1084 
LXXXI1 I . H V I )KOPH YLLACE M. 
Order LXXXIII. HYDROPHYLLACEjE. 
(Hydrophyllacese and Hydroleace®, D.C.) 
Flowers regular. Calyx free, of 5 divisions. Corolla with a short or 
rarely elongated tube, and 5 spreading lobes, imbricate and sometimes contorted 
in the bud. Stamens 5, inserted at the base of the corolla-tube and alternating 
with its lobes ; anthers 2-celled, the cells opening in longitudinal slits. Ovary 
superior, entire, either 1-celled with two parietal or free placentas or rarely 
2-celled with the placentas on the dissepiment ; style terminal, bifid or divided 
to the base into 2 distinct styles ; stigmas obtuse or capitate ; ovules numerous 
or rarely reduced to 2 to each placenta and then laterally attached. Fruit 
a capsule, opening in 2 valves, the margins alternating with the placentas or 
rarely opposite the dissepiment. Seeds with a thin usually reticulate testa, 
and copious fleshy albumen. Embryo straight, usually small and distant from 
the hilum. — Herbs or rarely undershrubs, often hispid. Leaves alternate 
or rarely the lower ones opposite, entire lobed or divided. Flowers usually 
blue or white, in one-sided spikes or racemes, often rolled back when young 
and sometimes branching into dichotomous cymes, as in Boraginea, or forming 
small and compact cymes or clusters. Bracts usually present under the pedicels 
and often leaf-like ; bracteoles rarely present. 
A small Order, chiefly American. The only Australian genus is also American, but extends 
into tropical Asia and Africa, and differs from the remainder of the Order in its completely 
2-celled ovary and capsule, and in the septifragal dehiscence of the latter. — Benth. 
1. HYDROLEA, Linn. 
(From hydor, water, and elaia, oil ; alluding to the habitat and nature of 
the plants.) 
Calyx divided nearly to the base. Corolla almost rotate, with a very short 
tube. Ovary 2-celled, with very numerous ovules in each cell on a broad spongy 
placenta attached along the central line to the dissepiment. Styles 2. Capsule 
opening in 2 valves parallel to the dissepiment. — Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves 
entire. Flowers blue, usually in short and compact racemes or cymes. 
A genus of few species, all apparently American, including the 2 Australian ones. 
Annual, glabrous or nearly so, without spines 1. if. zeylanica. 
Perennial, glandular-pubescent and hirsute, armed with axillary spines . .2 .if. spinosa. 
1. H. zeylanica (a Ceylon plant), Vald ; Chois, in DC. Prod. - x. 180; 
Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 382. Said to be always annual, but the stems creep and 
root at the base often to a considerable length, ascending to about 1ft., the 
whole plant quite glabrous or the inflorescence and calyxes hispid with a few 
hairs. Leaves lanceolate, entire, narrowed at the base and sometimes shortly 
petiolate, mostly li to 2Hn. long. Flowers in rather compact simple or 
branched racemes or cymes in the upper axils, usually shorter than the leaves 
or the upper ones forming a terminal panicle. Bracts small and narrow. 
Calyx-segments lanceolate, striate, about 3 lines long. Corolla scarcely exceeding 
the calyx, divided to about the middle into broad lobes. Stamens and styles 
shorter than the corolla ; anthers sagittate. Capsule membranous, shorter than 
the calyx. Seeds very small and numerous. — Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 193 t. 26; 
Wight, 111. t. 107 ; Ic. PI. t. 001 ; Rheede, Hort. Mai. x. 28. 
Hub.: Gulf of Carpentaria, b'. v. Mueller. 
Abundant in tropical Asia and Africa, less so in tropical America 
2. Ii. spinosa (plant spiny), Linn.; Chois, in DC. Prod. x. 181 ; Benth. 
hi. Austr. iv. 383. An erect perennial or undershrub of 1 to 2ft., glandular- 
pubescent and hispid with spreading hairs, more or less viscid and armed 
with axillary spreading spines of J- to Hn. Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 
