174 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 



VI. ANAGALLIS, Toum. 



Annual or perennial herbs ; stems erect or diffuse. Leaves 

 opposite or wliorled. Flowers axillary, peduncled. Calyx- 

 tube o-parted, persistent. Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-parted, 

 longer than the calyx. Stamens 5, inserted on the base of 

 the corolla ; filaments bearded. Ovary globose ; style slen- 

 der ; stigma knobbed. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, the top 

 coming off like a lid.* 



1. A. arvensis, L. Poor Man's Weather-glass, Pimpernel. 



Annual ; stem spreading, widely branched, 4-angled, smooth, 4-12 in. 

 long. Leaves opposite, sessile, ovate, black-dotted beneath. Flowers 

 on peduncles longer than the leaves, nodding in fruit, corolla fringed 

 with glandular hairs, longer than the acute calyx-lobes, bright red, 

 opening in sunshine. Capsule globose, tipped by the persistent 

 style. Introduced, and common in fields and gardens.* 



77. EBENACE^. Ebony Family. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, entire, pinnately veined, 

 without stipules. Flowers often dioecious. Calyx free from 

 the ovary, persistent. Stamens 2-4 times as many as the 

 divisions of the corolla. Ovary 3-12-celled ; ovules 1 or 2 in 

 each cell. Fruit a berry. Mostly tropical plants. 



I. DIOSPYROS, L. 



Flowers dioecious or somewhat monoecious, the staminate 

 ones in cymes, the pistillate ones axillary and solitary. Calyx 

 4-6-lobed. Corolla 4-6-lobed. Stamens in the staminate 

 flowers usually 16, in the pistillate ones 8, imperfect. Fruit 

 large, with the persistent calyx attached to its base, 4-8-seeded. 



1. D. virginiana, L. Persimmon. Trees, with rough, black bark 

 and very hard wood. Leaves oval or ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate 

 at the apex, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, entire and dark 

 green, smooth above, pale and often downy beneath, short-peti- 

 oled, deciduous ; flowers yellowish-white, the parts mostly in 4's ; 

 fruit globose, edible when ripe, very astringent when green ; seeds 

 large, compressed, often wanting. Fruit ripening late in the fall. 

 Common in old fields and along roadsides S. and S.W.* 



