452 



MONOTROPACEiE. 



[HYPOOTNOUS EXOGENS 



Order CLXVIII. MONOTROPACEiE.— Fir-raws. 



Monotrope*. Nutt. Gen. 1. 272. (1818) ; Endl. Gen. p. 760.; DC. Prodr. 7. 779. 



Diagnosis.- Erical Exorfcm.wlth half monopetalous flowers, free stamens all perfect, loose- 

 sl-inmd or winged seeds, and an embryo at the apex of the albumen. 

 Parasites growing on the roots of Pines and other trees. The stems brown or almost 

 colourless, with no time leaves, but covered with 

 scales. Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes. 

 Sepals 4, 5, membranous, tapering, distantly 

 arranged in a broken whorl. Petals the same 

 number, either imbricated and saccate at the 

 base, or combined into a monopetalous corolla. 

 Stamens 8- 10, hypogynous, sometimes alter- 

 nating with 10 hypogynous recurved glands; 

 anthers '2-eelled, sometimes opening longitud- 

 inally, the cells becoming confluent by the rolling 

 back of the short anterior valves, and producing 

 the appearance of a bilabiate anther; sometimes 

 parallel-celled with bristles at the base. Ovary 

 round, 4- 5-furrowed, articulated, with a short 

 cylindrical style, terminating in a succulent 

 funnel-shaped stigma ; 4- 5-celled at the base, 

 1 -celled, with 5 parietal placentae at the apex. 

 Fruit a dry capsule, splitting through the cells 

 and bearing the placentse on the middle of the 

 valves. Seeds 00, with a loose skin, or winged 

 at the end ; embryo minute, undivided, in- 

 closed within the apex of fleshy albumen. 



The dehiscence of the anthers separates these 

 from Wintergreens, as well as their leafless, 

 scaly, and parasitical habit; besides which, 



there is a difference in the position of the em- , 



brvo that organ being at the apex of the albumen in Fir-rapes, and at its base in W inte i - 

 •rreens. The curious leafless Pyrola called P. aphylla exhibits, among Wintergreens, 

 the peculiar scaly brown aspect of Fir-rapes, and thus connects the two Orders. 



Natives of Europe, Asia, and North America, in cool places, especially in Fir woods. 



Several species smell of Violets or Pinks. In Germany the powder of Monotropa 

 Hypopithys is given to sheep when attacked by coughs. The North American Indiana 

 are said to employ Pterosppra andromedea as an anthelmintic and diaphoretic. 



CCCXIV 



Monotropa, Nutt. 

 Hypopithys, I>Ul. 



GENERA. 



Orobanchoidts, Tournf. i Schweinitzia, Ell. 



*T_... »*■ J .'. O. 



I Pterospora, Kutt. 



Monotropsis, Sehwein, 



? Corallophyllum,£uH«A. 

 » Pholisma, Nuttall. 



Numbers. Gen. 6. Sp. 10. 



Orobanchacees ? 

 Position. — Pyrolacese. — Monotropace^e.- 



Fig. CCCXIV. -Monotropa Hypopithys. 2. a flower; 3. a pistil ; 4. the same divided perpendicularly 

 6. a seed.— Neet 6. seed of l'terospora andromedea ; 7. a section of it. 



(N.B. The parasitism of Hypopithys is denied by Duchartre in an interesting 

 memoir in the Ann. Sc., 3 ter. VI. 30.) 



