96 BOTANY. 



suspended ; embryo, in fleshy albumen ; cotyledons, leafy ; radicle, superior. 

 Trees or shrubs, with alternate, stipulate leaves. Natives chiefly of the 

 East Indies. Some yield edible fruits, others are used as potherbs. The 

 position of this order in the natural system is obscure. Lindley places it 

 in the Urtical alliance, others consider it as allied to Amentaceae. There 

 are three known genera and about twenty species. Examples : Stilago, Anti- 

 desma. 



Order 52. Podostemacete, the Podostemon Family. Flowers naked, 

 or with a more or less perfect perianth, bursting through an irregularly 

 lacerated spatha. Stamens hypogynous, definite or indefinite, distinct or 

 nionadelphous ; anthers dithecal, with longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary free, 

 two- or three-celled ; ovules numerous, anatropal, attached to a fleshy 

 central placenta ; styles or stigmas, two or three. Fruit slightly pedicellate, 

 capsular, two- or three-valved. Seeds 00 ; embryo cxalbuminous, ortho- 

 tropal. Herbaceous, branched, floating plants, with capillary, or linear, or 

 lacerated, or minute and imbricated leaves. Natives chiefly of South 

 America, and of the islands to the east of Africa. There are nine known 

 genera and twenty-five species, according to Lindley. Examples : Podoste- 

 mon, Lacis. 



Order 53. Ceratophyllace.^, the Hornwort Family. Flowers uni- 

 sexual. Perianth inferior, ten- or twelve-parted. Male flowers : stamens, 

 twelve to twenty ; anthers sessile, bilocular. Female flowers : ovary free, 

 one-celled ; ovule solitary, pendulous, orthotropal ; style filiform, oblique ; 

 stigma simple. Fruit, a one-celled indehiscent nut, terminated by the hard- 

 ened style. Seed solitary, pendulous, exalbuminous : cotyledons two, but ap- 

 parently four ; radicle inferior. Aquatic submersed herbs, with verticillate 

 leaves cut into filiform lobes. They are found in ditches in various parts of 

 Europe, Asia, and America. Of the single genus Ceratophyllum, North 

 America possesses a single species. 



Order 54. Urticace^, the Nettle Family. Flowers unisexual, hermaph- 

 rodite, or polygamous, scattered or collected into catkins or heads. Perianth 

 usually divided. Stamens definite, inserted into the perianth ; filaments, 

 sometimes curved in aestivation. Ovary free, rarely coherent, one- or two- 

 celled ; ovule solitary, erect, or suspended ; stigmas one or two, simple or 

 bifid. Fruit an indehiscent nut, surrounded by the persistent pericarp, or a 

 samara, or a syconus, or a sorosis. Seed solitary, erect, suspended or pendu- 

 lous, albuminous or exalbuminous ; embryo straight, or curved, or spiral ; 

 radicle superior. Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate, stipulate leaves, 

 which, are usually hispid or scabrous. This order has been divided into the 

 following sub-orders : 



Sub-order 1. ArtocarpecB, the Bread Fruit Tribe. Trees or shrubs, with 

 leaves often rough ; filaments generally erect in asstivation ; fruit often a 

 sorosis ; seed erect or pendulous, albuminous ; embryo straight ; juice 

 milky. Natives of tropical regions. The typical genus of this sub-order is 

 Artocarpus. one species of which, A. incisa, furnishes the bread fruit, so 

 valuable to the inhabitants of tropical regions. All parts of the tree are 

 applied to some valuable purpose. Some of the Artocarpse furnish a 

 96 



