28 RUBIACE.E. Pentodon. 



half-inch long, contracted at base as if petioled : flowers in terminal or lateral sessile glome- 

 rules, rarely solitary : calyx-lobes ovate or oblong, foliaceous, longer than the subglobose or 

 hemispherical hirsute capsule. Fl. i. 83 ; Pursh, Fl. i. 102. 0. uni flora, L. Spec. i. 119 

 name passed by as incorrect. Ilcdyolis auricularia, Walt. Car. 85, not L. H. glomerata, Ell. 

 Sk. i. 187 ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. //. gluMcrala & H. Vinjinica, Spreng. Syst. i. 412. 

 Low grounds near the coast, Long Island, New York, to Florida and Texas. (Cuba.) 



6. PENTODON, Hochst. (Ilei/Tc, five, oSo-Js, tooth, differing from the pre- 

 ceding genus in 5-merous flowers, therefore five calyx-teeth.) - - Tender and weak 

 somewhat succulent annuals, glabrous ; with 4-angular branching and diffusely 

 spreading stems, ovate or oblong short-petiolate leaves, 2-3-flowered terminal 

 peduncles, occupying the forks of the stem or becoming lateral, or by suppression 

 of leaves bearing several quasi-racemose flowers: corolla white. -- Flora, 1844, 

 522; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 59. Hedyotis Pentotis, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 42. 

 Consists of an African species (P. decumbens, Hochst. 1. c., Oldenlandia pcn- 

 tandra, DC.) and the following, which differs from the character of that plant in 

 the points mentioned below. 



P. Halei. Leaves rather obtuse : peduncles shorter than the leaves, or hardly any : pedi- 

 cels onlv twice the leugth of the flowering or fruiting calyx, soon clavate-thickened : 

 corolla only a line long, not hirsute within. Hedi/otis Halei, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Olden- 

 landia Halei, Chapm. Fl. 181. Low swampy grounds, W. Louisiana, Hale. Florida, Rugel, 

 Garber, Curtiss. (Cuba.) 



7. HAM3LLIA, Jacq. (H. L. DuHamel du Monceau.'} Tropical Ameri- 

 can shrubs : with petiolate sometimes verticillate leaves, interpetiolar lanceolate- 

 subulate stipules, and red or yellow flowers in naked and scorpioid terminal 

 (vines. Stirp. Amer. 71. t. 50. Diihamelia, Pers. Syn. i. 203. 



H. patens, JACQ. 1. c. Shrub 8 or 10 feet high, cinereous-pubescent on all young parts: 

 leaves more commonly in threes, oval-oblong, acuminate : cyme 3-5-rayed, with flowers 

 almost sessile along its branches : corolla crimson, puberulent, almost cylindrical, over half- 

 inch long: fruits black, small. Desc. Fl. Ant. t. 107. H. coccinea. Swartz, Prodr. 46. 

 Keys and shores of E. Florida. (W. Ind. to Brazil.) 



8. CATESBJ&A, Gronov. (Mark Catesby, author of Nat. Hist, of Caro- 

 lina, Florida, etc., and of Hortus Brit. -Amer., etc.) W. Indian spinose shrubs ; 

 one has reached the shores of Florida. L. Gen. ed. 1, 356. 



C. parviflora, SWARTZ. Shrub 4 to 6 feet high, with rigid very leafy branches, glabrous, 

 spinose from the axils : leaves mostly fascicled at the nodes, coriaceous, shorter than the 

 spines (quarter to half inch long), roundish, lucid : flowers very small for the genus, solitary 

 and sessile : corolla only half -inch long, white : berry small, white. Proclr. 30, & Fl. i. 236 ; 

 Vahl, Eel. i. 12, t. 10; Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 317; Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, Suppl. 625. Bahia 

 Honda Key, S. Florida, Curtiss. (W. Ind.) 



9. RANDIA, Houst. ex L. (Dedicated by Houston, in a letter to Lin- 

 naeus, to John Hand, an English apothecary.) As now received, an ample genus 

 of tropical shrubs or trees, largely Asiatic and African, but the original species 

 American, often spinose, and with sessile flowers in the axils or terminating 

 short branchlets. --L. Hort. Cliff. 485, & Gen. ed. 1, 376; Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. ii. 88. 



R. aculeata, L. Shrub 4 to 8 feet high, glabrous, with rigid spreading branches : axillary 

 spines simple, sometimes few, not rarely wanting : leaves obovate to elliptical, at length 

 coriaceous, from 2 inches down to half-inch long, many fascicled in the axils or on short 

 spurs: calyx-teeth short and small: corolla white, 3 or 4 lines long: berries less than half 



