508 



NATURAL HISTOBY OF PLANTS. 



stamens are three in number as in Valerianella, that is the posterior 

 is wanting and also one of those alternating with the anterior lobe of 

 the corolla ; more rarely the androecium is composed of one or two 



Valeriana officinalis. 



Fig. 404. Flower (f). 



Fig. 405. One talf 

 of flower. 



,Fig. 406. The otter 

 half of flower. 



pieces only. The ovary has only one fertile cell containing a descending 

 ovule with micropyle primarily superior and interior ; the other two 

 are nervelike or almost invisible. They are rarely found in the 

 monospermous fruit, the seed of which is descending, generally with- 



Valeriana officinalis. 



Fig. 407. Fruit (?). 



Fig. 408. Long. sect, of fruit. 



out albumen, enclosing a fleshy embryo with more or less flattened 

 cotyledons and superior radicle. They are annual or perennial 

 herbs, sometimes frutescent at the base, various in form like Phyllactis, 

 rarely climbing, with leaves opposite, entire, pinnatifid or two or 

 three times pinnatisect, sometimes biform in one and the same species ; 

 flowers -hermaphrodite or unisexual disposed in compound terminal 



