298 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



penta- or hexamerous flowers. 1 In the type species we see one sepal 

 posterior; the petals larger and more divided as they are nearer 

 this ; a posterior disk forming a glandular scale ; four carpels with 

 four styles, whereof two are lateral, crowning the shortly stipitate 



Fig. 327. 



Fruit (f). 



Reseda o&orata. 



m 



Fig. 326. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 32S. 

 Fruit (f). 



Fig. 329. 

 Long, sect, of fruit. 



ovary ; and lastly four placentas alternate with the styles, hearing 

 descending ovules, with their micropyles introrse. The leaves are 

 pinnatisect, which only occurs in this section. 2 Thus constituted, the 

 genus Reseda contains some forty (?) herbaceous species, annual 

 biennial and perennial, natives of the temperate and subtropical 

 regions of the Northern Hemisphere, especially abundant on the 

 borders of the Red Sea and Mediterranean. 3 All have alternate leaves, 

 with two usually subulate or tooth-like lateral stipules, and flowers 

 forming simple terminal racemes, more or less elongated according 

 to the species. 



Next to Reseda come two genera which have its habit, foliage, in- 



fruticulosa Reichb., Syst. Teg., ii. 433. — Terei- 

 anfhes nudata Rafin. — T. alba Rafin. — T. 

 fruticosa Rafin., loc. cit. 



1 Lencoreseda DC, in Dub. Bot. Gall., i. 

 67. — M. aeg., Prodr., 556, sect. i. — Resedina 

 Reichb. (ex Petebm., Deuisch. Fl., 67). — Gen. 

 Tereianthes Rafin., Fl. Tell., n. 703 (part.). — 

 Fresda Spach, Suit, a Bv.ffon, vii. 97. 



2 Botanists have also admitted a section Glau- 

 coreseda [DC, in Dub. Bot. Gall., i. 67 ; — M 

 ARG., Prodr., 580, sect, iii.j — Leucoreseda (part.) 



Gben. & Godb., Fl. de Fr., i. 186 (nee DC)], 

 for R. glauca L., gredensis Willk., com- 

 plicata Boey, and virgata Boiss., possessing 

 three entire placentas, and lobed, but not pin- 

 natisect leaves (and yellowish flowers). 



3 Reichb., Ic. Fl. Germ., t. 99-102. — Boiss., 

 Fl. Or., i. 421.— Geen. & Godb., Fl. de Fr., i. 

 187. — Wight & Ar>\, Prodr., i. 28. — Walp., 

 Rep., ii. 751; Ann., i. 25; ii. 30; iv. 90; vii. 

 196. 



