546 
XLVII. DROSERACE^. 
as placentas, simple or divided to the base so as to appear twice the number, or 
variously branched, or rarely the styles united into one ; stigmas various, 
Capsule opening loculicidally, in as many valves as cells or placentas, the valves 
rarely splitting septicidally. Seeds several, with a reticulate testa, sometimes 
produced beyond the nucleus into a loose wing ; embryo cylindrical or sometimes 
minute in a fleshy albumen. — Herbs. Leaves usually ciliate or covered with 
glandular hairs. Flowers solitary or in one-sided racemes, either simple or 
forming a branching cyme. 
A small Order, found in nearly all parts of the world, the principal genus closely allied to the 
herbaceous Saxifrages, differing chiefly in the insertion of the petals and stamens, being 
more generally hypogynous ; the whole group is easily recognised by the almost invariably 
glandular leaves, involute in vernation. Of the 3 Australian genera, the principal one constitutes 
nearly the whole Order and ranges over the general area ; of the others one is endemic and very 
anomalous, the other is met with in Europe, Asia, and Australia. — Bentli. (in part). 
Leaves glandular, cauline, or alternate. Ovary 1-celled. Styles 2 to 5, distinct 
or shortly united at the base 1. Droskra. 
Cauline leaves, whorled, vesicular, glabrous. Ovary 1-celled. Styles 5, with 
terminal branching stigmas 2. Aldrovanda. 
Leaves more or less glandular. Ovary 2-celled. Style undivided 3. Byblis. 
1. DROSERA, Linn. 
(From drosos, dew.) 
(Sondera, Lehm.) 
Calyx-segments 4, 5, or rarely 8. Petals as many. Stamens as many ; 
anthers opening laterally or outwards in longitudinal slits. Ovary 1-celled, with 
2 to 5, usually 3, parietal placentas ; styles as many as placentas, simple or 
variously branched. Capsule opening in as many valves as placentas, with the 
placentas in their centre. — Herbs. Leaves usually involute in vernation, the 
lamina more or less covered on the upper side with glandular hairs or cilia and 
bordered with longer ones, usually irritable and closing over insects or other 
objects resting on them, the under side and petioles without glandular hairs. 
Stipules when present scarious and usually lobed or jagged. Flowers solitary or 
in one-sided racemes or forked cymes, on radical scapes or terminal peduncles. 
A large genus, with the extensive geographical range of the Order, and comprising the great 
majority of its species. Of the Queensland species, several are also in E. India, the Archipelago, 
and New Zealand. 
The Australian species may be readily distributed into the two old-established sections Rorella 
and Ergaleium, if characterised chiefly by their mode of vegetation. In Rorella the stock or 
stem, very short and completely covered with the leaves, except in D. indica, forms at its upper 
end the winter bud for the following year’s vegetation, the lower end dying away either at the 
close of the season or after having endured several years covered with the old imbricate bases 
of the leaves, never forming a bulb at the base, but emitting new roots or sometimes stolons 
immediately under the fresh leaves of the new year. In this section also the styles are usually 
simple or once branched, very rarely dichotomous, and the stipules are wanting only in 3 
species In the second section, Ertjaleium, the short stem-like stock forms usually, perhaps 
always, at its lower end a bulb, and at the upper end either a rosette of leaves with a leafless 
scape or leafy stems, which appear to be annually renewed, although in what manner this 
takes place has not been observed. The stock or stem between the bulb and the rosette has 
frequently loose ragged remains of leaves or petioles, as if it were partially at least perennial. 
In this section the styles are always short and very much divided, forming usually a dense 
tuft on the ovary, and the stipules are either entirely wanting, or, in D. Banksii, small and 
very evanescent. In both sections, however, and especially in Rorella , there are single excep- 
tional species, which prevent giving any definite character derived from the single diversities in 
the styles and other floral characters. Planchon, in his excellent study of the genus, in the 
“ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,” ser. 3, ix., proposes each of these anomalous species as a 
distinct section, but that course appears to me not to tend towards clearness of method, but 
rather to confuse the mind, and I have preferred adopting, with slight modifications, the two old 
sections, subdividing them more artificially in the following table. — Bentli. 
