Elumia. RESEDACEyE. 125 



Ovary l-celled, 3-4 lobed, composed of 3-4 united carpels, wliich arc 

 distinct and diverging at the apex : stigma sessile, miniito, glandular, 

 alternate with the parietal placentae. Fruit a membranous l-celled 

 many-seeded capsule, rarely succulent, opening between the stigmas 

 long before maturity. Seeds campulitropous, reniform, smooth or 

 pitted : albumen none or scarcely any. Embryo arcuate : radicle 

 taper. — Herbaceous or rarely suffrutescent plants, with a watery juice. 

 Leaves alternate or sparse, undivided or pinnatifid, without stipules, 

 but often biglandular at the base. Flowers in terminal racemes or 

 spikes, small, often very fragrant. 



With the exception of the plant brought from California by Mr. Nuttall, Reseda- 

 ceae are exclusively natives of the region surrounding the Mediterranean. — Reseda 

 luteola(the Dyer's Rocket, or Yellow-weed, used in dying woo:len stuffs yellow) is 

 found along road-sides in portions of the western part of the State of iSew-York, but 

 is hardly naturalized. 



1. ELLIMIA. Nutt. mss* 



" Sepals 4. Petals 2, small, membranaceous, linear-oblong, entire or emar- 

 ginate, posterior or next the axis. [Disk scarcely any.] Stamens 3, alter- 

 nate with the petals. Capsule depressed-globose, somewhat 8-lobed below, 

 opening by a quadrangular cleft at the summit : stigmas 4. Seeds 20 or 

 more, very smooth and shining. — A small glabrous annual, with crowded 

 slightly succulent and narrowly Unear leaves. Flowers in short and slender 

 spikes." 



E. ruder alts (Nutt. ! mss.) 



" St. Barbara, CaUfornia. — Root slender, simple. Stem branched from the 

 base, 5-6 inches high. Leaves resembhng those of Linaria vulgaris, but 

 smaller. B'lowers subtended by a bract simUar to the sepals, very small. 

 Sepals all inclined anteriorly. Petals white, one of them usually emarginate. 

 Ovary rather deeply 4-lobcd below; each lobe (or carpel) more or less 

 2-lobed. Seeds at first bright green, at length black, narrowly reniform." 

 Nutt. 



Order XVII. POLYGALACEiE. Juss. 



Sepals .5, distinct, usually persistent, very irregular ; three of them 

 exterior and smaller, of which one is superior (next the axis of inflo- 

 rescence) and two inferior ; the two lateral or inner ones (tvings) 

 larger and usually petaloid : aestivation imbricated. Petals hypogy- 

 nous, irregular ; deciduous, usually 3 ; of which one (the keel) is ante- 

 rior and larger than the rest, and the two others alternate with the 



• " From iWtiiifia (defective) ; in allusion to the reduction in the parts of the flow- 

 -." MiUall. 



