LOASACE.E. (LOASA FAMILY.) 193 



3. G. COCCinea, Nutt. Canescent, puberulent or ylabrate (6-12' high), 

 very leafy ; leaves lanceolate, linear-oblong or linear, repand-denticulate or entire ; 

 flowers in simple spikes, rose-color turning to scarlet ; fruit terete below, 4:-sidcd 

 and broader above, 2-3" long. Minn, to Kan., and westward. 



* * Fruit slender-pedicelled. 



4. G. filipes, Spach. Nearly smooth; stem slender (2-4 high) ; leaves 

 linear, mostly toothed, tapering at base; branches of the panicle very slender, 

 naked; fruit obovate-club-shaped, 4-anglecl at the summit. Open places, Va. 

 to Fla., west to 111., Kan., and Ark. 



6. STENOSIPHON, Spach. 



Calyx prolonged beyond the ovary into a filiform tube. Filaments (8) not 

 appendaged at base. Fruit 1-celled, 1 -seeded. Otherwise as Gaura, which it 

 also resembles in habit. (From crrej/os, narrow, and ai<p<av, a tube.) 



1. S. virgatus, Spach. Slender, 2-4 high, glabrous, leafy, leaves nar- 

 rowly lanceolate to linear, pointed, entire, much reduced above; flowers nu- 

 merous in an elongated spike, white, ' long; fruit pubescent, oblong-ovate, 

 8-ribbed, small. E. Ivan, to Col. and Tex. 



7. CIRC -53 A, Tourn. ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE. 



Calyx-tube slightly prolonged, the end filled by a cup-shaped disk, deciduous ; 

 lobes 2, reflexed. Petals 2, inversely heart-shaped. Stamens 2. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, small and bur-like, bristly with hooked hairs, 1 - 2-celled ; cells 1 -seeded. 

 Low and inconspicuous perennials, in cool or damp woods, with opposite thin 

 leaves on slender petioles, and small whitish flowers in racemes, produced in 

 summer. (Named from Circe, the enchantress. ) 



1. C. Lutetiana, L. Taller (l-2 high); leaves ovate, slightly toothed ; 

 bracts none ; hairs of the roundish 2-celled fruit bristly. Very common. (Eu.) 



2. C. alpina, L. Low (3-8' high),smoo^A and weak ; leaves heart-shaped, 

 thin, shining, coarse/ ;j toothed ; bracts minute ; hairs of the obovate-oblong l-celled 

 fruit soft and slender. Deep woods, N. Eng. to Ga., lud., and Minn. (Eu.) 



ORDER 43. LOASACE^E. (LOASA FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with a rough or stinging pubescence, no stipules, the calyx-tube 

 adherent to a 1-cellcd ovary with 2 or 3 parietal placentae ; represented 

 here only by the genus 



1. MENTZELIA, Plumier. 



Calyx-tube cylindrical or club-shaped ; the limb 5-parted, persistent. Petals 

 5 or 10, regular, spreading, flat, convolute in the bud, deciduous. Stamens in- 

 definite, rarely few, inserted with the petals on the throat of the calyx. Styles 

 3, more or less united into one ; stigmas terminal, minute. Capsule at length 

 dry and opening by valves or irregularly at the summit, few - many-seeded. 

 Seeds flat, anatropous, with little albumen. Stems erect. Leaves alternate, 

 very adhesive by the barbed pubescence. Flowers terminal, solitary or cymos- 

 clustered. (Dedicated to C. Mentzel, an early German botanist.) 



