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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 176.
1. Leucas Zeylanica (R. Br.) small plant, natural size.
2. An expanded flower. 3. Corolla split open.
4. Anthers, side and front views.
5. Calyx and ovary.
6. Detached ovary.
7. Ovary cut transversely.
8. Fructiferous calyx.
9. A nearly full-grown but immature seed.
10. A detached fruit.
11. A nut cut transversely.
12. Cut longitudinally.
13. Cotyledons detached.
14. Upper and under surfaces of the leaves. All more or less magnified.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 176-b.
1. Anisochilus carnosus. (Wall.)
2. Lavandula Burmanni. (Benth.)
3. Salvia lanata. (Roxb.).
4. Pogostemon rotundatum. (Benth.)
5. Micromeria biflora. (Benth.)
6. Nepeta leucophylla. (Benth.)
7. Scutellaria violacca. (Heyne.)
8. Prunella vulgaris. (Linn.)
9. Gomphastemma Heyneana. (Wall.
10. Leucas urticaefolia. (R. Br.)
11. Leonotis nepetifolia. (R. Br.)
12. Teucreum tomentosum. (Heyne.)
CXXI.— PLANTAGENACEAE.
This small order, consisting of only 3 genera, but now including about 120 species, was first established by Jussieu, who, regarding what more modern Botanists call the corolla a petioled calyx and the calyx an involucrum, placed it between Amarantacece and Nyctaginece. A recent writer, Barneoud, who has deeply studied the order, takes a somewhat similar view, he also viewing it as monochlamedious, but with this difference, that he calls Jussieus involucrum a calyx and his calyx modified stamens. Neither of these views of the nature of the floral envelopes, is admitted to be correct by the generality of modern Botanists, who, almost universally acknowledge it a member of the Corolliflorous sub-class, considering the floral envelopes as truly a calyx and corolla as those of any other order. It consists of low herbaceous stemless plants, usually with the leaves all radical, forming rosettes. Some however are caulescent with opposite or alternate leaves. In Indian Botany it is an order of very secondary importance, only three or four species having yet been found in India Proper, and, so far as I am aware, only one within the limits of the Peninsula, and that confined to the highest mountains, such as the Neilgherries and Pulney Mountains and Newera Elba in Ceylon. From the mountains in Scinde however I have received, through the kindness of Mr. Stocks, two or three species showing in the flora of that country a marked tendency towards a greater predominence of the European forms, which is confirmed by several other families, such as Criiciferce, Labiatce, Orobanchacece, &c, all of which present forms very distant from those of India and akin to those of Europe. The following, slightly altered, is Lindley's
Character of the Order. Calyx imbricated in aestivation, 4-parted, persistent. Corolla membranous, monopetalous, hypogynous, persistent, with a four parted limb. Stamens 4, inserted into the corolla, alternately with its segments ; filaments filiform, flaccid, doubled inwards in aestivation ; anthers versatile 2-celled. Ovary composed of a single [?] carpel, sessile, without a disk, 2- very seldom, 4-celled, the cells caused by the angles of the placentae ; ovules peltate or erect, solitary, twin, or indefinite ; style simple, carpellary ; stigma hispid, simple, rarely half bifid. Capsule membranous, dehiscing transversely, with a loose placenta bearing the seeds on its surface. Seeds sessile, peltate, or erect ; solitary, twin, or indefinite ; testa mucilaginous ; embryo lying across the hilum in the axis of fleshy albumen ; radicle remote from the hilum, inferior, or in some cases centrifugal. — Herbaceous plants, usually stem- less, occasionally with a stem. Leaves forming rosettes, or in the caulescent species both alter- nate and opposite ; flat and ribbed or taper and fleshy. Flowers in spikes, rarely solitary ; usually bisexual, seldom, by abortion, with the male and female in separate flowers.
Affinities. These are generally admitted to be obscure and my acquaintance with the order is too confined to admit of my offering any decided opinion on the subject. As already remarked, Jussieu and Barneoud consider it monochlamedious, a position from which Botanists
