PIPERACE.E. 483 



Jussieu in the Genera incerta sedis, and Ifedgosmum, 1 wherein the 

 receptacle is quite concave, and the flowers are dioecious. — Leaves 

 opposite with lateral stipules, aclnate to the receptacle, and some- 

 times to one another, for a long distance. Seed with a simple 

 albumen in some species containing a rudiment of the fleshy 

 mass 2 which is developed in the embryo-sac in Piperece and Saur- 

 urecB. 



IV? C erato phylle.e. — A. L. de Jussieu 3 made Ceratophyttum a 

 Naiad. Mirbel 4 first regarded it as the type of a distinct group, held 

 by F. C. Richard 5 and Sohleiden 6 a neighbour of Coniferece. Gray 7 

 made it into the order Ceratophyllea, which De Candolle 8 placed 

 near Haloragece, Hippuridea, and Lythrarim, a view which has found 

 the greatest support. Endltcher 9 classed it next to Callitrichea and 

 Podostemacea ; Lindley iu next the Nettles ; Ad. Brongniart 11 beside 

 Chloranthaceai and Santrdacece ; A. Gray,'" because of the structure of 

 the embryo, near Nelambece and Cabombece. C. J. de Cordemoy 13 

 thought it should be placed in the same tribe with Chloranthece and 

 Platanete. We make it, not unhesitatingly, a series or tribe allied 

 to Chloranthea. It is characterized by monoecious flowers ; a circular 

 gamophyllous perianth, incised into a variable number of lobes ; a 

 free one-celled ovary, containing a single, almost suspended, ortho- 

 tropous ovule ; a drupaceous fruit with a very thin mesocarp, and 

 hard stone ; an erect exalbuminous embryo, 14 so highly developed as 

 to resemble a little plant, possessing leaves with axillary buds above 

 the two large fleshy cotyledons. By this great development of the 

 embryo the plants appear analogous in this order to Nelumbece in 

 NymplKEcicea. — Submerged swimming herbs ; leaves verticillate, 

 incised 2-3-chotomous, not aromatic. Flowers axillary sessile. 



1 Sw., Prodr., Fl. Ind. Occ. (1788). 13 In Adansonia, iii. 293 (1863). 



2 See p. 477, note 3. H Sometimes the mucilaginous remains are 



3 Gen. (1789), 18. left between the little leaves of the embryo. 



4 Ex Ag., Theor. Syst., 55 (1858). According to C. J. de Cokdemoy, " the absence 



5 Anal, du Fruit., 46, 93. of albumen is not a character we can really use, 



6 In Linncea, xi. (1837), 540. for if we follow the development of the ovule, we 



7 Brit. PL Arr., ii. 554. think that at the time when it becomes a seed, 



8 Prodr., iii. (1828), 73, ord. 73. and the embryo is present, there exists a true 



9 Gen., 267, ord. 83 (1836). albumen." But the precocious growth of the 



10 Veg. Kingd. (1846), 263, ord. 85 {Cerato- plantule early exhausts the albumen; and, finally , 

 filiyllacece). the seed of Ceratophgllum resembles what that 



11 Fnum. (1843), 115, fam. 240? of CMorantkus must be when, after germination, 



12 In Ann. Lye. N.-York, iv. (1837), 48. it has attained the same grade of development." 



I I 2 



