Parnassia. XXXII. SAXIFRAGACEA. 171 
genus is not easily confounded with any other, but its place in the 
Natural System has been much disputed. It has been most generally 
placed amongst Z'halamiflore, with the Droseracec, next to Violacee and 
Polygalee ; but its close affinity with Saxifraga and Chrysosplenium has 
now been fully proved, especially by the recent publication of several 
curious Himalayan species. 
1. P. palustris, Linn. (fig. 391). Grass-of-Parnassus.—Stock very 
short. Radical leaves rather long-stalked, broadly heart-shaped, gla- 
brous as the rest of the plant. Stems 6 inches to a foot high, witha 
single sessile leaf below the middle. Flowers white, rather large. Seg- 
ments of the calyx ovate, spreading, 3 to 34 lines long. Petals obovate, 
spreading, nearly twice that length. Imperfect stamens at the base 
of each petal short and thick, with a tuft or 10 or 12 short, white fila- 
ments, each bearing a little, yellow, globular gland. Capsule globular. 
In bogs and moist heaths, throughout northern Europe and Russian 
Asia, becoming a mountain plant in southern Europe and west-central 
Asia. Frequent in Britain. Fl. end of summer and autumn. 
XXXII. DROSERACEA. THE SUNDEW FAMILY. 
A small family, confined in Britain to the single genus Drosera, 
but comprising also a few exotic genera from hotter climates, all 
remarkable for the same glandular hairs, but differing chiefly in 
the number of stamens, or of the valves of the capsule, or in the 
insertion of the ovules. ‘The family is usually placed amongst 
Thalamifiore, the majority of the species having their flowers 
rather hypogynous than perigynous ; but there is no order there 
with which they are nearly connected, and altogether the group 
appears much more naturally associated with Saxzfragacee, of 
which it was, in the first edition of this work, considered as an 
anomalous tribe, but, in compliance with the opinions of the 
majority of botanists, it is now restored as an independent 
family. 
I. DROSERA. SUNDEW. 
Herbs, with long-stalked radical leaves, covered with long, glandular 
hairs or bristles ; the leafless flower-stems terminating in a simple or © 
forked unilateral spike or raceme. Sepals 5, free from the ovary. 
Petals and stamens 5; in the British species‘almost hypogynous, but in 
many exotic ones decidedly perigynous. Styles 3 or 4, each divided 
into 2. Capsule 1-celled, opening into 3 or 4 valves, sometimes split 
into twice that number. Seeds several, with albumen, inserted on 83 or 
4 parietal placentas in the centre of the valves. 
The Sundews are rather numerous in species, and found in nearly all 
parts of the globe where there are bogs. The curious glandular hairs 
of the leaves distinguish them from all other British eenera, indepen- 
dently of their floral characters. 
Leaves obovate or orbicular, as broad aslong 1. D. rotundifolia. 
Leaves obovate-oblong, three or four times as long as proad . 2 D. longrtfolia. 
Leaves linear-spathulate, five or more times as long as broad . 3. D. anglica. 
