Ord. cabombacej:. 



Herbae aquaticas foliis peltatis : dicotyledoneae, polypetalas, 

 hypogynas ; sepalis, petalis, staminibus, pistillisque discretis 

 definitis, ordine saspissime ternario ; asstivatione imbricativo ; 

 carpellis sutura dorsali 2 - 3-ovuliferis ; seminibus atque em- 

 bryone Nymphasacearum. 



Cabombeje, Rich. Anal. Fr. (1303) & in Ann. Mus. 17. p. 230. t. 5. 



Endl. Gen. p. 412. 

 Cabombacej:, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 1. p. 54. Lindl. Veg. Kingd. p. 412. 



P0D0PHYLLACE«, Trib. HvDROPELTIDE.C, DC. Sj'St. 2. p. 36. 



Nvmpb£acex, Subord. Hvdropeltides;, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. 

 Hydropeltideje, Meisn. Gen. p. 6. Schleid. in Wiegm. Arch. 5. p. 230. 

 Ranuncclace.e, Trib. Cabombeje, Gardner, in Hook. Ic. PI. 641. 



The Water-shield Family, which it is most convenient to regard as a 

 separate order, is nevertheless only a simplified form of Nymphaeaceae, as has 

 always been maintained by Mr. Brown,* — the pistils of Brasenia being to 

 that of Nymphaea just what those of Platystemon, Benlh., are to, that of a 

 Poppy. Viewed as distinct, it should stand between Ranuneulaceaa and 

 Nelumbiaceae ; but it is only from an overestimate of the external charac- 

 ters that it has been proposed to merge it in the former instead of the latter 

 order. The seed and embryo exhibit precisely the peculiar structure of 

 those of the Water-Lilies, as our illustrations clearly show. 



The figure copied by Lindley ( Veget. Kingd. p. 412) is either taken from 

 an unripe seed of Cabomba aquatica, in which the cotyledons are not full- 

 grown, and the walls of the inclosing sac are vastly thicker than afterwards ; 

 or else, which is more likely, the cotyledons have been mistaken for the sac, 

 and the plumule for the entire embryo. In the accompanying section of the 

 carpels, after Turpin, the ovules are placed on the wrong suture. 



The anomalous attachment of the ovules to the dorsal suture of the ovary, 

 first noticed by Mr. Brown in Brasenia, and recorded in his notes made upon 

 the living plant in New Holland, which he had the kindness to show me, 



* General Remarks in Flinders, Voy. p. 598 ; and in Jlorsefield's I'lantic 

 Javan. liar. p. 108. 



7* 



