Monotropa. | XLV. ERICACEA, 287 
A genus of very few species, inhabiting the woods of Europe, Asia, 
and America, obviously allied to Pyrola, but readily distinguished by 
the want of green leaves. As in the case of Pyrola, it has been divided 
into almost as many genera as there are species. 
1. M. Hypopithys, Linn. (fig. 648). Yellow Bird’s-nest.—Stem about 
6 or 8 inches high, often rather downy in the upper part, bearing oblong 
or ovate concave scales instead of leaves. Flowers few, in a short ter- 
minal raceme. Sepals and petals nearly of the same size, ovate or 
oblong, glabrous or slightly downy inside, persisting round the capsule. 
Anthers small, on slender filaments, opening by transverse valves. The 
terminal flower has its parts in fours, the lateral ones in fives. ‘The 
whole plant is of a pale yellowish-brown colour, turning black in drying. 
Hypopithys multifiora, Scop. 
In fir, birch, and beech woods, in Europe, north Asia and North 
America, becoming a mountain plant in southern Europe, but extends 
neither to high northern latitudes nor to great elevations in the Alps. 
Scattered over nearly the whole of England, but only found in some 
of the southern counties of Scotland, and very rare in Ireland. 7, 
summer, 
es 
XLVI. PRIMULACEA. THE PRIMROSE FAMILY. 
Herbs, with leaves undivided except when under water ; 
the flowers elther axillary or in terminal racemes or umbels, 
Calyx usually of 5, sometimes 4, 6, or 7 divisions or teeth. 
Corolla regular, more or less deeply divided into as many 
lobes or teeth as divisions of the calyx, or rarely wanting. 
Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, inserted in the 
tube opposite the centre of the lobes, or where there is no 
corolla, alternating with the lobes of the calyx. Capsule single, 
1-celled, containing several seeds attached to or immersed in a 
free central placenta, which is often thick and globular. Style 
single, with a capitate stigma. 
A widely spread family, inhabiting chiefly the northern hemisphere, 
and especially high mountains, often at very great elevations, A few 
species reappear in the Antarctic regions, and even within the tropics, 
but the group is there represented chiefly by the Myrsinacee, which 
scarcely differ, except in their arboreous or shrubby growth. Both 
these families are chiefly distinguished from other regular-flowered 
Monopetals by the stamens being opposite to, not alternate with, the 
lobes of the corolla. This character requires some care in observing it, 
especially in those species of Lysimachia which have a deeply divided, 
rotate corolla, and the stamens erect in the centre of the flower. 
Aquatic plant, with the leaves all Setastad and pian ate, With 
linear lobes . : . «..) ku, FLOTTONIA. 
Terrestrial pants, leaves undivided. 
ves opposite, ‘whorled or rar ely alternate. Flowers axillary or 
rarely terminal, 
