Descriptive botany, or, The art of describing plants correctly in scientific language : for self-instruction and the use of schools / by Professor Lindley.

  • John Lindley
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive botany, or, The art of describing plants correctly in scientific language : for self-instruction and the use of schools / by Professor Lindley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CARD AMINE PRATENSIS: Cuckoo Flower. Thalamifloral Exogens. Nat. Order, BRASsiCACEiE, or Crucifers. Roots fibrous, slightly branched; proceeding from the sides of a half-subterranean perennial, green tuber, whose sides are marked by wide scars and very short tooth- like branches. Stem erect, annual, smooth, terete, about a foot high. Leaves: radical on long stalks, thin, dark green, distantly pinnate; leaflets stalked, in 2 to 4 pairs, sometimes alternate, wavy, orbicular, entire, angular, or toothed; the terminal one much larger than the other; cauline more closely pinnate in from 5 to 7 pairs with an odd one ; leaflets linear, obtuse, entire. Racemes terminal and axillary, 2 or 3, nodding, longer than the leaves, somewhat corymbose, ebracteate. Sepals 4, oblong, obtuse, membranous at the edge: the two opposite slightly saccate. Petals 4, cruciate, pale lilac or white, veiny, with a slight tooth on one side of the unguis. Stamens tetradynamous, hypogynous, erect, longer than the calyx; filaments subulate, rigid, somewhat herbaceous; the two lateral much shorter than the others; anthers ovate, innate, erect, opening longitudinally : those of the longer filaments extrorse, of the shorter introrse. Ovary superior, terete, as long as the longest filaments, 2-celled : placenta: 2 in each cell, next the dissepiment, parietal, polyspermous: style very short; stigma capitate. Disk : four minute green glands; one surrounding the base of each shorter stamen, one free, between the bases of each pair of longer stamens. Fruit [so rarely produced that I never saw a specimen of it. That of the Carda- mine hirsuta is here described instead.] Siliqua linear, compressed, slightly torulose; valves thin, flat. Seeds oblong, lenticular, bright brown, arranged in a single line, suspended from very short funicles. Embryo exalbuminous, with a superior radicle as long as the accumbent cotyledons. STELLARIA MEDIA : Chickweed. Thalamifloral Exogens. Nat. Order, Caryophyllaoeae, or Silenads. Root annual, with numerous small fibres. Stem of very variable length, copiously branched from the bottom, loosely spreading, leafy, brittle, smooth, except a hairy unilateral line, which proceeds from the axil of one leaf to the junction of the leaves above, and then exchanges at every joint into the axil of another leaf. Leaves stalked, ovate, acute, wavy, with channelled fringed petioles as long as the laminae. Flowers small, solitary, axillary; on slender, erect, shaggy peduncles, which are not half the length of the leaves, and are curved downwards and much lengthened after flowering. Sepals 5, ovate, obtuse, bright green, with a membranous margin and shaggy back. Petals 5, white, bipartite, shorter than the sepals. Stamens usually 4, but also 3, 5, or 10, hypogynous, each with a gland at the base on the outside; filaments filiform, the length of the ovary; anthers roundish, pale purple, 2-celled, innate, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, oblong, 1-cellod, with a free polyspermous central placeuta > stigmas 3, linear, spreading, sessile. Capsule membranous, half six-valved, enclosed in the calyx. Seeds about 6, pale brown, round, on long funicles, compressed, with numerous circular scabrous stricC. d csta crust ace ous. Embryo terete, annular, round mealy albumen; radicle inferior.