540 BIGNONIACEA 



officinal Chiretta is the herb and root of Agathotes Ghirayita (Ophelia 

 Ghirata), a herbaceous plant found in the Himalayas. The whole plant 

 is bitter, and has been long used in Bengal as a tonic and stomachic. 

 Adenema hyssopifolia is the Chota chirayta. The flowering cymes of 

 Erythrma Gentaurium, common Centaury (fig. 269, p. 182), are used as 

 a substitute for gentian, and so are the leaves of Menyanthes trifoliata, 

 Buck-bean, Marsh-trefoil, or Bogbean. The roots of Frasera Walteri 

 sometimes receive the name of American Calumba. Red-flowered species 

 of Crentian are nearly confined to the Andes and New Zealand. Bluer 

 flowered species on the Himalayas reach to 16,000 feet. 



Order 120. — Bignoniace*, the Trumpet-Flower Family. (Mono- 

 pet. Hypog.) Calyx divided or entire, sometimes spathaceous. Corolla 

 monopetalous, hypogynous, usually irregular, 4-5 lobed. Stamens 5 

 and unequal, or 4 and didynamous, some of them occasionally sterile ; 

 anthers bilocular. Disk annular or glandular. Ovary superior, 1-2- 

 celled, each cell being often spuriously divided ; ovules indefinite ; 

 style 1 ; stigma bilamellar (fig. 441, p. 249), or 2-4-oleft or entire, 

 Fruit a 2-celled (sometimes spuriously 4-celled) and 2-valved 'capsule, 

 occasionally succulent. Placentas parietal, sometimes extending to the 

 centre, and forming a spurious dissepiment, which finally separates, 

 bearing the seeds. Seeds winged or wingless, often flat and com- 

 pressed, exalbuminous ; embryo straight ; radicle next the hilum. — 

 Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with opposite, rarely alternate, exstipulate 

 leaves. They abound generally in tropical regions, but some of them 

 are widely distributed. The order has been divided into four sub- 

 orders : — 1. Bignoniese, capsule 2-valved, 2-celled, sometimes spuri- 

 ously 4-celled, with a dissepiment parallel or contrary to the valves, 

 at length free, bearing the seeds, which are transverse, compressed, 

 and winged. 2. Cyrtandrese (Didymocarpese), fruit succulent or cap- 

 sular, or siliquose and 2-valved, seeds small, ovate, or cylindrical, 

 suspended, apterous, sometimes comose. 3. Orescentiese, fruit woody, 

 and melon-shaped, enclosing large seeds, which are immersed in the 

 pulp of the placentas. 4. Pedaliese, fruit drupaceous, rarely capsular 

 and 2-valved, spuriously many-ceUed ; seeds few, large and apterous, 

 pendulous, erect or transverse. These are reckoned separate orders 

 by many. There are upwards of 100 known genera and about 666 

 species. .Ba;ampfe.9^Bignonia, Spathodea, Eccremocarpus, Cyrtandra, 

 Didymocarpus, Crescentia, Pedalium, Sesamum, Kigelia, Tansecium. 



There are many showy plants in this order. Their flowers are 

 frequently large and trumpet-shaped. None of them are noted for 

 marked medicinal properties. Some are timber trees, others furnish 

 dyes and articles of diet, while a few have bitter and astringent 

 qualities. The species of Bignonia are conspicuous objects in tropical 

 forests. Their wood sometimes exhibits a crucial arrangement (fig. 

 125, p. 62). From Bignonia Ghica the Indians extract a red ochreous 



