18 



NATUBAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



a few alternate leaves with the blade trifoliolate, or even more divided, 

 and often one or several united one- or few-tlowered floral peduncles. 

 I.so/jf/rui)/,^ wliieh most authors consider as a distinct genus, should 

 strictly be replaced in the genus HeUehorus, in which it was formerly 

 included. Its habit (which, however, is very near to that of Coptis),- 

 with some characters of slight importance offered by the flower, may, 

 it is true, be enough to separate them. We have retained it pro- 

 visionally only,^ as a " transition genus between NigdJa and HeUehorus, 



ill-defined, and without good natural limits." 

 The analysis of the commonest species will show 

 if this way of regarding it is justified. 



Jsopynim fumarioides L.^ (fig. 35), has regular 

 hermaphrodite flowers. The calyx is formed of 

 five coloured sepals, of quincuncial aestivation. 

 The corolla is composed of five tubular petals, 

 of which the base tapers into a kind of pedicel, 

 while tbe limb divides into two lips, of which 

 the inner is the shorter, and indented in the 

 centre or cmarginate. The stamens, of a fair number, are free and 

 hypogynous. Each consists of a filament somewhat dilated at 

 the tip, and a basifixed anther with two cells dehiscing by lateral 

 clefts, hardly more interior than exterior. The gynseceum consists 

 of a large number of carpels, the ovaries of which are grooved ver- 

 tically for the whole length. On a level with the tapering summit of 

 the ovary, the lips of this groove thicken slightly, and become covered 

 with papilla? to form a small stigma. In the inner angle of the 

 single cell of the ovary is a parietal placenta, bearing a large 

 number of anatropous ovules in two vertical rows. The fruit is 

 formed of numerous small follicles, and the seeds enclose in their 

 integuments a small embryo surrounded by, and at the apex of, the 

 very abundant fleshy albumen. It is a herbaceous annual, a native 

 of Siberia. It has a tap-root, and the base of the stem gives off* 

 numerous alternate leaves, with the petiole dilated at the base, and 



^ 



Isopyrum fumarioides. 

 Fig. 35. 

 Flower. 



' Itopyrum L. Oen., n. 701. — Juss., Oen., 233. 

 —DC, Prodr., i. 48.— Spacii, Suit, a Buff., 

 vii. 326.— Enul., Gen., n. 47'JO.— B. H., Gen., 8, 

 n. 21.— W ALP., Rep., i. 48, ii. 741; Ann., i. 954, 

 ii. 11. iv. 28.— H. By., Adamonia, iv. 26, 46. 



^ Bentiiam & Hooker go so far as to say of 



Coptis " Genus forte melius pro sectione Isopyri 

 habendum." 



^ Adansonia, iv. 46. 



* Spec, 783.— DC, Prodr., i. 48, n. Z.—Lep- 

 iopyrum. Reichb., Fl. Germ., 747. — Spach, 

 Suit, a Buff., vii. 327. 



