236 



OROBANCHACEAE. 



VOL. III. 



4. LEPTAMNIUM Raf. Am. Month. Mag. 2: 267. Feb. 1818. 



[EPIFAGUS Nutt. Gen. 2: 60. 1818.] 



An erect slender glabrous, purplish or yellowish, rather stiff branching herb, parasitic on 

 the roots of the beech, with few small scattered scales, and sessile dimorphous flowers, dis- 

 tantly spicate on the branches, the lower cleistogamous, abundantly fertile, the upper com- 

 plete but mostly sterile. Calyx sho'rt, nearly equally 5-toothed. Corolla of the upper flowers 

 cylindric, slightly flattened laterally, the tube much longer than the 4-lobed limb, the upper 

 lobe concave, larger than the 3 lower ones; stamens not exserted; anther-sacs mucronulate 

 at the base; style filiform, 2-lobed; ovary with an adnate gland on the upper side near the 

 base. Corolla of the lower flowers minute, not unfolding, borne like a hood on the summit 

 of the ovoid ovary; style very short ; placentae contiguous in pairs; capsule at length 2-valved 

 at the summit. [Greek, referring to the small calyx.] 



A monotypic genus of eastern North America. 



i. Leptamnium virginianum (L.) Raf. 

 Beech-drops. Fig. 3882. 



Orobanche virginiana L. Sp. PI. 633. 1753. 

 Epifagus americana Nutt. Gen. 2: 60. 1818. 

 Epiphegus virginiana Bart. Comp. Fl. Phil. 2: 50. 



1818. 

 Leptamnium virginianum Raf. ; A. Gray, Syn. Fl. 



2: Part i, 314. 1878. As synonym. 



Plant 6'-2 high from a thick scaly base, the 

 roots brittle, fibrous. Stem paniculately branch- 

 ed, the branches straight, ascending ; scales 

 very few and small; corolla of the upper 

 flowers 4"-s" long and i" thick, striped with 

 purple and white, the limb not at all spread- 

 ing; stamens about as long as the corolla; 

 style slightly exserted; lower flowers ii" long, 

 the corolla resembling the calyptra of a moss; 

 capsule 3" high, somewhat oblique and com- 

 pressed, many-seeded. 



In beech woods, Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick to Florida, west to Ontario, Michigan, Mis- 

 souri and Louisiana. Cancer-root or -drops. 

 Virginia brown-rape. Aug.-Oct. 



Family 31. BIGNONIACEAE Pers. Syn. 2: 168. 1807. 



TRUMPET-CREEPER FAMILY. 



Trees, shrubs or woody vines, a few exotic species herbs, with opposite (rarely 

 alternate) compound or simple leaves, and mostly large and showy, clustered 

 terminal or axillary, more or less irregular flowers. Calyx inferior, gamosepalous. 

 Corolla gamopetalous, funnel form, campanulate, or tubular, 5-lobed, somewhat 

 2-lipped, at least in the bud. Anther-bearing stamens 2 or 4, inserted on the tube 

 of the corolla and alternate with its lobes ; anthers 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally 

 dehiscent. Disk annular or cup-like. Ovary sessile or stalked, mostly 2-celled; 

 placentae parietal, or on the partition-wall of the ovary ; ovules very numerous, 

 horizontal, anatropous ; style slender ; stigma terminal, 2-lobed. Capsule 2-valved, 

 loculicidally, septif ragally or septicidally dehiscent. Seeds flat, transverse, winged 

 in our genera ; endosperm none ; cotyledons broad and flat, emarginate or 2-lobed ; 

 radicle short, straight. 



About 60 genera and over 500 species of wide geographic distribution in tropical regions, a few 

 in the north and south temperate zones. 

 Leaves compound ; anther-bearing stamens 4 ; our species vines. 



Calyx-limb undulate; capsule flattened parallel with its partition-wall. i. Anisostichus. 



Calyx s-toothed ; capsule compressed at right angles to its partition-wall. 2. Bignonia. 



Leaves simple ; anther-bearing stamens mostly 2 ; trees. 3. Catalpa. 



i. ANISOSTICHUS Bureau, Mon. Bignon. 43. 1864. 



Woody vines, with opposite 2-foliolate leaves, the terminal leaflet reduced to a tendril, 

 and large flowers in axillary cymes. Calyx campanulate, the limb merely undulate, truncate 

 or slightly 5-toothed. Tube of the corolla much expanded above the calyx, the limb some- 

 what 2-lipped, 5-lobed, the lobes rounded. Anther-bearing stamens 4, didynamous, included, 



