POLYÛALACE^E. 73 



posterior separated by a narrow partition supporting iu each, cell 

 a descendent, anatrapous ovule with micropyle looking outwards 

 and upwards.^ The fruit, generally accompanied by the persistent 

 calyx, is a loculicidal compressed capsule of varied form," whose 

 descendent seeds generally contain under their coats an embryo 

 accompanied or not by a more or less abundant fleshy albumen. 

 The exostome presents an arUlate excrescence enth'e or lobed. The 

 Milkworts (Fr. Laitiers) are shrubs, undershi-ubs or herbs. The 

 leaves are alternate, more rarely opposite or even verticillate, simple, 

 entire or nearly so and exstipulate. The flowers ^ are in simple or 

 more rarely compound racemes or in spikes sometimes short and 

 capituliform, sometimes few flowered. Each is inserted iu the axil 

 of a bract accompanied by two lateral bracteoles often articulate at 

 the base. 



In F. diversifolia * and Penœa^ woody species from the Antilles, 

 whose inflorescence is axillary, the lateral sepals are not much larger 

 than the others, and the exterior petals are a little more developed 

 than in other species of Polijgala, for which reason they have been 

 made a genus under the name of Badiera!" To the ovary, supported 

 by a short foot, succeeds a fruit of which one cell is generally but 

 little developed.'' 



In certain species, of which the genus Chamœhuxus^ has been 

 made, the seeds have little or no albumen, and the cotyledons become 

 thick and plano-convex ; there is, as regards this, every transition 



more developed than the anterior sometimes Brit. W.-Ind. 29. — B. H. Gen, 137, n. 3 (neo 



spreading into a flat concave or fimbriate Hassk.). — Penœa Plum. Gen. 22, t. 25 (nee L.). 



sheet, etc. ' Perhaps it would ho well to place in the 



1 It has a douhle envelope, and the exoatomo same genus with the American, lindieras, Acan- 



already thickens more or less irregularly. tlioclaihis (Kl. in PI. Selloir. crs. ex Hassk. in 



' Generally compressed, oval, oboval or Aim. Mus. Ludg.-Bat. i. 184 ; — B. H. Gen. 974, 



orbicular or didymous, often eraarginato mem- n. G «), a genus proposed for Mundia bra- 



hranous or sometimes, coriaceous, with cells, siliensis (A. S. H. Fl. Bras. Mer. ii, 57, 92 ; — 



sometimes unequal narrower and thinner, one Walp. Bep. i. 245), a plant which has spi- 



less fleshy than the other, especially in nescent ! branches, the foliage of Badiera, the 



Badiera. flower of certain Pcdygalas, and, it is said, a 



' White, yellow, pink, violet or purple, more compressed subdidymous capsule dehiscing by 



rarely blue. the edges, organised in fact like that of the 



■• Ii. Amœi. ii. 140. — P. Bu. Jnm. t. 5, fig. Milkworts. 



3, i. 8 DiLLEN. Kov. Qcn. t. 9.— DC. Prodr. i. 331 



5 L. loc. «'«.—Plum. Amer. (ed. BuRM.),t. 214, {Pobjgalœ sect. 7).— Spach, Sint. à Btiffoii, xii. 



fig. 1. 125.— Hassk. in Ann. Mus. Lugd.-Bat. i. 152. 



«DC. Prodr. i. 334.— Deless. Ic. Sel. iii. t. —Badiera Hassk. Eort. Bugor. 227 (neo. DC). 



21. — A. S. H. et Moa. in Mém. Mus. xvii. 351, phylaee Nob. MSS. (ex Hassic. Inc. cit.). — 



t. 29, fig. 1.— Endl. Qen. n. 5648.— Guiseb. Fl, Walp. Bep. v. 64. 



VOL. V. \' 



