Ol'.i HII'M I g. 



BURMANNIA< 



171 



Okder LI. l:i'KMANNIA<i:.i:.-l- 



Burn 



1); Orcliidal I.'u . with regit 



Herbaceous plants, with tufted radical acute leaves, or non 

 with alternate minute Bessilebractiform leaflets; y flowers terminal, upon a Bunpli 



•ranched raehis, numerous ami alternate, or solitary, 

 pedicelled or sessile. Calyx and corolla concolon 



united in a simple perianth. • -rely ah 



wanting; calyx superior, tubular, elongated, bod 



ither simple, ihed with three lung and 



broad wings ; border divided into :; equal reflected segments 

 op|i en presenl imbricate in aestivation; 



.t) ;> in an inner series, alternate 

 with the outer Begm ::erally narrower, small, a 



erect, but sometimes extremely long, Bubulate, and coiled 

 inside the fcobe in activation. Stamens fixed below mouth 

 of tube, either .''> introrse, and opposite petals, or o' extrorse, 

 opposite petals and outer segments; filaments in the former 

 Bhort, adnate to the tube, saccat- or winglike 



appendages, in the latter case consisting of dilated broad 

 pendent membranaceous processes, originating in the 

 mouth of the tube, sometimes quite free, or else distant 

 at their points of insertion, but united in the middle 

 in a moiiadelphous annular pendent ring, bearing the 

 anthers on their external face, looking towards the caly- 

 eine tube. Anthers, 2-celled, the cells always separated at 

 some distance from one another, each 2-lobed, bursting by 

 a transverse gaping fissure between the lobes. 0\ 

 inferior, either 1-celled, with '-\ parietal placenta;, or 

 3-celled, with placentation in double lines along the axis 

 in each cell, the cells being opposite the outer 

 the border : ovules innumerable. Capsule surmounted by 

 the persistent calyx. 1 or 3-celled, bursting vertically, or 

 horizontally, or follicle-like by a single lateral fissure, or 

 in an opercular manner by a circumscissile line at the 

 junction of the calyx with the pericarp. S innumerable, 

 very minute, scobiform, with a tight or loose testa of 

 network texture; nucleus apparently solid and homo- 

 geneous, without any visible embryo. — Miers. 



This is a most singular race, which has b 

 illustrated by Mr. Miers, who has been the first I 

 out its relationship to the Orchids. This he has shown 

 consist in the minul placenta, in many 



cases peculiar condition of the capsule, and the nu< I 

 loose in the middle of a netlike testa : to this n .; 

 added the organisation of the seed, which to all ap] 

 is exactly like that of Orchids, and whii 

 ipproach the state of eml rj o d 

 the head of Triuridacese (p. 14 i o). In th< 

 the ovary two very distinct C 

 Mr. Miers ; in the tribe BurniannLv. it has I 

 axile placentation: in the b 

 it is 1-celled. with 3 parietal placenta, a dil 

 development that he regards 

 portance. 



w i 



Fig. CXVI. — 1, Dictyostegia orobancl 

 4. half an anther : 

 setacea; i». transverse section oft 



. 



