108 



stigma-bearing apex divided into lobes : fruit crowned with 

 the persistent limb of the calyx, capsular, most usually 6- 

 cornered, 4- or generally 6-lobed, most frequently 6 — 4- 

 valved, dehiscence septicidal, or at the apex, or basilar, the 

 peduncle itself partly dividing : seeds many, horizontal : albu- 

 men copious, fleshy or somewhat horny, enclosing the minute 

 embryo : cotyledons equal, flat-convex, fleshy : radicle next 

 the hilum. — Perennial herbs, often with a creeping or tuber- 

 ous rhizome, or undershrubs or shrubs often twining : leaves 

 alternate simple : petiole very often dilated at the base, 

 cordate or cordate-reniform, edentate, exstipulate : flowers 

 rarely terrninal, almost always axillary, solitary or rarely 

 spicately or racemosely cymose, sometimes bracteate, of 

 various sizes, brown or dark lurid purple in colour, odour 

 usually fetid. 



GENUS I. BEA&'ANTIA. 

 Ciynandria Hexandria. Sex: Syst: 



Deriv. Named in memory of the Duke of Braganza. 



Gj-EN. Chab. Limb of the calyx small, regular, more or less 

 deeply tripartite, segments broad, erect or spreading, throat 

 sometimes ringed : stamens 6 — 10 in one row : anthers 2-celled : 

 filaments short or none, cohering in various ways : ovary inferior, 

 elongated, narrow, nairrower at the base and apex, roundly tetra- 

 gonal and l-furrowed on one side, 4-celled, many-ovuled, ovules 

 in one row : styline column short, sometimes expanded at the top 

 into a radiated disc, sometimes divided into 3^6 entire legs, 

 stigmatose : capsule long, slender, tetragonal, valves keeled : seeds 

 in one row, trigonal, transversely wrinkled, external covering 

 crustaceous, inner membranaceous. i 



(1) B. Wallichii. (i2. £r.) 

 Ident. Dec. prod. XV. p. 430. 



Syn. Apama siliquosa, Lam. — Trimeriza piperina, Idndl. Hot. 

 Beg. Sub. t. 1543. 



Ungrav, Eheede Mai. VI. t. 28. — Lam. Encyc. 111. t. 640.— 

 Wight's Icon. t. 520. 



Spec. Chae. Shrubby : branches hispid at the top, more or less 

 geniculate: leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at the 

 base, or more frequently somewhat cuneately narrowed, upper 



