72 3IALVACE^. 



Embryo in fleshy albumen, arcuate : coxyLEDONs foliaceous, 

 cordate, plaited together and infolded : radicle centripetal- 

 inferior, or in the lower seed, from the strong incurvature of 

 the base of the carpel, more or less ascending. 



Herbs, usually procumbent and spreading or creeping, 

 hirsute with simple hairs, with alternate palmately-lobed 

 and incisely-toothed leaves, somewhat adnate stipules, and 

 small purplish flowers on solitary and simple axillary pedun- 

 cles, which are articulated near the apex. 



Etymology. From modiolus, a little measure, alludin": to the shape of 

 the fruit. 



Geographical Distribution. A genus of a few humble weeds, be- 

 longing to the warmer parts of Eastern America, from Virginia to Buenos 

 Ayres. 



Note. The union of the short filaments in phalanges, as described and 

 figured in A. St. Hilaire's Flora Brasiliensis, is barely observable in M. Ca- 

 roliniana (M. multifida, Mcench). The radicle is inferior in both seeds. 



PLATE 128. MoDioLA Caroliniana ; — branch, of the natural size, from 

 a plant raised in the Botanical Garden, Cambridge, from seeds sent 

 from Florida. 



1. Diagram of the aestivation. 



2. Vertical section of a flower, magnified, laying open one ovary. 



3. An anther, more magnified (plainly formed of two confluent cells). 



4. A detached pistil more magnified, the ovary vertically divided. 



5. Fruit and receptacle vertically divided, magnified ; one of the carpels 



and its seeds divided, showing the embryos in place, the transverse 

 partition, &c. 



6. A seed more magnified. 



7. Section of the same across the cotyledons and the radicle. 



8. Embryo detached entire, magnified ; the cotyledons somewhat infolded. 



