Houstonia. RUBIACE^. 25 



plish without yelloAvish eye. — Sk. i. 191 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. iv. .314. //. Linncei, var. 

 minor, Michx. Fl. i. 85. licdyotis minima, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 1. c. in part, & //. civrulea, var. 

 minor. — Dry or sandy soil, S. Virginia to Texas in the low country, also Illinois ? and Ten- 

 nessee ; fl. early spring. 



Var. pusilla. An inch or so high, more diffuse in age : leaves narrowly spatulate 

 (half a line or a line wide) ; upper ones nearly linear: seeds smoother, with more open and 

 oval hilar cavity, and sometimes an elevated line within, as described in Proc. Am. Acad. 

 1. c, a character not found in the larger and broader leaved form. Perhaps from the char, 

 this is the true H. patens, Ell. But we have it only from Louisiana (Hale, Drummond) and 

 Texas, Dnunmond and others; there passing into the other form. 

 H. mininia, Beck. More diffuse, commonly scabrous : leaves spatulate to ovate : flowers 

 usually larger : calyx-lobes more foliaceous, oblong-lanceolate, sometimes 2 lines long, very 

 much longer than the ovary, equalling the tube of the purple or violet corolla ; lobes of the 

 latter 2 or 3 lines long: primary peduncles sometimes declined in fruit '. — Amer. Jour. Sci. 

 X. 262; Gray, 1. c. Uedi/otis minima, Torr. & Gray, 1. c, in part only. — Dry hiUs, Mis- 

 souri and Arkansas to Texas, first coll. by L. C. Bech about St. Louis ; fl. early spring. 



* * Slender leafy-stemmed annual, with lateral horizontal peduncles, and very small flowers: 

 corolla short-i<alverform : seeds crateriform, with a medial hilar ridge. 



H. subviscosa, Gkay. A span or two high, minutely viscidulous-pubescent, with rather 

 simple spreading branches : leaves narrowly linear, half-inch long : peduncle in first fork 

 and from all followijig nodes, rather shorter than leaves, horizontally refracted in fruit : 

 calyx and capsule a line high : corolla about same length, wliite : capsule didymous, only the 

 summit free: seeds 10 in each cell. — Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 314. OldenJandia subviscosa, 

 Wright in Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 68. — S. Texas, Berlandier, Wricjht. 



* * * Depressed or low-tufted species: corolla salverform or in one' species funnelform: fila- 

 ments as well as anthers or summit of stjde reciprocally exserted ([uite out of the throat: 

 fructiferous jieduncles all short and recumd. 



+— Annual, with small funnelform corolla : seeds open-crateriform : scarious stipules setulose- 

 ciliate! 

 H. humifusa, Gray. Much l)ranclied from the root, repeatedly dichotomous, forming a de- 

 jjressed tuf t, puberulent and viscid ; leaves linear-lanceolate, thickish (half-inch or more long), 

 mucrouate : flowers in aU the forks, crowded witli the leaves at the ends of branchlets : calyx 

 4-parted into long setaceous-subulate spreading lobes : coroUa pale purple or nearly wliite, 

 open-f unnelform, 3 lines long, hardly twice the length of the calyx ; the oblong lobes puberu- 

 lous inside : capsule a line in diameter, globose-didymous, three-fourths free, only the base 

 girt by the short accrete calyx-tube. — Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 314 (not of Hemsl. Biol. Bot. 

 which is H. Wrightii). Iledi/otis {Houstonia) humifusa, Gray, Fl. Lindh. ii. 216. — Sandy 

 or gravelly plains and hills, Texas, Wriijht, Lindheimer, Recerchon, &c. : fl. spring. 



•f— -4— Perennials, prostrate, with naked stipules and elongated salverform corolla, flowering con- 

 spicuously in early spring ; later growth producing through the summer inconspicuous cleistoga- 

 mous flowers, with short (yet mostly well-formed but unopening) corollas. 



H. rotundifolia, Michx. Perennial by slender rootstocks or shoots, more or less creep- 

 ing, glabrous or with some hispidulous pixbesceuce : leaves somewhat orbicular, slightly 

 petioled, not longer than the interuodes : peduncles 2 to 4 lines long or in cleistogamous 

 flowers very short : developed corollas bright white, with filiform tube (3 or 4 lines long) 

 longer tlian the oblong lobes : capsule more than half free, somewhat didymous : seeds 

 comparatively large (half-line in diameter), rough-scrobiculate, acetabuliform. — Fl. i. 85 ; 

 Pursh, 1. c. ; Ell. 1. c. Hedi/otis rotundifolin, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 38. Oldenlandia rotundi- 

 folia, Chapm. Fl. 180, the later "apetalous fruiting" flowers noted. — Low sandy ground, 

 S. Car. to Florida and Louisiana. 



H. rubra, C.w. Suffrutescent and multicipital from a deep root, forming a depressed tuft 

 of 2 to 4 inches high, glabrous or minutely puberulent, densely leafy : leaves narrowly 

 linear, an inch or more long, or earlier ones rather lanceolate and shorter : corolla " red " 

 or rather purple, sometimes lilac or varying to white ; tube half-inch to nearly inch long, 

 slender ; oblong acute lobes 2 or 3 lines long : capsule 2 lines wide, less high, didymous, fully 

 three-fourths free: seeds open-crateriform. — Ic. vi. t. 374 ; Benth. PI. Hartw. 15. Hedyo- 

 tis [Houstonia) rubra, Gray, PI. Fendl. 61. Oldenlandia [Houstonia) rubra, Gray, PI. Wright. 

 ii. 68. — Stony or gravelly hills. New Mexico and Arizona. (Mex.) 



