CCVIII. ARISTOLOCHIE^. 705 



the growth of the stem. FLOWERS $ : PERIANTH single (CALYX), 4-partite; lobes 

 sub-oval, hairy on the outside, pitted within, imbricate in aestivation, the 2 outer 

 somewhat the largest. STAMENS united into a central column ; anthers about 16, 

 extrorse, united into a spherical head, with 2 apposed and contiguous cells, dehis- 

 cence longitudinal. FLOWERS ? : PERIANTH similar to that of $. OVARY free, 

 3-4-gonous, 3-4-celled, of 3-4 carpels opposite to the perianth- lobes ; stigma sessile, 

 discoid, obscurely 4-lobed, lobes answering to the septa; ovules numerous, inserted 

 on the septa, many-seriate, ascending, anatropous. CAPSULE coriaceous, oblong, 

 truncate, crowned by the stigma, 4-celled, with 4 semi-septiferous valves. SEEDS 

 elongate, fusiform, imbricate; testa membranous, loose, produced far beyond the 

 nucleus, tubular ; hilum lateral, near the base ; raphe filiform, free under the integu- 

 ment in the lower half, and united with it above the middle, and ending in a chalaza 

 which supports a globular nucleus ; albumen fleshy. EMBRYO straight, axile, sub- 

 cylindric, or fusiform ; cotyledons linear, plano-convex ; radicle short, inferior. 



ONLY GENUS. 

 Nepenthes. 



Nepenthes, which have some affinity with Aristolochiea (p. 708), differ in diclinisra, monadelphism, 

 free. ovary, loculicidal capsule, and especially by the petioles dilated into a pitcher. 1 They also offer 

 more than one analogy with Droserucece and Parnassiete, while their leaves recall those of Surracenia 

 (p. 214). 



Nepenthes are natives of swamps in [the Malay Islands, Australia, and New Caledonia] tropical 

 Asia, the Seychelle Islands, and Madagascar ; their seeds, often held in a loose cellular integument, 

 float at first on the surface of the water, which they imbibe by degrees, when they sink to the bottom to 

 germinate there. 



CCVIII. ARISTOLOCHIE^E. 



(ARISTOLOCHLE, Adanson. ARISTOLOCHIEJE, Endlicher. ARISTOLOCHIACE^E, LindL 



ASARINE^E, Bartling.) 



PERIANTH single, superior, regular or irregular, usually coloured. STAMENS 

 epigynous and gynandrous, inserted at the base of the style. OVARY inferior, several-celled 

 and ovuled ; OVULES anatropous. SEEDS albuminous. EMBRYO minute, basilar, axile. 



Herbaceous PLANTS with creeping rhizomes, or tuberous, suffrutescent or 

 frutescent. STEM often twining, simple or branched, often thickened at the nodes ; 

 wood scented, sometimes without concentric zones and liber fibres. LEAVES alter- 

 nate, simple, all green, or some scale- like and the others green, various in form, 

 usually cordate, penni- or pedati-nerved, veins reticulate ; petiole very often dilated 

 at the base and semi- am plexicaul, protecting the buds ; stipules 0, but sometimes 

 replaced by the axillary leaf (rarely 2) of an undeveloped branch. FLOWERS 3 , 

 axillary or terminal, solitary, rarely in a spike or cymose raceme, sometimes fur- 



1 The pitcher is not the dilated petiole, but a special organ, represented by a gland at the top of the costa of the 

 young leaf. See Linn. Trans,, vol. xxii., p. 415. ED. 



Z Z 







