458 BIGNONIACE/E. 



simple, and entire. 2. Menyantheaa, aestivation of corolla plaited or 

 induplicate, leaves usually alternate and compound, or divided. Lind- 

 ley mentions 60 genera, including 450 species. Examples Gentiana, 

 Chironia, Agathotes, Erythraea, Chlora, Menyanthes, Villarsia. 



949. The general property of the plants of this order is bitterness, 

 which pervades all their organs. Hence they are used as tonics. The 

 medicinal gentian is the root of Gentiana lutea, a plant which grows 

 abundantly on the Pyrenees, and on the Alps of Switzerland and 

 Austria, usually at an elevation of 3000 to 5000 feet. It produces 

 showy yellow flowers, and its root is yellow internally. It is adminis- 

 tered in the form of extract, infusion, tincture, and wine, as a tonic. 

 Its roots are often mixed with the roots of other species, such as Gen- 

 tiana punctata, purpurea, and pannonica. Gentiana Kurroo of the 

 Himalayas has similar properties. The British species, Gentiana cam- 

 pestris and Amarella, have also been used as bitter tonics. The officinal 

 Chiretta is the herb and root of Agathotes Chirayta (Ophelia Chirata), 

 a herbaceous plant found in the Himalayas. The whole plant is bitter, 

 and has been long used in Bengal as a tonic and stomachic. The 

 flowering cymes of Erythrcea Centaurium, common centaury (fig. 248), 

 are used as a substitute for gentian, and so are the leaves of Menyan- 

 thes trifoliata, Buck-bean, Marsh-trefoil, or Bog-bean. The roots of 

 Frasera Walteri sometimes receive the name of American Calumba. 



950. Order 128. Bignoniaceie, the Trumpet-flower Family. (Mono- 

 pet. Hypog.) Calyx divided or entire, sometimes spathaceous. Co- 

 rolla monopetalous, hypogynous, usually irregular, 4-5-lobed. Stamens 

 5 and unequal, or 4 and didynamous, some of them occasionally 

 sterile; anthers bilocular. Disk annular or glandular. Ovary superior, 

 1-2-celled, each cell being often spuriously divided; ovules indefinite; 

 style 1 ; stigma bilamellar (fig. 406), or 2-4-cleft or entire. Fruit a 

 2-celled (sometimes spuriously 4-celled) and 2-valved capsule, occa- 

 sionally succulent. Placentas parietal, sometimes extending to the 

 centre, and forming a spurious dissepiment, which finally separates, 

 bearing the seeds. Seeds winged or wingless, often flat and com- 

 pressed, exalbuminous ; embryo straight ; radicle next the hilum. 

 Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with opposite, rarely alternate, exstipulate 

 leaves. They abound generally in tropical regions, but some of them 

 are widely distributed. The order has been divided into four sub- 

 orders : 1. Bignoniese, capsule 2-valved, 2-celled, sometimes spuri- 

 ously 4-celled, with a dissepiment parallel or contrary to the valves, 

 at length free, bearing the seeds, which are transverse, compressed, 

 and winged. 2. Cyrtandrese (Didymocarpese), fruit succulent or capsu- 

 lar, or siliquose and 2-valved, seeds small, ovate, or cylindrical, sus- 

 pended, apterous, sometimes comose. 3. Crescentiese, fruit woody, and 

 melon-shaped, enclosing large seeds which are immersed in the pulp of 

 the placentas. 4. Pedaliese, fruit drupaceous, rarely capsular and 



