122 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



bearing a vertical row of ascending anatropous ovules, with their 

 rnicropyles turned downwards and away from the placenta. 

 The fruit is dry, partitioned off by transverse false-septa between 

 the seeds and often dividing into one-seeded segments, more rarely 

 dehiscing by two longitudinal valves. 1 The ascending seeds contain 

 a large albumen, lodging on one side some way from its organic apex 

 a narrow bowed excentric embryo. The four or five known species 2 

 of this genus are glaucous glabrous annual herbs, with alternate 

 multisect leaves of linear segments. They become smaller and oi'ten 

 opposite below the flowers, which are terminal or leaf-opposed, or 

 sometimes collected into a sort of leafy raceme, on a peculiar axis 

 with no leaves towards its base. All these plants are natives of the 

 Mediterranean regions of Europe and Africa, or of Temperate Asia. 

 Our knowledge of the floral organization of ffi/pecoum, makes that 

 of Dicentrc? (figs. 151-153) now easy. Both of the oppositisepalous 

 stamens are comj^letely deduplicated ; each lateral half, consisting of 

 a slender filament and an anther-cell, quits its fellow to adhere to the 

 edge of the alternisepalous stamen. Hence this appears formed, 

 above a certain height, of one broad flattened filament bearing at the 

 top four anther-cells, of which the two central alone belong to one single 

 stamen. Such is the origin of the apparent diadelphy that groups 

 the stamens in two bundles superposed to the outer petals (fig. 151). 

 These have above their base a sac-like or spur-like dilatation, while 

 the inner pair (fig. 153) are narrower and unguiculate, and cohere by 

 their tips which bear an external keel or wing. The ovary is sur- 

 mounted by a style with a two- or four-lobed lip, 4 and contains a large 

 number of ovules 5 on two antero-posterior parietal placentas. The 



1 On this character is founded the genus Tent. Fl. Nepal., 51, t. 39. — Bernh., in Lin- 



Chiazospermum Beenh. (in Linntea, viii. 465), neea, viii. 467. — Endl., Gen., n. 4835. Cap- 



whose type is H. erection L. (Spec, 181), a norchis Pl., in Fl. des Serr., viii. 193. — Eu~ 



Daourian species, which can only be made a capnos Sieb. & Zucc, in Abh. Ak. Miin., hi. 



distinct section of Hypecoum. 721, t. 1, fig. 2. 



2 Sibth., Fl. Grcec, ii. 47, t. 156. — Reichb., 4 In the latter case we must distinguish be- 

 Ic. Fl. Germ., Hi. t. 9. — Boiss., Fl. Or., i. 121. — tween the two primitive lobes corresponding with 

 Geen. & Godb., Fl. de Fr., i. 62. — Walp., Rep., the apices of the carpellary leaves and the un- 

 i. 117 ; Ann., i. 23; iv. 176; vii. 88. equally flattened and expanded lobes with incised 



3 Boekh., ex Bebnh., in Linntea, viii. 468. — edges, which vary in form with the species, and 

 Endl., Gen., n. 4836. — B. H., Gen., 55, n. 20. — are situated lower down, owing to a late hyper- 

 Dlclytra DC, Sy.it., ii. 107 ; Prudr., i. 125. — trophy of the sides of the style. 



Payee, Organog., 227, t. 50 ; Fam. Nat., 127. s They are originally ascending, with the 



(The name has often been wrongly written micropyle downwards and inwards; they have 



Dielytra.) — Macrocapnos Rotle, in Lindl. two coats. 

 Introd., ed. 2, 439. — Dactylicapnos Wall., 



