122 PENTANDRIA— HEXAGYNIA. Drosera. 



the length of the stamens. Stigmas chib-shaped. Caps. 

 ovate, of 1 cell, with 3 or 4 valves. Seeds numerous, 

 minute, obovate, rough, attached to the inside of each 

 valve, chiefly in the middle. 

 Herbaceous, often stemless, clothed with glandular viscid 

 hairs. Leaves either undivided, or lobed, entire. JET. 

 terminal, racemose, rarely solitary. Pet. red, or white. — 

 This genus seems allied on the one hand to Saxifraga, 

 on the other to Geranmm, though without any great tech- 

 nical agreement with either. It necessarily becomes the 

 type of a new ordei', which has nothing to do with the 

 Capparides. 



1. D. rotundifolia. Round-leaved Sun-dew. 



Leaves depressed, nearly orbicular, on hairy footstalks. 

 Flower-stalks radical, racemose. 



D. rotundifolia. Linn. Sp. PL 402. Willd. v.]. ]543. H. Br. 346. 



Engl. Bot. V. 13. t. 867. Hull 67. Hook. Scot. 98. Fl. Dan. 



tl028. Bull.Fr.t.\8l.f.A. 

 Rorella n. 834. Hall. Hist. v. I. 372. 

 R. rotundifolia perennis. Raii Syn. 356. 

 Ros Solis folio rotundo. Bauh.Pin.Zb7. Raii Syn. 356. Ger. Em. 



1556./. Barrel. Ic. t. 251./. 1. Moris, v. 3. 620. 

 Rorida, sive Ros Solis, major. Lob. Ic. 811./ 

 Salsirora, sen Sponsa Solis. Thai. Harcyn. 1 1 6. <. 9./ 1 . 

 Round Sun-dew. Pet. H. Brit. t. 63. f. 10. 



On mossy turfy bogs frequent. 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root fibrous. Stem for the most part entirely wanting. Leaves 

 numerous, depressed, orbicular, more or less obtuse, concave, 

 purplish, about I an inch broad, each tapering into a flat foot- 

 stallc. The whole disk of the leaf, but especially its margin, is 

 beset with red inflexed hairs, discharging from their ends a drop 

 of viscid acrid fluid. These hairs have been thought irritable, 

 so as to contract when touched, imprisoning insects somewhat 

 in the manner of the American Dioncsa Muscipula, a plant allied 

 to Drosera. Fl. several, in a simple cluster, drooping or revo- 

 lute while young, on one or two simple, round, erect, smooth 

 stalks, 3 or 4 inches high. Bracteas solitary under each partial 

 stalk, awl-shaped, deciduous. Petals white, always 5, as well, 

 as the stamens. 



The whole plant, except the red hairs of the leaves, turns blackish 

 in drying. Dr. Williams, Professor of Botany at Oxford, as vv-ell 

 as the late Dr. Withering, observed this, and the following, oc- 

 casionally to acquire a stem. Authors of the greatest eminence 

 have erred in attributing 5 styles to the present genus, whereas 



