dehiscence or rarely baccate. Placenta 4, either separating during dehiscence, or variously united
between themselves, or with the margins of the valves, or with the central column. Seeds
albuminous; with the embryo straight, or rarely curved; sometimes indefinite with the radicle
directed to the hilum; sometimes few or definite with the hilum more or less lateral, and the
radicle directed to the apex of the fruit.—Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs; lower leaves opposite or
whorld, the upper ones alternate, sometimes all opposite or all alternate, venation and clothing
very variable; stipules, usually, none. Flowers axillary or racemose, rarely spiked: peduncles
opposite or alternate, sometimes simple, 1-flowered, sometimes many-flowered in dichotomous
cymes. Bracts 2, opposite at the ramifications of the cymes, solitary under the pedicels, no
bracteoles on the pedicels, or 1-2 alternate, or 2 opposite under the calyx: two opposite, on a 1-
flowered peduncle, indicates a cyme reduced to a single flower.
A f f i n i t i e s . On this head Botanists seem generally pretty well agreed, nearly all the
more recent expositors of the natural arrangement associating this order with those immediately
preceding. Endlicher forms of them his class Personates: Lindley’s Bignonal alliance is, with
the exception of Orobanchacece, composed of the same series of orders, and M eisner’s class;
Labiatiflore, includes them and the other labiate-flowered orders. All of them however exclude
Solanacece from their respective groups, though so nearly associated by characters that Mr.
Bentham finds some of the genera can only be excluded by artificial characters, generally
esteemed of inferior importance. This exclusion rests on the circumstance of Solanacece having
symmetrical, pentamerous flowers, while all the others have them unsymmetrical; thus presenting
perhaps one of the best proofs that can be adduced of the importance of variations of
the floral structure in the formation, not of single orders but of groups of orders, where
individual variations become overlooked or lost in the mass and reduced to their proper level,
that of generic or sectional value. Endlicher’s 36th class of Tubiflorece embraces a group of
regular-flowered orders, at the end of which he places Solanacece ; while Scrophulariacece stands
at the head of his 37th, Personatece; thus placing these two very nearly allied orders next to
each other while still preserving the distinction which the marked difference in floral structure
furnishes. This arrangement I look upon as one of the best yet proposed, since the two orders
very nearly coincide in the structure of their ovaries, fruit, and seed, while essentially differing
in their flowers.
G e o g r a ph ic a l D i s t r ib u t io n . Few orders have a more extended distribution than this,
no part of the world, between Melville Island and Terra del Fuego, being without them. In
Europe and North America they abound, and are, if not positively common, yet everywhere to
be met with in India, but most frequently in wet or marshy ground. The number of species
found in India is, however, inconsiderable, in comparison with the frequency of individuals of
each species. They however are found equally in the marsh, on the most arid plains, and on
the cool tops of the highest mountains, exposed to the full blaze of the sun and the deep shade
of the forest.
P r o p e r t ie s a n d U s e s . These are not important except in the case of Digitalis, the
properties of which are very peculiar and, as a remedial agent in some forms of disease, very
important. Acrimony and bitterness are qualities not unfrequently met with in species of this
order, and in such intensity as to cause, when carelessly administered, violent vomiting and
catharsis. Of the Indian species, one has got credit for being a remedy in cases of Diabetes.
The evidence on which this statement rests is, it must be confessed, rather inconclusive, but as
Diabetes is the most intractable of diseases, and at the same time allows ample time for trying
remedies, I have selected that species for illustrating the order, in the hope, that, by making it
known, its qualities may be brought to the test of well-conducted experiment. The plant is a
native of Mysore and Balaghaut provinces, grows among long grass or bushes up which it climbs,
spreading, in the former case, to the extent of several feet all round the root. The specimens
from which the accompanying drawing was made, I gathered on the top of the Copper Mountains
at Bellary, in October and November, twining among tufts of grass.
Though thus sparingly employed for medicinal or economical purposes; several find favour
with, amateurs of fine flowers, and well deserve this distinction.
R em a rk s on G e n e r a a n d S p e c ie s . In orders of such vast extent it is impossible, by
any amount of remarks, for which I could find space in this work, to convey an adequate conception
of its peculiarites. I shall, therefore, here, as in some preceding instances, endeavour to do
so by means of the pencil rather than by the pen, and with that view give, as illustrations
of each of Mr. Bentham’s tribes, natives of India, figures of the flowers and analyses generally
of the generic characters of one or more genera of each tribe. These I conceive will be more
useful and instructive to the student than better looking, but much easier executed figures of
three or four species, however well selected or graphically executed.
