BAN UNCULACE^. 



the placenta, so that it is lateral, exterior to the raphe. These 

 ovules are therefore anatropous. 



After flowering, all the parts of the flower fall off, except the 

 carpels, which become as m^i^j follicles (fig. 10), or dr}^ fruits with 

 numerous seeds, opening longitu- 

 dinally along the inner angle. The 

 anatropous seed has on one side 

 a marked projecting raphe, which 

 ends in a whitish mark, or hilum, 

 by which it is attached, and which 

 looks as if it were torn. Near it 

 is the micropyle, which appears 

 like a minute depression. This 

 seed has a triple integument, com- 

 posed of a superficial cellular en- 

 velope, or epidermis, a thick, dry, 

 brittle testa of very dark colour ; 

 and within a thin, white mem- 

 brane, surrounding the copious 

 fleshy albumen, which contains near its apex a very small embrj'o, 

 with an acute base and obtuse cotyledons. 



The Columbines are perennials, found in the north temperate 

 zone, in both the Old and New Worlds. The species, which 

 have been much multiplied, may be reduced to one or two for 

 France and Europe.' Several are found in Asia* and North 

 America.^ The stem, which is at first simple, springs from a tap- 

 root, and bears alternate ternately compound leaves, with petioles 

 dilated at the base, the lower leaves much simplified, or often reduced 

 to scales. The stem ends in a flower, below which are bracts from the 

 axil of each of which may spring another axis also ending in 

 a flower, and so on. Alter flowering, the upper part of the 

 stem falls off, while the base enlarges (chiefly in the medullary 

 region) to form a reservoir for the accumulation of nutritive 

 juices destined to supply the hitherto dormant axillary buds 

 of the reduced leaves. These buds enlarge the fjister as they 



Fis. 11. 

 Seed. 



Aquilegia vulgaris. 



FiO. 12. 



Longitudinal section 



of seed. 



' Gren. & GoDii., Fl. Fr., i. 44. — IlEUiin., Zucc, Flor.Jap. Fam., 76.— Hoiss., Diagn. PI. 



Icon., iv. t. 114-lli).— Walp., Rep., i. 50 ; v. « ; Orient. 



Ann., i. 13; ii. 12 ; iv. 25. ^ A. Gray, ///., t. 14. 



* Hook. & Th., Flor.Imh, i, 43; Sieb. & 



