262 TILIACEAE. 



anatropous; styles united. Fruit 1-10-celled, drupaceous or baccate. 

 Cotyledons ovate or orbicular; endosperm fleshy, rarely wanting. About 

 35 genera and 275 species, widely distributed, the Bahama species herbs 

 or low shrubs. 



Fruit a loculicidal capsule without prickles. 1. CorcJiorus. 



Fruit indehiscent, prickly, separating into its carpels at maturity. 2. Triumfetta. 



1. CORCHORUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 529. 1753. 



Herbs or low shrubs, with alternate serrate leaves, and yellow, solitary or 

 clustered flowers, axillary or opposite the leaves. Sepals and petals 5, rarely 4. 

 Stamens twice as many as the petals or more numerous; filaments filiform, 

 simple; anthers introrse. Ovary superior, 2-5-celled; ovules numerous in each 

 cavity; stigma dilated, undulate. Capsule linear or oblong, many-seeded. 

 [Greek, for some bitter plant.] About 40 species of tropical and subtropical 

 distribution. Type species: Corchorus olitorius L. 



Capsule glabrous or pubescent. 



Capsule 5-celled, with 5 short points ; basal serratures of leaves 



long-bristled. 1. c. oHtorius. 



Capsule 2-celled, with 2 bifid teeth ; basal serratures of leaf not 



bristled. 2. C. siliquosus. 



Capsule densely woolly. 3. C. hirsutus. 



1. Corchorus olitorius L. Sp. PI. 529. 1753. 



Herbaceous, glabrous, 1.5-3 m. high. Stipules setaceous, 1-2 cm. long; 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, 5-12 cm. long, acute or acuminate at 

 the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, serrate all around, the basal teeth recurved, 

 tipped by a filiform appendage 1-2 em. long; flowers mostly solitary at the 

 nodes, short-peduncled ; sepals 5-6 mm. long, subulate-tipped; petals a little 

 longer than the sepals; capsule linear, 4-5 tin. long, 3-4 mm. thick, 5-celled, 

 tipped by 5 short teeth, its cells septate. 



Waste and cultivated land, naturalized. New Providence, near Nassau : Natu- 

 ralized from tropical regions of the Old World ; also in Jamaica and Trinidad. 

 CORCHORUS. GRAXIGRAIX. 



2. Corchorus siliquosus L. Sp. PL 529. 1753. 



Shrubby, branched, 3-10 dm. high, glabrous, or the young branches and 

 leaves puberulent or pubescent, the branches often with a line of hairs. Leaves 

 ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 1-5 cm. long, serrate, acute or acuminate at the apex, 

 mostly rounded or obtuse at the base, the short petioles slender ; flowers solitary 

 or 2 together, short-peduncled, the pedicels about as long as the peduncles; 

 sepals linear, acute, about 6 mm. long; petals obovate, about 5 mm. long; 

 capsule linear, glabrous, or when young somewhat pubescent, 5-8 cm. long, 

 about 3 mm. thick, 2-celled, tipped by 2 short bifid teeth. 



Waste and cultivated land, coppices and scrub-lands. Abaco, Andros. Great 

 Bahama. New Providence, Eleuthera. Crooked Island, Acklin's. Fortune Islands and 

 North Caicos : Florida : Cuba to Tortola and Trinidad ; Texas to Colombia and 

 Guiana ; Jamaica. SMOOTH CORCHORUS. 



3. Corchorus hirsutus L. Sp. PI. 530. 1753. 



A shrub, 2 m. high or less, usually erect, but on rocks sometimes nearly 

 prostrate, the young twigs, the leaves and the inflorescence densely pale scurfy- 

 tomentulose. Leaves short-petioled, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, crenate-dentate, 

 2-6 em. long, mostly obtuse; flowers in small umbels opposite the leaves, the 

 peduncle about as long as the pedicels; sepals tomentulose, 5-6 mm. long; 



