CXXXIV. PLUMBAGINB^. 52$ 



5-lobed, sestivation imbricate. Stamens 5, inserted on the corolla, [often alternating 

 with scales or staminodes] ; filaments [usually] dilated ; anthers 2-celled, opening by 

 2 transverse [rarely longitudinal] muticous valves, or one valve sometimes aristate 

 {Pyxidanthera) ; [pollen simple]. Ovaet free, [not seated on a disk], 3- [rarely 4-] 

 celled; style terminal, simple; stigma 3-lobed; [ovules very numerous, attached to the 

 inner angles of the cells, anatropous or amphitropous] . Capsule thin, terminated by 

 the persistent 3-celled style, opening at the top in 8 loculicidal semi-septiferous valves. 

 Seeds nearly cubical, fixed by a ventral hilum to central fungoid placentas ; testa 

 lax, membranous, areolate. Embkto filiform, [minute, terete], in the axis of a fleshy 

 albumen ; cotyledons very short ; radicle long, parallel to the hilum. 



[DiapensiacecB have been recently studied by Professor A. Gray, who separates 

 them from Ericacece on account of the absence of a disk and of a marginate stigma, 

 and because they have peculiar anthers and simple pollen. The characters given 

 above have been modified in accordance with his views. He associates Galax with 

 them, and divides them into two tribes as follows : — 



Teibe I. DiAPBNSiBJi. — Filaments dilated, staminodes 0. Placentas thick, adnate to a 

 persistent columella. Testa not lax and reticulate. — Tufted depressed evergreen leafy under- 

 shrubs. Leaves small, sessile, nerveless, evergreen, quite entire. Flower solitary, term.inal. 

 Pyxidanthera, Biape'tisia. 



Tribe II. Galacinej:. — Filaments flattened, alternating -with as many staminodes. Seeds 

 with a lax reticulate testa. — Stemless herbs with a creeping rhizome. Leaves long-petioled, 

 toothed, nerved, evergreen. Flowers on long scapes rising from the rhizome. Sho-rtia, Qalaa. 



Biapensia inhabits North Europe and the Himalayas ; Pyxidanthera and Galax 

 the United States ; Shortia the United States and Japan. — Ed.] 



This little family, composed of the genera Diapensia and Pyxidanthera, naturally falls into place near 

 JEricinece, with which it is allied by the monopetalous hypogynous imbricate corolla, the two-celled anthers 

 and their anomalous dehiscence, the many-celled and -ovuled ovary, central placentation, loculicidal capsule, 

 fleshy albumen, axile embryo, woody stem and imbricating leaves. It scarcely difiers from Eridnece^ 

 except by the insertion of the stamens on the corolla-throat. 



CXXXIV. PLUMB AGIN EJS. 



(PLtJMBAGlNES, Jussieu. — PiiUMBAGiNBiE, Few^ewai.— -Pltjmbaginace^!, tiindl.) 



CoEOLLA monopetalous or suh-polypetalous, hypogynous, isostemonous, wstivation 

 contorted or imbricate. Stamens 5, hypogynous, or inserted on the corolla, and opposite 

 to its lobes. OvAET 1-celled ; ovule solitary, anatropous, pendulous from a funicle 

 springing from the bottom of the cell. Pkuit dry. Bmbrto straight ; albumen farina- 

 ceous; eadiole superior. 



Herbaceous or woody generally perennial PLANTS. Leaves sometimes fascicled 

 at the top of a rhizome, simple, entire, semi-amplexicaul, sometimes alternate on a 

 branching stem with swollen nodes, sometimes shortened into a petiole dilated at its 



