BATIDACEAE. 133 



2. Pisonia rotundata Griseb. Cat. PL Cub. 283. 1866. 



Pisonia subcordata rotundata Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21 : 630. 1896. 



An unarmed shrub, or small tree, up to 5 m. high, in Cuba becoming larger, 

 the twigs and leaves glabrous or finely pubescent. Leaves oval, oblong or 

 obovate, firm in texture, 2.5-7 cm. long, rounded or retuse at the apex, obtuse or 

 broadly cuneate at the base, minutely reticulate-veined beneath, the petioles 

 3-10 mm. long; cymes many -flowered, rather densely pubescent or glabrate; 

 fruit clavate, 6-7 mm. long, with 5 rows of short-stalked glands above the 

 middle. 



Coppices, pine-lands and scrub-lands, Andros, Xew Providence, Eleuthera : 

 Florida ; Cuba. ROUND-LEAVED PISONIA. 



Family 4. BATIDACEAE Damnier. 

 SALTWORT FAMILY. 



Low fleshy much-branched shrubs, with opposite semiterete, linear or 

 club-shaped, entire sessile estipulate leaves, and small dioecious greenish 

 flowers in axillary spikes. Staminate spikes with many persistent imbri- 

 cated scales, each subtending a flower; calyx 2-lobed; stamens 4 or 5, with 

 stout filaments alternating with staminodia ; anthers introrse. Pistillate 

 spikes 4-12-flowered, the scales deciduous; calyx and corolla wanting; 

 ovary sessile, 4-celled; ovule 1 in each cavity, erect, anatropous; stigma 

 sessile, somewhat 2-lobed ; fruit aggregate, about 4-seeded. Seeds club- 

 shaped, the testa membranous ; endosperm none ; cotyledons large. Only 

 the following genus. 



1. BATIS L. Syst. ed. 10, 1289. 1759. 



Characters of the family. [Greek, from the fancied resemblance of the 

 fruit to a blackberry.] A monotypie genus. 



1. Batis maritima L. Syst. ed. 10, 1289. 1759. 



A glabrous shrub 1 m. high or less, the rather stout stems spreading, 

 prostrate or ascending, the branches nearly erect, angular. Leaves acutish, 

 1-2.5 em. long; spikes ovoid or oblong, 5-10 mm. long, the staminate sessile, 

 the pistillate short-pednncled; bracts nearly orbicular or reniform, longer than 

 the calyx; stamens exserted, longer than the triangular staminodia; fruit 1-2 

 cm. long, drooping. 



Mangrove mud and saline marshes. Great Bahama, North Bimini, Andros, Wat- 

 ling's. Grand Turk. Inagna and Anguilla Isles : Georgia to Florida ; southern 

 California ; West Indies ; continental tropical America. SALTWORT. TURTLE-WEED. 



Family 5. PHYTOLACCACEAE Lindl. 

 POKEWEED FAMILY. 



Herbs, some tropical species shrubs, vines or trees, with alternate entire 

 mostly estipulate leaves, and perfect regular polygamous or monoecious 

 flowers. Calyx 4-5-parted or of 4 or 5 sepals, its segments or sepals 

 imbricated in the bud. Petals wanting. Stamens as many as the calyx- 

 segments or sepals and alternate with them, or more numerous, hypogyn- 

 ous; filaments distinct, or united at the base; anthers 2-celled, the sacs 



