64 PRIMULACE^E. Anagallis. 



world : flowers on slender pedicels from the axils of the entire leaves, middle- 

 sized or small, in summer. 



A. AKVENSIS, L. Annual, glabrous: stems spreading: leaves ovate, sessile (half to a full 

 inch long, mostly shorter than the pedicels), opposite, in threes, or sometimes the uppermost 

 alternate : calyx-lobes narrow, nearly equalling the red, purple, or blue (rarely white) 

 corolla ; the divisions of which are minutely denticulate or glandular-ciliate. Waste 

 grounds, especially hi sandy soil, naturalized both on the Atlantic and Pacific coast. (Eu., 

 Asia, Afr.) 



11. CENTTJNCULUS, Dill. CHAFFWEED. (The meaning obscure.) - 

 Very small glabrous annuals, with mainly alternate leaves, and solitary incon- 

 spicuous flowers in their axils, in summer. 



C. minimus, L. Stems ascending, 2 to 6 inches long, slender : leaves ovate, obovate, or 

 in ours often spatulate-oblong, contracted or tapering at base (2 or 3 lines long), all but 

 the lowest sessile : flowers nearly or quite sessile in the axils, 4-merous, sometimes 5- 

 merous : calyx-lobes lanceolate-subulate, fully equalling the capsule. Fl. Dan. 1. 177 ; 

 Reichenb. Ic. Germ. xvii. 1082 ; Fl. Bras. Prim. t. 23. C. lanceolatus, Michx. Fl. i. 93. Low 

 grounds, Illinois to Florida and Texas (wanting in N. E. States), and west to Oregon. 

 (Eu., S. Amer.) 



12. SAMOLUS, Tourn. BROOKWEED, WATER-PIMPERNEL. (Celtic, name, 

 according to Pliny, the meaning unexplained.) Low and glabrous herbs ; with 

 alternate entire leaves, and small white flowers in simple or panicled racemes ; 

 in summer. One species cosmopolite ; most of the others in the southern hemi- 

 sphere. Ours either annual or perennial, with fibrous roots. 



S. Valerandi, L. Stems erect or ascending, branching from the base, leafy up to the 

 raceme : leaves obovate, thinnish ; the lower tapering into a petiole : pedicels ascending, 

 bractless, 1-bracteolate near the middle : calyx adherent to the middle of the ovary and 

 capsule ; the lobes ovate, half the length of the short-campanulate corolla ; this only a 

 line long, the sinuses bearing inflexed sterile filaments. Engl. Bot. t. 703. Near Philadel- 

 phia, &c. ; introduced in ballast. (Eu., Afr., Asia.) 



Var. Americanus, Gray. More branched with age, becoming slender and diffuse, 

 with elongating and loose paniculate racemes of most-ly smaller flowers on more filiform 

 and spreading pedicels : capsules sometimes one-half smaller. Man. ed. 2, 274, &c. S.Jio- 

 ribundus, HBK. ; Gray, Man. ed. 1, &c. Wet places, especially along brooks, N. Canada 

 to Florida, Texas, Oregon, and California. (Mex., S. Amer.) 



S- ebracteatus, HBK. Leafy stems short : leaves fleshy, obovate, spatulate, or oblong- 

 oblanceolate, the lower tapering into a winged petiole and decurrent : racemes long- 

 peduncled or as if on a scape (a span or two high) : pedicels without bract or bractlet : 

 calyx almost 5-parted, adherent only to the base of the ovary and capsule: corolla oblong- 

 campanulate (about 2 lines long), with tube longer than the lobes : sterile filaments none. 

 Nov. Gen. & Spec. ii. 223, t. 129; Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 236; Chapm. Fl. 282. S. 

 longipes, Hook, ex Shuttleworth in Bot. Zeit. 1845, 222. Samodia ebracteata, Baudo in Ann. 

 Sci. Nat. ser. 2, xx. 350. Saline and brackish soil, Florida to Texas and Upper Arkansas. 

 (Mex., W. Ind.) 



ORDER LXXXII. MYRSINEACE^E. 



Shrubs or trees, with the floral characters of Primulacece, i. e. stamens of the 

 number of the petals or corolla-lobes and opposite them, undivided style and 

 stigma, and a one-celled ovary with a free central placenta, bearing few or 

 numerous peltate amphitropous ovules. These are generally immersed in the 

 placenta, and only one usually matures into a seed. This is globose, with a thin 



