Gaillania.] lxx. rubuce^ (hiern). 233 



Leaves narrowly linear, rather fleshy, sessile, ^1 in. long, margins 

 revolute ; sheaths of the stipules very short, setae usually 2 or of the 

 lower leaves obsolete, short. Flowers about ^—^ in. long, subsessile, 

 solitary or few together, sheathed at the base by a pale calyx- like 

 shortly 6-cleft involucre of ^-^ in., arranged in simple and alternately 

 branched terminal spikes; teeth of the involucre ovate, subacute. 

 Calyx-teeth 2, foliaceous, pale, elliptical, narrowed at both ends, 

 ^ in. long ; the 2 other teeth minute or obsolete. Corolla shortly 

 salver-shaped, exceeding the calyx ; lobes 4 rarely 5, rather small. 

 Stamens 4-5, 2-3 with short filaments, the other 2 subsessile. Style as 

 long as the corolla-tube, glabrous, bifid with short slender lobes. Fruit, 

 including the calyx-teeth, ^-^ in. long. — Spermacoce calyptera, Decaisne 

 in Ann, Sc. Nat., Ser. ii., ii. p. 267. 



Nile Xiand. Soturba, Coast of Nubia, Schweinfurth ! 

 Occurs also in Arabia Petraea. 



72. SPERMACOCE, Dill. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 145. 



Calyx-tube campannlate or turbinate, often compressed ; limb usually 

 of 4-2 more or less conspicuous teeth and sometimes of small interme- 

 diate ones, more or less persistent. Corolla funnel-shaped or salver- 

 shaped, membranous ; tube short or elongated ; throat naked or 

 bearded at the base ; lobes usually 4, rarely 3 or 2, spreading, valvate 

 in the bud, often setulose at the apex. Stamens 4, rarely 3 or 2, in- 

 serted at the top of the corolla-tube, usually glabrous ; filaments slender ; 

 anthers oval-oblong or oblong, usually rather short, fixed at the back, 

 usually exserted. Disk cushion-shaped or obsolete. Ovary 2-celled ; 

 style slender, equalling the corolla- tube or exserted ; stigma snbcapi- 

 tate, bilobed ; ovules solitary, attached to the middle of the septum, 

 amphitropous. Fruit small, dicoccous, splitting down the middle from 

 the apex ; cocci 1-seeded, one or both dehiscing at the apex. Seeds 

 oblong ; umbilicus ventral, longitudinally furrowed on the face ; testa 

 shining ; albumen hard ; radicle inferior. — Herbs usually annual, 

 occasionally undershrubs, with opposite sessile or subsessile leaves, 

 shortly sheathing stipules adnate to the base of the leaves truncate and 

 tipped with setae, and usually small densely verticillate or capitate her- 

 maphrodite flowers in terminal and axillary clusters. 



A large genus, tropical and subtropical, the greater number of the species found 

 America. 



Leaves at the base of the flower-heads spreading or rarely 

 reflexed. Annual herbs. 

 Bracteoles not numerous nor conspicuous, or plant very 

 slender. 

 Calyx-teeth all small, obscure (or sometimes 2-1 pro- 

 longed, subulate) ^- S. tenuissim^. 



Caljrx-teeth 4, subequal, not very small. 

 Corolla-tube exceeding the calyx-teeth. 



More or less hirsute, very slender ...... 2. 5. jUiformis. 



Hispid-hirsute, not very slender 3. 5. Phytcuina. 



Glabrous, not very slender 4. 5. comprcssa. 



in 



