686 



LENTIBULARIACE/E. 



[Perigyxous Exogens. 



Order CCLXV. LENTIBULARIACE^E.— Butterwort^. 



Lentibularise, Richard in Flor. Paris, p. 2G. (1808). — Utriculinae, Hoffmannseqg et Link. Ft. Port. 

 (1806).— Lentibularia?, R. Brown Prodr. 429. (1810) ; Aug. de St. Hilaire, Ann. Sc. Nat. 2 ser. xi 

 149. — Utricularieie, Endl. Gen. civ. ; Meisn. Gen. p. 314; DC. Prodr. 8. 2. 



Diagnosis. — Bignonial Exogens, with a free central placenta, minute seeds without albumen, 

 and cotyledons much smaller than the radicle. 



Herbaceous plants, living in water or marshes. Leaves radical, undivided ; or com- 

 pound, resembling mots, and bearing littk vesicles. Scapes either with minute stipule- 

 like scales, or naked ; sometimes with whorled 

 vesicles ; generally undivided. Flowers single, 

 or in spikes, or in many-flowered racemes ; 

 with a single bract, rarely without bracts. 

 Calyx divided, persistent, inferior. Corolla 

 monopetalous, hypogynous, irregular, bilabiate. 

 Stamens 2, included within the corolla, and 

 inserted into its base ; anthers 1-celled, some- 

 times contracted in the middle. Ovary com- 

 posed of 2 valvate carpellary leaves, and there- 

 fore 1-celled ; style 1, very short ; stigma 

 bilabiate ; ovules 00, anatropal, placed on a free 

 central placenta. Capsule 1-celled, many- 

 seeded, with a large central placenta. Seeds 

 minute, without albumen ; embryo sometimes 

 undivided. Radicle next the hilum. 



The central free placenta and minute exal- 

 buminous seeds are the principal points of dis- 

 tinction between these and Figworts, to which 

 their habit approximates them. They are 

 known from Primworts by their irregular 

 flowers, exalbuminous embryo,and didynamous 

 or unsymmetrical stamens, alternate with the 

 segments of the corolla. 



Mr. Bentham has remarked that they are 

 very closely allied to Figworts, " having the 

 same calyx, corolla, stamens and bivalve capsule, 

 but distinguished solely by their really unilo- 

 cular fruit, with a free central placenta, and the minuteness of their embryo. In respect 

 of the former character, they come very near to Limosslla, Lindernia, and other Gra- 

 tiolese, with parallel dissepiments and entire valves ; for in these plants the dissepiment 

 is very thin, and usually detaches itself from the valves before maturity, so that being 

 concealed by the seeds, which fill nearly the whole capsule, it often escapes observation, 

 and many of these genera have frequently been described as having a unilocular fruit."' 

 Natives of marshes, or rivulets, or fountains, in all parts of the world, especially 

 within the tropics. The Genliseas are exclusively Brazilian. 



Pinguicula vulgaris has the property of giving consistence to milk, and of preventing 

 its separating into either whey or cream. It is pretended that its leaves rot sheep; when 

 fresh they are slightly purgative and vulnerary. Linnaeus says that the solid milk of 

 the Laplanders is prepared by pouring it warm and fresh from the cow over a strainer 

 on which fresh leaves of Pinguicula have been laid. The milk, after passing among 

 them, is left for a day or two to stand, until it begins to turn sour ; it throws up no 

 cream, but becomes compact and tenacious, and most delicious in taste. It is not neces- 

 sary, that fresh leaves should be used after the milk is once turned : on the contrary, a 

 small portion of this solid milk will act upon that which is fresh, in the manner of yeast. 



Fig. CCCCLXII. 



GENEHA. 



Uti'icularia, Linn. 



Lentibularia, Vaill. 

 Genlisea. St. Hit. 



Pinguicula, Tournrf. 



BrandonUt, Reichenb. 

 1'olypompholyx, Lehm. 



Tetralobits, A. DO. 



Numbers. Gen. 4. Sp. 1 7.5. 



Fig. CCCCLXII.— Pinguicula vulgaris— Nees. 1. calyx, &c. ; 2. stamen; 3. pistil ; 4. longitudinal 

 section of it ; 5. balf a fruit ; 6. seeds, natural size ; 7. embryo very mucb magnified. 



