four-o'clock family 453 



2. HERMIDIUM Wats. 



Perennial glabrous herbs with thick fleshy leaves. Flowers in head-like 

 clusters on the ends of terminal or axillary pedimcles ; clusters 6 to S-flowered, 

 each flower subtended by a large ovate leathery bract, the short pedicels 

 adnate to the midveins of the bract. Calyx campanulate-funnelforin, light 

 purple, slightly lobed. Stamens 5 to 7, these and the style about as long as 

 the calyx. Fruit nearly globose, smooth, glabrous. — Monotypic. (Diminutive 

 of the Greek Hermes, perhaps a fancied resemblance between the pediceled 

 flower and a little statue of that god.) 



1. H. alipes "Wats. Stems several from a woody caudex, stout, ascending, 

 simple or slightly branched, 5 to 12 inches high ; leaves round to oblong-ovate, 

 obtuse or subacute, subcnrdate at base, 1 to 2 inches long, very shortly petioled; 

 bracts occasionally slightly united. 



Panamint and White mountains, north to north-central Nevada, thence east 

 to Utah. 



Eefs.— Hermidium alipes Wats. Bot. King, 286, pi. 32 (1S71), type loe. Humboldt Valley, 

 Nev., Watson. 



3. ACLEISANTHES Gray. 



Perennial herbs or low shrubs. Flowers axillary or terminal, each subtended 

 by 1 to 3 small narrow bracts. Calyx white, with a very much elongated slen- 

 der tube and spreading but very small 5-lobed limb. Stamens 2 to 5, unequal, 

 the slender filaments united at the base. Fruit narrowly ellipsoidal, 5-angled 

 or 5-ribbed. — Southwestern United States and Mexico, 7 species. (Greek a-, 

 privative, cleis, something which closes, and anthos, flower, the flower not 

 enclosed by the involucre.) 



1. A. longiflora Gray. Yerba de la Rabl\. Stems slender, scabrous 

 pubendent, 6 to 10 inches long; leaves triangular-lanceolate, acute, broadly 

 cuneate at base, y^ to 1 inch long, shortly petioled; calyx-tube 4 to 4io inches 

 long, its lobes 2 or 3 lines long; stamens exserted. 



Marie Mts., eastern Riverside Co., Schellengcr. East to Texas and south 

 into Mexico. 



Eefs. — ACLEISANTHES LOKGIFLORA Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, 1.5: 261 (1853), type loc. 

 Valley of the Limpio, Texas, Wright 599; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 170, pi. 46 (1859). 



4. ABRONIA Juss. 



Herbs with viscid herbage. Leaves of the opposite pairs more or less 

 unequal. Pedimcles axillary or terminal, bearing a many-flowered head sub- 

 tended by 5 to 15 distinct involucral bracts. Flowers showy. Calyx salver- 

 form. Stamens commonly 5, unequal, included in the tube and inserted upon 

 it. Style included. Persistent base of calyx 3 to 5-winged, more or less 

 reticulate, enclosing a cylindrical achene. — Species about 25, western North 

 America. (Greek abros, graceful.) 



]. Caulescent plants. 

 Fruits with 2 to 5 conspicuous wings. 



Fruits very large and with very thick wings; seacoast. 



Flowers yellow 1. A. latifolia. 



Flowers deep dark red 2. A. maritima. 



Fruits smaller and with thinner wings; flowers red, pink or white. 

 Herbage glandular or glandular-puberulent ; seacoast. 



Wings mostly 5, broadened upward, truncate above or tapering to the beak 



3. A. umbellata. 

 Wings mostly 3, wider, produced above into a rounded lobe which surpasses the 



body 4. A. alba. 



Herbage villous, usually glandular; mostly of the interior. 



Wings usually 5, often unequal 5. -•(. villosa. 



Wings only 2 0. A. pogonantha. 



