CLXII. OROBANCHEtE. 



691 



0, lower dilated; ovules numerous, anatropous. Capsule bursting irregularly, or 

 2-valved. Seeds numerous ; testa rugose ; kilum basilar. Embryo exalbuminous, 

 straight, undivided, or with very short cotyledons ; radicle elongated, near the 



hilum. 



PEINCIPAL GENEEA. 



tltricularia. Pinguicula. 



UtrieulariecB derive their name from the bladders (ascidia) scattered over the auhmerged leaves 

 of the principal genus. ' These bladders are rounded and furnished with a kind of moveable oper- 

 culum ; in the young plant they are filled -with a mucus heavier than water, and the plant, submerged 

 by this ballast, remains at the bottom. Towards the flowering season the leaves secrete a gas which enters 

 the utricles, raises the operculum, and drives out the mucus, when the plant, now furnished with 

 aerial bladders, rises slowly, and floats on the surface, and there flowers; this accomplished, the leaves 

 again secrete mucus, which replaces the air in the utricles and the plant re-descends to the bottom, 

 and ripens its seeds in the place where they are to be sown.' — Ds Candolle, Vegetable Physiology. 



Utricularieee approach Scrophularinecs in their corolla and androecium, aniPrimitlaceceia their central 

 placentation and 1-celled ovary ; they are distinguished by the exalbuminous embryo. They are cosmo- 

 politan plants, but the greater number inhabit the tropical regions of both worlds and of Australia, where 

 they vegetate in stagnant water, in swampy meadows, [on mossy tree trunks and. rocks], and in places 

 inundated during the rainy season. 



The European Utricularias were formerly prescribed iu cases of dysuria ; they are now used as topics 

 for wounds and burns. The leaves of Pinguicula vulgaris are reputed poisonous to sheep ; in small 

 quantities, when fresh, used by man, they purge gently, and are considered as a vulnerary. The Lapps 

 use them ito curdle reindeer's milk, and the Danish peasant girls employ their juice as a hair-pomade. 

 [^Pinguicula leaves, whether fresh or dry, are used by the Lapps to thicken fresh still warm milk, which 

 neither curdles nor gives cream thereafter, but forms a delicious compact tenacious mass, a small portion 

 of which will act similarly on another quantity of fresh milk.] 



CLXII. OROBANCHE^. 



(OEOBAiirCHE^, L.-G. Biehard. — OEOBAWCHAOEiE, Lindl.) 



CoEOLLA monopetalous, hypogynous, irregula/r, anisostemonous, persistent, cestivation 

 imbricate. Stamens 4, dddynamous, inserted on the corolla. Ovary girt with a fleshy 

 ddsJc, 1-celled, placentation pa/rietal ; OYVhus mtmerous, anairopoiis. CAPSifLE with 2 

 semi-plaeentiferous valves. Seeds minute ; albumen copious. Embryo lasilar. — 

 Parasitic herbs, leafless, stem scali/. 



