

STANDLEY ALLIONIACEAE OF MEXICO. 401 



Indefinite locality: Cienega Grande cast of Camargo, May 18, Gregg 264. 



In very young specimens the flowers are cleistogamous and the heads on short 

 peduncles in the axils of the lowest leaves, giving the plants a very different appear- 

 ance from that usual later in the season. 



The large fleshy roots are sliced and dried and used as a remedy for wind colic. 

 About Saltillo the plant is known as yerba blanca. 



14. ALLIONIA L. 



Allionia L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 890. 1759. 



Vitmania Turra; Cav. Icon. PI. 3: 53. 1794, not Vitmannia Vahl. 1794. 

 Oxybaphus L'Her.; Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 185. 1797. 

 Calyxhymenia Orteg. Hort. Matr. Dec. 5. 1797. 

 Calymenia Pers. Syn. PI. 1: 36. 1805. 



Mirabilis Heimerl in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 3 11 *: 24. 1894, in part, not L. 

 Type species, Allionia violacea L. 



The genus as published by Linnaeus consisted of two species, violacea and incarnata, 

 the former cited first. The latter is the type of the genus Wedeliella. The genus 

 Allionia was published without a specific combination by Loefling in 1758. The 

 plant described by that author was the one to which Linnaeus gave the name of 

 Allionia violacea. Since Loefling's description may not be readily accessible to all 

 who may wish to consult it, it is reproduced here, as follows: 

 Allionia Loefl, Iter Ilisp. 181. 1758. 

 Radix .... 



Caulis herbaceus, erectus, debilis, ramosus. 



Folia opposita, cordata, acuta, integerrima, glabra, inferiora longe petiolata. 

 Flores in panicula ramosa, terminales, bracteolis brevibus. 

 Corolla majuscula purpureo-caerulea. (Hinc facie recedit a superiori planta," ut 



& corollae magnitudine.) 

 Cal. Involucrum commune monophyllum, laxum, quinquefidum: laciniis ovato- 



acutis, paulo inaequalibus, divisura una usque ad basin sectum, persistens. 

 Perianthium proprium nullum. 

 Cor. aggregata triflora, aequalis, propria infundibuliformis s. obconica: ore 



erecto, quinquefido: laciniis exterioribus paulo longioribus. 

 Stam. Filamenta quatuor, setacea, corolla longiora ad unum latus flexa. Antherae 



subrotunda. 

 Pist. sing. Germen sub corollula, oblongum, obsolete octangulum, Stylus setaceus 



staminibus longior, Stigma multifidum, lineare. 

 Per. nullum. 



Sem. solitaria, oblonga, quinquangula, tuberculis undique inaequalia, nuda. 

 A praecedente" imprimis differt calyce & partim corolla. 

 Cumanensibus Jasminullo. 

 It has been doubted by some whether this description really refers to a plant of the 

 Allioniaceae, on account of the phrase in the description of the involucre, "divisura 

 una usque ad basin sectum.'''' So far as we know this is true of no Allionia. However, 

 it sometimes happens that one of the divisions of the involucre is more deeply cut 

 than the others, and in the pressing of specimens the involucre might be torn so as to 

 produce the effect described. Otherwise the diagnosis exactly fits the so-called 

 Allionia violacea, and, so far as we know, no other plant. 



Hemsley listed from our region nine species of the genus Oxybaphus: aggregatus, 

 angusti/olius, cervantesii, cordi/olius, glabri/olius, ovatus, violaceus, wrightii, and 

 viscosus. Four of these are listed here under the same specific names. Oxybaphus 

 angusti/olius is a synonym of Allionia linearis; 0. cervantesii, 0. cordi/olius, and 0. 

 ovatus were probably wrong identifications; 0. wrightii is Allioniella oxybaphoides. 



a Wedelia Loefl. 



