COROLLIFLOR.E 249 



flowers, and Solanum tuberosum with pollen-flowers, 

 are both autogamous as well as allogamous. 



Nat. Order 21. Acanthacece. — Herbs or shrubs. 

 Leaves opposite, almost always entire. Flowers ir- 

 regular, usually in cymes, racemes, or spikes which 

 are largely bracteated. Sepals 4 or 5, inferior, some- 

 times slightly connate. Petals 5, connate in a 2- 

 lipped (bilabiate) or irregular corolla; lobes imbricate 

 or twisted in bud. Stamens 4, didynamous, or by 

 abortion 2 (as \x\Justicia), epipetalous. Carpels 2, con- 

 nate in a superior 2-celled ovary; ovules usually many 

 in each cell; style terminal, stigma usually 2-lobed. 

 Fruit a loculicidal capsule; the valves often separate 

 elastically during dehiscence. Seeds attached to hard 

 hooked supports (retinacula), usually exalbuminous. 



This is a large tropical family which includes many 

 insignificant weeds and many species with handsome 

 flowers. Common plants: bakas {Adhatoda Vasica) 

 (see fig. 1 12), a dense shrub, with bracteated spikes and 

 diandrous flowers; jhanti is the common name given 

 to the different species of Barleria with didynamous 

 stamens, two of which are present in an abortive state ; 

 kule-kharha {Hygrophila spinosa), an erect highly- 

 spinous marshy herb much used by Indian physicians 

 as a remedy for diarrhoea; kal-megh {Andrographis 

 paniculata), an Indian specific for fever; several 

 species belonging to the diandrous genus oi Justtcia; 

 several species of Ruellia ; nil-lata {Thunbergia gran- 

 difiora), a big climbing woody perennial of our 

 gardens with large blue CoftvolvulusAWie flowers, 

 which, as well as the twining habit, may make one 

 mistake the plant as belonging to Convolvulacece. 



Flowers are mostly dichogamous, nectar-yielding, 

 brightly-coloured, and aggregated into conspicuous 

 inflorescences, and thus adapted to cross-pollination. 



