XIX. RESEDACE^E. 



I. ASTKOCARPUS SEEIES. 



This small group was formerly restricted to the members of the 

 -Reseda Mea. Reseda (figs. 311, 320 — 329). 



One of these, formerly named 

 R. ca/iesce?is, 1 is easily distin- 

 guished from all the rest by its 

 free carpels ; it has been made 

 the type of the genus Astro- 

 carpus. 2 Its flowers (figs. 312- 

 317) are irregular and herma- 

 phrodite. On the concave re- 

 ceptacle are inserted five or six 

 unequal sepals, the smallest 

 posterior and the largest an- 

 terior, covering the lateral ones 

 in prsefloration. The petals, five 

 in number alternating witli the 

 sepals, are formed, as we shall 

 see, like those of Reseda ; they 

 form a sort of scale at the base, 

 on the back of which are in- 

 serted petaloid blades, which 

 differ on the different petals. 

 The more posterior the petal 

 the larger and the more dissected 

 are the blades, so that that of 

 the anterior sepal may be simple, 

 Flowering tip. 1 the lateral ones tri- or quadrifid, 



and the posterior ones divided into yet deeper and more dissected 



1 L., Spec, 448. — B. sesamoides L., Spec., 

 449. — B. purpurascens L., Spec, 449. — B . 

 stellata Lamk., Fl. Fr., 204. — Astroearpus 

 sesamoides Dub., Bot. Gall., i. 67. — Reichb., 

 Ic. Fl. Germ., ii. 22, t. 99.— J. Mttelx,, in DC. 

 Prodr., xvi. sect. ii. 552. — A. Clusii J. Gay, in 

 Schultz. Arch. (1812), 33.— Gren. & Godb., Fl. 



de Fr., i. 190. — A. coclilearifolius Nym., in Yet. 

 AJcad. Fonh. (1861), 191, t. 4. — A. interruptm 

 Bob., Trois Not. sur les PI. de Corse (1859), 

 3. — Sesamella Tournefortii Reichb., in Flora 

 (1830), 130. 



2 Neck., Elem., ii. (1700), 243. — Spa. ii. 

 Suit, d Buffon, vii. 105. — E> - dl„ Gen., n. 5013. 



