Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Science
Botany for Ladies: or, A Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants, According to the Classification of De Candolle.
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Botany; Plants -- Classification
The Foxglove is generally taken as the type of this order, and it has
a tubular corolla (see _a_ in fig. 140) with a short limb (_b_), and
a spreading calyx (_c_). There are four stamens of unequal length
inserted on the base of the corolla and hidden in its tube; and an
oblong ovary (_d_), with a long style, and a two-lobed stigma (_e_).
The fruit is a dry capsule with two cells, and numerous seeds. The
flowers of the other genera are very irregular. In the Snapdragon,
the corolla is what is called personate; and in the Calceolaria the
lower lip is curiously inflated. The stamens also differ. In most of
the genera there are four, but in Pentstemon there is a fifth, long
and slender, and hairy at the point, but without any anther; and in
Calceolaria and Veronica there are only two. Among the genera included
in this order may be mentioned Buddlea, the flowers of which grow in
ball-like heads; Paulownia, Maurandya, Mimulus, Alonsoa, and Collinsia.
The Toadflax (_Linaria_), and several other British plants belong
to it; but the Yellow Rattle (_Rhinanthus_), and some other allied
plants, have been formed into a new order called Rhinanthaceæ; Chelone
and Pentstemon have been formed into an order called Chelonaceæ; and
Sibthorpia, Disandra, &c., into one called Sibthorpiaceæ. Trevirana or
Achimenes, and Columnea, are removed to Gesneriaceæ.
The new order Cyrtandraceæ, including Æschynanthus, Streptocarpus or
Didymocarpus, Fieldia, and Amphicoma, is introduced here: the first and
last of these genera are new, and the others were formerly included in
Bignoniaceæ.
ORDER CXLII.—LABIATÆ.
[Illustration: FIG. 141.—A LABIATE FLOWER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 142.—BLACK HOREHOUND (_Ballota nigra_).]
The plants belonging to this order include Mint, Sage, Thyme, and other
kitchen aromatic plants, and several well-known British weeds. They
are all distinguished by a tubular, bilabiate corolla with a projecting
under lip (see _a_ in fig. 141). In some plants the corolla is ringent,
as shown in fig. 142, taken from Dr. Lindley’s _Ladies’ Botany_, in
which _a_ is the galea or helmet, and _b_ the lower lip, which is
three-lobed. There are four stamens, two of which are longer than the
others, and the cells of the anthers differ from those of most other
plants in spreading widely apart from each other, each being joined
to the filament only at the tip. The pistil consists of four distinct
carpels (_c_), a very long style lobed at the tip, and furnished with
a very small stigma at the tip of each lobe (_d_). The flowers of some
of the plants belonging to this order are disposed in a whorl round
the stem; as, for example, those of the Dead Nettle (_Lamium_). Among
the other plants belonging to the order may be mentioned the Bugle
(_Ajuga_), and the Ground Ivy (_Glechoma_), both common but very pretty
British weeds.
ORDER CXLIII.—VERBENACEÆ.—THE VERVAIN TRIBE.
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