294 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



wards. Each carpel when ripe becomes a follicle, bearing outside a 

 Astrocarpus canescens. glandular gibbosity (fig. 317), and 



opens to free a recurved seed. 

 The folded embryo is fleshy, exal- 

 buminous. A. canescens appears to be 

 the only species 1 of the genus ; it is 

 a perennial herb from the Mediter- 

 ranean, ramifying from the base, and 

 bearing alternate simple exstipulate leaves. Its flowers, each axillary 

 to a bract, form racemes which may almost become spikes. 



Fig. 318. 

 Seed (f). 



Fig. 319. 

 Lone. sect, of seed. 



II. RESEDA SERIES. 



The flowers of Reseda? (figs. 311, 320-329) are irregular and 

 hermaphrodite, with a regular or oblique convex receptacle. The 

 calyx, as in Astrocarpus, consists of an inconstant number of sepals, 



Reseda lutea. USUally five Or six, 



but varying from 

 four to eight ; they 

 are equal or un- 

 equal, imbricated 

 when very young, 

 but early ceasing to 

 touch by their 

 edges. When there 

 are five sepals, one is 



Fig. 321. 

 Flower without corolla. 



Fig. 320. 

 Flower (f ). 



posterior, two lateral, and two anterior; the sixth when present is in front 

 of these last ; when there are only four sepals the posterior is absent. 

 There are usually as many alternating petals as sepals ; they are un- 

 equal and dissimilar. Eirst they are larger as they are more posterior, 

 and next their blade is here more dissected, and the basal membranous 

 scale is better developed ; it is even sometimes absent in the anterior 



1 Walp., Rep., ii. 754; Ann., vii. 194. 



2 Reseda T., Inst., 423, t. 238.— L., Gen., n. 

 608 (ed. 1, n. 447). — G-EBTN., Frttct., i. 369, t. 

 76.— J., Gen., 245. — Lamk., Bid., vi. 157; 

 Suppl., iv. 669; III., t. 410. — Tbist., in Ann. 

 Mas., xviii. 392, t. 21. — Spach, Suit, a Buff on, 

 vii. 97. — Endl., Gen., n. 5011. — Payee, 

 Organoff., 193, t. 39; Fam. Nat., 140. — M. 



aeg. (J. Muell.), JHon. Resedac., 96, 1. 1-9 ; in 

 BC. Prodr., xvi. sect. i. 555.— B. H., Gen., 112, 

 n. 4. — Phyteuma Magn., Prodr., 15. — Lutcola 

 T., op. cit., 423, c. 238. — Spach, loc. cit., 103. — 

 Pectanisia Rafin., Fl. Tell., 702. — Tereianthes 

 Rafin., loc. cit., 704. — Arkopoda Rafin., loc, 

 cit., 705. — Eresda Spach, loc. cit., 101. 



