632 



CLXXIX. POLYGONE^3. 



ifiihlfiitiectia. 

 Frtilt and acctesoent calyx (mag.). 



Kcenigia. 

 Flower-bud (mag.). 



Kcenigia. 

 Monandrous flower laid open (nwig.). 



FLOWERS $ or diclinous. PERIANTH herbaceous or petaloid. STAMENS peri- 

 gynous. OVARY 1-celled, \-ovuled ; OVULE erect, orthotropous. FRUIT an achene. 

 SEED erect ; ALBUMEN farinaceous. EMBRYO straight, curved and lateral, or straight 

 and axile ; RADICLE superior. LEAVES alternate, with an intrapetiolar stipule. 



Herbaceous or frutescent PLANTS, sometimes arborescent, erect [or prostrate] or 

 twining, stem and branches jointed and knotty, leafy, rarely aphyllous and scapige- 

 rous. LEAVES alternate, often collected at the base of the stem, very rarely opposite 

 (Ptcrostegia], simple, entire, waved, crisped or crenulate, very rarely cut, usually 

 penninerved, margins revolute when young, often glandular or pellucid-dotted; 

 petiole dilated at the base and amplexicaul, or inserted on a close-sheathing intra- 

 petiolar stipule (ochrea], sometimes inconspicuous. FLOWERS g or diclinous, 

 springing from the axil of the leaves or bracts (sometimes ochreiform), solitary 

 or whorled, racemed spiked panicled or cymose, sometimes capitate, either naked, 

 or enclosed singly or collectively in a tubular or cyathiform involucre; pedicels 

 filiform (sometimes 0), usually jointed, often cernuous in fruit. PERIANTH calycine 

 or petaline, of 3-4-5-6 sepals, distinct, or coherent at the base, rarely united in a 

 tube, usually persistent and accrescent ; sepals or segments sometimes 3, 1-seriate ; 

 sometimes 5, imbricate ; sometimes 4 or 6, 2-seriate, imbricate or sub-valvate, equal 

 or unequal, and in the latter the outer 2 or 3 herbaceous, rarely coloured, smaller 

 or larger than the inner, usually concave or keeled, sometimes winged or spiny ; the 

 inner 2 or 3 petaloid (rarely herbaceous), plane, or concave and folded, entire, 

 toothed, fringed, or spiny at the margins, usually becoming membranous-scarious 

 wljen ripe, with netted veins, median nerve sometimes swollen and callous. 

 STAMENS perigynous, 1-15, usually 6-8-9, very rarely oo , inserted on a disk or 

 glandular ring lining the base of the perianth, opposite or rarely alternate with the 

 sepals, usually in twos or threes before the outer, solitary before the inner ; filaments 

 capillary or subulate, distinct, or very shortly coherent by their dilated bases ; anthers 

 2-celled, dehiscence longitudinal, ovoid or oblong, dorsifixed and versatile, or rarely 

 basifixed and 6rect, all introrse, or the 5 outer introrse and 3 inner extrorse, or all 

 opening laterally. OVARY solitary, of 2-4 carpels valvately united, free or rarely 

 adherent by the base, ovoid or elliptic, compressed or 3-gonous, 1 -celled or rarely 

 incompletely 3-celled by false septa; styles 2-4, answering to the angles of the 



