112 GEXTIANACE^. Microcala. 



1, MICR6CALA, Link. Compounded of ^iTy.no^', small, and xijlrj or x«ylo,', 

 beautiful: should have been iMicrocalia, but that proper form of the name was 

 preoccupied. — One European species and the following : fi. in spring. 



M. quadrangularis, Griseb. A little annual, with simple or branching filiform stem, 

 2 or o inches high : branches or peduncles l-flo\vered : leaves 2 or o pairs, oval or oblong, 

 2 or 3 lines long : calyx at first oblong-campanulate ; in fruit broader, truncate at top and 

 bottom, strongly l-angled ; the teeth short and subulate : corolla saffron-yellow, 3 lines 

 long. — DC. Prodr. ix. 03; Progel in Mart. Fl. Bras. vi. 213, t. 58, fig. 3; Gray, Bot. Cahf. 

 i. 480. Exucum quadramjulare, Willd. Spec. i. (336.. E. iiijiatum, Hook. & Am. m Jour. Bot. 

 i. 283. Cicendia quadrangularis, Griseb. Gent. 157. — Open moist ground, coast of California, 

 from Mendocino Co., southward. (S. Amer.) 



2. ERYTHR.iEA, Renealm. Centaury, Canchalagua. {Y vom. sQvdQog, 

 red, the flowers being mostly red or rose-color.) — Low herbs (of various parts of 

 the world), mahily annuals and biennials; the flowers small or middle-sized, but 

 commonly numerous, in summer. Corolla-lobes becoming narrower with age. 



E. cniRONioiDES and E. speciosa, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 479, are Mexican species, not yet 

 found near our borders, forming a section (the genus Gi/randra of Grisebach) with tube of the 

 corolla rather shorter than the ample lobes, and an oval capsule. All our species have a 

 longer and narrower capsule (elongated-oblong or cylindraceous), and a longer tube to the 

 corolla. Our E. rcnusta, as to the corolla, is the connecting form. 



* Flowers spicately disposed along the rather simple branches and sessile in the few forks. 



E. spiCATA, Pers. Strictly erect, a foot or less high : leaves oblong : tube of the rose-col- 

 ored corolla hardly longer than the calyx-lobes, twice the length of the rather narrow 

 lobes. — E. Pickeriiiffii, Oakes in Hovey Mag. Chironia spicata, Smith, Fl. Graec. t. 238. — 

 Coast at Nantucket, Mass. (Oakes), and Portsmouth, Virginia (Riujel). (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers cymose or paniculately scattered ; ours all rose-red, and with broad stigmas. 



-1— European species sparingly naturalized in the Atlantic United States : stigmas broadly oval 

 or obovate : lobes of the corolla oblong, obtuse. 



E. Centaurium, Pers. Strictly erect, a span to a foot high : leaves oblong, the lowest form- 

 ing a rosulate tuft at the root : flowers cymose-clustered, at least the middle ones sessile : 

 lobes of the corolla 2\ or 3 lines long. — AVaste grounds, shores of Lake Ontario (Oswego, 

 New York) and Lake Michigan, Bahcock: rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



E. eamosissijMA, Pers. Lower, more slender, diffusely branched: leaves from oval to lanceo- 

 late, the lowest not rosulate : flowers cfEusely cymose, pcdicclled : lobes of the corolla only 

 2 lines long. — E. pidrhcUa, Fries, Novit. ii. 31 (Grisebach's var. pulcheUa, merely a small 

 form). E. MuMcnIx'rtjii, Griseb. in DC. Prodr. ix. 60, as to pi. N. Y. and Penn. Exaciim pid- 

 chellum, Pursh, Fl. i. 100? Chironia pulchclla, Muhl. Cat. 23. — E. Pennsylvania, New Jer- 

 sey, &c. : rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



•i— -i— Species indigenous from Texas to California : stigmas cuneate or flabelliform and truncate : 

 no rosulate tuft of radical leaves. 



++ Flowers small : lobes of the corolla only 1^ to 2| lines long, much shorter than the tube: an- 

 thers oblong. 



E. Texensis, Griseb. Slender, diffusely much branched above into a loose paniculate- 

 corymbose cyme : leaves linear or the lowest lanceolate and the uppermost reduced to 

 subulate bracts: flowers all slender-pedicelled : corolla (apparently liglit rose-color) with 

 very slender tube (4 or 5 lines long), and lanceolate-oblong lobes (2 lines long), which be- 

 come lanceolate-linear, longer, and acute: seeds globose-ovoid. — DC. I. c. 98. — Texas, 

 common on rocks and hills. 



E. floribunda, Benth. Almost a foot higii, corymbose-cymose at summit, rather strict 

 and closely flowered : leaves oblong or the upper lanceolate : flowers short-pedicelled or in 

 the forks ncarlj' sessile : lobes of the light rose-colored corolla oblong and becoming lan- 

 ceolate, at most 2 lines long and 3 or 4 times shorter than the tube : anthers short-oblong 

 (shorter than in any other of this section and the stigmas smaller) : seeds globular-ovoid. 

 — PI. Hartw. 322 ; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 480. — California, on the Sacramento and its tribu- 

 taries, Ilaiiirefj, &c. 



E. Muhlenbergii, Griseb. A span or less high, at length fastigiately branched from 

 the base, cymosely flowered at summit : leaves oblong, obtuse ; the floral lanceolate : ped- 



