XC. CONVOLVULACE.E (BAKER AND RENDLE). 63 



development of spurious septa 4-celled, rarely 2- or 4-partite ; style 

 filiform, simple, or more or less deeply bifid, or styles 2 ; stigma 

 terminal and entire or bilobed, or stigmas 2 (rarely 4), globose, 

 ellipsoid, filiform, or flattened and elliptical or linear, rarely peltate and 

 irregularly palmatilobed ; ovules 2 in each carpel, rarely solitary, erect, 

 anatropous, sessile. Fruit girt, or more or less enveloped, by the per- 

 sistent calyx, 1-o-celled, or spuriously 4-celled, generally a capsule 

 dehiscing by valves, more rarely transversely or irregularly, sometimes 

 indehiscent, with membranous, leathery, woody or fleshy pericarp. 

 Seeds 4-1, becoming triquetrous on the inner face by mutual pressure, 

 convex on the back, glabrous, or hairy especially on the angles, some- 

 times verrucose. Embryo straight ; radicle pointing towards the 

 hilum ; cotyledons foliaceous, generally folded with emarginate or 

 broadly bilobed apex ; endosperm copious, cartilaginous. — Annual or 

 perennial herbs, undershrubs or shrubs, often climbing, sometimes 

 glabrous, often more or less hairy. Leafless parasites in Guscuta. 

 Leaves alternate, exstipulate, entire or often palmately divided, more 

 rarely pinnate, base often cordate. Flowers generally axillary, solitary 

 or cymose, often aggregated into heads, rarely paniculate or approxi- 

 mated in a terminal spike. Bracts various, generally small and 

 narrow, sometimes larger and more or less foliaceous ; rarely persistent 

 in the fruit. Flowers minute to large, often very showy. 



Species more than 1000, cosmopolitan, but much more numerous in the 

 tropics. 



I. Non-parasitic plants with developed green leaves. 



A. Pollen grains smooth. 

 Tribe I. Dichondrese. — Floivers small, axillary, solitary. Sepals free or 

 united at the base, silky outside, obsolete in Nephrophyllum. Corolla funnel- 

 shaped or broadly campanulate. Stamens and styles included ; filaments short, 

 naked. Ovary bifid or 4-lobed, and 4-ovuled, or entire, 1-celled and 2-ovuled. 

 Styles 2, gynobasic or terminal. Fruits indehiscent, 1-seeded. — Prostrate or 

 ■creeping herbs with stalked reniform or oblong leaves. 

 *Calyx developed. 



Ovary 2-M ....... 1. Dichondra. 



Ovary 4-lobed ....... 2. Falkia. 



**Calyx obsolete 3. Nephrophyllfm. 



Tribe II. — Dicranostyleae. — Flowers small, axillary, solitary or in feiv- to 

 many-flowered axillary dichasia. Sepals free, sometimes accrescent. Corolla 

 funnel-shaped to campanulate ; aestivation contorto-plicate. Ovary usually 2- 

 celled, 4:-ovuled. Styles 2 or single and bifid. Fruit a capsule with generally 

 valvular dehiscence, 1-4-seeded. — Herbs or shrubs ; stems prostrate erect or 

 climbing. 



^Sepals not accrescent. 



Styles 2, forked ...... 4. EvoiVFLrs. 



Styles not forked. 



Stamens and style exserted . . . .7. Cressa. 



Stamens and style not exserted. 



Small shrubs with prostrate or suberect 



branches ...... 8. Seddera. 



Shrubby climbers . . . . .9. Bonamia. 



**Sepals accrescent (plants dioecious). 



