in warm countries for the sake of the 

 oil expressed from its seeds. 



Near allies of the Sesamums are the Cyi'taiidi-ecB., a tribe 

 of the Family Ges?ie?'acece, including many herbs with very 

 pretty flowers of the mountain valleys of India and of the 

 Malayan islands. The species are so local that it is difficult to 

 select a serviceable type. Some of the more beautiful Indian 

 species belong to the genera y^scJiynanihus and Didymo- 

 carpus. They have usually tailed seeds, contained in long, 

 straight or spirally twisted, very slender, siliquiform cap- 

 sules. The beautiful Gloxinia and Achimenes of gardens 

 are tropical American members of the Family. 



