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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    SYRINGA VULGARIS : The Lilac Bush. Corollifloral Exogens. Nat. Order, Oleace.®, or Oliveworts. A large branching surub or small tree, with a pale brown bark; hranchlets opposite, smooth, slightly quadrangular. ,, ,, Leaves opposite, exstipulate, roundish-cordate, very acute, tlnu, smooth, rather longer than the lineal- channelled petiole. Panicles terminal, pyramidal, compact, many-flowered, slightly downy: General Bracts lanceolate herbaceous ; partial subulate, or none. Calyx herbaceous, cupshaped, 4-toothed, minutely glandular. Corolla monopetalous, hypocrateriform, much longer than the calyx; the limb 4-lobed, valvate in aestivation. Stamens 2, within the tube of the corolla, epipetalous, alternate with the lobes ; anthers oblong, sessile, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, ovate, seated in a fleshy disk, 2-celled; ovules in pairs, pendulous ; style clavate; stigmas 2, lineal-, decurrent. Capsule woody, compressed, obovate; valves 2, navicular, loculicidal. Seeds solitary, thin, oblong, winged. ILEX AQUIFOLIUM : The Holly tree. Corollifloral Exogens. Nat. Order, Aquifoliace®, or Hollyworts. An evergreen Tree. Branches dull green, slightly obtusangular, smooth. Leaves alternate, elliptical, wavy, veinless, smooth, shining, spinoso-dentate, with a cartilaginous edge ; petioles short, terete, minutely tomentose. Flowers nearly sessile, axillary; 3 or 4 together. Calyx inferior, 4 parted; with rounded downy lobes. Corolla white, monopetalous, or polypetalous, rotate, 4-lobed ; with oblong imbri- cated lobes. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla between the lobes, or hypogynous; filaments stiff, erect, filiform; anthers ovate, obtuse, 2-lobed, innate, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, roundish, naked, deep green, 4-celled; ovules solitary suspended; stigmas 4, simple, sessile, confluent. [N.B. The ovary is often abortive, and 4-lobed, without stigmas.] PRIMULA ACAULIS : The Primrose. Corollifloral Exogens. Nat. Order, Primulaoe®, or Primworts. Roots fibrous, rather strong and fleshy, proceeding from the sides of a short, very scaly, perennial stem. Leaves numerous, all radical, ohovate-oblong, rugose, unequally toothed, soft and somewhat downy, narrowing gradually downwards into broad short footstalks. Flowers axillary, solitary, with terete, shaggy peduncles, about half the length of the leaves, curving downwards after flowering. Calyx tubular, prismatical, 5-fid, a little contracted at the orifice, as long as the tube of the corolla, with acuminate teeth, and the angles covered with long soft hairs. Corolla large, monopetalous, hypocrateriform, as long as the calyx, or a little longer; limb 5-lobed, equal, sulphur-coloured, with a bright yellow spot at the baso of each of the lobes, which are flat, obcordate, and nearly as long as the tube. Stamens 5, inserted about the middlo of the tube, opposite the lobes of the corolla, nearly sessile; anthers 2-celled, innate, ovate, introrse, dehiscing longitudi- nally. ° Ovary superior, roundish, 1-cellod, with a polyspermous free central placenta; style filiform, scarcely reaching the stamens; stigma capitate. Capscle globular, enclosed in the persistent calyx, 10-furrowed, 5-valved at the apex ; the valves usually bidentate. Seeds indefinite, roundish, doprossed, somewhat angular in consequenco of mutual pressure, finely dotted. Embryo dicotyledonous, terete, lying in the axis of fleshy albumen, across tho