1. Twining woody climbers with semievergreen leaves; flowers yellow, axillary, 

 more than 20 mm. long I. Gelsemium 



1. Erect herbs; flowers white or pinkish, along one side of the branches of a 

 terminal peduncled cyme, less than 8 mm. long 2. Cynoctonum 



1. Gelsemium Juss. Yellow-jessamine 



Three species known; two in North America, another in eastern Asia. 



1. Gelsemium sempervirens (L.) Jaume St. Hil. Carolina-jessamine, poor 

 man's rope. Fig. 622. 



Smooth and twining shrubby perennial; stems high-climbing, wiry, brownish- 

 red; leaves with petioles about 5 mm. long, ovate to elliptic or lanceolate, semi- 

 evergreen, to 75 mm. long and 3 cm. wide; stipules minute, deciduous; pedicels 

 scaly-bracted; flowers 5-merous, fragrant, in axillary clusters of as many as 6, 

 sometimes solitary; corolla yellow, funnel form, 25-35 mm. long; anthers oblong, 

 sagittate; style long, slender; pod elliptic, 2-celled and 2-valved, to 15 mm. long, 

 flattened contrary to the narrow partitions; seeds numerous, winged. 



Usually in sandy loam on edge of or in open woodlands but sometimes in 

 swamps, evergreen shrub bogs and floodplain woods, in e. Tex., Feb.-Apr.; from 

 Fla. to Tex., n. to s.e. Va. and Ark. 



2. Cynoctonum J. F. Gmel. Miterwort. Hornpod 



Annual smooth herbs with small stipules between the leaves and small whitish 

 or pink-tinged flowers spiked along one side of the branches of a terminal 

 peduncled cyme; flowers 5-merous; sepals ovate to elliptic, united at base; corolla 

 longer than the calyx, somewhat globose-funnelform with small elliptic several- 

 veined lobes; stamens included; ovary slightly adnate to the bottom of the calyx, 

 2-celled; capsule exserted, strongly bicornute or mitriform, opening down the 

 inner side of each horn, many-seeded. 



About 6 species of warm-temperate regions. 



1. Capsule 3-4 mm. high, its outer surface essentially smooth; leaves tapering to 

 a petiolate base, typically narrowly elliptic, thin, at least some 3 cm. 

 long or more 1. C. Mitreola. 



1. Capsule 2-3 mm. high, its outer surface densely cellular-papillose; leaves 

 sessile, typically broadly oval, firm, rarely more than 2 cm. long 

 2. C. sessilifolium. 



1. Cynoctonum Mitreola (L.) Britt. Fig. 623. 



Stem simple or laxly slender-branched, to 75 cm. tall; leaves thin, petiolate, 

 ovate-elliptic to elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse to acuminate at apex, 2-8 

 cm. long; cymes on long slender peduncles, their branches loosening in fruit; 

 corolla about twice as long as the calyx; fruiting calyces slightly distant; capsules 

 3-4 mm. high, the outer surface smooth or rarely with few scattered papillae. 

 Mitreola petiolata (Walt.) T. & G. 



In moist soil in seepage, along ditches and streams, in mud of marshes and 

 swamps, and about ponds and lakes in e. and cen. Tex., w. to Val Verde Co. and 

 s.w. to Victoria Co.. and s.e. Okla. (McCurtain Co.), May-Oct.; from Fla. to 

 Tex., n. to s.e. Va., Tenn., Ark. and Okla. 



2. Cynoctonum sessilifolium (Walt.) J. F. Gmel. Fig. 623. 



Stem stiffly erect, simple or with few erect branches, to about 5 dm. tall; 

 leaves firm, sessile, oval to elliptic or suborbicular-ovate, bluntly obtuse to abruptly 

 tipped, the margin usually noticeable papillose, rarely more than 2 cm. long and 

 wide; cymes more compact than in C. Mitreola; corolla only slightly longer than 

 the usually prominently keeled calyx lobes; fruiting calyces approximate; capsules 



1311 



