Class VIIL— OC T AXDRIA. 



Order I— MONOGYNIA. 



j Germ inferior. 



559. RHEXIA. i. 



Calix urceoiate, 4 to 5 -cleft. Petals 4, oblique-, 

 inserted upon the calix. Anthers i\ec\in^te. Cap- 

 side setigerous, 4-celled, included in tho ventii- 

 cose calix. Receptacles subulate. Seeds nume- 

 rous. (Stamina sometimes 10.) 



Annual or perennial, rarely sufn-uiicose; steir.s mostly 

 quadrangnlur; leaves very entire, iono'mulinal'y nerred, 

 opposite; flowers by 3s, dicliutoinal and termiaal, oilea 

 trichotomously compounded and subcorymbose or glo- 

 merate, rarely, if ever, axilkry, by defection sometimes 

 solitary and terminal; petals primarily convolute in a cone, 

 caducous, violaceous or purple, rarely yellow. — Anthers 

 very long and curved, at first deflected and equally ar- 

 ranged round the tube of the calix, 1-celled, adnate to 

 the filaments, emitting the pollen by a single clandes- 

 tine pore, situated at'thejvmction with the filament, the 

 pore guarded by a single seta. Seeds subreniform and 

 angular. 



Species. 1. R. manana. Stem subterete, hirsute. O- 

 2- virginica. Stem with alated angles, nearly smooth. 3. 

 ciliosa. Stem subquadrangular, smooth; leaves small, sub- 

 petiolate, oval-acute, beneath smooth, a little hairy above, 

 margin conspicuously ciliated; flowers conglomerated by 

 oSj sessile, involucrat-, anthers short; calix acute, fruiting 

 base subglobose, smooth. Pursh, Fl. Am. 1. 1. 10. A very 

 imperfect specimen. Pluk. .\malth. p. 138. t. 425. f. 4. 



4. * serrulata. Stem quadrangular, smooth; leaves smalJ, 

 subpetiolate, rouhdish-oval, acute, smooth on both sides, 

 margin serrulate, base subciliate; flowers pedunculate, 

 very large, growing by 3s; calix gland ularly hirsute, bor- 

 der very short and obtuse. Had. In the open swamps of 

 Georgia and Florida, communicated to me by Dr. Baldwin, 

 who considered it as a dwarf variety of the preceding, to 



