508 HYPERICACEAE 



HYPERICACEAE. St. John's Wort Family 



Ours herbs or slij,'litly sulTnitoseont plants. Leaves opposite, simple, without 

 st ipulos ami with entire blades and pellucid dots or dark fjlands. Flowers perfect, 

 re^rular and hypop:ynous. Sepals 5 (in ours) or 4, herbaceous, persistent. Petals 

 5 (in ours) or 4, yellow (in ours). Stamens usually numerous, distinct or more 

 or less united into 3 to 5 clusters. Ovary superior, 1 or 3-eelled; styles in ours 3. 

 Fruit a septioidal capsule. Seed without endosperm. — Genera 7, species 275, 

 mostly warm temperate and tropical, well represented in all continents save Aus- 

 tralia (1 species). 



Bibliog.— Coulter, J. M., Revision of N. Am. Hypcricaceae (Bot. Gaz. 11:78-88, 106-112, — 

 1886). Keller, E., Zur Kenntnis der Sectio Brathys des Genus Hypericum (Bull. Herb. Boiss. 

 ser. 2, 8:175-191, — 1908). Sampson, A. W., St. John's Wort on range lands in California (Univ. 

 Cal. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 503:1-18, figs. 1-23,-1930). Ball, W. S., & Bobbins, W. W., Klamath 

 Weed (Mo. Bull. Cal. Dept. Agr. 23:103-108, fig.,— 1934). 



1. HYPERICUM L. St. John's Wort 



Leaves with sessile blades. Flowers in terminal cymes, rarely solitary. Petals 

 deciduous or marcescent. — Species 200, all continents. (Ancient Greek name.) 



Annuals; sepals longer than the petals; styles short; capsule 1-celled. 



Erect from the base, more or less branching; stamens 6 to 12 1. fl. mutilum. 



Procumbent, forming mats with ascending or erect branches; stamens 15 to 27 



2. H. anagalloides. 

 Perennials; petals much longer than the sepals; styles long, divaricately spreading; capsule 3- 

 celled ; stamens very numerous. 

 Stems tall, few, from a rootstock ; leaves not folded. 



Stems with numerous short sterile shoots; sepals lanceolate; capsule not lobed 



3. S. perforatum. 



Stems (proper) destitute of sterile shoots; sepals ovate; capsule 3-lobed..4. S. formosum. 



Stems low, numerous, from a woody crown ; leaves commonly conduplicate ; capsule 3-lobed.... 



5. E. concinnum. 



1. H. mutilum L. River St. John's Wort. Stem mostly simple below and 

 branching above, 10 to 17 inches high; leaf-blades ovate, 5 to 10 lines long, 3 to 6 

 lines broad, 5-nen^ed at base, sessile; flowers in leafy cymes at the ends of the 

 branches; stamens 6 to 12; sepals linear to lanceolate, mostly shorter than the 

 capsule. 



River shores, 5 to 50 feet : Sacramento River ; lower San Joaquin River. Texas 

 to Nova Scotia. Aug.-Sept. 



Locs. — Castella, Shasta Co., comm. K. Brandegee ; Newtown Ldg., Eio Vista, Jepson 13,964; 

 Bouldin Isl. (Zoe 4:213). 



Eefs. — Hypericum mutilum L. Sp. PI. 787 (1753), "Virginia, Canada"; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. 

 Cal. 235 (1901), ed. 2, 263 (1911), Man. 637 (1925). 



2. H. anagalloides C. & S. Tinkers Penny. Stems producing prostrate run- 

 ners and commonly forming dense mats 6 to 15 inches broad, with ascending or 

 erect branches 2 to 5 (or 10) inches high; leaf-blades lanceolate to ovate or orbicu- 

 lar, obtuse, 5 to 7-nerved at base, 2 to 6 (or 9) lines long; flowers 1 to 1^/2 lines long, 

 borne 1 to 3 in a leafy cj-me, or the cyme becoming paniculate; petals salmon-color; 

 sepals ovate or linear-oblong, unequal, longer than the capsule; stamens 15 to 21. 



Springy places and streamlets in the hills and mountains, 500 to 8500 feet : 

 almost throughout cismontane California, common northward. North to British 

 Columbia and Montana, south to Lower California. June- Aug. It is very variable 

 in size, branching and foliage. 



Locs. — San Bernardino Mts., 6000 to 8500 feet: Little Bear Valley, Parish; High Creek, 

 Crawford 894. Sierra Nevada, 4000 to 6000 feet: Kernville (Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4:256) ; 

 Lion Mdw., Little Kern Eiver, Jepson 1034; Huckleberry Mdw., Giant Forest, Newlon 49; Pine 

 Eidge, Fresno Co., Hall 4" Chandler 134; Fresno Flats, Madera Co., Jepson 12,846; Strawberry, 

 Tuolumne Co., Jepson 6521 (tips of the petals incoiled at night) ; Dorrington, Calaveras Co., 



