C4 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



rei^ularity or irregularity of their form ;' the absolute number of 

 them in each verticil, or pseudo-verticil, and the number of these 

 verticils themselves ;- the aspect of the anther f the number of 

 carpels, and the number of ovules in each ] the direction of these 

 ovules' and of the seeds ; the consistency of the pericarp/ 



To LiNN.EUS is due the first foundation of this family. Bernard 

 i)E JussiEU, in his arrangement of the garden of the Trianon,'' only 

 borrowed from the author of the " Fragnienia Botanica," and A. L. 

 DE JussiEU^ simply reproduced the work of his uncle, adding to his 

 Ranunculi the genus Podophi/Ilum, whose right to a place in this group 

 has been much disputed, besides four small genera of little im- 

 portance/ Adanson has been accused of having destroyed the homo- 

 geneity of this group in his great work," by adding the greater number 

 of the Alismacea. We have said elsewhere,'" and we repeat it, that this 

 course appears to us thoroughly rational. As arranged in Jussieu's 

 " Genera Flaniarum' the Banunculacea include" twenty-three genera, 

 studied by A. L. de Jussieu himself in several detached memoirs,'- 

 and after him by most of his successors, with peculiar predilection 

 and attention, as representing on the whole a group of vegetables 

 fittest to afford types for the most important principles of taxonomy." 



for example, that in the two sections established 

 in the genus Caltlia, the one has persistent, the 

 other caducous sepals, &c. (See Adansonia, iv. 36). 

 ' Describers have usually confused the irregu- 

 larity of the corolla, and that of the individual 

 sepals or petals. Sepals of very strange form, 

 helmet-shaped or spurred, may be very regular. 

 On the other hand spurless sepals may be truly 

 irregular, their halves being unsymmetrical (o^). 

 cit., iv. 9). 



* The proof that the number of verticils has 

 no importance is the facility with which in the 

 Paonia, Anemone, &c., we pass from one quin- 

 cuncial verticil to two alternately trimerous ver- 

 ticils (see pp. 37, 42, 61). 



* Till the time of De Caxdolle it was be- 

 lieved that the Ranunculacea; had their anthers 

 generally e.\trorse, and the BiUeniafecB had them 

 introrsc. A. de St. Hilaire was the first to 

 rectify this error (see Adansonia, iv. 14, note). 

 There are far more Eanunculacece with introrse 

 anthers than has been generally allowed. Nigella, 

 Delphinium, Eranlhis, &c., described as having 

 extrorse anthers, have them decidedly introrse. 



* CaUinnthemum is the only Ranunculad with 

 a pendulous ovule and the micropyle exterior. 

 Otherwise every ascending ovule has its micropyle 

 exterior, and every descending ovule has it in- 



terior. We shall see that if the Dilleniacece had 

 a descending ovule it would be like that of CaJ- 

 lianthemum ; but when the ovules are few in 

 number, they are ascending. 



* We have not attached much importance to 

 this character. Can a thoroughly ripe Almond 

 with its pericarp quite dry, be separated gene- 

 rically from a Peach with its mesocarp succulent? 

 We think not, and we would here recal the in- 

 stance of the Adonids where the fruit, to-day a 

 drupe, will be to-morrow an achene. We have 

 been unable to found generic divisions on this 

 character. 



* In A. L. DE JussiEtr, Gen., Ixviii. 



"^ Genera Plantarum, sec. ord. vat. dispos. 

 (1789), 231. 



* Hydrastis, Hamadri/as, Xanthorliiza, Cimi- 

 cifuga. 



8 Families des Planfes (1763), ii. 451. 



'" Adansonia, iv. 40. 



^' Not counting Podopliyllum, with which we 

 are not now concerned. 



'- Chielly in that which he points out himself 

 (op. cit., 235): "Apia genermn signis nume- 

 rosis omnium conjnnctio ac dispositio jam in 

 Act. Acad. Paris. 1773, statuta." 



'^ We have seen that on the other hand seve- 

 ral authors consider this family as being of a low 



