Pedaliacee. 355 
large, in short racemes. Corolla campanulate, gibbous below. 
Fertile stamens 2 or 4. The fruit, at first soft, is ultimately a 
woody wrinkled 4-celled capsule, terminated by a long curved 
beak. Seeds few and large. A. proboscidea, Unicorn Plant, 
has blue flowers; A. litea, yellow; and M. fragrans has 
crimson-purple fragrant flowers. All of these are of American 
origin. 
Orpen LXXXII.—ACANTHACEA. 
Herbs (or more rarely shrubs) with opposite rarely verticillate 
simple entire or lobed leaves. Flowers usually in bracteolate 
spikes or racemes. Calyx inferior, 4- or 5-lobed, sometimes 
very small, and occasionally obsolete. Corolla ringent or bila- 
biate, the lower lip overlapping the upper in bud, rarely l- 
lipped. Stamens usually 2, sometimes 4, and didynamous. 
Capsule two-celled, two-valved ; valves opposite the partition. 
Seeds exalbuminous, 2 or more in each cell, attached to a woody 
placenta which splits through the axis and adheres to the 
valves. There are about 150 genera and 1500 species, nearly 
all tropical. F 
1, ACANTHUS. 
Herbaceous plants, remarkable for the beauty of their foliage 
rather than their flowers. Leaves pinnatifid or bipinnatifid 
and toothed. Flowers in leafy spikes terminating the stem. 
Calyx unequally 4-lobed, sometimes spinescent. Corolla having 
only one lip, the inferior, developed. Stamens 4. Cells of the 
capsule 2-seeded. The three or four species described are from 
the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. “Axar@a signifies spine or 
thorn, and was applied to the prickly species by the ancients. 
It is recorded that the foliage of these plants furnished the idea 
for decorating the capitals of the Corinthian order of archi- 
tecture. 
1. A. spindsus (fig. 196). Bear’s Breech.—Stems about 3 feet 
high. Leaves and bracts very prickly. Flowers purplish and 
white, appearing in Summer. A. spinosissimus scarcely differs, 
but the flowers are larger. 
2. A. méllis.—This is a similar plant, but the teeth of the 
leaves, though acute, are not prickly. A. latifolius is a variety 
of this. Flowers white, pink or pale blue. A. longifolius is 
distinguished by its longer leaves, narrower in outline, and 
crimson flowers. 
AA2 
