194 DROSERACE^E. 



ceous and rough or pitted testa conformed to the, nucleus. 

 Embryo very short or minute next the hilum, immersed in 

 or at the extremity of the fleshy albumen. 



Herbs growing in bogs, generally of a reddish tinge, the 

 foliage beset with viscid stalked glands ; acaulescent and 

 scapigerous, with the leaves rosulate from fibrous roots or a 

 slender rhizoma, or caulescent (often from a bulb) with al- 

 ternate leaves and terminal peduncles ; the racemiform and 

 unilateral inflorescence and the leaves coiled or rolled up 

 from the apex to the base, in the manner of Ferns. Flow- 

 ers white, purple, or rose-color, expanding successively only 

 in sunshine and for a single day. Stipules usually obsolete 

 or reduced to bristles. Bracts commonly obsolete or decid- 

 uous. 



Etymology. Name from Spocrepos, dewy ; the glands exuding a clear 

 fluid, which, in the morning sun, gives the plant the appearance of being 

 covered with dew-drops. 



Geographical Distribution. The Sundews inhabit bogs or wet sands 

 in both temperate zones ; but are far more numerous in New Holland. 

 Those of the northern hemisphere are all acaulescent, with naked scapes. 



Note. The scorpioid inflorescence is not a true raceme, but a reduced 

 unilateral cyme, as in Sedum ; the pedicels not arising from the axil of the 

 bracts (as is incorrectly delineated in our figure), but laterally, or from the 

 opposite side. Hence the inflorescence sometimes forks, bearing the pri- 

 mary terminal flower in the bifurcation. 



PLATE 83. Drosera filiformis, Rnf. ; — from specimens sent to the 

 Cambridge Botanic Garden from Plymouth, Massachusetts, by G. 

 Gilbert, Esq. 



1. Diagram of the aestivation, &c. 



2. An enlarged flower. 



3. Outside, and 4, inside view of a magnified stamen. 



5. Pistil, magnified, the ovary divided transversely, and the receptacle and 



calyx vertically, 

 b'. Dehiscent capsule and seeds ; magnified. 



7. A valve of the same, the seeds detached from the placenta. 



8. A seed, much magnified. 



9. Vertical section of the same through the raphe and minute embryo. 

 10. Embryo detached, and highly magnified. 



