692 SAXIFRAGACEiE. Decumaria. 



Shady banks of streams, Pennsylvania ! to the mountains of Georgia ! 

 west to Missouri ! S. Wysox, Pennsylvania, Mr. Julin Carey ! June-July. — 

 Shrub 4-8 feet high ; the young branches and cymes pubescent. Leaves 

 3-6 inches long; the veins pubescent on both sides. — Common Hydrangea. 



2. H. radiata (Walt.) : leaves ovate, mostly cordate, acuminate, sharply 

 serrate; si 1 very -tomentose beneath ; cymes fastigiate ; flower-buds depress- 

 ed; a portion of the marginal flowers radiate and sterile, — Walt.! Car. p. 

 251 ; Willd. ! sjiec. 2. 2J- 634. H. nivea, Michx..' I. c. ; Pursh ! I. c. ; Ell. 

 I. c. ; DC. ! prodr. 4. p. 14. 



In the upjier country of S. Carolina! and Georgia! also in Tennessee. 

 May-June. — Shrub 6-8 feet high. Sterile flowers large. In cultivation 

 the flowers are said to become wholly sterile, and the leaves to lose a por- 

 tion of the white tomentum of the lower surface. 



3. H. quercifolia (Bartram) : leaves deeply and somewhat sinuately 3-5- 

 lobed, somewhat serrate, tomentose beneath ; cymes thyrsoid-paniculate ; 

 sterile flowers very large, numerous. — Bartr. ! trav. p. 336, t. 7 ; Willd! 

 spec. I. c. ; Pursh ! I. c. ; Ell. I. c. ; DC! I. c. H. radiata, Smith, ic. not of 



IValt. 



Banks of streams, Georgia! to Florida! May-June. — Shrubs 4-5 feet 

 high, showy. Leaves very large, variously lobed or sinuate, minutely ser- 

 rate with salient teeth, when young tomentose ; the upper surface at length 

 nearly glabrous. Flowers in a large crowded thyrsus ; the branches simple 

 or dichotomous, bearing here and there little clusters of fertile flowers, and at 

 its extremity a very large sterile flower. Sterile flowers often starainate ; 

 the sepals orbicular, dull wliite changing to reddish. — A showy species, not 

 uncommon in gardens. 



15. DECUMARIA. Linn. ; Lam. ill. t. 403; DC. prodr. 3. p. 206. 



Flowers all fertile and uniform. Tube of the calyx turbinate-campanu- 

 late, coherent with the ovary, 7-10-toothed ; the teeth at length deciduous. 

 Petals as many as the teeth of the calyic, narrowly oblong, somewhat atten- 

 uate at the base, valvate in sestivation, with the margins more or less indu- 

 plicate. Stamens thrice the number of the petals, inserted in a single series 

 into an epigynous ring: filaments subulate-filiform. Ovary 5-10-celled, 

 with numerous suspended scobiform ovules: stigmas thick (5?) 7-10, 

 united in a disk, radiate. Capsule turbinate, 10-15-ribbed, the conical apex 

 free, crovraed with the persistent style, 5-7-celled (or as many cells as stig- 

 mas?), opening irregularly between the ribs; the endocarp and dissepiments 

 thin, composed of fasciate oblique fibres : placenta persistent in the axis. 

 Seeds numerous and imbricated, suspended from the inner angle of each 

 cell by a subulate-attenuate base : testa membranaceous, reticulated, pro- 

 duced at the extremity opposite the insertion into a thickened obtuse and 

 entire cellular appendage, about the length of the oblong nucleus. Embryo 

 oblong-linear, terete, surrounded with a very thin granular albumen : coty- 

 ledons semiterete, nearly as long as the radicle ; the latter directed towards 

 the subulate extremity or hilum. — A samientose shrub, with opposite entire 

 or somewhat toothed glabrous leaves (more or less marked with minute 

 linear dots), and numerous white fragrant flowers, in compound terminal 

 cymes. 



