BOTANY. 193 
two-parted or multifid and pencil-shaped ; sometimes all united into one. 
Capsule two- to five-valved, loculicidal, with the valves placentiferous in the 
middle, or indehiscent with the placenta at the base, many- (rarely few-) 
seeded. Seeds anatropous; testa sometimes arilliform. Embryo short, at 
the base of cartilaginous or fleshy albumen. Herbs, or rarely suffrutescent 
plants (growing in wet places or swamps). Leaves alternate or crowded, 
entire, commonly furnished with glandular hairs, with a circinate vernation 
(except Dionea); stipules none, or in the form of a tuft or fringe of 
searious hairs at the base of the petioles. There are eight genera, with 
about ninety species, of which three genera and thirteen species are North 
American. Tribe 1. Droserew. Seeds with albumen. Styles one or many. 
All the stamens fertile. Examples: *Drosera, *Dionza. Tribe 2. 
Parnassiee. No albumeh. Stigmata sessile. Some of the stamens sterile. 
No glandular hairs. Example: *Parnassia. The most remarkable species 
of the order is Dionza muscipula or Venus’ Fly-trap, a plant only found 
within a limited district in North and South Carolina. The two halves of 
the leaf are articulated on the midrib, and have a fringe of stiff hairs which 
interlace when the leaf is folded. Each half is furnished with two or three 
irritable hairs, which, when touched by an insect, cause the sudden closing 
of the leaf and the consequent impalement or imprisonment of the intruder. 
Species of Parnassia are known as Grass of Parnassus. 
Orver 204. Viotaces, the Violet Family. Sepals five, persistent, usually 
elongated at the base, estivation imbricated. Petals five, hypogynons, 
equal or unequal, generally withering, estivation obliquely convolute. 
Stamens five, alternate with the petals, sometimes opposite to them, inserted 
on a hypogynous torus; anthers dithecal, introrse, often cohering, with a 
prolonged connective sometimes spurred ; filaments dilated, two of them in 
the irregular flowers having an appendage at their base. Ovary unilocular, 
with many (rarely one) anatropal ovules; style single, usually declinate, 
with an oblique hooded stigma. Fruit a three-valved capsule, dehiscence 
loculicidal, placentas on the middle of the valves. Seeds 00 or definite ; 
embryo straight, erect, in the axis of a fleshy perisperm. Herbs or shrubs, 
with alternate, rarely opposite leaves, having persistent stipules, and an 
involute vernation. They are natives of Europe, Asia, and America. The 
herbaceous species inhabit chiefly the temperate parts of the northern 
hemisphere, while the shrubby species are found in South America and 
India. They have been divided into two sub-orders : 
Sub-order 1. Violew, with irregular flowers. 
Sub-order 2. Alsodeiew, with regular flowers. There are fourteen known 
genera, and 315 species. Examples: *Viola, *Ionidium, Alsodeia, *Solea. 
North America possesses three genera, and about forty species. Viola 
tricolor is the origin of the varieties of Pansy and Heart’s Ease. 
Orver 205. Cisracem, the Rock-Rose Family. Sepals usually five, 
persistent, unequal, the three inner with contorted estivation. Petals five, 
caducous, hypogynous, zestivation corrugated, and twisted in an opposite 
direction to that of the sepals. Stamens usually 00, free, hypogynous ; 
anthers two-celled, adnate. Ovary syncarpous, one- or many-eelled; style 
ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOP2ZDIA.—VOL. II, 13 193 
