Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1/Resedaceae

by Robert Wight

XIII-RESEDACEAE.

A small, extra tropical, order of herbaceous or suffruticose plants, with alternate, simple, entire, or pinnatifid, exstipulate, leaves ; hermaphrodite flowers, arranged in terminal racemes, having their pedicels furnished with bractoles.

Calyx 4 to 6 parted, persistent, slightly imbricated in oestivation. Petals usually equaling the number of sepals, hypogenous, deciduous, unequal, the larger ones behind, lacerated, with a broad claw. Stamens 10 to 20; free, not covered during oestivation. Torus short or resembling a stipes, usually bearing under the stamens, an obtuse nectariferous scale, Carpel? 3 to 6, each with 1 style, distinct, or united into a single 1-celled ovarium, open at the apex; placentas several, parietal, nerve-like, many-ovuled: ovules pendulous. Fruit either consisting of several follicles dehiscing internally, or of a unilocular polyspermons capsule, dehisciug at the. apex. Seeds pendulous, testa crustacious: albumen thin: embryo curved, terate, radicle superior, cotyledons fleshy semi-cylindrical.

Affinities. The nearest affinity of this order is to Capparidece, with which it has many points of agreement, such as the parietal placentae, reniform seed, tapering curved embryo, &c. Also the 1 arge disk from which the stamens arise.

Geographical Distribution. This order is almost entirely confined to Europe. The specimen from which the accompanying figure was taken, was however gathered on the Neilgherries, and under circumstances that seemed to indicate its being a native, but I greatly fear that it is an introduced plant.

Properties and Uses. One species of Resida, ( R. lutiola J is much cultivated in some parts of France, for the sake of a yellow dye which its roots produce; it is also used in medicine as a vermifuge, though not much esteemed as such, while there are so many far superior to be had. Resida odorata, the MignioneHe, is among the most fragrant of plants, and on that account, in spite of its very unpretending flowers, has received in France, the distinguished name of Herb d'amour. Some gardeners, by the application of heat to the pots, in which it is growing, during the winter, and lopping the primary branches, change its annual character and convert it into a pretty little shrub, in which form, it is much admired in France.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE 15.

1. Flowering branch of reseda alba—natural size.

2. Flower opened to show the relative position of the sepals, petals, and stamens.

3. A detached petal. 4. Anthers back and front view.

5. Stamens and ovary, showing the filaments united into a tube at the base, and concealing the pedicel of the ovary.

6. The same laid open to show the pedicel.

7. Ovary laid open, showing the parietal placentae, and pendulous ovules.

RESEDACEÆ

RESEDA ALBA. (Lin.)