6 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ORDEE VII.-C I S T A C E iE. 



Small slu'ubs or underslirubs, rarely annual herbs, with the 

 leaves generally opposite, entire, often furnished with small leaf- 

 like stipules. Flowers nearly regular, white, yellow, rose, or purple, 

 in terminal secund false-racemes or solitary, more rarely in terminal 

 umbels. Calyx persistent, of 5 imbricated sepals ; the two outer 

 ones generally smaller than the others and sometimes suppressed ; 

 the three inner ones commonly convolute in aestivation. Corolla 

 generally with 5 spreading very fugaceous petals, with scarcely any 

 claws, crumpled, and convolute in a contrary direction to that of 

 the sepals. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous ; filaments free, thread- 

 like ; anthers 2-celled, introrse, dehiscing longitudinally. Carpels 

 3 to 5, completely united into a 1-celled free compound ovary, 

 with the placentae parietal or on the imperfect septa which some- 

 times project into the interior of the ovaiy. Style simply filiform, 

 sometimes very short. Ovules generally indefinite, orthotropous, 

 very rarely semi-anatropous. Pruit capsular, generally crustaceous, 

 1-celled, but sometimes with as many imperfect partitions projecting 

 inwards as there are carpels ; dehiscence loculieidal, dividing often 

 quite to the base into as many valves as there are carpels. Seeds 

 numerous, wdth a hard seed-coat and a little farinaceous albumen. 

 Embryo once or twice bent or spiral, rarely nearly straight ; radicle 

 directed to a point opposite the hilum, except in the few species in 

 which the funiculus is more or less adherent. 



GENUS I.—U ELIANTHEMUM. Fers. 



Sepals 5, the two exterior smaller. Petals 5, equal. Stamens 

 numerous, hypogynous, all fertile, or the exterior ones sterile. 

 Ovaries with 3 placentae. Capsule 3-valved. Embryo bent, or more 

 rarely coiled. 



Small shrubs or underslirubs, generally diffusely branched and 

 decumbent, more rarely erect annuals. Elowers rather small, 

 yellow or white in the British species, and disposed in terminal 

 secund racemes. 



The generic name is derived from /yXtoc {helios), the sun, and niSoe (anthos), a 

 flower, because tlie petals open witli the rising of the sun in the morning, and they fall 

 off when the sun sets in the evening. The flowers only last for a few hours when the 



