Houstonia. RUBIACE^. 25 



plish without yellowish eye. Sk. i. 191 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acacl. iv. 314. IT. Linncci, var. 

 minor, Michx. Fl. i. 85. fledyotis minima, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 1. c. in part, & //. ever idea, var. 

 minor. Dry or saiidy soil, S. Virginia to Texas in the low country, also Illinois ? and Ten- 

 nessee ; ll. early spring. 



Var. pusilla. An inch or so high, more diffuse in age : leaves narrowly spatulate 

 (half a lino or a line wide) ; upper ones nearly linear: seeds smoother, with more open and 

 oval hilar cavity, and sometimes an elevated line within, as described in Proc. Am. Acad. 

 1. c., a character not found in the larger and broader leaved form. Perhaps from the char, 

 this is the true //. jiatens, Ell. But we have it only from Louisiana (Hale, Drummond) and 

 Texas, Drummond and others ; there passing into the other form. 



H. minima, BECK. More diffuse, commonly scabrous : leaves spatulate to ovate: flowers 

 usually larger : calyx-lobes more foliaceous, oblong-lanceolate, sometimes 2 lines long, very 

 much longer than the ovary, equalling the tube of the purple or violet corolla ; lobes of the 

 latter 2 or 3 lines long: primary peduncles sometimes declined in fruit ? Amer. Jour. Sri. 

 x. 262; Gray, 1. c. Hedyotis minima, Torr. & Gray, 1. c., in part only. Dry hills, Mis- 

 souri and Arkansas to Texas, first coll. by L. C. Beck about St. Louis; fl. early spring. 



* * Sk-mler leafy-stemmed annual, with lateral horizontal peduncles, and very small flowers: 



corolla short-sal verform: seeds crateriform, with a medial liilar ridge. 



H. Subviscosa, GRAY. A span or two high, minutely viscidulous-pubescent, with rather 

 simple spreading branches : leaves narrowly linear, half-inch lung : peduncle in first fork 

 and from all following nodes, rather shorter than leaves, horizontally refracted in fruit : 

 calyx and capsule a line high : corolla about same length, white : capsule didymous, only the 

 summit free: seeds 10 in each cell. Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 314. Oldenlandia subviscosa, 

 Wright iu Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 68. S. Texas, Bcrlandicr, Wriijlt. 



=fc % * Depressed or low-tufted species: corolla salvcrform or in one species funnelform: fila- 

 ments as well as anthers or summit of stylo reciprocally exserted quite out of the throat: 

 fructiferous peduncles all short and recurved. 

 H Annual, with small funnelform corolla : seeds open-crateriform : scarious stipules setulose- 



ciliatc! 



H. liumifusa, GRAY. Much branched from the root, repeatedly dichotomous, forming a de- 

 pressed tuft, puberulent and viscid : leaves linear-lanceolate, thickish (half-inch or more long), 

 mucrouate : ilowers in all the forks, crowded with the leaves at the ends of branchlets : calyx 

 4-partcd into long setaceous-subulate spreading lobes : corolla pale purple or nearly white, 

 opeu-fuuuelform, 3 lines long, hardly twice the length of the calyx ; the oblong lobes puberu- 

 lous inside : capsule a line in diameter, globose-didymous, three-fourths free, only the base 

 girt by the short accrete calyx-tube. Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 314 (not of Hemsl. Biol. Bot. 

 which is //. \}'rii/Jitii). ILidyutis (Houstonia) humifusa, Gray, PI. Liudh. ii. 216. Sandy 

 or gravelly plains and hills, Texas, Wriyht, Lindheimer, Reverchon, c. : fl. spring. 



I -1 Perennials, prostrate, with naked stipules and elongated salverf'onn corolla, flowering con- 

 spicuously in early spring; later growth producing through the summer inconspicuous cleistoga- 

 mons (lowers, with short (yet mostly well-formed but unopening) corollas. 



H. rotundifolia, MICHX. Perennial by slender rootstocks or shoots, more or less creep- 

 ing, glabrous or with some hispidulous pubescence : leaves somewhat orbicular, slightly 

 petioled, not longer than the iuternodes : peduncles 2 to 4 lines long or in ' cleistogamous 

 flowers very short : developed corollas bright white, with filiform tube (3 or 4 lines long) 

 longer than the oblong lobes : capsule more than half free, somewhat didymous : seeds 

 comparatively large (half-line in diameter), rough-scrobiculate, acetabuliform. Fl. i. 85 ; 

 Pursh, 1. c. ; Ell. 1. c. Hedyotis rotund ifolia, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 38. Oldenlandia rotundi- 

 fo/ia, Chapm. Fl. 180, the later "apetalous fruiting" flowers noted. Low sandy ground, 

 S. Car. to Florida and Louisiana. 



H. rubra, CAV. Suffrutescent and multicipital from a deep root, forming a depressed tuft 

 of 2 to 4 inches high, glabrous or minutely puberuleut, densely leafy: leaves narrowly 

 linear, an inch or more long, or earlier ones rather lanceolate and shorter : corolla " red " 

 or rather purple, sometimes lilac or varying to white ; tube half-inch to nearly inch long, 

 slender ; oblong acute lobes 2 or 3 lines long : capsule 2 lines wide, less high, didymous, fully 

 three-fourths free: seeds open-crateriform. Ic. v. t. 474; Benth. PI. Hartw. 15. Hedi/o- 

 tis (Houstonia) rubra, Gray, PI. Fendl. 61. Oldenlandia (Houstonia) rubra, Gray, PI. Wright, 

 ii. 68. Stony or gravelly hills, New Mexico and Arizona. (Mex.) 



