

FLORA INDICA. 



I. EANUNCULACE^E. 



Sepala 3- ?, ] unique 5, hypogyna, decidua (in paucis persistentia), 

 regularia irregularia, herbacea vel colorata. Petala 3-15, in- 



terdum pi .regularia vel plane nulla. Stamina indefinite, antlieris 



basifixis 2-locularibus longitudinaliter deliiscentibus. Ovaria plurirna, 

 secus torum elongatum vel globosura imbricata, vel uniserialia (1-5), 

 discreta, rarissirae axi subcohserentia, 1-locularia, 1- vel pluriovulata. 

 Carpella achenia sicca vel folliculi, rarius baccata. Semina anatropa, 

 alburaine copioso, embryqne nrinuto. 



In accordance with our already stated intention to follow the arrangement of De 

 Candclle, our Flora begins with Ranunculacea. This family was probably se- 

 lected to commence the series on account of its abundance in Europe, rather than 

 from any precise ideas of the exact degree of relationship of the different allied fa- 

 milies. It is certainly more nearly allied to Berberidece and Papaveracea? than to 

 those Orders which immediately follow it in the liuear series, as is indicated by its 

 herbaceous habit and divided leaves. Ranunculacece also exhibit a remarkable ana- 

 logy or affinity to two Orders which are usually placed at a great distance from it, 

 namely, TJmb el lifer cb and Rosacea, by means of which a transition is established 

 between the families of Apocarpous fhalamiflora and the great class of JSIijrtales ; 

 and, as we shall, under the next Order, have occasion to mention Dilleniacea, ex- 

 hibit a passage to a very different series of Orders, namely, Ternstromiacea> and 



Erica cete. 



In the typical families of this class, that is to say, in Magnoliacea 3 and Anonacea, 

 the floral organs arc (perhaps invariably) arranged in a ternary order, and in more 

 than two rows. The closely-allied class to which Papaveracea and Berheridea 

 belong, agrees with these in respect of the multiplication of the verticils of the pe- 

 rianth, and partially also in the ternary arrangement of the parts of the flower, 

 though in Papartracea 3 this is more generally binary. In Lilleniacea, on the con- 

 trary, the flowers are pentamerous, and the perianth in two rows. In Ranuncu- 

 lacea we have a complete case of transition, the arrangement being occasionally 

 ternary, but more frequently quinary, while the petals in a considerable number of 

 species are twice as numerous as the sepals, though it is more usual to find them 

 equal in number. This Order and the next may therefore be considered aberrant 

 members of the class of Apocarpous Thalamiflora. 



The remarkable analogy in foliage between Ranunculacea and TJmb el I if era 3 was 



B 



