Hedyotis. RUBIACE^. 41 



peduncles and pedicels filiform ; flowers small. — Houstonia tenuifolia, Nutti 

 gen. 1. p. 287. 



Shady banks &c., Canada ! (from the Saskatchawan) and Northern and 

 Western States ! to the upper and middle country of the Southern States ! 

 0. Ohio I and mountains of N. Carolina ! and Tennessee to Arkansas ! 

 June-July. — Stems 5-10 inches high, usually numerous from the same root, 

 obscurely 4-sided, but with the angles, or 2 of them, margined with very 

 narrow sharp decurrent lines. Leaves 9—15 lines long, 2-3 lines broad, gla- 

 brous, or the margins very slightly scabrous. Stipules scarious, small, ovate 

 or triangular. Flowers rather smaller than in the preceding, pale purple of 

 nearly white. Corolla much longer than the lobes of the calyx. Capsule 

 nearly half free ; the cells about 10-seeded. Stamens and style varying in- 

 versely, as in the preceding species. — This is probably distinct from H. pur- 

 purea, the narrow-leaved forms of which sometimes approach it very nearly ; 

 although the length of the calyx-lobes is perhaps not absolutely invariable. 

 It seems to pass insensibly into the H. tenuifolia, Nutt. ; which is, however, 

 a remarkably slender plant, with more distant narrowly linear leaves, and 

 very slender and spreading branches and pedicels, the latter several times 

 longer than the (about 8-seeded) fruit. 



8. H. stenophylla : slightly suflTruticose at the base, glabrous ; stems erect 

 or assurgent, much branched ; leaves very narrowly linear, often with 

 smaller ones fasciculate in the axils, 1-nerved, acute, tapering to the base ; 

 flowers very numerous, in 3-4 times di-trichotomous cymules, corvmbose at 

 the extremity of the branches ; pedicels short, the central flower of each 

 cluster almost sessile ; lobes of the calyx subulate, as long as the tube ; cap- 

 sule turbinate. — Houstonia angustifolia, Michx. ! fl. 1. p. 85. (not Hedyotis 

 angustifolia. Cham. &f ScMecht.) H. fruticosa & H. rupestris, Raf. ! 

 vionogr. Houst. tn ann. gen. 1820. (not Hedyotis rupestris, Sicartz.) 



Banks of rivers, and prairies; sea-coast of Florida, Mlchaux ! (Georgia? 

 Elliott !) lo Kanlucky \ Missouri! Louisiana! Arkansas! and Texas! June-* 

 July. — Stem 10 inches to 2 feet high. Leaves an inch or more in length. 

 Flowers very numerous, usually fastigiate-corymbose, pale purple : the tube 

 of the corolla thrice the length of the calyx-teeth (which are furnished with a 

 few very minute bristly hairs) ; the oblong segments and throat very villous 

 inside. Filaments and style either exserted or included inversely, as in the 

 other species of the section. Capsule small, acute at the base ; the summit 

 only free. Seeds 5-10 in each cell, oval, black. — Readily distinguished by 

 its turbinate fruit. In the other species of this section, the pedicels (2-7) are 

 equal or nearly so, and more or less elongated in fruit : in this, the central 

 flower of each cymule is nearly sessile. 



§ 3. Corolla rotate, much shorter than the lanceolate teeth of the calyx, which 

 are spreading and with the sinuses acute in fruit : stamens and style very 

 short : anthers roundish-ovate : capsule ovoid, wholly coherent with the tube 

 of the calyx, loculicidally dehiscent across the summit : seeds very numerous 

 and minute (50-60 in each cell), angular : herb perennial, with the habit of 

 Spermacoce or Diodia : stipules mostly bimucronate or bisetose on each side : 

 flowers solitary or 3-4 together in the axils of the leaves, almost sessile. — 



DiODELLA. 



9- H. Boscii (DC.) : herbaceous, or sufTrutescent at the base, much 

 branched, diffuse, glabrous; branches slender; leaves linear, acute at each 

 end, obscurely 1-nerved; stipules very small; flowers on very short pedi- 

 cels ; teeth of the calyx triangular-subulate, spreading or recurved, shorter 



VOL. II.-6 



