late toward the apex; styles shorter than to exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid- 

 globose, 2-3 mm. long, densely covered with elliptic to linear white or flavescent 

 scales to 2 mm. long. 



In moist heavy, usually wet soil in the Tex. Rio Grande Plains, Mar.-July; 

 Tex., Mex. and Cuba. 



9. Eryngium prostratum DC. Fig. 589. 



Plants low, prostrate or ascending, glabrous, 1.5-7 dm. high, perennial from 

 a fascicle of fibrous roots, the stems very slender and simple or somewhat 

 branched above; basal leaves ovate to lanceolate, to 55 mm. long and 25 mm. 

 wide, simple or palmately lobed, the margins entire or irregularly and remotely 

 dentate, the venation reticulate; petioles slender; cauline leaves like the basal, 

 reduced, clustered at the nodes, sessile above; inflorescence of elongated rnono- 

 chasia bearing small numerous heads on filiform axillary peduncles, the flowers 

 few; heads often blue, ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, to 9 mm. long and 4 mm. broad; 

 bracts 5 to 10, foliaceous, reflexed, lanceolate, to 12 mm. long, acute, equaling 

 the heads; bractlets narrowly subulate, about 1 mm. long, acute, shorter than 

 the fruit; coma lacking; sepals ovate to semiorbicular, about 0.8 mm. long, obtuse, 

 mucronulate; styles exceeding the sepals; fruit subglobose, 2 mm. in diameter, 

 sparsely covered with low white tubercles. 



In wet ditches, swales or moist soil in Okla. (McCurtain, LeFlore and Push- 

 mataha COS.), and in Tex. in the Timber Belt and the Coastal and Blackland 

 prairies, May-Sept.; from S.C, s. to Fla. and w. to Ky., Mo., Okla. and Tex. 



Fam. 99. Cornaceae Dum. Dogwood Family 



Shrubs to large trees; leaves alternate or opposite, simple, entire or nearly so, 

 without stipules; flowers regular, small, perfect or unisexual, 4- or 5-merous; calyx 

 small or obsolete; petals (when present) 4 or 5; stamens 4 or as many as 12 in two 

 series; filaments elongate; anthers introrse; pistil 1; styles 1 or 2; ovary inferior, 

 1- or 2-celled; fruit a drupe. 



About 120 species in 14 genera, chiefly in the North Temperate Zone but also 

 in the tropics of both hemispheres. 



1. Large trees, mostly above 10 m. in height, leaves alternate; stamens 5 or more.... 

 1. Nyssa 



1. Shrubs or small trees, mostly less than 5 m. in height; leaves opposite; sta- 

 mens 4 2. Cornus 



1. Nyssa L. Tupelo. Sour-gum 



Trees with simple alternate deciduous leaves and greenish or greenish-white 

 flowers borne at the summit of axillary peduncles; leaves entire or rarely slightly 

 toothed, often crowded near tip of branchlets; flowers perfect or unisexual; stami- 

 nate flowers numerous, the calyx small and 5-parted, the small fleshy petals soon 

 deciduous or entirely lacking; stamens 5 to 12, inserted on the outer edge of a 

 convex disk; pistillate flowers solitary or as many as 8, sessile in a bracted cluster, 

 much larger than the staminate flowers; style simple, elongate; ovary 1 -celled; fruit 

 an ovoid to ellipsoid 1 -seeded drupe. 



A small genus of about 10 species in North America and Asia. Placed by some 

 authors in the segregate family Nyssaceae. 



1. Leaves usually much more than 1 dm. long, mucronate; staminate flowers sessile 

 in a capitule; pistillate flowers solitary; fruits 20 mm. or more long; 

 endocarp wing-ridged 1- N- aquatica. 



1262 



