Herbaceous _ and shrubby exogens, with polypetalous flow a many-leaved calyx, oldies stile. perfect stamens, anthers pater inwards, consolidated fruit ye albuminous seeds. The ees is divided into (L.) VIOLEA, a chiefly Siberian and Ameri CXVI. Crolacex. plants, and a few to tropic e = cal species are chiefly shrubs, the ns Violets being 1all herbaceous, or nearly so. (II.) ALSODEA, chietty South American and African, while Pentaloba belongs the Saleyan Hors.

lype 01 in the divisions pink, a tubular furrowed calyx, petals hypogynous, panctetir hy or tapering at — base. Pgs2 re gy geet South of Europe, at the Cape,

rea shrubs or herbs, with rod-like branches, oth sets flowers in close spikes or racemes, a many-leaved calyx, nous petals inserted at the base of the calyx, non ge styles, pode ds ascending, comose, without album The greater number 0 species CXVILII. Tamaricacee. are found on the shores of the ‘Mitietenaia + they possess some ies, ure mucilagi i

a herbsor smooth shrubs, with siucaea ace generally borne in terminal panicles or Eig on slender thread-like stalks, a weany lonved calyx, h petals, stamens partly sterile and CXIX. Sauvagesicacee-petaloid, anthers turning cncieats opposite the petals, naked, a con-ae ou fruit and albuminous seed. The species are al of Brazil, — and the West casei but ~ isSoran of their properti

Succulent exogenous herbs and shrubs, with polypetalous and monopetalous flowers, usually sessile in cymes, often arranged on one side only along the divisions of the cyme, leaves entire or pinnatifid, non-stipulate, calyx many-leaved, petals hypogynous, fruit in follicles opening at the suture.

Some singular examples of structural vatlalioas os lated of the Houseleeks, In Semper vivum “Adotp é Brongniart found little bundles of ann an iral vessels immediately round the pith, and out-

CXX, Crassulacez,

chyma without vesselsvi withh verticalcords of three-sided parenchyma, in the midst of which iral vessels, most o which might still be un- + — this ge Gel r, 133 belong to the Cape of Good Hope, four nao “beyond the tropics, and the others to re the es, China, peapan, 98hee Himsa exogens,ra polypetalous ary flowers, torted yellowish, rarely peaganainteriorpoh often ro hrteak CXXI, Turneracee-pidprrdoeag nonstipulate leaves. y are natives of the West Indies

This important group of Orders, with three exceptions, form, as Dr. Lindley informs us, a perfectly natural group, the exceptions being the Moringacee, the Tamaricacee, and the Sauvagesicace® hottestThe Flacourtiacee are small trees or shrubs, natives of the parts of the East and West Indies, and Africa. The Loe grow in low places in equinoctial America. The Lam ydace 8° all tropical, and chiefly American. ‘The Passiflorace@,’ eee and the “are the pride of South AmericaDr. Lindley, Indies, where the woods are filled with their species, beauty,from tree to tree, bearing at one time flowers of striking wo ue that the zealous an appearance,and of so singular

first discovered them, adapted to these inhabitants of the American wilderness their own Christian traditions, at other times, fruit, tempting to the eye and refreshing to the palate.” _ The name is derived from a fancied resemblance to the cross, the emblem of our Saviour’s crucifixion. In the five anthers, the Spanish monks saw His wounds; in the triple style the three nails by which He was fixed to the cross; and in the column on which the ovary is raised, the pillar to which He was bound; while a number of filaments which spread from the cap within the flower were finally likened to the crown of thorns. In reality, the flower consists of a calyx and corolla, each of five divisions, consolidated into a cup, from within the rim of which spreads several rows of filamentous processes, regarded by some as barren stamens. From the sides of the cup, and within these, there proceeds one or more raised rings, notched or undivided, and in various degrees of development, and of the same nature as the filamental processes. In the centre of the flower stands a column, to the sides of which the five stamens are united, but spreading freely beyond its apex, and bearing five oblong horizontal anthers. The axis of the columns bears the ovary, a one-celled vase, with three parietal poly- Spermous placenta, having three club-shaped styles at its vertex. os The plant produces a gourd-like fruit, containing many seeds, each having its own fleshy aril, usually enveloped in a sub-acid mucilage, The medicinal properties of Passifora are considerable. The Soothing influence of P. contrayerva is well known to those having the care of children, and almost all the species have properties of & useful character. The Malesherbiacee are half-hardy herbaceous plantsof Chili and Peru, of little known interest. © Moringacee are a small group of trees of the East Indies and Arabia, which De Candolle placed with the Leguminacea, “roneously, as Dr, Lindley thinks. . The Viotace.x, of which group the Violet (Fig. 389), is a type, have irregular flowers, each having two bracts. The calyx has fiveSepals, each of them having a small open disc at its base, which nds beyond the point of its insertion. The corolla is com- Posed of five petals, the inferior and largest being hollowed BB

out, and terminated at its base by a short and obtuse spur, which is directed downwards by two lateral ones, which are entire and rbate. The two upper petals, which are equally entire, are directed upwards. There are five stamens alternating with the petals; they are nearly sessile, and lightly joined by their anthers, which are bilocular, and open from within by two longitudinal clefts. Each anther is surmounted by a little thin yellow tongue, which is a prolongation of the connective. In addition to this, two of the anterior stamens are provided at their base with a kind of tail, which lodges in the hollow horny substance of the lower

ickieeAntCe

aac

Fig. 389.—The Violet,

petal. The pistil is composed of a free ovarium, surmounted by an ascending style, swelling a little above the base, and eon in a vergate or rod-like hooked stigmata. In the interior of tl ovarium, which is unilocular, are three parietal placent®, char, with straight anatropal ovules. The fruit is a capsule, which opens in three valves, each having . embryvO:a placenta in their midst. The seeds contain a straight in the axis of a fleshy albumen.

