550 DROSERACEA. 
and, as its name implies, is of an acrid nature. It is also reputed to possess 
emetic and purgative properties —Sedum Telephium is astringent. Lindiey 
says that, in Ireland, the leaves of Sedum dasyphyllum, rubbed among oats, 
are regarded as a certain cure for worms in horses. 
Order 13. DRrosERAcE®, the Sundew Order.—Character. 
Herbaceous plants growing in boggy or marshy places, fre- 
quently glandular. Leaves alternate, fringed at their margins (fig. 
375), and with a circinate vernation. Inflorescence scorpioid. 
Sepals and petals 5, hypogynous, equal, imbricate, persistent. 
Stamens as many as the petals and alternate with them, or twice, 
thrice, or four times as many, distinct, withering, hypogynous ; 
anthers innate or versatile, extrorse. Ovary superior, 1-celled, 
with parietal placentation, superior ; styles 3—5, distinct or con- 
nected at the base ; ovules numerous, anatropous. Fruit capsu- 
lar, 1-celled, bursting by 3 or 5 valves, which bear the placentas 
in their middle or at their base ; hence the dehiscence is locu- 
licidal. Seedsnumerous, with or without an aril ; embryo minute, 
at the base of abundant fleshy albumen. 
Diagnosis.—Bog or marsh herbs, with alternate exstipulate 
leaves and a circinate vernation. Inflorescence scorpioid. 
Flowers regular and symmetrical, hypogynous, with a quinary 
arrangement of their parts, which are also persistent and im- 
bricate. Anthers extrorse. Placentas parietal. Fruit capsular, 
1-celled, with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous ; embryo 
small, at the base of copious fleshy albumen. 
Distribution and Numbers.—These plants are found in almost 
all parts of the world with the exception of the Arctic regions. 
Examples of the Genera :—Drosera, Linn.; Dionza, Ellis. There 
are about 110 species in this order. 
Properties and Uses.—They possess slightly acid and acrid 
properties. Drosera rotundifolia and D. longifolia appear to 
have been very early employed as a remedy for consumption, but 
have now fallen into disuse. Some of the Droseras are said to 
be poisonous to cattle, but there is no satisfactory proof of such 
being the case. It has been supposed that certain species of 
Drosera would yield valuable dyes, because they communicate a 
brilliant purple stain to the paper upon which they are dried. 
and also from the circumstance of their yielding a yellow colour 
when treated with ammonia. The plants of the order are, how- 
ever, chiefly interesting from the peculiar irritability of the 
glands on their leaves. Thus, the Sundews (Droseras) are 
fringed with beautiful stalked glands, which close more or less 
in different species when insects alight upon them ; while the 
plant known as Venus’s Flytrap (Dionza muscipula) (fig. 375), 
a native of North America, has two-lobed leaves, each of which 
is furnished on its upper surface with three stiff glands, which, 
when touched, cause the two halves of the leaf to collapse and 
enclose the object touching them. The glands in these plants 
secrete a viscid acid digestive fluid, so that insects which alight 
