654 



NOLANACE.E. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCLII. NOL A NACEaE.— Nolanads. 



Nolanacese, Lindl. NUus PI. 18. (1833) ; Marlins Contpeehu, No 119 ; Endl. Gen. p. 655 ; Lindl. in 



Bot. Reg. 1844. t. 46. 



Diagnosis.— Echial Exogens, with regular symmetrical flowers, 5 stamens, 5 or more nuts, 

 distinct or partly confluent, a naked stigma, and straight inflorescence. 



Prostrate or erect, herbaceous or suffruticose plants. Leaves alternate, without sti- 

 pules. Flowers usually showy. Calyx 5-parted, valvate in aestivation. Corolla mono- 



petalous, with a plaited aestivation, 



usually thickened in the tube. Stamens 



5, equal, inserted into the tube, alternate 



with the segments of the corolla; anthers 



oblong, 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. 



Pistil composed of several carpels, either 



distinct with a single style, or partially 



combined into several sets with a single 



style seated on a succulent disk. Stigma 



somewhat capitate. Fruit inclosed in 



the permanent calyx, constructed like 



the pistil ; pericarp woody, often a little 



succulent ; seeds ascending, solitary ; 



vmbryo curved, with either straight or 



doubled cotyledons, in the midst of a 



small quantity of albumen ; radicle next 



the hilum. 



The genus Nolana, sometimes referred 



to Borageworts, sometimes to Bind weeds, 



has been erected into a distinct Order, 



on account, on the one hand, of its regu- 

 lar plaited corolla and valvate calyx, and, 



on the other, of its separate carpels 



though united styles. Among the regu- 

 lar-flowered Echials Nolanads can only 



be compared to Borageworts, from which 

 they are certainly distinguished by their 

 pentamerous fruit and straight inflores- 

 cence. There is some doubt whether 



the genera Falkia or Dichondra belong to Bindweeds or to Nolanads. With the 

 latter those genera agree in their separate ovaries, with the former in the structure ot 

 their embryo ; with both they disagree in the entire separation of their styles. If we 

 attend to the embryo, they will stand among Bindweeds ; if to the carpels, among 

 Nolanads ; but as their separate styles are nearly paralleled by those of Evohndus and 

 others, it seems upon the whole better to refer them to Bindweeds. Scldechtendahl 

 suggests (Linncea, 7. 72) that Nolana may be referred to Nightshades, on account ot it, 

 affinity with Grabowskia boerhaaveifolia, in which the fruit contains two bdocular meno- 

 spermous stones ; and it must be confessed that some of the shrubby Nolanads bav. 

 much the habit of Lycium. . ,. . 



This little Order is remarkable for the various modes m which its carpels are disposed 

 without ever being consolidated. In one genus there are but 5, and they are dist.net ; 

 in another there are 20 combined in fours ; in a third the combination is irregular though 

 the number remains 20 ; and in others they are all wholly distinct. The late Professor 

 Don thought that Triguera must be referred here. 



The species are all South American, and chiefly Chilian. 



Their uses are unknown. 



GENERA. 



I Teijanhon, Schmidt. jDolia, Lindl. 



Neudorjliu, Adans. jAlibrexia, Mien, 

 \ Alona, Lindl. 



Numbers. Gen. 6. Sp. 35. 



Convolvulaceee. 



Position. Boraginaceoe. — Nolanace.e.— 



Solanaccce. 



Fig. CCCCXXXVIII. 



Nolana, Linn. 

 Walkeria, Eln-et. 

 Zwingera, llofer. 



Sorerua, Lindl. 

 Aplocarja, Lindl. 



~~V\e CCCCXXXVIII —1 Alona ccelestis ; 2. its pistil ; 3. a transverse section of it ; 4. section of I 

 of Nolana prostata ; 5. part of the fruit of Aplocarya divaricata. 



