220 CLASSIFICATION 



inferior many-celled berry with a hard rind, crowned 

 by the persistent calyx-lobes. On account of the 

 inferior ovary the plant is often classed with the Nat. 

 Order Myrtacece. The flowers are mostly odourless 

 and nectarless, but conspicuous, and produce abun- 

 dant pollen-grains (pollen flowers). The Order in- 

 cludes a large number of dimorphic and trimorphic 

 species; for example, dhain-phul {Woodfordia flori- 

 bunda), a common shrub with racemes of red flowers, 

 is trimorphic. A few species are also known to bear 

 cleistogamous or pseudo-cleistogamous flowers. 



Nat. Order lo. Onagracece. — Herbs, sometimes 

 aquatic. Leaves opposite or alternate. Flowers 

 regular and almost always 4-merous. Sepals superior, 

 in a connate calyjf with usually 4 limbs, imbricate. 

 Petals usually 4, epigynous. Stamens i to 8, epigy- 

 nous. Ovary inferior, i- to 6-celled, most commonly 

 4-celled. Fruit capsular or nut-like or berry. Seeds 

 exalbuminous. 



The Order is most abundant in the North Temperate 

 Zone. Common plants are paniphal or singarha or 

 Water Chestnut {Trapa bispinosa), a floating herb 

 with submerged leaves pi nnati partite and root-like, 

 and floating leaves large and rhomboidal, petiole with 

 a spongy swelling at its apex to serve as a float, and 

 large ovoid 4-angled nuts, all or only 2 angles of 

 which are spinous; observe how the structure of the 

 plant is adapted to its aquatic habit; kesar-dam 

 {Jussicea repens), a common herb partly creeping in 

 the mud and partly floating on the surface of tanks 

 by the help of spongy swellings at the nodes; ban- 

 labanga {Jussicea suffruticosa), an erect herb with 

 square stems of moist places. Ludwigia prostrata is 

 a prostrate herb and L. parviflora an erect weed (fig. 

 189) of rice-fields. In the garden species of the orna- 



