232 PRIMULACE^. (PRIMROSE FAMILY.) 



Order 46. PKIJTIUL.ACE.5:. (Primrose Family.) 



Herbs with simple leaves and regular perfect flowers, the stameus as 

 many as the lobes of the gamopetalous corolla and inserted opposite 

 them, a one-celled ovary with a free central placenta rising from the 

 base, bearing several or many seeds. Style and stigma one. 



* Ovary wholly free. 



■1- With scapes or tufted : flowers chiefly 5-merous, umbellate or solitary : capsule dehiscent 

 by valves : lobes of the corolla imbricated in the bud. 



++ Stamens exserted, connivent in a cone, monadelphous. 



1. Dodecatlieon. Corolla 5-parted, with very short tube and dilated thickened throat, 



the long and narrow divisions reflexed. Stamens inserted on the throat of the corolla ? 

 anthers lanceolate or linear. 

 4+ ++ Stamens included, distinct, with short filaments and short blunt anthers : corolla 

 salverform or funnelform. 



2. Primula. Corolla with tube surpassing or at least equalling the calyx, and spreading 



mostly obcordate or emarginate lobes. Capsule many-seeded. Leaves all radical 



■J. Douglasia. Corolla with tube equalling or surpassing the calyx, somewhat inflated 

 above ; lobes entire. Ovary 5-ovuled. Capsule 1 or 2-seeded. Leaves imbricated or 

 crowded on tufted stems. 



4. Androsace. Corolla with tube shorter than the calyx ; the throat constricted. Ovules 

 and seeds numerous or few. Flowers small. 



+- ■(- Leafy-stemmed : corolla (wanting in Glaux) rotate or somewhat so, and the divisions 

 convolute or sometimes involute in the bud : leaves entire. 



4+ Cajisule dehiscent vertically by valves or irregularly, mostly globose : flowers 5-merous. 



6. Steironema* Corolla rotate, with no proper tube, deeply parted the divisions ovate, 

 cuspidate-pointed, erose-denticulate above, each separately involute or convolute 

 anmnd its stamen. Filaments distinct or nearly so on the ring at the base of the 

 corolla : anthers linear and arcuate in age : sterile filaments 5, interposed between the 

 fertile ones. Capsule 10 to 20-seeded. Flowers nodding on slender peduncles. Leaves 

 opposite, without dots. 



6. Glaux. Corolla none. Calyx with 5 petaloid lobes. Stamens on the base of the calyx, 



alternate with its lobes : filaments slender : anthers cordate-ovate. Capsule 5-valved 

 at apex, few-seeded. Leafy throughout : leaves mainly opposite. Flowers solitarj', 

 axillary, nearly sessile. 



++ ++ Capsule f'ircumscissile, globose: seeds numerous. 



7. Centunculus. Corolla with a globular tube and a 4 to 5-lobed limb, shorter than the 



calyx ; lobes acute. Stamens on the tube of the corolla: filaments short and subu- 

 late : anthers ovate or cordate. 



* * Ovary connate at base with the calyx. 



8. Samolus. Flowers 5-merous. Corolla perigynous, nearly carapanulate. Fertile sta- 



mens 5, on the tube of the corolla, with short filaments and cordate anthers. Sterile 

 filaments 5 in the sinuses of the corolla. Capsule ovate or globular, 5-valved at the 

 apex, many-seeded. Caulescent, alternate-leaved, with racemose flowers. 



1. DODECATHEON, L. Shooting-Star. American 

 Cowslip. 



Flowers few or numerous in an umbel terminating a naked scape : corolla 

 from pink-purpie to white. Calyx erect in fruit, enclosing the lower part of 

 the capsule. 



