DIPSACACEJE. 



623 



divisions of the calyx which surmounts the ovary and persists above 

 the fruit, as also in the length of its body and of the receptacular 

 neck, sometimes very narrow and elongate (fig. 418), which supports 

 it and emerges from the opening of the persistent involucel. 



Morina (fig. 423-425) and Triplostegia represent two exceptional 

 types, particularly in their inflorescence. In the former the flowers 

 are in compound glomerules, in the axils of the opposite or verticillate 



Morina longifoUa. 



F'm. 423. Flower. 



Fij 



424. Corolla and 

 stamens. 



Fig. 425. Long, 

 sect, of fruit. 



leaves ; they are irregular, each surrounded by an involucel irregularly 

 divided with spinous teeth at its mouth ; they have a bilobed calyx, 

 an irregular corolla supporting two stamens, or four, two of which 

 are smaller, sterile and rudimentary, and a one- celled uniovulate 

 ovary surmounted by a style with a stigmatiferous summit variously 

 divided. They are Asiatic herbs most frequently ciliate or spinous. 

 Of Triplostegia only one herbaceous species, Himalayan, is known, of 

 which the habit, foliage and inflorescence are those of certain 

 Valerians, between which and the Dipsacece this type is intermediate ; 

 but it is now referred to the latter in preference because the ovary of 

 its 4, 5-merous and 4, 5-androus flowers, and also the fruit are 

 enveloped in a saclike involucel, itself surrounded by glanduliferous 

 bracts, and because the seed has a fleshy albumen. 



