ii GENERAL KEY TO THE POLYPETALOUS ORDERS. 



ANOXACE^. Leaves simple, alternate, pinnately veined, exstipulate. Sepals 3, 

 valvate, often coriaceous. Petals 6 in 2 dissimilar series. Stamens indefinite ; 

 anthers extrorse. Carpels free or more or less coalescent at maturity. Ovules 1 

 to several, anatropous. Seeds large, usually transverse in the piilpy fruit. Small 

 trees or shrubs. 



MENISPERMACEvE. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, usually palraately veined 

 or lobed. Flowers small, dioecious, 3-4-merous. Floral envelopes imbricated in 

 bud. Sepals, petals, and stamens commonly biseriate, 6 (or more) of each. 

 Carpels 3 to 6, distinct, uniovulate, berry-like but drupaceous in fruit. Putanieu 

 with a curved cavity. Seeds with scanty albumen and elongated crescent-shaped 

 or annular embryo. Woody climbers. 



BERBERIDACEiE. Leaves alternate, stipulate or with a stipule-like dilation at 

 the base of the petioles. Floral envelopes imbricated in bud. Sepals, petals, and 

 stamens commonly (i, in two series each, the petals opposite the sepals and stamens 

 (sepals uniseriate in Jeffersonia). Anthers dehiscing by uplifted valves (except in 

 Podophyllum). Carpel single; ovules anatropous. Seeds with albumen ; embryo 

 straight or nearly so. Shrubs or herbs. 



NYMFPLEACE.E. Leaves cordate or peltate, involute in vernation. Flowers 

 solitary, axillary, pedunculate or scapose. Sepals 3 to 4 or 6. Petals when definite 

 of the same number, but usually indefinite and numerous, imbricated in several 

 spiral series, often intergrading with the sepals or stamens. Stamens except in 

 the Cabombece indefinite and numerous. Carpels 3 to many, indehiscent, free or 

 immersed in a fleshy receptacle or more or less coalescent into a fleshy fruit. 

 Ovules solitary and pendulous or covering the walls of the cell, not springing 

 from the ventral suture. Seeds arillate or not, with or without albumen. Em- 

 bryo with thickish cotyledons, sliort radicle, and well developed plumule. Aquatic 

 herbs. 



-t- -i- Carpels 2 to many, more or less completely united (distinct at maturity 

 in Platystemon) ; ovary unilocular with parietal placentae or divided by a 

 false partition or more rarely completely several-celled with axial pla- 

 centaj {Sarraceniacece, and sometimes in Papaveracecc, Capparidaceie, and 

 Bixacece). 

 ++ Stamens free, numerous (sometimes subdefinite in Platystigma) : sepals 2 

 to 5, imbricated : petals equal in number or more numerous, alike, rarely 

 wanting : seeds exalbuminous with minute embryo near the hilum : flowers 

 regular : leaves alternate or radical. 



SARRACENTACEiE. Sepals 5, ]iersistent. Petals (in ours) .5. Anthers versar 

 tile. Style (in ours) dilated at the summit and pentagonal or 5-fid. Ovary (in 

 ours) 5-locular. Bog plants with tubular trumpet-shaped or ewer-formed leaves 

 (phyllodia). 



PAPAVERACE-S]. Sepals 2 to 4, caducous. Petals usually more numerous. 

 Anthers innate. Ovary unilocular or rarely many-celled by the intrusion of the 

 placentaj-bearing sutures. 



++ -H- Stamens definite, usually 6, diadelphous or tetradynamous : carpels 2 : 

 herbaceous or rarely suffrutescent plants with alternate leaves. 



