Dicotyledons with Polypetalous Flowers . 
45 
Natural Order 
HALORAGEEE. Tab. 37. 
Diagnosis. —Herbs, usually aquatic, with whorled opposite or alternate 
leaves often, dissected when submerged, and minute flowers. Stamens 
epigynous, 1-8. Ovary inferior, 1-4-celled. 
Distribution. —A small Natural Order, but, as is usual with aquatics, widely dispersed over the 
Globe. The British genera especially are cosmopolitan. 
Number of British Genera, 4; Species, 7. 
Leaves whorled, narrow-linear in Mare’s-tail (. Hijojpuris); pectinate in Water Milfoil ( Myriophyllum ). 
Flowers apetalous and monandrous in Mare’s-tail; unisexual, naked and monandrous in Oallitriche. 
USES, &c.—None of the Order are of economic value. Gunnera scabra, a Patagonian species with large and 
striking rhubarb-like foliage, is frequently planted on lawns. 
MELASTOMACEAL is a large extra-European Natural Order allied to Lythraceae and Onagraceae, characterised 
by opposite 3-nerved leaves, showy flowers with definite perigynous stamens usually bearing remarkably appendaged 
anthers opening by pores, and ovary generally adherent to the calyx-tube. 
Distribution. —Almost exclusively Intertropical, common to both the Old and New World, though by far 
most numerous in America. 
USES, &c.—Melastomaceae do not afford any product of much importance to mankind, but being nearly all 
gay-flowered, many species, chiefly of the genera Medinilla , Pleromct , Centradenia, Osbeckia , Monochcetum and 
Sonerila, are represented in cultivation in hothouses. The fruit in Melastoma is baccate and edible, and, staining 
the lips black, gives name to the genus and so to the Order. 
