696 



STYLIDIACE^E. 



[Epigynous Exogens. 



Order CCLXIX. STYLIDIACE/E.— Styleworts. 



Stylideje, It. Brown Prodi: 565. (I8IO1 ; Endl. Gen. exxvi. ; DC. Prodr. 7. 331. 



D.agnosis. — Campanal Exogens, with a 2- or more-celled ovary, stamens and style united 

 into a column, and imbricated corolla. 



Herbaceous plants or under-shrubs, without milk, having a stem or scape ; their hair, 

 when they have any, simple, acute, or headed with a gland. Leaves scattered, sometimes 

 whorled, entire, their margins naked or ciliated, the radical ones 

 clustered in the species with scapes. Stipules 0. Flowers in 

 spikes, racemes, or corymbs, or solitary, terminal, rarely axil- 

 lary, the pedicels usually with three bracts. Calyx adherent, with 

 from 2 to 6 divisions, bilabiate or regular, persistent. Corolla 

 monopetalous, falling off late ; its limb irregular, rarely regular, 

 with from 5 to G divisions, imbricated in aestivation. Stamens 2 ; 

 filaments connate with the style into a longitudinal column ; an- 

 thers twin, sometimes simple, lying over the stigma ; pollen glo- 

 bose, simple, sometimes angular. Ovary 2-celled, many-seeded, 

 sometimes 1 -celled, in consequence of the contraction of the dis- 

 sepiment ; often surmounted with a single gland in front, or two 

 opposite ones ; style 1 ; stigma entire or bifid ; ovules anatropal. 

 Capsule with 2 valves and 2 cells, the dissepiment between which 

 being sometimes either contracted or separable from the inflexed 

 margins of the valves, the capsule becomes as it were 1 -celled. 

 Seeds small, erect, sometimes stalked, at- 

 tached to the axis of the dissepiment ; 

 embryo scarcely known ; said to be 

 minute, inclosed within a fleshy, somewhat 

 oily albumen. 



These are very curious little plants, 

 nearly allied to Bellworts and Goodeniads, 

 from both which they are distinguished by 

 their gynandrous structure, and from the 

 latter by the want of an indusium to the 

 stigma. The structure of the column, 

 into which the stamens and style are 

 blended, is highly curious, and scarcely 

 analogous to anything else in the Vegetable 

 Kingdom, except in Orchids : the stigma 

 lies in a cavity at the apex of the column, 

 surrounded and concealed by the anthers. 

 This column is extremely irritable ; in 

 Stylidium it hangs down on one side of 

 the flower until it is touched, when it sud- 

 denly springs up and shifts instantly to 

 the opposite side. A singular error was 

 committed by Labillardiere, who mistook 

 an epigynous gland for the stigma ; and 

 another by L. C. Richard, who considered 

 the labellum to be the female organ of this genus. 



The species are chiefly found in New Holland swamps. One however occurs in Cey- 

 lon, another in Malabar, and a third in Sylliet. The Forsteras live on the summit of 

 mountains in the South of New Zealand, or in the morasses of the Straits of Magellan. 

 Nothing is known of any use to which they are applied. 



CCCCLXVII. 



Fig. CCCLXVIN. 



GENERA. 



Stylidium, Sic. 

 Ventenatia, Smith. 

 CandoUea, Labill. 



I Andcrsonia. Knnig 

 Coleostylis, Bonder. 

 iForsteropsis, Sunder. 



Levenhookia, R. Br. 



Gynocampus, Lesch. 

 Forstera, Linn. f. 



PhyllfTchne, Forst. 

 Stibas, Commers. 



Numbers. Gen. 5. Sp. 121. 



Position. — Lobcliacete. — Stylidiace;e. — Goodeniacerc. 



Fig. CCCCLXVII.— Stylidium calcaratum.— F. Bauer. 

 the column : 2. capsule split open ; 3. seed. 



Fig. CCCOLX VIII.— Forstera clavigcra.- Hooker fil 



1. anthers and stigma, forming the point 1 

 1. the epigynous gland. 



