280 CLUSIACEAE. 



Family 2. HYPERICACEAE Lindl. 

 ST. JOHN'S-WORT FAMILY. 



Herbs or shrubs, sometimes small trees in tropical regions, with oppo- 

 site, or rarely verticillate, simple entire or rarely glandular-ciliate or 

 dentate leaves, no stipules, and solitary or cymose-paniculate flowers. 

 Foliage pellucid-punctate or black-dotted. Flowers regular and perfect. 

 Sepals 5 or 4, imbricated. Petals of the same number, hypogynous, gen- 

 erally oblique or contorted. Stamens co , hypogynous, often in sets of 3 or 

 5 ; anthers versatile or innate, 2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 

 1-7-celled, composed of 1-7 carpels; styles as many as the carpels; ovules 



00 , in 2 rows in each cavity, anatropous. Fruit mainly capsular with sep- 

 ticidal dehiscence; seeds mainly straight; endosperm none. About 10 

 genera and more than 300 species, mainly of temperate and warm regions. 



1. ASCYBUM L. Sp. PI. 787. 1753. 



Leafy glabrous low shrubs, with small narrow entire black-punctate 

 leaves, the flowers bright yellow. Sepals 4, in 2 pairs, the exterior ones broad 

 and round, the interior smaller and narrower. Petals 4, oblique or slightly 

 contorted, deciduous. Stamens co, distinct, or united in clusters. Ovary 1- 

 celled, with 2-4 parietal placentae ; styles 2-4. Capsule 1-celled, 24-valved, 

 dehiscent at the placentae. [Greek, not rough.] About 6 species, natives of 

 eastern North America, Central America and the West Indies. Type species: 

 Ascyrum liypericoides L. 



1. Ascyrum linifolium Spach, Hist. Veg. Phan. 5: 459. 1836. 



An erect shrub, 3-6 dm. high, much branched, the twigs very slender, 

 densely leafy. Leaves linear to linear-oblong or linear-spatulate, nearly sessile, 

 obtuse, 1-2 cm. long, 1-3 mm. wide; flowers solitary at the ends of the twigs, 

 very short-peduncled; outer sepals oblong, acute, 6-8 mm. long, the inner 

 petal-like ; petals widely spreading nearly in one plane, as long as or somewhat 

 longer than the outer sepals; capsule linear-oblong, beaked, about as long as 

 the outer sepals. 



Pine-lands and palmetto-lands, Abaco, Great Bahama, Andros and New Provi- 

 dence : Florida to Texas. ST. ANDREW'S CROSS. 



Family 3. CLUSIACEAE Lindl. 

 CLUSIA FAMILY. 



Shrubs or trees, sometimes epiphytic, with resinous sap, opposite 

 coriaceous estipulate entire leaves, the small or large, regular, polyg- 

 amous, dioecious or rarely perfect flowers usually clustered, sometimes 

 bracteolate. Sepals 2-6, rarely more, strongly imbricated. Petals usually 

 as many as the sepals, sometimes more, hypogynous. Staminate flowers 

 with numerous hypogynous stamens, the filaments united or distinct, with 

 or without a rudimentary ovary. Pistillate flowers with a 2-several-celled 

 ovary, and as many sessile or sub-sessile stigmas as there are ovary-cavities; 

 staminodes or some perfect stamens usually present. Fruit baccate, 

 drupaceous or capsular, usually fleshy. Seeds often arillate; endosperm 

 none. About 25 genera and over 250 species, mostly tropical. 



