624 



CLXXVI. PLANTAGINEJE. 



Liltorella. 



Germinating seed 



(mag.). 



Littorella. 



Germinating seed further 

 advanced (mag.). 



Littorella. 

 Pistil (mag.). 



LUtortlla. 



Young ovary cwt 



Litlorella. vertically to show 



Young ovule with the the conducting 



conducting tissue (mag.). tissue (mag.). 



Littorella. 



Transverse section 



of fruit (mag.). 



COROLLA monopetalous, hypogynous, generally isostemonous, aestivation imbricate. 

 STAMENS 4 (rarely 1), inserted on the corolla, or hypogynous. OVARY \-4i-celled ; 

 OVULES peltate. FRUIT a capsule or nucule. SEEDS fixed by a ventral hilum. EMBRYO 

 parallel to the hilum, albuminous, straight or curved. 



Annual or perennial HERBS ; rhizome subterranean, sometimes stoloniferous, 

 giving off scapigerous peduncles, or leafy rarely woody stems. LEAVES all radical 

 in most species, or rosulate, alternate, or opposite (Psyllium), simple, flat, nerved, 

 entire, toothed, or pinnatifid (Psyllium), or semi-cylindric, sessile and fleshy, or 

 contracted into a petiole dilated at its base, and accompanied by a woolly membrane. 

 PEDUNCLES always springing from the axils of the lower leaves. FLOWERS usually g , 

 spicate and spiked, bracteate, or rarely diclinous ; the $ solitary > scapose ; the ? 

 crowded, sessile at the base of the scape. 



1. FLOWERS $ (Plantain): CALYX? herbaceous, 4-partite, persistent; anterior 

 sepals distinct or cohering, imbricate, usually keel-shaped, edges membranous. 

 COROLLA ? hypogynous^ monopetalous, tubular, scarious, marcescent, with 4 imbri- 

 cate lobes. STAMENS 4, inserted on the corolla-tube and alternate with its lobes, 

 exserted or sometimes included and imperfect ; filaments filiform^ flaccid, inflexed 

 before flowering ; anthers versatile, apiculate, cells parallel, dehiscence longitudinal, 

 introrse, deciduous. OVARY free, 2-4-celled ; style filiform, exserted erect, or 

 included, with 2 longitudinal lines of stigmatic papillae ; ovules 1-8 in each cell, 

 peltate on the middle of the septum of the inany-ovuled cells, or at the bottom of the 

 1-ovuled cells. CAPSULE circumsciss, sub-membranous, 1-4-celled, 1-rnany-seeded, 

 edges of septum free, surfaces seminiferous. SEEDS peltate ; testa mucilaginous. 

 EMBRYO parallel to the hilum, straight, cylindric, in the axis of a fleshy albumen ; 

 cotyledons oblong or linear; radicle distant from the hilum, inferior, rarely centrifugal. 



2. FLOWERS mono3cious (Littorella) or polygamous (Bougueria) . $ : CALYX 

 4-partite, with membranous edges (Littorella), or with 4 sub-equal hairy sepals 

 (Bougueria). COROLLA tubular, scarious, with 4 equal lobes (Littorella}, or irregularly 



