Spermacoce. RUBIACE.E. 33 



of Diodia, the rose-colored or white corollas elongated in the typical species : sta- 

 mens and style usually exserted. — Linnaia, v. IGo; DC. Prodr. iv. 566; Hook. 

 & Arn. Bot. Beech, t. 99 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 144 (calyx wrongly said to 

 persist on the fruit); Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 77, — where the genus is 

 extended. 



* Corolla rose-purple, with slender almost filiform tube: erect annual. 



C. ^^7'riglltii, Gray. Sparsely hirsute, about a foot high, with long iuteruodes : leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, uervose-veiny, upper attenuate-acute ; uppermost four or more involucrate 

 around the solitary capitate glomerule : calyx-lobes 4, attenuate-subulate and almost e(iual, 

 nearly equalling the corolla-tube, or two of them sometimes very short, hispid-ciliate toward 

 the base : corolla salverform, 2 lines long : stigmas 2, short-linear : ovary and immature fruit 

 didymous. — PL Wright, ii. 68. — Plains and mountains of S. Arizona, Wnglit, Lemmon. 

 Habit of C. rubra, but far smaller-flowered. 



* * Corolla white or whitish, small (about 2 lines long): stamens and style little exserted: stig- 

 mas short: low and diffuse annuals or perennials. 



C. subulata, Gray. Glabrous and smooth throughout: stems ascending from an annual 

 root, a span or two high, somewhat paniculately branched : branches flowering from most 

 of the axils : leaves narrowly linear becoming subulate (inch or less long) : clusters rather 

 few-flowered : corolla almost salverform : calyx-lobes 2 or 3 lanceolate and foliaceous, one or 

 two much smaller and partly scarious or reduced to stipule-like teeth : gynoecium 2-merous : 

 fruit cuneate-obovate, slightly didymous, obscurely puberulent : carpels coriaceous, at ma- 

 turity separating from a narrow linear and bifid persistent carpophore (uot unlike that of 

 some Umbellifera') and opening on the ventral face. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 78, not that 

 of Hemsl. Biol. Centr.-Am., which is a slip of pen or type for C. suhalata, Hook. & Arn. 

 Spermacoce subulata, Pav. ex DC. (Borreria subulata, DC. Prodr. iv. 543) ; Hemsl. I. c. 60. — 

 S. Arizona, Wright (from seeds which were raised in Botanic Garden, Cambridge, in 1852), 

 Lemmon. (Mex.) 



C. allococca, Gray, 1. c. Hirsute or hispidulous to almost glabrous, diffusely branched 

 from a perennial root, low and much spreading or depressed, flowering from summit and 

 uppermost axils : leaves from linear to oblong-lanceolate (half -inch to bai-ely inch long) : 

 corolla funnelform, 3-4-lolied : caly.x-lobes 3 to 5, commonly 4 and equal, lanceolate, longer 

 than the ovary and fruit : gyncecium 3-4-merous : stigmas short and broad : fruit obovate- 

 globose, sometimes glabrous and smooth, sometimes partially or wholly hispidulous, 3-4- 

 coccous, more commonly 3-coccous ; the carpels flattened on the ventral face, separating from 

 a weak scarious carpophore, either closed or torn open ventrally. — Diodia tncocca, Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. ii. 30. D. tetracncca, Hemsl. Biol. Centr.-Am. Bot. ii. 56, t. 40, f. 10-15. Sperma- 

 coce ? tetracocca. Martens & Gal. Bull. Acad. Brux. xi. 132, fide Hemsl. — Prairies of Texas, 

 first coll. by Berlandier, Driimmond, &c. (Mex.) 



24. SPERMACOCE, Dill. {^Trtpfxa, seed, aKoiK-q, point; the carpels 

 pointed or crowned with one or more calyx-teeth.) — Low herbs, with small and 

 white sometimes bluish or purplish flowers, and small fruits in sessile glomerules 

 at the nodes ; chiefly tropical, the greater number American. — Dill. Elth. ii. 

 370, t. 227; L. Gen. ed. 1, 25; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 145. Spermacoce 

 & Borreria, Meyer, Prim. Fl. Esseq. 79 ; Cham. & Schlecht. in Linn. iii. 310, 

 355 ; DC. Prodr. iv. 540, 552. FL summer : corolla in our species short and 

 white. 



S. involccrAta, Pursh, Fl. i. 105, appears to have been founded on Crusea rubra, Cham. 

 & Schlecht. (notwithstanding the "flowers white"), and without much doubt was wrongly 

 attributed to this country. 



* Leaves from oval to oblong-lanceolate, contracted into a narrow base or short and margined 

 petiole, obliquely more or less pinnate-veined, in ours smooth and glabrous or a little scabrous: 

 fruit splitting into the two carpels, one broadly open on the ventral face and discharging its 

 seed, the other closed (at least at first) bj' the membranaceous or coriaceous dissepiment.— 

 Spermacoce, G. F. W. Meyer, 1. c. ; DC. 



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