94 SUNDEWS. 
awlshaped-cylindric seeds. Not unfrequent also is Drosera Men- 
ziesii, the beautiful tall almost climbing species with orbicular 
leaves centrally attached to their stalk ; it bears the name of the 
naturalist, who accompanied Vancouver’s Expedition, and who 
gathered this very species, when during that voyage King 
George’s Sound was discovered in 1791. Equally grand among 
its congeners is Drosera binata of springy morasses ; its leaves 
are cleft into long narrow lobes, which characteristic alone 
suffices to recognise this species. Minute, mosslike, with four- 
cleft flowers and fruits is Drosera pygm@a of our moory heaths ; 
while by its crimson petals the neat little Drosera granduligera 
is distinguished from all other sorts. The other species are rarer, 
one of which, Drosera Arcturi, is exclusively confined to alpine 
springy ground, where snow ‘lies for some months in the year. 
The four first-mentioned Droseras have tuberous roots, which 
contain a red pigment, and a purplish color pervades the whole 
plants, thus staining paper during the process of drying. 
Among the orders of plants with free petals and with fruits 
free from the calyx (not enclosed in its tube), the Droseracez 
pertain to a series, all of which bear the seeds on placentas, 
attached to the fruit-valves, therefore not attached to any central 
axis. ; 
The Violet-order or Violacee belongs also to this series. One 
main characteristic mark of this family consists in the filaments 
being extended into a membrane beyond the anthers. Our little 
trailing native Violet, Viola hederacea, with its more or less 
roundish or renate or rhombeshaped leaves is a plant familiar to 
all ; it is somewhat aberrant from nearly all other Violets by the 
lower petal not being protracted downward into a gibbosity (pouch 
or so-called spur). Less frequent is Viola betonicifolia, the betony-~ 
leaved Violet ; its leaves are longer than broad ; the stipules are 
adnate (not free as in V. hederacea), and the lower stamens have 
awlshaped appendages, which are wanting in its just mentioned 
congener. A white flowering Violet, Viola Caleyana, occurs at 
the bases of our Alps ; it bears the name of its discoverer, who 
first penetrated as a scientific traveller beyond the Blue Moun- 
tains. The plant, selected for illustrating the Violacee, Fig. 
