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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY-
Remarks on Genera and Species. Under this head there is considerable scope for
observation, and were such desirable, I think I could easily adduce several instances where it
will be found the genera are unnecessarily multiplied, and characters, which would have served
to distinguish the limits of one genus, virtually lost by being divided among two or more. But
while I thus question the goodness of several of Professor Nees 1 genera, I must at the same
time admit that the difficulty of defining the limits of genera in an order so exceedingly" natural,
is always very great, and that had Nees never written another article on Botany than that
monograph, he would still have rendered such a service to the science of plants, as might well
suffice to immortalize his name as one of the brightest ornaments of the long list of those
who have contributed to advance our knowledge of the Vegetable Kingdom.
He divides the order into 2 sub-orders and 11 tribes. These latter, unavoidably, sometimes run into each other so as to render their limitation almost impossible ; but as all of them have Indian representatives, I shall endeavour, as far as possible, to aid those who may be desirous of studying the order in recognizing them, b)' giving analized figures of at least one genus of each; and I may here mention that upwards of 100 species are figured in my Icones, for the most part accompanied with copious analyses of the parts of fructification.
The following is Professor Nees 1 Conspectus of the tribes.
Sub-order Anechmatacanthe.e.
Seed not supported on retinacula. Tribe I. Thunbergieje. Seeds few, in a thick capsule : attached to a cup-shaped process of the placenta in
place of to a retinaculum. Tribe II. Nelsonie.e. Capsule many-seeded. Seed small, attached to a hairlike funiculus.
Sub-order Echmatacanthe^e. Seeds supported on hooked processes (retinacula).
Tribe III. Hygrophile^:. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla ringent. Stamens 4, didynamous, rarely only 2 fertile ; cells of the anthers parallel. Capsule narrow, many-seeded from the base.
Tribe IV. Ruellie.e. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla sub-regular, scarcely two-lipped, tubular, funnel-shaped or sub- companulate. Stamens 4, didynamous, one pair often much shorter, sometimes 2 by abortion; cells of anthers parallel. Capsule 2-4- or many-seeded, usually contracted at the base. Flowers axillary, typically cymose, or solitary by abortion, usually bibracteolate, sometimes racemose ; racemes secund.
Tribe V. Barlerie.e. Calyx 4-parted, lacineae unequal or 2-lipped. Corolla funnel-shaped, or 2-lipped. Stamens 4, inserted into the apex of the tube, didynamous, one pair very short or wanting by abortion; cells of the anthers parallel. Capsule 4-seeded at the base. Flowers axillary, cymulose, bibracteolate secund.
Tribe VI. Acantheje. Calyx 4-parted, segments unequal. Corolla 1-lipped, tube cartilaginous. Stamens 4, didy- namous; anthers 1-celled capsule 4-seeded at the base. Flowers spicate bracteate and bracteolate.
Tribe VII. Aphelandre^;. Calyx 5-parted, regular. Corolla bilabiate or ringent, or somewhat regular, infundi-buliform. Stamens 4, nearly equal ; anthers 1-celled, narrow. Capsule 4-seeded from the base, or in the middle. Flowers spiked bracteate and bracteolate.
Tribe VIII. Gendarussej;. Calyx usually deeply 5-cleft, regular, the dorsal lobe sometimes smaller or wanting. Corolla bilabiate or ringent. Stamens inserted on the base of the tube, either 4, didynamous, or 2 ; anthers 2-celled; cells parallel or separate, muticous or spurred at the base, sometimes 1-celled, capsule narrow, compressed, sterile at the base, 2- or several-seeded above. Flowers axillary, sessile or sub-sessile, spiked or racemose. Bracts and bracteoles various.
Tribe IX. Erantheme^. Calyx 5-cleft, regular. Corolla salver-shaped, limb regular or sub-bilabiate, tube long. Stamens 2, perfect, inserted on the apex of the tube; anthers 2-celled; cells parallel. Capsule narrow and sterile to about the middle, 4-seeded. Flowers axillary, sessile or spicate.
Tribe X. Dicleptere^:. Calyx 5-parted, regular. Corolla either bilabiate or infundibuliform, with a regular limb. Stamens usually 2, sometimes 4, didynamous; anthers 2-celled, cells either parallel or one above the other; sometimes 1-celled. Capsule with 2 or 4 seed, about the middle the partition, sometimes separating with elasticity from the valves. Flowers collected into one or several-flowered, involucrate, peduncled, axillary, typically cymose, capitula. Cymes becoming, by evolution, racemose. Involucre leaves often two-valved at the apex.
Tribe XI. Andrographide.e. Calyx 5-cleft, regular. Corolla bilabiate or ringent, stamens 2; lower cell of the anthers bearded or wooly, sometimes obliterated by the wool*, capsules depressed, many-seeded from the base. Flowers axillary, solitary or racemose.
- This statement rests on an error of observation ; fig. 12, plate 164-b, is one of plants said to have the lower
cell of the anther obliterated by wool, whereas both cells are perfect, and the tuft of wool borne, on the back of the anther.
