GOODENIACEiE — STYLIDIACE^. 523 



like indusium. Fruit a 1-2- or 4-celled capsule, or drupaceous or 

 nut-like. Seeds definite or indefinite, with a thickened, often hard 

 testa ; embryo straight, in fleshy albumen ; cotyledons leafy ; radicle 

 inferior. — Herbs, rarely shrubs, not lactescent, with scattered, ex- 

 stipulate, usually alternate leaves, and distinct, never capitate flowers. 

 They are found chiefly in Australia and in the South Sea Islands. The 

 leaves of Sccevola TacjMda are eaten as potherbs. Some superstitious 

 qualities are ascribed to its berries. The pith, which is soft and 

 spongy, is fashioned by the Malays into artificial flowers. Sccevola 

 Bela-Modogam appears to be emollient, and is used in India to bring 

 tumours to a head. The order is divided into two, sub-orders : — 1. 

 Ooodeniese, with dehiscent capsular fruit, and numerous seeds. 2. 

 Scsevolese, with indehiscent, drupaceous, or nut-like fruit, and seeds 

 solitary, or two in each cell. There are 23 known genera, according 

 to authors, and about 200 species. Examples — Goodenia, Velleia, 

 Leschenaultia, Scsevola, Dampiera. 



Order 101. — STYLiDiACEiE, the Stylidium or Stylewort Family. 

 {Monopet. Epigyn.) Calyx adherent, persistent, with 2-6 divisions, 

 bilabiate, or regular. Corolla gamopetalous, falling off late, limb 

 usually irregular, 5-6-partite, segments with a central vein ; sestivation 

 imbricated. Stamens 2 ; filaments united with the style into a longi- 

 tudinal column ; anthers didymous, rarely simple, lying over the 

 stigma ; pollen simple, globose, or angular. Ovary cohering with the 

 calyx, bilocular, or by contraction of the dissepiment unilocular, often 

 surmounted by one gland in front, or by two opposite ones ; ovules 

 anatropal ; style 1 ; stigma entire or bifid. Fruit a bivalvular, bUo- 

 cular, or spuriously unilocular capsule, with septicidal dehiscence. 

 Seeds 00, small, erect ; embryo minute, enclosed in fleshy, somewBat 

 oily albumen. — Non-lactescent herbs or undersfirubs, with alternate, 

 scattered, or somewhat verticillate, entire, exstipulate leaves. They 

 are well distinguished by their gynandrous structure. The column 

 formed by the union of the filaments and style, possesses, in the species 

 of the genus Stylidium, a peculiar irritability. It hangs down on one 

 side of the flower, and when touched at the point of flexure, it springs 

 over with considerable force from one side to the other. If not too 

 far advanced to- maturity, the column will recover its former position 

 in the course of time. The flower may be cut off carefully without 

 disturbing the column, and the irritability continues for a considerable 

 length of time if the flower is put into water. The movement is said 

 to be connected with the bursting of the anthers, and the discharge of 

 the pollen on the stigma. The cause of this movement is very ob- 

 scure, but it seems to depend on some changes in the cells (pp. 284, 

 387). The plants are principally natives of marshy places in Aus- 

 tralia. Some are found at the southern point of South America. 

 There are 5 known genera and 123 species. Examples — Stylidium, 

 Forstera. 



