PIPEBACEuE. 



467 



branches, covered with alternate simple cordate petiolate leaves ; the 

 base of the petiole forms a stipuliform sheath at first enveloping the 

 top of the twig, and in its upper part prolonged internal to the petiole, 

 but without adhering thereto. 1 The branches terminate in long 

 racemes; each flower is axillary to a bract which is carried up to the 

 top of the pedicel (fig. 499), except in the case of the lower flowers, 

 which are sessile, rendering this part of the raceme a spike. 



Houttuynia cordata. 



Fig. 500. 

 Inflorescence. 



Fig. 501. 

 Flower (f). 



Fig. 502. 

 Long. sect, of flower (\). 



In the second species of the genus, S. chine usis, 2 from Eastern 

 Asia, the general organization of the flowers is the same ; but all 

 are pedicellate ; the stamens are shorter than the gynseceum, and 

 have extrorse anthers. 3 We shall make this into a section of the 

 genus Saururus, under the name of Spathium. 



Houttuynia* (figs. 500-502) is closely allied to Saururus, and has its 

 naked spicate flowers. It differs in the number of the stamens, 

 usually three ; their somewhat higher insertion, at a certain height 



1 So that this superior free part of the sheath 

 represents two connate stipules adnate to the 

 petiole. 



3 H. Bn., in Adansonia, x. 71. — S. cernuus 

 Thttnb., Fl. Jap., 154 (nee L.).— S. Loureiri 

 Dcne., in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, iii. 102. — 

 Spathium chinense Lour., Fl. Cochinch., ed. 

 Ulyssip. (1790), 217. — Saururopsis cliinensis 

 Ttjecz., in Bull. Mosc, v. 21.— £. Cumingii 

 C DC, Prodr., 239, n. 2. 



3 The filaments are articulated a little ahove 

 the hasc. 



4 Thpnb., Fl. Jap., 12, 234 (uec Scheeb.). — 

 J., Gen., 25. — Lamk., Diet., iii. 144; Suppl., iii. 

 65 ; III., t. 739. — E. Mey., Be Hoult. et Saur., 

 1. — Endl., Gen., n. 1825. — Lindl., Veg. Kingd., 

 521, fig. 356 (1).— Payee, Organog., 428, t. 90 ; 

 Fain. Nat., 147. — Schnizl., Iconogr., t. 82. — 

 C. DC, Prodr., 238.— Lem. & Dcne., Tr. Gen., 

 500. — Polypara Loue., Fl. Cochinch. (ed. 1790), 

 61. 



H H 2 



