Plumbago. PLUMB AGIN ACEiE. 55 



short tufted stems, 1-5-nerved, persistent ; scapes simple and naked, terminated 

 by a compact glomerule of rose-colored or white short-pedicelled flowers, sur- 

 rounded and subtended by scarious bractlets and bi-acts ; the lower of the latter 

 empty and forming an involucre, the two lowest extended downward -at base into 

 appendages forming a reverse sheath to the apex of the scape. Calyx more dry 

 and scarious than in Statice, at base oblique or decurrent on the pedicel. Dilated 

 bases of the filaments adnate to the slightly united bases of the j^etals. Styles 

 hairy below. Fl. early summer, 



A. vulgaris, W^illd. (Co.vimox Thrift.) Leaves narrowly linear, flat or flattish, more 

 or less l-nerved : scapes a span to a foot high : brac;ts very obtuse : cal^^x at base simply 

 decurrent on the pedicel ; the tube 10-nerved, hairy at least on the stronger nerves or 

 angles; the lobes blunt or cuspidate. — Statice Anneria, h. Armeria vnhjaris, maritima & 

 alpina, Willd. Enum. loo. A. Labradorica, arctica & samjiiinolenta, Wallr. Arnier. ; Boiss. 

 in DC. A. andhm, Poepp., & var. Culifornica, Boiss. 1. c. — Through Arctic America to 

 Labrador on the Atlantic and to California on the Paciiic coast ; in various forms, the 

 Californian tall form recurring in Chili and Patagonia. (Eu., N. Asia.) 



3. PLUMBAGO, Tourn. Leadavort. (Latin name, from the lead-colored 

 flowers of some species.) — Herbs, or rather woody plants, some of them sarmen- 

 tose, and cult, in conservatories for the handsome Phlox-like blossoms, leafy ; 

 leaves with the sessile base or that of petiole commonly auriculate-clasping ; the 

 flowers in a terminal spike. Calyx valvate and corolla convolute in the bud. 

 Glands of the calyx stipitate. — Species mainly tropical. 



P. scaidens, L. Suffrutescent, decumbent or climbing, much branched: branches 

 sulcate-striate : leaves ovate-lanceolate, not auricled at base : calyx with 5 hooked teeth: 

 corolla wliite. — Boiss. in DC. Prodr. xii. 692. P. Floridann, Nutt. in Am. Jour. Sci. v. 290. 

 — S. Florida: perhaps introduced from W. Ind. (Trop. Amer.) 



Oeder LXXXI. PRIMULACE^. 



Herbs, with simple leaves, regular and .symmetrical perfect flowers, remarkable 

 for having the stamans of the sams number as the lobes of the corolla and opposite 

 them (inserted on the tube or base), and a 1 -celled ovary surmounted by an un- 

 divided style and stigma, and containing few or numerous (mostly amphitropous) 

 ovules, sessile on a free central placenta. Calyx and corolla hypogynous, except 

 in Samolus, in which they cohere below with the base of the ovary. But Glimx, 

 with a partly colored calyx, is apetalous and the stamens perigynous ; Coris (which 

 belongs to the Old World) has irregular calyx and corolla ; and rudiments of a 

 second series of stamens (staminodia) appear in Samolus and Steironema. Sub- 

 meTsed leaves pinnately divided, and the ovules anatropous in Hottonia. Flowers 

 4-8-merous, conmionly 5-merous. Calyx usually persistent, and the lobes im-- 

 bricated in the bud. Anthers introrse. Fruit capsular. Seeds with copious 

 fleshy albumen and a small straight embryo. 



Tribe I. HOTTOjSTIE^. Ovary wholly free : ovules fixed by the base, anatropous. 

 Aquatic : immersed leaves pectinate. 



1. HOTTONIA. Corolla short-salverform ; limb 5-parted, the lobes imbricated in the 

 bud. Capsule globular, more or less 5-valved, many-seeded. Flowers verticillate and 

 racemose. 



Tribe IL PRIMULE.E. {PrlmulecB k L>ii<bnnclue(e,^cnih.. kYiook.) Ovary wholly 

 free : ovules fixed by the middle, atnphitropous or lialf-anatropous. 



