CLASSIFICATION. 



'the nut in fruit, 5-fid. St. 5 perigynous, free. Stigmas 3. 

 Embryo spiral. 58. Chenopodiaceffl (p. 382). 



Order XVII.— Polygonales (allied to Chenopodiales). 



Kerbs, rarely shrubs, sometimes scandent, often . with 

 swollen nodes. L. simple entire usually alternate, with 

 connate or ochreous membranous stipules, which sheath the 

 terminal bad. Flowers spicate or capitate, small regular 

 mostly 3-5-merous and homo- or haplo-chlamydeous, or 

 perianth 0. St. hypogynous or slightly perigynous, 5-8 or 

 sometimes reduced to 2, opp. the tepals when isomerous. 

 Ovary of 3 (-2) carpels, 1 -celled with 1 erect basal orthotro- 

 pous ovule. 



59. The Buckwheat Family. 



Herbs with ochreous stipules. L. convolute in bud, often 

 dotted and acrid. Fls. small green, white, or pink. Tepals 

 4-6, rarely onlj 3, often connate. St. 5-8, rarely 9. Ovary 

 2'3'Carpellary. Fruit a 2-3-com«red nut. Embryo straight 

 or curved, more or less excentric in the endosperm. 



59. Polygonace© (p. 383). 



60. The Pepper Family. 



Herbs o? shrubs with palmi-nerved dotted aromatic or 

 acrid leaves, and intrapetiolar stipules which wrap round 

 the terminal bud. Fls. much reduced, usually on a fleshy 

 axis with peltate bracts, generally dioecious and achlamy deous 

 St. 6-2. Carpels 3-1. Fruit baccate. 



60. Piperaceae (p. 383). 



Oeder XVIII. — AristOlOClliales (affinities unknown, both 

 it aid the Piperacese were at one time considered 

 to bdong to the Monocotyledons.) 



61. The Snake-Eoot Family. 



Clinbers with palmi-nerved leaves and base of petiole 

 dilated or decurrent. Flowers 2-sexual sygomorphic haploste- 

 monoui with green or coloured gamophyllous perianth 

 with Mated base and an entire limb. St. 6 united into 



79 



