Pedaliacece. 355 



large, in short racemes. Corolla campanulate, gibbous below. 

 Fertile stamens 2 or 4. The fruit, at first soft, is ultimately a 

 woody wrinkled 4-celled capsule, terminated by a long curved 

 beak. Seeds few and large. M. proboscidea. Unicorn Plant, 

 has blue flowers ; M. lutea, yellow ; and M. fragrans has 

 crimson-purple fragrant flowers. All of these are of American 

 origin. 



ORDER LXXXIL ACANTHACE^E. 



Herbs (or more rarely shrubs) with opposite rarely verticillate 

 simple entire or lobed leaves. Flowers usually in bracteolate 

 spikes or racemes. Calyx inferior, 4- or 5-lobed, sometimes 

 very small, and occasionally obsolete. Corolla ringent or bila- 

 biate, the lower lip overlapping the upper in bud, rarely l- 

 lipped. Stamens usually 2, sometimes 4, and didynamous. 

 Capsule two-celled, two-valved ; valves opposite the partition. 

 Seeds exalbuminous, 2 or more in each cell, attached to a woody 

 placenta which splits through the axis and adheres to the 

 valves. There are about 150 genera and 1 500 species, nearly 

 all tropical. 



1. ACANTHUS. 



Herbaceous plants, remarkable for the beauty of their foliage 

 rather than their flowers. Leaves pinnatifid or bipinnatifid 

 and toothed. Flowers in leafy spikes terminating the stem. 

 Calyx unequally 4-lobed, sometimes spinescent. Corolla having 

 only one lip, the inferior, developed. Stamens 4. Cells of the 

 capsule 2-seeded. The three or four species described are from 

 the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. "AfcavOa signifies spine or 

 thorn, and was applied to the prickly species by the ancients. 

 It is recorded that the foliage of these plants furnished the idea 

 for decorating the capitals of the Corinthian order of archi- 

 tecture. 



1. A. spinbsus (fig. 196). Bear's Breech. Stems about 3 feet 

 high. Leaves and bracts very prickly. Flowers purplish and 

 white, appearing in Summer. A. spinosissimus scarcely differs, 

 but the flowers are larger. 



2. A. mollis. This is a similar plant, but the teeth of the 

 leaves, though acute, are not prickly. A. latifblius is a variety 

 of this. Flowers white, pink or pale blue. A. longifolius is 

 distinguished by its longer leaves, narrower in outline, and 

 crimson flowers. 



A A 2 



