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72 



CISTINEiE. [Lechea. 



Stigma capitatum. Stilus nunc subnullus, nunc rectus, nunc obliquus, nunc basi flexus. 

 Ovarium triquetrum. Capsida S-valvis, valvis medio septi aut seminiferis. Sernina angu- 

 lata, glabra. Albumen farinosum. Embryo uncinato-inflexus. DC. 



1. H, canadense ; (Scc^. Lecheoides;) exstipulataj caule erecto vel ascendente sufFruti- 

 coso ramoso pubescente, foliis oblongis pubescenti-hirsutis subtus incano-tonicntosis 

 margine revolutis, calycibus hirsutis, staminibus sub-20, floribus serotinis apetalis capsul- 

 isque reliquis 5-pIo nunoribus. — Mich, Am. v, 1. p, 308. Pursh, FL Am. v, 2. p. 263. 

 Sweet, Cistin. 1 21. DeCand, Prodr, r. l.p. 269. — Cistus canadensis. Willd. — BigeL FL Bost, 

 ed, 2, p, 47. — Lechea major. Linn, Amcsn. Acad. v. 3. p, 11. (excl. fig.) according to Smith. 



Hab. Canada. Michaux. — Few persons on seeing an early shoot of this, with its few terminal flowers, 

 having large hairy calyces, ample yellow petals, and capsules half-an-inch broad, would take it for the same 

 plant as it appears at an after period, throwing out many branches from above, these again bearing leafy race- 

 mes, with numerous axillary small flowers and shortly downy calyces, without petals, and capsules not larger 

 than a moderately sized pin's head. Yet such is the case, and the plant then looks so much like a Lechea, 

 that it has probably been described as such : indeed, certainly so, according to Smith, by Linnaeus, Some- 

 times the whole plant bears only such small flowers ; at other times, as in specimens given me by Dr. Boott, 

 from the neighbourhood of Boston, the lower part has a few large lateral capsules, while all the branches 

 above produce the small ones in question. Dr. Bigelow observes of this plant, that at the beginning of frosts 

 the bark cracks and rolls backwards, at which time the fragments are found connected by a mass of fibrous, 

 icy crystals, and Mr, Eaton, in his useful Manual of Botany, remarks, that at the foot of the Pine-rock, 

 New-Haven, in November and December, 1816, he has seen hundreds of these plants sending out broad, 

 thin, curved ice crystals, about an inch in breadth, from near the roots. These were melted away by day, 

 and rene\ved every morning, for more than twenty days in succession, 



2. LECHEA. Linn. 



4 



CaL 3-sepalus, bracteis sepalisve duobus exterioribus stipatus. Pet. 3, lanceolata. Stain. 

 3-12, saepius nuniero ternaria. Ovarium I, subtrlgonum. Stigmata S, vix distincta. 

 Capsula S-vaWiSy valvis medio septi aut nerviferis; sernina septo nervove adfixa, paucls- 

 sima, ssepius 8; albumen csivno^um. Embryo dovs^Y\s rectiusculus, radicula infera, coty- 

 ledonibus ovato-oblongis. — Herb^ boreali-Americanm incomptcB, floribus numerosis, parvis, 

 ramis infimis a floriferis scepe diversis. 



1. L. villosa; ramis radicalibus prostratis villosisj foliis oblongo-lanceolatis mucronatis 

 pilosis, panicula brevi foliosa, floribus fasciculato-fibrosis secundis brevissime pedicellatis, 

 caule erecto. — Elliott^ Carol v. I. p. 184. De Cand. Prodr. v. !./>.' 285. — L. major. Mich. 

 Am. V. I. p. 76. (non Linn.) Pursh, Fl. Am. v. 1. p. 90. Bigel. FL Bost ed. 2. p. 46. Torrey in 

 FL of Mid. Un. St. v. 1. p. 160. — L. minor. Linn, et Sm. in Bees' CycL — Lam. LIL t. 52./ 2. 



Hab. Canada. Kalm ; Purs/i. — Sir James E. Smith had long ago, in Rces* Cyclopedia, recommended 

 the abolishing the name Lechea major; Linn?pus' original specimen, (which he afterwards confounded with 

 other things,) being our JJelianthemum canadense ; but it appears that the plant so called by Michaux, 

 Pursh, and Bigelow, is a true Lechea; hence, to avoid confusion, Mr. Elliott, the estimable author of the 

 Flora of Carolina and Georgia, has given to the latter the name of villosa, which has been adopted by Nuttall 

 and De Candolle. It is the tallest and broadest-leaved of the genus, and, in most instances, the leaves are 

 elliptical, and not unfreriuently temately or quaternately whorled, those of the radical shoots and lesser 

 branches of the stem being the smallest. 



2. L. minor; ramis radicalibus prostratis villosis, foliis linearibus seu llneari-lanceo- 



