3i4 



NATURAL SISTOBY OF PLANTS. 



middle. It is charged with ovules indefinite in number, rarely few.' 

 At the margin of the receptacle are inserted a short calyx with 

 three, four or five teeth, short or rarely fohaceous, not unfrequently 

 accompanied with a variable number of alternate (stipulary ?) 

 denticules, and a valvate rotate, funnel-shaped or hypocrateriform 



Oldenlandia Seppeana. 



Fig. 312. Long. sect, 

 of flower (\). 



Fig. 313. Seed (U). 



Fig, 311. Ftoriferous branch. 



Fig. 314. Lcng. sect, 

 of seed. 



corolla, bearing an equal number of alternate stamens, with bilocular, 

 introrse, enclosed or exserted anthers. The fruit is a capsule, often 

 membranous, variable in form, loculicidal above or in its entire 

 height, more rarely indehiscent, with seeds very variable, often 

 indefinite, in number, which, round or polyhedral,^ smooth or granular, 

 enclose in a fleshy albumen an embryo usually straight, cylindrical 

 or claviform. They are herbaceous or shrubby plants, with opposite, 

 rarely verticillate leaves, and stipules simple or divided, sometimes 

 into hairs. The flowers ^ are in more or less ramified cymes, often 

 biparous, terminal or axillary ; rarely solitary or few. In a small 



' Exceptionally they are, it is said, solitary. 

 They have hut one coat, generally very incom- 

 plete, sometimes even almost nil. 



s Sometimes prolonged to a wing. 



' Small, white, yellowish, reddish or violet. 



