690 SAXIFRAGACE^. Itea. 



Oregon, Dr. Scolder ! Nuttall ! — Hooker remarks that the leaves are ex- 

 actly similar to those of C. Nepalense, Don ; wliich (with C. Camtschati- 

 cum, Fisch., C. dubium, Gay, and C. repens, Link) Chamisso and Schlecht- 

 endal think should not be separated from C. oppositifolium. 



12. LEPUROPETALON. Ell. sk. 1. p. 370. 



Lepuropetalum, DC; Endl. — Cryptopetalum, Hook. ^ Am. 



Calyx-tube turbinate, coherent with lower portion of the ovary ; the limb 

 6-parted ; lobes ovate, obtuse. Petals 5, minute, spatulate, inserted into the 

 tube of the calyx, persistent. Stamens 5, inserted alternately with the petals; 

 filaments very short : anthers subglobose (orange-color), 2-celled. Ovary 

 free at the summit, 1-celled, with 3 parietal bilamellate placentae : styles 

 short, distinct : stigmas simple. Capsule globose, 1-celled, many-seeded, 

 loculicidally dehiscent at the free apex by 3 valves. Seeds numerous, oval, 

 punctate with elevated dots : " albumen thin, fleshy. Embryo straight^ 

 central." — A very small annual herb (half an inch high), forming little hemi- 

 spherical tufts, somewhat succulent, branching. Leaves alternate, spatulate, 

 entire, almost veinless, marked (as also the calyx-segments) with minute 

 brownish oblong dots. Flowers terminal, rather large for the size of the 

 plant. 



i- "L. spatliulatum (Ell. ! 1. c.) — DC. prodr. 4. p. 53. Cryptopetalum pusil- 

 'lum. Hook. Sf Am. in hot. misc. 3. p. 344. Pyxidanthera spathulata, 

 MiM. cat. 



In close soils, S. Carolina ! and Georgia ! to Texas ! (Also at Quintero iu 

 Chili, Bridges, ex Hook. Sf Am.) March-April — Elliott, and also End- 

 licher, describe the placentee as attached to the margins of the valves, instead 

 of their middle as is really the case. It is in the loculicidal dehiscence of 

 the capsule, as Hooker and Arnott remark, that it chiefly differs from the 

 other plants of the order. 



Suborder II. ESCALLONIEiE. DC. 7 



13. ITEA. Linn. ; Richard, in Michx.fl. 1. p. 156 ; Gcerln. fr. t. 209. 



Calyx campanulate, short, free from the ovary, 5-eleft ; the segments subu- 

 late. Petals 5, inserted on the tube of the calyx and much longer than its 

 segments, lanceolate-linear, 1-nerved, erect-spreading, the points incurved, 

 valvate in sestivation. Stamens 5, shorter than the petals, inserted alternate- 

 ly with them into the calyx : filaments subulate : anthers introrse, cordate- 

 oblong, minutely apiculate, 2-celled. Ovary oblong, 2-celled, with a 

 central placentae : ovules numerous : styles short : stigma capitate, 2-sulcate. 

 Capsule 2 celled, 2-sulcate, compressed, 2-partible with septicidal dehis- 

 cence. Seeds several (8-12), subcordate, flattish, with a thickish reticu- 

 lated testa and a prominent raphe. Embryo cylindrical, in the axis of fleshy 

 albumen. — A shrub, with simple alternate serrulate exstipulate ? (minutely 



