364 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



the corolla. Anthers 5, free or united. Ovary inferior, or 

 half inferior, 2-5-celled. Axile placentation and ovules many. 

 Style simple, stigmas as many as the carpels. Fruit a capsule 

 or berry. Leaves alternate, exstipulate. 



The flowers are very protandrous, and the style has the pollen shed 

 upon it, where it is held by a ring of hairs just below the stigma. In 

 many cases the stigmas turn back and touch the pollen of their own 

 flowers, and so self- fertilization results. The flowers show interesting 

 transitions to Composite, to which the order is related. 



FIG. 346. Lobelia, I. Flowering shoot. II. Stamens with syngenesious 

 anthers closed over stigmas in bud. III. Style and addressed stigmas from II. 

 IV. Diagram of flower. V. Transverse section of fruit. (From Henslow's 

 " South African Flowering Plants".) 



A. Corolla zygomorphic with a split tube ; anthers united 

 Lobelia. The flowers are twisted on their axis so that 



