APOCYNACEAE. 333 



valvate in the bud, sometimes fimbriate on the margins. Stamens 5, inserted 

 on the base of the corolla; anthers sagittate, versatile. Ovary 1-celled; style 

 short or none; stigma 2-lamellate. Capsule indehiscent or irregularly bursting. 

 [Greek, resembling Nymphaca.] About 20 species, widely distributed. Type 

 species: Nymphoides (lava Hill. 



1. Nymphoides aureum Britton. 



LivuitiiiUii itiiim aureum Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 4: 142. 1906. 



Rootstoek 1 cm. thick, 3-4 cm. long. Stolons rather slender, purple-dotted, 

 2-3 dm. long, or longer, bearing a petioled floating leaf and an umbel of 

 slender-pedieelled flowers at its summit but no tufts of tubers; leaves sub- 

 peltate, floating, ovate-orbicular, 8 cm. long or less, entire, or irregularly repand, 

 thick, dull-green above, purple and densely dotted beneath, the basal sinus 

 narrow, acute, or the obtuse lobes somewhat overlapping; petioles stout, 2-4 cm. 

 long, inserted on the leaf -blade 1-3 mm. from the sinus; umbel several-flowered; 

 pedicels slender, 3-5 cm. long in fruit; sepals oblong-lanceolate, acutish, 5-6 

 mm. long; corolla-segments about 8 mm. long, golden-yellow, their margins 

 fimbriate; capsule oblong-ovoid, as long as the sepals; style subulate, per- 

 sistent, 2-3 mm. long; seeds compressed-globose, wingless, smooth, 1 mm. broad 

 and about one half as thick as wide. 



Ponds on Great Exumn, near Georgetown and on Andros near Nicholl's Town. 

 Endemic. Bahama Floating Heart. 



Family 5. APOCYNACEAE Lindl. 

 Dogbane Family. 



Perennial herbs, shrubs, vines, or some tropical genera trees, mostly 

 with an acrid milky juice, with simple estipulate leaves, and perfect regu- 

 lar 5-parted flowers. Calyx inferior, persistent, the lobes imbricated in 

 the bud. Corolla gamopetalous, its lobes convolute in (he bud and often 

 twisted. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, alternate with them, 

 inserted on the tube or throat; anthers 2-celled; pollen-grains simple. 

 Ovary superior, or its base adherent to the calyx, of 2 distinct carpels, or 

 1-celled, will: U parietal placentae, or 2-celled; ovules anatropous or amphit- 

 ropous; style simple, or 2-divided; stigma simple. Fruit usually of 2 

 follicles or drupes. Seeds often appendaged; endosperm fleshy; embryo 

 straight; radicle terete, usually shorter than the cotyledons. About L30 

 genera and 1100 species, very widely distributed, mostly in tropical regions. 



Fruit follicular. 



Trees, shrubs, or shrubby herbs. 

 Woody i rees or shrubs. 



Seeds with a wing. 1. Plumtera. 



Seeds with a coma. 2. Neobracea. 



Herbaceous plant, shrubby at the base. 3. Oatharanthus. 



Vines: seeds with a coma. 



Corolla-tube subcyllndrlc. 4. Echites. 



Corolla-tube narrowly campanulate above the short, cylin- 

 drlc base. 

 i :ii\x loin s short. 5. Rhabdadenia. 



Calyx-lobes long, linear-acuminate. 6. Urechites. 



Fruit fleshy. 



Trees or shrubs. 



Leaves alternate; corolla large, funnelform. 7. Oerbera. 



Leaves opposite or whorled; corolla small, salverform. 8. Rauioolfla. 



Shrub; leaves alternate ; corolla salverform. 9. Valleaia. 



