PHYTOLACCACEAE. 135 



glabrous. Leaves elliptic, oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, membranous, 5-15 cm. 

 long, acuminate or acute at the apex, narrowed at the base, glabrous, entire, 

 the slender petioles 1-5 cm. long; racemes usually numerous, loosely many- 

 flowered, as long as the leaves or longer; pedicels 2-10 mm. long; flowers 

 white, about 8 mm. broad, the ovate obtuse sepals at length reflexed; berry 

 black, about 6 mm. in diameter. 



Waste grounds spontaneous after cultivation. Cat Island, at the Bight : Flor- 

 ida ; West Indies ; continental tropical America north to Mexico. Tkichostigma. 



3. PETIVERIA L. Sp. PL 342. 1753. 



An erect slender perennial herb with the odor of garlic, the leaves broad, 

 membranous, alternate, entire, the small perfect flowers in slender bracted 

 spikes. Calyx 4-parted, conic at the base, the segments lanceolate, spreading 

 in flower, erect in fruit. Stamens 4-8; filaments subulate; anthers linear, 2- 

 cleft at apex and base. Ovary oblong, flattened, truncate, tomentose, 2-celled, 

 with 1-6 deflexed bristles near the apex; style very short or none; stigma 

 penieillate. Fruit elongated, cuneate, flattened, striate, keeled on both sides, 

 2-lobed at the top and bearing 1-6 hooked bristles. Seed linear. [In honor 

 of Jacob Petiver, English naturalist and apothecary, who died in 1718.] A 

 monotypic genus. 



1. Petiveria alliacea L. Sp. PI. 342. 1753. 



Stem puberulent, at least above, or glabrate, erect, branched, 2-10 dm. 

 high, the branches slender, long, nearly erect or ascending. Leaves elliptic, 

 oblong or obovate, sparingly pubescent or glabrous, 3-12 em. long, acute or 

 acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, short-petioled ; spikes very slen- 

 der, 1-4 dm. long, puberulent; flowers greenish, short-pedicelled ; sepals nar- 

 rowly linear, about 4 mm. long; aehene linear-cuneate, about 6 mm. long, ap- 

 pressed to the axis of the fpike, the terminal, reflexed bristles about 2 mm. 

 long. 



Waste and cultivated grounds. New Providence at Nassau : Florida : West 

 Indies ; continental tropical America north to Mexico. Gaelic-weed. Obeah-bush. 



4. PHYTOLACCA L. Sp. PL 441. 1753. 



Tall perennial herbs, with petioled estipnlate leaves, and small flowers in 

 terminal racemes, which by the further growth of the stem become opposite the 

 leaves. Pedicels bracted at the base and often 1-3-bracted above. Calyx of 4 

 or 5 persistent rounded sepals. Stamens 5-15, inserted at the base of the 

 calyx. Ovary composed of 5-15 distinct or somewhat united carpels. Fruit a 

 depressed-globose 5-15-celled fleshy berry. Seeds 1 in each cavity, erect, com- 

 pressed; embryo annular in the mealy endosperm. [Name Greek and French, 

 refering to the crimson juice of the berries.] About 24 species, mostly 

 ti epical. Type species: Phytolacca americana L. 



^ 1. Phytolacca icosandra L. Syst. ed. 10, 1040. 1759. 



Phytolacca octandra L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 631. 1762. 



Erect, glabrous, or puberulent above, branched, somewhat succulent, 1-3 

 m. high. Leaves elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, membranous. S-20 cm. long, acute 

 or acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, the rather stout petioles 1-5 



