ot 
2-seriate, 10 or fewer, less often 3-seriate, 15; cells parallel, 
contiguous; dehiscence longitudinal, extrorse. udimen- 
tary ovary 0. 2 Calyz-segments valvate, narrower than in 
he male. Petals narrow, usually much smaller than in the 
male, sometimes setaceous, occasionally obsolete. Disk 
composed of 5 short wide rather prominent glands alter- 
nating with the petals. Ovary 3-celled, clothed either with 
stellate hairs or with flat peltate denticulate or subentire 
scales; styles 3, erect or somewhat spreading, usually stout, 
always 2-fid; style-arms entire, usually red, rarely orange; 
ovules solitary in each cell. Capsule 3-dymous, at first some- 
what fleshy, usually tinctorial, when ripe red, violet purple, 
or white tinged with violet; occasionally non-tinctorial, when 
ripe grey or nearly black; pericarp smooth or tuberculate, 
clothed with stellate hairs or with flat pectinate or subentire 
scales, very rarely the scales obsolete. Seeds without a 
caruncle; testa smooth or somewhat rugose; albumen fleshy; 
cotyledons broad, flat.—Coarse herbs, usually monocarpic, 
less often wndershrubs and polycarpic, everywhere clothed 
with stellate tomentum or very rarely nearly glabrous. Leaves 
alternate, stalked, usually undulately toothed, plicate-rugose 
or plicate-bullate or nearly flat, often with two glands near 
the apex of the petiole beneath. Flowers in short, dense, 
sessile or stalked racemes in the upper axils, each solitary 
ct; the males higher up, rather close-set, short- 
pedicelled or subsessile, the females near the base, few, dis- 
tinctly or sometimes long pedicelled. 
The first attempt to break up the genus into groups was made 
by Miiller in 1866 (DC. Prodr, xv. 2, pp. 747-750). The primary 
sub-division was effected by separating the forms in which the 
anthers exceed 10 and are 3-seriately arranged from those in 
which the anthers are 10 or fewer and are 2-seriately arranged. 
All those forms in which the anthers are 3-seriate have stellate- 
pubescent but not lepidote capsules. Of those forms in which 
the anthers are 2-seriate, only one has stellate-pubescent but not 
lepidote capsules; this was accordingly separated by the character 
in question from the remaining forms, and thus provided Miiller 
with a second group. The forms with 2-seriate stamens and lepi- 
dote capsules were subdivided by him into two more groups, 
according to the nature of the seed-coat, those with rough seeds 
constituting Miiller’s third group, those with smooth seeds his 
fourth and last group. The arrangement thus was :— 
(1) Sect. 1. Stamina triverticillata, saepius 15. Ovarium pilis 
stellatis vestitum. 
Sect. 2. Stamina 1-2-verticillata, 5-10:— 
Sub-sect. a. Ovarium pilis stellatis vestitum. 
Sub-sect. (3. Ovarium peltato-squamigerum :— 
(3) ‘ Group 1. Semina tuberculato-asperata. 
(4) : Group 2. Semina laevia. 
Miiller did not suggest names for any of these groups. 
