PEIMtFLACEiE. 351 



IX. niONOTROPE. MONOTEOPA. 



Simple, erect, rather succulent herbs, of a pale brown or yellowish colour, 

 leafless with the exception of small scales of the colour of the stem, resem- 

 bling Broomrapes, and probably parasitical on the roots of trees. Sepals 4 

 or 5, iree or united at the base. Petals as many, free or united at the base. 

 Stamens twice as many. Anthers opening by transverse slits or valves, not 

 by pores as in the rest of the family. Capsule of 4 or 5 cells, opening by 

 slits opposite the middle of the cells. Style single, with a broad terminal 

 stigma. 



A genus of very few species, inhabiting the woods of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, obviously aUied to JViiitergreen, but readily distinguished by the 

 want of green leaves. As in the case of Winiergreen, it has been divided 

 into almost as many genera as there are species. 



1. Common Monotrope. Monotropa Hjcpopitys, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 69. Yelloic Bird's-nest.) 



Stem about 6 or 8 inches high, often rather downy in the upper part, 

 bearing oblong or ovate concave scales instead of leaves. Flowers few, in a 

 short termmal raceme. Sepals and petals nearly of the same size, ovate or 

 oblong, glabrous or slightly downy inside, persisting round the capsule. 

 Anthers small, on slender filaments, opening by transverse valves. The 

 terminal flower has its parts in fours, the lateral ones in fives. The whole 

 plant is of a pale yellowish-brown colour, turning black iu di-ying. 



In Fir, Birch, and Bt-c eh woods, in Europe and all across Eussian Asia and 

 Nortli America, becoming a mountain plant in southern Europe, but ex- 

 tends neither to high northern latitudes nor to great elevations m the Alps. 

 Scattered over nearly the whole of England and Ireland, but only found in 

 some of the southern counties of Scotland., Fl. summer. 



XLV. THE PRIMROSE FAMILY. PRIMULACE^. 



Herbs, with leaves undivided except when under water ; the 

 flowers either axillary or in terminal racemes or umbels. Calyx 

 usually of 5, sometimes 4, 6, or 7 divisions or teeth. Corolla 

 regular, more or less deeply divided into as many lobes or teeth 

 as divisions of the calyx, or rarely wanting. iStamens as many 

 as the lobes of the corolla, inserted in the tube opposite the 

 centre of the lobes, or where there is no corolla, alternating 

 with the lobes of the calyx. Capsule single, 1-celled, contain- 

 ing several seeds attached to or immersed in a free central 

 placenta, which is often thick and globular. Style single, with 

 a capitate stigma. 



A widely spread family, inhabiting chiefly the northern hemisphere, and 

 especially high mountains, often at very great elevations. A few species re- 

 appear in the Antarctic regions, and even within the tropics, but the group 

 is tiiere represented chiefly by the Myrsinacece, which scarcely differ, except in 

 their arboreous or shrubby growth. Both these families are chiefly distin- 



