PHYTOLACCACE^. (POKEWEED FAMILY.) 395 



3. P. rotundata, Griseb. Spineless ; leaves obovate, rouuded at the base, 

 short-petioled (V loug) ; cymes divaricate, sessile or shurt-peduucled ; flowers 

 clustered ; sterile calyx 5-toothed, the fertile clavaite-obloug, obtuse-augled, 

 glaudular above the middle, the glauds stipitate. — Keys of South Florida 

 (Vurtiss). 



Order lt)6. PHYTOLACCACE^. (Pokewekd Family.) 



Herbs or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves, and apetalous 3- 

 bracted racemed or spiked flowers. — Calyx composed of 4 - 5 nearly- 

 equal sepals, more or less united at the base, unchanged in fruit. 

 Stamens hypogyuous, as many as the sepals and alternate with them, 

 or numerous, free, or united at the base ; sterile ones none : anthers 

 2-celled, introrse. Ovary simple or compound. Ovules amphitropous 

 or campylotropous, solitary, erect. Styles as many as the ovaries. 

 Fruit of 1 - many carpels. Albumen copious or none. Embryo an- 

 nular, rarely straight. Radicle inferior. 



Synopsis. 



Suborder I. PETIVERIE-^. Fruit simple. Cotyledons convolute. 

 Leaves stipulate. 



1. PETIVERIA. Fruit an achenium with reflexed spines at the apex. Embryo straight 



in scanty albumen. 



2. RIVINA. Fruit a berry. Embryo forming a ring around the albumen. 



Suborder TI. PHYTOLACCE^. Fruit compound. Cotyledons flat. 

 Leaves exstipulate. 



3. PHYTOLACCA. Fruit a berry, composed of numerous carpels arranged in a circle. 



1. PETIVERIA, Plum. 



Calyx 3-bracted, 4-parted, herbaceous. Stamens 4 - 8 : anthers linear. 

 Ovary simple, 1-celled. Ovule single, erect, amphitropous. Stigma many- 

 cleft. Achenium wedge-shaped, compressed, 2-lobed at the apex, each lobe 

 armed with 2-3 reflexed spines. Albumen almost none. Embryo straight. 

 Cotyledons unequal, convolute. — Shrubby tropical plants, with entire stipu- 

 late leaves, and small greenish flowers in an elongated and slender spike. 



1. P. alliacea, L. — South Florida. — Stem 2* -3° high, closely pubes- 

 cent. Leaves 3' -4' long, oblong or obovate, obtuse, narrowed into a short 

 petiole, pubescent beneath. Spikes filiform, single or by pairs, 6'- 12' long. 

 Calyx lobes linear, incurved at the apex. Stamens 4-5. Achenia erect, 

 appressed to the rachis, with two spines at each lobe. Stipules subulate, 

 minute. 



2. RIVINA, Plum. 



Calyx remotely 3-bracted, 4-parted, colored. Stamens 4 - 8 : anthers ovate 

 or oblong. Ovary simple. Ovule solitary, amphitropous. Stigma capitate 



