632 



OLXXIX. POLYGONE^. 



Miihlenbeckia. 

 Frdit And accrescent (ialyx (mag.). 



Ko&algia. 

 FlDwer-bud (mag.). 



Koenigia^ 

 Monandrous flower laid open (mag.). 



Floweks ? or diclinous. Pekianth herbaceous or petaloid. S^fAMEiirs peri- 

 gynous. OVakt 1-celled, l-ovuled ; ovule erect, orthotropous. FeUit an achene. 

 Seed erect ; albumen farinaceous. Embryo straight, curved and lateral, or straight 

 and axile; radicle superior. — Leaves alternate, with an intrapetiolar stipule. 



Herbaceous or frutescent plants, sometimes arborescent, erect [or prostrate] or 

 twining, stem and branches jointed and knotty, leafj, rarely apbyllous and scapige- 

 rous. Leaves alternate, often collected at the base of the stem, very rarely opposite 

 {Pterostegia), simple, entire, waved, crisped or crennlate, very rarely cut, usually 

 penninerved, margins revolute when young, often glandular or pellucid-dotted; 

 petiole dilated at the base and amplexicaul, or inserted on a close-sheathing intra- 

 petiolar stipule (ochrea), sometimes inconspicuous. Flowers ^ or diclinous, 

 springing from the axil of the leaves or bracts (sometimes ochreiform), solitary 

 or whorled, racemed spiked panicled or cymose, sometimes capitate, either naked, 

 or enclosed singly or collectively in a tubular or cyathiform involucre; pedicels 

 filiform (sometimes 0), usually jointed, often cernuous in fruit. Perianth calycine 

 or petaline, of 3-4-5^6 sepals, distinct, or coherent at the base, rarely united in a 

 tube, usually persistent and accrescent ; sepals or segments sometimes 8, 1-seriate ; 

 sometimes 5, imbricate ; Sometimes 4 or 6, 2-seriate, imbricate or sub-valvate, equal 

 or unequal, and in the latter the outer 2 oi* 3 herbaceous, rarely coloured, smaller 

 or larger than the inner, usually concave or keeledj sometimes winged or spiny ; the 

 inner 2 or 3 petaloid (rarely herbaceous), plane, or concave and folded, entire, 

 toothed, fringed, or spiny at the margins, usually becoming membranous-scarious 

 when ripe, with netted veins, median nerve sometimes swollen and callous. 

 Stamens perigynous, 1-15, usually 6-8-9, very rarely oo , inserted on a disk or 

 glandular ring lining the base of the perianth, opposite or rarely alternate with the 

 sepals, usually in twos or threes before the outer, solitary before the inner ; filaments 

 capillary or subulate, distinct, or very shortly coherent by their dilated bases ; anthers 

 I 2-celled, dehiscence longitudinal, ovoid or oblong, dorsifixed and versatile, or rarely 

 ' basifixed and erect, all introrse, or the 5 outer introrse and 3 inner extrorse, or all 

 opening laterally. Ovary solitary, of 2-4 qarpels valvately united, free or rarely 

 adherent by the base, ovoid or elliptic, compressed or 3-gonous, 1-celled or rarely 

 incompletely 3-celled by^]Mse_septa ; styles 2-4, answering to the angles of the 