The following is Mr. Bentham’s synopsis of the characters of the tribes into which he has
distributed the genera of this extensive and difficult order. I give the conspectus complete, but
will only illustrate those having Indian representatives.
CONSPECTUS OF THE TRIBES.
Sub-order S u l p ig lo s s id e®.
Tribe I. Sapiglosse®. Aestivation of the corolla plicate or imbricato-bilabiate, the posterior lip (as regards
the primary axis) exterior with the sinuses often plicate. Inflorescence at first centrifugal
Sub-order A n t e r r h in id e ®.
./Estivation of the corolla imbricato-bilabiate the posterior lip exterior. Inflorescence either centripetal
or compound, the divisions forming centrifugal cymes (cymes sometimes reduced to a single flower on a
jointed peduncle with two opposite bracts) the primary one a centripetal thirse.
Tribe II. Calceolarie®. Corolla 2-lobed, lobes entire, concave. Calyx valvately 4-lobed. Inflorescence compound.
Leaves opposite or whorld.
Tribe III. Verbasce®. Corolla rotate, two-lipped, lobes flat, efossulate. Stamens declinate. Inflorescence
centripetal, uniform. Leaves alternate.
Tribe IV. H emimeride®. Corolla rotate or rarely tubular [i. e. a tube distinct from the limb] bilabiate, with
a saccate or calcarate fossula. Capsule 2-valved. Inflorescence centripetal, uniform. Leaves, the lower
ones at least, opposite or whorld.
Tribe V. Antirrhine®. Corolla tubular, often saccate or spurred. Capsule opening by pores. Inflorescence
centripetal, uniform. Leaves, the lower ones at least, opposite or whorld.
Tribe VI. Chelone®. Corolla tubular, neither saccate nor spurred. Capsule 2-4-valved (rarely baccate or
indehiscent). Segments of the calyx imbricate in aestivation. Inflorescence compound.
Tribe VII. E scobedie®. Corolla tubular, neither saccate nor spurred. Capsule 2-valved. Calyx large, val-
vate in aestivation. Inflorescence centripetal, peduncles with opposite bracts. Leaves, the lower ones
at least, opposite. ... _
Tribe VIII. Gratiole®. Corolla tubular, rarely (in Sphenandra) subrotate, neither saccate nor calcarate. Capsule
2-valved, rarely indehiscent. Segments of the calyx imbricate in aestivation. Inflorescence centripetal,
uniform, rarely irregularly compound.
Sub-order R h in a n t h id e ®.
Aestivation of the corolla imbricate, the posterior lip never exterior. Inflorescence either centripetal or
compound, or rarely (in a few Buddleias) centrifugal.—In the tribes 9 to 13, anthers always muticous;
in the tribes 9 to 14, lobes of the corolla flat.
Tribe IX. Sibthorpie®. Leaves alternate or with the flowers fascicled at the joints, rarely opposite, not connate,
the floral ones either conformable or the upper ones decreasing in size. Flowers axillary, solitary
or fascicled, rarely cymose.
Tribe X. Buddeeie®. Leaves opposite, connected by a membrane or transverse line. Flowers cymose or
rarely solitary in the axils.
Tribe XI. Digitale®. Inflorescence centripetal, racemose. Leaves all alternate, the lower ones petioled,
congregate.
Tribe XII. Veronice®. Inflorescence centripetal, racemose. Leaves, at least the inferior ones, opposite. Stamens
distant., Anthers 2-celled, or by confluence one-celled.
Tribe XIII. Buchnere®. Inflorescence centripetal, racemose. Leaves, at least the lower ones, opposite.
Stamens approximated by pairs, anthers dimidiately 1-celled.
Tribe XIV. Gerardie®. Inflorescence centripetal, racemose. Leaves, at least the lower ones, opposite. Stamens
approximated by pairs. Anthers 2-celled, cells often mucronate, equal, or one of them empty.
Tribe XV. Euphrasie®. Inflorescence centripetal, racemose. The posterior lip of the corolla galiate or
' concave, erect
H h