ONAGRARIACE^. 



485 



flower is inserted a stamen,^ the erect and subulate filament of wliicli 

 supports a basifixed, bilocular, introrse anther dehiscing by two 

 longitudinal clefts. The ovary, lodged in the cavity of the receptacle, 

 is unilocular and surmounted by a slender, subulate style, charged 

 with stigmatic papillae. On the posterior wall of the ovarian cell, a 

 little below the summit, is inserted a single descending anatropous 



Eippuris vuljaris. 



Fig. 477. Flower Fig. 481. Long, 

 (f). sect, of flower. 



Fig. 476. Flower Fig. 4S0. Fruit. Fig. 479. Long, 

 with axillate leaf. sect, of flower. 



ovule, with micropyle interior and superior.^ The fruit is a drupe 

 finally little fleshy, with crustaceous monospermous putamen. The 

 seed contains under its coats a cylindrical embryo, with superior 

 radicle, surrounded by a thin fleshy albumen. Of Hijppuris, one or 

 two species^ are known, evergreen herbs, with rhizomes creeping 

 in the mud. The aerial branches, simple, erect, are clothed with 

 numerous verticils of linear entire leaves, the number in each 

 verticil being variable.* The flowers are axillary, solitary and sessile. 

 This genus has been found in the fresh and brackish waters of Europe, 

 temperate and northern Asia, and northern and antarctic America. 



As here comprised, this family is one of those named by concate- 

 nation. Pretty well defined, in 1759, by B. de Jussieu,^ under the 

 name of On agree, it was extended by Adanson,^' who recognized most 



1 There are sometimes abnormal flowers which et Gr. Fl. N.-Amer. i. (1840) 53 1.— Boiss. Fl. Or. 



are diandrous (fig. 478). 



2 On the characters of this ovule 

 andonembryogany, see J5^G.Bot.Zeit. 

 vii. 329. — TuL. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3, 

 xii. 67, t. 5. — HoFMEiST. Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 ser. 4, xii. Go. 



3 C. Gay, fl Chil. ii. 355.— Torr. 



ii. 754.— Gr. et Godr. Fl. de Fr. i. 589.— Brew. 

 et Wats. Geol. Surv. Calif. Bot. i. 215.— Boiss. 

 Fl. Or. ii. 754.— W ALP. Eep. ii. 98 ; Ann. vii. 

 941. 



4 From four to twelve. 



'° A.L. J. Gen.lxx. 



" Fam. dcs PI. ii. 81 (1763). 



