280 SCROPHULARIACEJE. Herpestis. 



16. HERPESTIS, Goertn. f. ('E^Ttr^r^g, a creeping thing, the original 

 species creeping.) Low herbs (chiefly American), commonly glabrous ; with 

 opposite leaves, and mainly axillary flowers, in summer. 



1. Corolla obviously bilabiate ; the two posterior lobes being united to form 

 the upper lip : pedicels and calyx ebracteolate : style dilated and 2-lobed at the 

 apex, or stigma bilamellar. Mercadonia, Metta, & Chcetodiscus, Benth. in DC. 

 Prodr. & Gen. ii. 952. 



* Erect or ascending glabrous perennials, drying blackish : leaves pinnately veined, mostly petioled 

 and serrate or crenate: anther-cells divergent : style curved at apex : stigmas obovate. 



H. nigrescens, Benth. A foot or two high, mostly erect, very leafy : leaves from 

 oblong to cuneate-lanceolate, serrate, with entire tapering base (1 or 2 inches long) : pedi- 

 cels equalling and the upper surpassing the leaves: upper sepals oblong-lanceolate, not 

 much broader than the narrowly-lanceolate lower ones : corolla whitish or purplish : 

 valves of the capsule often 2-clef t. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 56, & DC. Prodr. x. 394. Gratlola 

 acuminata, Walt. Car. 61 ; Ell. Sk. i. 15 ; Curtis, PI. Wilmingt. in Jour. Bost. Nat. Hist. i. 

 130. G. incequalls, Walt. 1. c. 1 Gerard ia cunei/dia, Pursh, Fl. ii. 422. Mutonrea nigrescens, 

 Benth. in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 173. Wet places, Maryland (A. Hay), and North Carolina 

 to Texas, along and near the coast. 



H. Chamaedryoides, HBK. A span or two high, generally diffuse or decumbent : 

 leaves ovate or oblong, serrate (half or three-fourths inch long), mostly surpassed by the 

 pedicels : upper sepal ovate ; the lower ones ovate or oblong : corolla yellow. Nov. Gen. 

 & Spec. ii. 369 ; Benth. 1. c. Erinus procumbens, Mill. Diet. Mercadonia ovata, Ruiz & Pav. ? 

 Lindernia dianthera, Swartz. Microcarpcea Americana, Spreng. Syst. ii. 368. Moist 

 ground, Texas. (Mcx., W. Ind., S. Amer.) 



Var. peduncularis (// peduncularis, Benth. 1 c.) is founded on a form with erect and 

 simpler stems, smaller and narrower leaves, and filiform pedicels of thrice their length. 

 Texas, Dnunmond, also Berlandier, &c. A similar form, but with diffuse or procumbent 

 stems (H. peduncularis, Chapm. Fl. 291), is from Key West, Florida. 



* * Creeping, or ascending from a creeping base, stoloniferous-perennial, rather succulent: stems 

 villous-pubescent or glabrate : leaves closely sessile and partly clasping, nervose from the base, 

 entire or obscurely crenulate : capsule 4-valved: corolla blue or violet, varying to white. 



-1 Leaves pellucid-punctate, aromatic when bruised : ovary girt by a slenderly 10-12-toothed hypo- 

 gynous disk : anthers somewhat sagittate : stigma dilated, obscurely 2-lobed : upper lip of corolla 

 obcordate. 



H. amplexicaulis, Pursh. Stems a span to a foot or two long, creeping at base, then 

 ascending and nearly simple, very leafy : leaves ovate, obtuse, half to nearly an inch long, 

 sometimes a little pubescent: pedicels shorter than calyx or hardly any: upper sepal 

 cordate: corolla 5 lines long, ephemeral. Fl. ii. 413; Benth. I.e. Obolaria Caroliniana, 

 Walt. Car. 166. Momuera amplexicaulis, Michx. Fl. ii. 22. Margin of pine-barren ponds, 

 New Jersey (?) and Maryland to Louisiana. 



H H Leaves not punctate : hypogynous, disk obscure and entire or none : anthers parallel : stigma 

 2-lamellar: upper lip of corolla merely emarginate. 



H. repens, Cham. & Schl. Glabrous, or summit of the creeping stems puberulent : 

 leaves oval and with broad clasping base (quarter to half inch long) : pedicels about the 

 length of flower and fructiferous calyx: upper and lower sepals broadly oval or sub- 

 cordate, reticulate-veiny, in flower almost equalling the white or whitish corolla. 

 Linnjeai v. 107 ; Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 430. II. micrantha, Benth. 1. c.. mainly (not Pursh, 

 which is chiefly Micrantlieimnn) ; Ell. Sk. ii. 105, ex char. Gratiola repens, Swartz, Fl. Ind. 

 Occ. i. 39, & Ic. t. 3 Wet soil, S. Carolina, &c. (W. Ind., Brazil.) 



H. rotundifolia, Pursh. Larger : spreading and creeping stems usually villous-pubes- 

 cent ; leaves obovate or rotund, with cuneate-narrowed but partly clasping flabellately 

 many-nerved base, often an inch long: pedicels longer than the flower (commonly in 

 threes) : corolla blue, almost twice the length of the ovate and oval sepals. Fl. ii. 418; 

 Benth. 1. c. Monniera rotund! folia, Michx. 1. c. Margin of ponds, Illinois and Missouri to 

 Louisiana and Texas. (Possibly also in " S. Carolina and Georgia," but H. rotundifolia of 

 Elliot is probably the //. amplexicaulis.) 



