88 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



the form of the stamens, 1 Victoria comes so near Euryale, that we 

 can only make it a distinct section. Thus constituted, Bury ale 

 includes two species of aquatic plants, that vegetate like the water- 

 lilies. The floating blade of the large petiolate leaves is orbicular- 

 oeltate, corrusrated-bullate above, covered below with a network of 

 very prominent ribs. The various parts of the plant, especially the 

 petioles, veins, peduncles, receptacle, and base of the calyx, are 

 covered with rigid prickles of variable structure. 2 The flowers are 

 solitary on long peduncles ; they rise to expand above water, and are 

 more or less pinky in the American species, violet-purple in the 

 Asiatic plant. 



IV. SAEEACENA SPECIES. 



tSarracena'' (figs. 102-107) has regular hermaphrodite flowers. 

 On the convex receptacle are inserted a cal} T x of five sepals of 

 imbricated praefloration, 4 and a corolla of five alternating petals of 

 peculiar form, 5 also imbricated in the bud. The stamens are indefinite 

 in number, and hypogynous ; each is formed of a free filament and 

 an introrse two-celled anther of lougitudinal dehiscence. 6 The 

 gynseceuni is superior, formed of an ovary surmounted by a slender 

 cylindrical style, which shortly dilates into a sort of petaloid parasol, 

 with five angles superposed to the sepals. At the apex of each 

 angle is a notch in the bottom of which is a little tubercle project- 

 ing downwards, covered with stigmatic papilla?. 7 The ovary is 



more 



much 



1 In Euryale proper they possess a 

 slender filament, and a shorter anther, 

 more acute at the apex. 



2 Some contain and others lack tracheae 

 (Tb£c, in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, i. 156). 



3 T., Inst., 567, t. 476.— Adans., Tarn, des 

 PI., ii. 450. — Sarracenia L., Gen., n. 652. — J., 

 Gen., 435. — Lame., Diet., vi. 544; Suppl., v. 

 39 ; III., t. 452. — Spach, Suit, a Bvffon, xiii. 

 329.— Endl., Gen., n. 5023.— A. Gray, Gen. 

 III., t. 45, 46.— H. Ex., in Aclansonia,\. 210. — 

 B. H., Gen., 48, n. 1. 



4 They persist and thicken a little around the 

 fruit. 



The hase forms a sort of spoon, with its con- 

 cavity inwards ; above is a contraction topped by 

 a more expanded blade. The spoon part is at 

 first applied pretty closely to the ovary, and the 



upper part, removed where it is contracted, 

 is above again inclined inwards. The pollen is 

 usually whitish, composed of elongated grains, 

 fusiform, or sometimes as it were truncate at 

 both ends, bearing from three to seven or eight 

 longitudinal grooves. They are often united in 

 variable numbers end to end, thus forming a sort 

 of rod, which comes out of the anther in a single 

 piece. These whitish cylinders then often stick 

 to the inner faces of the petals, opposite the pro- 

 minences of the stylar expansion which bear the 

 stigmatic papillae. 



6 The anther is at first straight, but becomes 

 more or less recurved with age, according to the 

 species. Then the upper part of the face turns 

 outwards. When young the stamens are smaller, 

 as they are more external. 



1 In longitudinal section the fibro-vascular 



