DEC AND RI A. MONOGYNIA. 277 



395. TRIBULUS. L. (Caltrops.) 



Calix 5-parted. Petals 5, spreading;. Style 

 none; stigma partly 5-cleft. Capsules usually 

 5, gibbous, mostly spinose, each 2 or 3 seeded. 



Herbaceous plants, mostly prostrate or decumbent; 

 leaves abruptly pinnate, flowers solitary, alternate, yel- 

 low. 



Species. \. T.* tnjvgattis. Leaflets 3 pair, terminal 

 ones largest, under side pubescent; capsules 5, small, 1- 

 seeded, muricat^., spineless. Hab. In wastes and gar- 

 dens, as a weed around Savannah in Georgia, probably 

 introduced from the West India islands, allied to T. max- 

 imus, but certainly distinct. Obs. Annual; stem diffuse, 

 prostrate, terete, pubescent, and striated. Leaves oppo- 

 site, bistipulate, equally pinnate, pinnae always 3 pair, 

 uppermost leaflets largest, oblique, lateral ones oblong-, 

 all abruptly and minutely pointed, upper side smooth, 

 the under pubescent. Calix and peduncle pilose, seg- 

 ments ovate, acuminate. Petals roundish, sprealmg, yel- 

 low; — the flower resembling that of a small Ciitus. Sta- 

 mina 10, small. Fruit smooth, turbinate, peitangular, 

 acuminated, not larger than that of Pyrola, cipsuies 5, I- 

 seeded, cristately muricate, attached to a large common 

 axis. 



Of this genus there are 2 other species In tropcal Ame- 

 rica, 1 in Ceylon, and 1 common to Barbary and the 

 south of Europe. 



396. DIONJEA. L, (Venus's Fly-trap.) 



Calix 5-parted. Petals 5. Stigma fimbri- 

 ate, spreading. Capsu/e roundish, meailiranacc- 

 ous, l-celled, many seeded. 



Herbaceous; leaves radical, marcescent, alternately im- 

 bricated at tjie base so as to produce a sq lamnse bulb, 

 petiole spathulately alated, terminating in ai iirticulated 

 circular ciliated lamina, expanding to the liLi,ht, and re- 

 markably sensible to the louchof any extraneous body, 

 and thus by suddenly folding, accidentally enclosing in- 

 sects or the smaller leaves of neighbour /i • nl.vots.f 



f This sensibility is said to reside principally in tlie 4 c.j.illa- 

 ry processes situated upon the disk ot the lamina. Wlnle en- 

 gaged in collecting this plant in its singularly insulated situa- 



^ation near "Wilmington, in North Carolina, I had occasion to 



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