Classification of Plants 



245 



Order Onagrariace^. 



At first one would hardly suspect the members of this order 

 found in South Africa to be the near relatives of the well-known 

 Fuchsia. But the flowers agree in an inferior ovary, usually 

 4-celled, with axile placentation and many seeds; a 4-parted 

 "valvate calyx, 4 petals usually twisted. Fruit usually a capsule. 

 Perennial herbs or shrubs. 



Jussisea. — A genus of land or floating: plants. Calyx 



floating 

 on the inferior ovary. 

 Sepals 4-5. Petals 4-5. 

 Flowers yellow, 

 Herbaceous or 



Flowers built 

 Stamens 8-10. 



persistmg as a crown 



on the plan of 4 and 5. 



Capsule 4-5 -celled. 



white. Seeds small. 



shrubby. Leaves alternate. Eastern. 



CEnothera (Evening Primrose). — 

 Naturalized near Cape Town. The 

 flower has a very long calyx tube, admit- 

 ting only the long tongues of moths, which 

 fly at night about the spikes of delicate 

 yellow flowers, attracted by the evening 

 scent. After a night of revelry the flow^er 

 withers and falls, leaving the long green 

 ovary, which looks like a flower-stalk. If 

 the flower does not succeed in attracting 

 the moths it stays open for awhile the 

 following day. 



Epilobium can be distinguished 

 from CEnothera by the smaller rosy purple blossoms and 

 beautiful hairy seeds which, after the capsule has burst, are 

 sent adrift far and wide. In E. hiisutjim the stigmas and 

 stamens ripen together. If put to it the stigmas can roll back 

 and pollinate themselves. In other species the stigma is 

 undivided, and since the stamens ripen first the flower cannot 

 fertihze itself. It was Epilobiiim which led Conrad Sprengel 

 to make the discovery of dichogamy, or the unequal ripening 

 of stamen and pistil. 



Montinia, which is described in Chapter XIV., also 

 belongs to this order. 



Fig. 246. — CEnothera bien- 

 nis. Section of flower. 



