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characterising Lobeliaceae. With Compositse it agrees essentially in inflo- 
rescence, in the aestivation of corolla, in the remarkable joint or change of 
texture in the apex of its filaments, and in the structure of the ovarium and 
seed. It differs from them in having ovarium liberum or superum, in the 
want of a glandular disk, in the immediately hypogynous insertion of the fila- 
ments, in the indusium of the stigma, and in the vascular structure of the 
corolla, whose tube has five nerves only, and these continued through the axes 
of the lacinise, either terminating simply (as is at least frequently the case in 
Brunonia sericea), or (as in B. australis) dividing at top into two recurrent 
branches, forming lateral nerves, at first sight resembling those of Compositse, 
but which hardly reach to the base of the lacinise. It is a curious circumstance 
that Brunonia should so completely differ from Compositse in the disposition 
of vessels of the corolla, while both orders agree in the no less remarkable 
structure of the jointed filament ; a character which had been observed in a 
very few Compositee only, before the publication of M. Cassini’s second Dis- 
sertation, where it is proved to be nearly universal in the order. In the 
opposite parietes of the ovarium of Brunonia two nerves or vascular cords are 
observable, which are continued into the style, where they become approxi- 
mated and parallel. This structure, so nearly resembling that of Compositae, 
seems to strengthen the analogical argument in favour of the hypothesis 
advanced in the present paper, of the compound nature of the pistillum in that 
order, and of its type in phsenogamous plants generally ; Brunonia having an 
obvious and near affinity to Goodenoviae, in the greater part of whose genera 
the ovarium has actually two cells with one or an indefinite number of ovula 
in each ; while in a few genera of the same order, as Dampiera, Diaspasis, and 
certain species of Scaevola, it is equally reduced to one cell and a single 
ovulum.” R. Brown in Linn. Trans. 12. 132. The habit of this order is very 
much that of Globulariaceae. 
Geography. Natives of New Holland. 
Properties. Unknown. 
GENUS. 
Brunonia, R. Rr. 
Alliance IV. PLANTALES, 
Essential Character. — Style single; Stigma without an indusium. Flowers in 
dense heads or spikes, or panicled. Ovary superior. 
Order CXCVIII. PLANTAGINACEH^. The Rib-Grass Tribe. 
Plantagines, Juss. Gen. 89. (1789). — PLANTAGiNEiE, R. Brown Prodr. 423. (1810); 
Lindl. Synops. 169. (1829). 
Essential Character. — Flowers usually hermaphrodite, seldom unisexual. Calyx 
4-parted, persistent. Corolla membranous, monopetalous, hypogynous, persistent, with a 
4-parted limb. Stamens 4, inserted into the corolla, alternately with its segments ; fila- 
ments filiform, fiaccid, doubled inwards in aestivation ; anthers versatile, 2-celled. Ovary 
sessile, without a disk, 2-, very seldom 4-celled, the cells caused by the growth of spurious 
dissepiments ; ovules peltate or erect, solitary, twin, or indefinite ; style simple, capillary ; 
stigma hispid, simple, rarely half-bifid. Capsule membranous, dehiscing transversely. 
Seeds sessile, peltate, or erect, solitary, twin, or indefinite ; testa mucilaginous ; embryo in 
axis of fleshy albumen; radicle inferior; plumula inconspicuous. — Herbaceous plants, 
