Parnassia. XXXII. SAXIFRAGACEiE. 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 Thalamiflorce, with the Droseracece, next to Violacece and 

 Polygalece ; 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, with a 

 single sessile leaf below the middle. Flowers white, rather large. Seg- 

 ments of the calyx ovate, spreading, 3 to 3 J 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. 



XXXIII. DROSERACE^. 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 

 Thalamiflorce, 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 Saxifragacece, 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 n amber. Seeds several, with albumen, inserted on 3 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 curio as glandular hairs 

 of the leaves distinguish them from all other British genera, indepen- 

 dently of their floral characters. 



Leaves obovate or orbicular, as broad as long . . . . 1. D. rotundifolia. 

 Leaves obovate-oblong, three or four times as long as broad . 2. D. longifolia. 

 Leaves linear-spathulate, five or more times as long as broad . 3. D. anglica. 



