BOTANY. 101 
parietal placentas; embryo albuminous or exalbuminous. Leafless, scaly, 
parasitic plants, having a fungus-like appearance. They are never green, but 
assume a brown, yellow, or purple color. They are composed chiefly of cellu- 
lar tissue, with a few scalariform or spiral vessels. They are often stemless, 
and sometimes are furnished with a creeping rhizome. In their mode of de- 
cay they resemble Fungi. ‘Their seeds present a peculiar appearance, resem- 
bling spores rather than true seeds. ‘The nature of their embryo is undeter- 
mined, and their place in the natural system is still doubtful. Lindley has 
placed them in a separate class, intermediate between Thallogens and Endo- 
gens. They have been divided by him into three distinct orders: 1. Bala- 
nophoracee, male flowers pedicellate; stamens, one to three; filaments and 
anthers both united; ovule solitary, pendulous; fruit, monospermous. 2. 
Cytinacee, flowers in spikes ; perianth, three- to six-lobed; anthers sessile 
on a column, dehiscing by slits; ovules 00, attached to parietal placentas ; 
fruit, polyspermous. 3. Fafflesiacee, flowers sessile, solitary; perianth, 
five-lobed, with calli m its throat; anthers attached to a column, dehiscing 
by pores; ovules 00, attached to parietal placentas; fruit polyspermous. 
They are natives chiefly of tropical countries, but some extend into tempe- 
rate climates. They are found in the East Indies, South America, Cape of 
Good Hope, and the south of Europe. Lindley enumerates twenty-one genera 
and fifty-three species. EHxamples: Balanophora, Cynomorium, Cytinus, 
Rafflesia. 
Species of Rafllesia exhibit the largest flowers known, the perianth being 
sometimes three feet in diameter, and capable of holding six quarts of liquid. 
They are all parasitic. 
Orver 59. NepenTHACE®, the Pitcher-plant Family. Flowers dicecious. 
Perianth four-parted, inferior ; zestivation imbricated. Male flowers: stamens 
united in a solid central column; anthers about sixteen, forming a spherical 
head, extrorse, and with longitudinal dehiscence. Female Flowers: ovary 
free, four-cornered, four-celled; ovules 00; stigma sessile. Fruit a four- 
celled, four-valved capsule, with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds 00, ascending, 
very minute, fusiform, with a loose testa ; nucleus less than the seed, suspend- 
ed by the chalaza ; embryo in the midst of fleshy albumen; cotyledons plano- 
convex ; radicle pointing to the hilum. Herbs, or half-shrubby plants, with 
alternate leaves, slightly sheathing at the base, having a foliaceous petiole, 
which forms an ascidium at its extremity, and the lamina in the form of a 
lid. Natives of swampy ground in the Kast Indies and China. They have 
no known properties. ‘The pitchers have been found to contain a solution of 
binoxalate of potash. Spiral vessels abound in all parts of the pitcher plants ; 
and the woody bundles are without concentric zones. Lindley gives one genus, 
and six species. Example: Nepenthes. 
Orver 60. ArisToLocHiacEe&, the Birthwort Family. Perianth adherent, 
tubular, three-cleft, regular, or sometimes very irregular; zxstivation valvate 
or induplicate. Stamens six to twelve, epigynous, distinct or gynandrous. 
Ovary inferior, three- to six-celled: ovules 00, anatropal, horizontal; style 
simple, short ; stigmas radiating, three to six. Fruit dry or succulent, three- 
to six-celled. Seeds numerous; embryo very minute, at the base of fleshy 
101 
