426 SCKQPHULAKINE^. 



tinguished from the allied V. corymhosa, Splitg., by a longer coroUa-tnbe, and broader lobes. 

 Stem 3"-5" long, flexuose, usually branched at the base ; scales oval-oblong, blunt, 2'" long, 

 the inferior about half as long as the intemode, the superior gradually mor^ distant, the 

 uppermost nearly as long as the ebracteolate pedicels ; calyx 2'", subcylindrical corolla- 

 tube 6'", its lobes li"'-3"' long ; filaments short, as long as the anther : anther-cells con- 

 nected at the summit, obversely subulate-diverging, often slightly synantherons ; ovary half 

 as long as the style : stigma peltate, crenate at the depressed margin; capsule annular, both 

 ends being united ; seeds minute, roundish, tailless. — Hab. Trinidad !, Pd., Cr., in the 

 northern mountain- woods, on the summit of Mt. Tamana, La VentiUa. 



9. LIMNANTHEMUM, Gmel. 



Cah/x 5-partite. Corolla rotate, deciduous : segments induplicative, usually fimbriate. 

 Anthers erect, straight. Style persistent. Fruit dry, indehiscent, 1 -celled : seeds sutural. 

 — Floating herbs; leaves cordate or peltate, long-petioled, alternate; umbels sessile, 

 peliolar {or axillary) : pedicels unequal. 



20. Ii. Humboldtianum, Gr. Leaves cordate-orbicular; umbels petiolar; calyx- 

 segments oblong-linear, half as long as the corolla, somewhat longer than the capsule ; 

 corolla white, yellow at the base : segments fimbriate at the margin and at the throat, 

 bearing a stalked gland at the base ; style nearly as long at the ovary : stigma snbcapitate ; 

 capsule many-seeded: seeds globose, smooth. — Bescr. Fl. 1. t.ii. — Villarsia, Kth. Meny- 

 anthes indica, Aubl. — Hab. Jamaica I, all coll. ; [French islands ; Mexico to South 

 BrazH !]. 



CXII. SCEOPHULAEINE^. 



Stamens inserted into the sympetalous, imbricative, usually 2-lipped corolla, didynamous 

 or two, rarely all 5-4 perfect. Ovary superior, syncarpous : cells 2, mostly many-ovulate. 

 Seeds albuminous. — Stem usually herbaceous ; leaves mostly exstipulate, often opposite ; 

 inflorescence usually racemose. 



This Order afford mucilaginous or acrid drugs : venomous plants occur but rarely. Ca- 

 praria and Scoparia are used in the West Indies as stomachics, while the drastic properties 

 of Oratiola are represented by Herpestis Monnieria. 



The line of demarcation between this and the following Order is artificial, and usually it 

 is so drawn as not to admit among Solanece a 2-lipped corolla or didynamous stamens. I 

 follow here A. Braun and Miers in excluding from Scrophularirtecs the group of Salpiglos- 

 sideie, which those botanists refer to Solanece : thus the character of the latter Order would 

 depend upon the corolla plaited in the bud, and the cymose, often extra-axillary inflorescence, 

 which in Browallia is eminently Solauaceous. R. Brown's opinion, developed in the Pro- 

 dromus, is evidently favourable to these views. 



1. POLYPREMUM, L. 



Calyx 4-partite : segments scarious at the border. Corolla regular, included, infundi- 

 bular, 4-fid. Stamens 4, equal, included, inserted into the lower part of the corolla-tube : 

 anthers snbglobose. Style short: stigma capitate. Capsule loculiclde. — A dichotomous, 

 annual herb ; leaves linear, entire, sheathing-opposite, glabrous, scabrotts at the margin ; 

 flowers small, white, in a terminal cyme, sessile in each fork of its branches, supported by 

 opposite bracts. 



This genus is anomalous by terminal flowers and by a slight adherence at the base of the 

 ovary ; it approaches Gentianece by having the leaves sheathing by a connecting membrane, 

 the calyx scarious, and the dichotomous cyme and habit of CHcendia oi Urythrtea : but from 

 the imbricative sestivation of the corolla, the central placentation, and the looulicide many- 

 seeded capsule, it is, as Mr. Bentham proposed, best placed next to Logania and Buddlqa, 

 or in that portion of the artificial assemblage called Loganiacece, which gradually passes into 

 Scrophularinea by Scoparia. With this latter genus Polypremum apparently was considered 

 to be a congener by Jacquin, if we suppose that he described the bracts as an inner pair of 

 quaternary leaves. From the insertion of the leaves it is much more distant from Rabiaeeiie, 

 to which it was referred by former authors, 



