12 



short: stigmas 3, somewhat divaricated, thickened towards 

 the apex, obtuse or 2-cleft, the stigma sometimes 3-lobed, 

 seldom simple : fruit 1-seeded, wrapped by the calyx, dry, 

 S-winged or wingless, or baccate : pericarp crustaceous or 

 membranaceous, without valves : seed vertical, ovate or sub- 

 globose: embryo spiral, with sparing albumen, or annular 

 thickish, and with more or less copious mealy albumen: 

 radicle descending: cotyledons plano-convex, somewhat 

 leafy. — Herbs, seldom undershrubs, often scandent, stems 

 somewhat angled: leaves alternate, very rarely opposite, 

 petioled, simple, quite entire or obsoletely sinuate, exsti- 

 pulate, subarticulate, fleshy, often succulent : flowers small, 

 regular, hermaphrodite, often scarcely open in flower, pedi- 

 celled or sessile, solitary, arranged on axillary, simple or 

 branched, narrow and somewhat lax spikes : bracts 3, remote 

 or approximate, fleshy or membranaceous, deciduous or 

 persistent: in pedicelled flowers lower one at the base, 

 lateral ones at the apex of the pedicel. 



aENUS I. BASELLA. 

 Pentandria Trtandria. Sex.- Sj/st: 



Deriv. The Malabar name Latinised. 



G-EN. Chae. Mowers succulent : outer calyx half closed, con- 

 nected into a tube with the interior one beyond the middle, 

 which is a little shorter, 2-cleft : sepals concave, ecarinate, not 

 winged, inner one 5-cleft ; stamens enclosed, connected below 

 into a fleshy urceolua adnate to the calyx : anthers cordate-ovate : 

 style short, tapering: stigmas 3, thickened towards the apex, 

 entire : fruit depressed, globose, clothed with the calyx : pericarp 

 cartilaginous : seed vertical, somewhat beaked. — Herbs, often 

 climbing : leaves rarely opposite, fleshy : flowers sessile, arranged 

 in simple or branched spikes. 



(1) B. ETJBEA. (Zinn.) 



Ident. Dec. prod. XIII. s. 2. p. 222. — Linn. spec. p. 390. 



Syn. Gandola rubra, Bamph. 



Ungrav. Eamph. Amb. V. t. 154, fig. 2. — Lam. Ill, t. 215 fig 

 1.— Wight Icon. t. 896. 



Spec. Chae. Stem scandent, 8 — 4!-feet, angular, brownish- 



