The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey.

  • William H. Harvey
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    X. Capeiisix, Thiinb., our only species, is a small plant, with cquitant, ensi- fonn, radical leaves, and cone-shaped spikes of yellow flowers, home on simple scapes.—Found throughout the colony in marshy situations. Order CXXXIX. ERIOCAULINE.®. Flowers minute, unisexual, monoecious, rarely dioecious, collected into bracteate heads.—Male: Perianth in 2 series, outer of 2-3 glumes, inner tubular 2-3-fid. Stamens 3-6; filaments infiexed ; anthers 2-celled.—Female : Perianth of 6 pieces in 2 series, the inner broader or reduced to bundles of hairs. Ovary superior, 2-3-celled; style short; stigmas 2-3 ; ovules solitary, pendulous in each cell. Capsule 2-3- celled, loculicidally 2-3-valved; cells 1-seeded. Seeds pen- dulous ; testa coriaceous, shining, ribbed; the ribs hairy; albumen farinaceous; embryo usually lenticular, removed from the hilum.— Scapigerous herbs, often minute, usually growing in marshes. Leaves narrow, usually all radical. Scapes radical, bearing solitary, minute heads of fiowers. 1. ERIOCAULON, Linn. Flowers usually monoecious ; males in the centre of the head.—Male: Stamens 2-6, all fertile.—Female: Perianth- segments 6. Ovary 2-3-celled. Capsule 2-3-celled.—Endl. Gen. El. p. 123. Usually tropical herbs, with slender, radical, rosulate leaves, transparent and beautifully septate under the microscope.—There are 2 Natal species. Order CXL. RESTIACE.®. {By M. T. Masters, M.D., F.L.S.*) Flowers dioecious. Perianth glumaceous, persistent, of 6, rarely 4, distinct or rarely connate glumes in 2 rows ; the outer 3 equal or more generally unequal, 2 lateral coudupli- cate, aud 1 anterior flat or nearly so; the 3 inner glumes usually smaller aud less rigid than the outer and nearly equal in form, sometimes exceeding the outer glumes.—Male: Sta- mens 3 ] filaments adnate at the base to the inner glumes • anthers introrse, exserted or included, 1-celled, dehiscing lon- gitudinally, attached to the filament on the dorsal surface below the middle.—Female : Ovary 1-3-celled ; ovules soli- * Tlie following monogiiiph of tlie genera of Resliacem has been kindly supplied by Di». Masters.—J. D. II.