COEOLLIFLOR^:. 325 



Affinities, &c. This Order is especially remarkable for the parasitic habit, 

 the fleshy texture, scale-like leaves, and the absence of chlorophyl, in 

 which particulars the plants resemble Monotropaceae ; but these are not 

 characters of ordinal value, and we see them running into the nearest 

 allies of this group, as Kuehnera and ^trie/a in Scrophulariacese, not to 

 mention the partially parasitic condition of Melampyrece. The Order is 

 chieliy separated from Scrophulariacete by its parietal placentas. From 



Gentianaceae it differs in the carpels being placed back and front, + , as in 



O 

 Scrophulariaceae and the allied Orders, while in Gentianaceae they are 



right and left of the axis, o+O- From Gesneraceae there is little except 



the habit to separate them. These plants are parasitic on the roots of 

 many herbs and shrubs of very various orders j they attach themselves 

 immediately after germination, and become organically grafted ; some in- 

 crease by tuberous buds from the base of the annual stems. The Oro- 

 banchaceae are bitter and astringent, and are said to be escharotic ; these 

 qualities probably depend on a resinous fluid secreted in the abundant 

 epidermal hairs. They are comparatively numerous in Europe, North 

 America, North Asia, and the Cape j some in India. 



SCKOPHULAEIACE.E. 



Coh. Personales, Benth. et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Chiefly herbs ; flowers with hypogynous, sympeta- 

 lous, irregular corollas, the lobes of which are imbricate in aestiva- 

 tion; didynamous, diandrous (or very rarely 5 perfect) stamens 

 springing from the tube of the corolla ; ovary 2-ceJled, cells antero- 

 posterior ; fruit a 2-eelled, mostly many-seeded capsule with 

 axile placentas ; seeds anatropous ; embryo small, in copious 

 perisperm. 



Character. 



Thalamus flat, oblique, or provided with annular disk or gland. 

 Calyx persistent, more or less deeply 3-5-toothed, more or less 

 irregular. Corolla sympetalous, irregular ; the tube long or 

 short ; the limb more or less deeply 5-lobed, or 4-lobed by the 

 coherence of the 2 posterior petals, personate (fig. 422), bilabiate, 

 rotate (fig. 421), sometimes spurred. Stamens 2, 4, and didyna- 

 mous (fig. 425), or with the 5th (posterior) perfect, sterile, or 

 represented by a petaloid tooth (fig. 423), attached to the corolla ; 

 anthers 2-celled, or 1-celled by confluence or by suppression. 

 Ovary 2-celled, with axile placentas bearing usually numerous 

 ovules ; style and stigma simple, or bifid at the apex. Fruit 

 capsular, rarely baccate, 2-celled, dehiscing by 2 or 4 valves, 

 or by pores, or inclehiscent ; seeds mostly numerous, peri- 

 spermic. 



