LXII. FICOIDEiE. 135 



16. LIMEUM, Linn. 



Calyx 5-parted ; sepals connate at base, herbaceous, with 

 membranous edges. Petals 3-5 or 0, clawed. Stamens 7 

 (rarely 5-8-10), hypogynous. Ovary subglobose, of 2 hemi- 

 spherical carpels, united by their flat sides ; styles 2, slender. 

 Fruit of 2 separable, 1-seeded, indehiscent, hemispherical, 

 "wnngless, dorsally-pitted, or echinate carpels. — M. Cap. i. p. 

 152. 



Small, herbaceous or woody, prostrate or erect perennials or annuals. 

 Leaves simple, entire, alternate, sliglitly fleshy, often glaucous and glabrous, 

 sometimes glandularly hairy. Inflorescence cymoid. Flowers small, white 

 or greenish-white. — 8 species, dispersed. 



17. TRIANTHEMA, Lam. 



Calyx 5-parted; sepals coloured within, mucronate below 

 the apex. Petals 0. Stamens 5-10 to 40 or 70, on the tube 

 of the calyx. Ovary 2-celled or 1-celled by abortion ; stig- 

 mas 2, filiform. Capsule opening by a transverse slit at or 

 below the middle {circumscissile) . Seeds few or many in each 

 cell, sometimes solitary. — Diplochonium, Fenzl ; Fl. Cap. ii. 

 p. 473 ; and Trianthema, Fl. Cap. ii. p. 598. 



Fleshy herbs, with o^Dposite, entire leaves, and axillary, sessile, solitary 

 or clustered flowers. — 3 Cape species, on the North-Western frontier. 



Order LXIII. UMBELLIFER^. 



Plowers usually bisexual, small. Calyx adhering to the 

 ovary ; limb 5-toothed or obsolete. Petals 5, on the outside 

 of a fleshy epigynous disk. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals 

 and inserted with them. Ovary inferior, of 2 carpels, 2-celled ; 

 ovules solitary, pendulous ; styles 2, divergent. Fruit dry, of 

 2 easily separable carpels (mericarps), which cohere by their 

 inner face {commissitre), and are attached to a central slender 

 axis {carpophore), but at maturity often separate from it, and 

 are for a time pendulous from its summit. Each carpel {meri- 

 carp) is indehiscent, having 5 longitudinal (primary) ribs, and 

 often also 4 (secondary) intermediate ribs, the ribs being se- 

 parated by furrows. In the substance of the pericarp are linear, 

 longitudinal oil-vessels {vittce), which sometimes are opposite 

 the furrows, sometimes the ribs. Albumen copious, horny. 

 Embryo minute. — Mostly herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves alter- 

 nate, with sheathing petioles, mostly cut or lobed. — {Several 

 terms often used in describing plants of this Order are given 

 above, within brackets, immediately after the explanation of 

 each. The characters ivhich distinguish the genera are mostli/ 



