383 



RUBIACE^. (madder FAMILY.) 



by abortion 1-carpelled. Fruit oblong, consisting of 1 mericarp — 

 Annual, dwarf herbs, with one, extra-axillary, sessile, 5-7-flowered 

 cyme in each internode, flowers yellow, very short-pedicelled, the one 

 in the fork naked, the rest subtended by a membranous, veined bract. 

 Leaves in fours or twos, oblong-spathulate. ^ 



1. C. Ciicullaria, L. .05 to .3. Bracts folded lengthwise, 

 semilunar, including the fruit — Spring — Rocky and shady places ; 

 common. 



2. C. aperta, Boiss. et Buhse. .05 to .1. Bracts fiat, ob- 

 ovate, somewhat rctuse or obtuse, subtending the glabrous or spar- 

 ingly scabrous fruit — Spring — Sinai, and probably in the Tih. 



5. VAILL-AXTIA, D.O. Vaillantia. 



Flowers axillary, ternate, nearly sessile, the lateral staminate, the 

 central perfect. Calyx-limb 0. Corolla rotate ; that of staminate 

 flowers 3-fid, of perfect 4-fid. Styles 2, with capitate stigmas. Ovules 

 3 ; seeds often by abortion 1. Fruit recurved, with three deflexed horns, 

 and a fourth, erect horn or small spur near the base at the back of the 

 mericarp, the back of the mericarp with 3, longitudinal, dentate crests 

 — Dwarf annual herbs, with leaves in fours, alternating with minute, 

 sessile, yellow flowers. p^j^. 204. 



1. V. muralis, L. .05 to .15. Fruit 

 pyramidal, with three deflexed, and one erect, conical, 

 truncate horn, all with fimbricated extremities, gla- 

 brous except along inner, ciliated border — Spring — 

 Walls and rocks ; less common than the follow- 

 ing. 



2. V. liispida, L. .05 to .3. Fruit 

 centic, with three deflexed and no erect horn, 

 throughout, and furnished with a small, conical, ob- 

 tuse spur near the base of the mericarp — February 

 to May — Rocks and w^alls 

 lower mountains. 



Fmit of V muralis 



Fig. 305. 



common along coast and 



Fruit of V. hispida. 



6. MERICARPiEA, Boiss. Mericarp^a. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx-limb obsolete. Corol- Fig. 306. 



la rotate, 4-parted. Stamens 4, short. Style 3- 

 parted, stigmas globular. Mericarps oblong, be- 

 coming crescentic lengthwise, inner face grooved, 

 outer 3-crested — Annual, dwarf herbs, with minute 

 yellow flowers. 



M. vaillantioide§, Boiss. .05 to .1, 

 strigulose ; branches prostrate or ascending from 

 neck. Leaves in sixes, linear-elliptical, aculeolate 

 at margins. Cymes axillary, nearly sessile, 3-1- 

 flowered, middle pedicel almost 0, lateral short, 

 thick ; crests of mericarps 5-7-toothed — Spring — 

 Haurein to Damascus, Aleppo, and northward. 



Fruit of M. 

 vaillantioides. 