The Violet is a very short-stemmed plant, since its height never reaches more than from 3 or 4 inches. Its leaves, which are radical, or growing upon suckers, are acutely or ovoidaly crenulate, or heart-shaped. The stipules are oval, accuminate, or lanceolate. The flowers have a sweet odourous aroma, of a violet or reddish blue colour, each borne upon a slender peduncle, which is returned at the summit. Such is the Violet (Viola odorata, as in Fig. 389), to the botanist; the poet would give a very different description of it. It is well known that there are many other species of this plant which, to the disappointment of many, are inodorous; such are Wood Violet, the Dog Violet, &e. But what of the Pansy? This pretty little plant also belongs to the Violet tribe, or to a section of it. In the Pansy the upper petals and laterals are directed above, and only the lower one is directed below, and generally the stigmata is inceolate and globulous. There are two varieties of the Pansy, or Viola tricolor. The Wild Pansy, the corolla of which does not overreach the calyx; the other the Garden Pansy, the petals of which more or less overreach the calyx. The size and colour of the Pansy have been greatly varied by cultivation. The Crassutace® comprehend the plants commonly known as Houseleeks, on account of the quantity of water which they enclose in their tissues, and the general thickness of their leaves, which is to the Leek, and from their Supposed to give them a resemblance (Sedum acre), Fig. 390, Stonecrop The Orpine, or Biting Properties. will serve as a type of the family. It is a little fleshy plant, being common upon old walls, thatched roofs, and stony and gritty places which are exposed tothe sun. It has a slender subterranean stem, recumbent and creeping, throwing up branches here and there, Covered with short, straight, sessile, and fleshy leaves resembling little eggs slightly flattened at the top, and bearing five or six flowers disposed in a series of terminal branching corymbs. They have of these-flowers? organisation What, then, is the each a calyx composed. of five fleshy pieces, five free petals, and double the number of stamens, with flattened runners pointed at back at their axis; lastly, anthers, pointing bilocular thesummit,

a pistil composed of five free unilocular carpels, enclosing many anatropal horizontal ovules inserted on the ventral suture of each carpel. At maturity these bodies become dry, and open from within by this suture in such a manner as to constitute a like number of follicles, ‘ which enclose extremely = small seeds. This little herb, as we have said, may be considered as a type of the CRassuLA-crm, These singular plants erow and keep fresh in the most arid places, from the mass of liquids held im reserve in their fleshy tissues, and from the almost total absence of all exhalation. The genus Crassula,which has given its name to the family, 1s remarkable for the structure of its flowers, which have been taken as a type of floral symmetry. This flower has five sepals with five petals alternating with them; five stamens alternating with the petals, and five carpels alternating with the stamens. The Houseleeks belong to the genus Sempervioum, the calyx of which has from six to twenty divisions, the corolla from six to twenty petals, the andraceum twelve to forty stamens, the pistil with from six t0 twenty carpels. All of us have seen this beautiful plant creeping along the thatch of cottages, with its succulent leaves disposed in 4 rosette, from the centre of which rises a straight cylindrical stem, gar nished with thick fleshy leaves, and terminating by a scorpoide spike of purplish flowers. Among the numerous exotic specimens with which t furnishes horticulture, we may mention the Scarlet Crassula,

Fig. 390.—Sedum acre. his family the

White Crassula of the Cape, and the Spurious-L ieaved Rochea, from the same botanical region. This is a shrub which produces a handsome red flower, odorous and of long duration, the Cotyledon orbiculata, with glaucous, farinaceous leaves edged with red, having a corolla with reddish limb rolled from the outside. The Scarlet Echeveria, from Mexico, has mts - rosettes, and flowers of a lively red, disposed in branching ¢

The Crassulaceze are found “in the a situations, ius not a blade of grass or even of moss can grow; on naked rocks, old walls, hot, sandy plains, exposed to heavy dews by night, and to the fiercest rays of the noonday sun. Soil is to them something to keep them stationary, rather than a source of nutriment, which in these plants is conveyed by myriads of mouths to the juicy beds of cellular tissue which lie beneath them, invisible to the naked eye, but covering all their surface.”

CisTALs.

with monodichlamydeous exogens, hypogynous A group of

. flowers, parietal or sutural placentz, and a curved or spiral embryo With little or no albumen.

Shrubs or herbaceous exogens, with trimerousor pentamerons flow stamens8 usually definite, hy pogynous, distinct, and never tetradynam fruit eS up; seeds albumeee The Rock Roses are natives of‘he CXXII. Cistaceze. ¥ peers and North f Africa, and South peckienl and rare! I _Hesbnceous teotlaie,annual,ich biennial,uenantesand perennialsik bed,‘exogens, with tetramerous,=5|~har tha, CXXIT. Crucifere. opposite each of theef geome Serand mesepals, ngs one “opposite each of the lateral se

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