MollugO.~\ CARYOPHYLLE.E. 23 



4. MOLLUGO, Linn. 



Sepals 5, white on the edges. Petals none. Stamens 5, alternating with 

 the sepals, or fewer. Styles (or stigmas) 3, distinct but short. Capsule 3- 

 celled, opening loculicidally in 3 valves. — Stipules minute, subulate. 



A small tropical or subtropical genus, dispersed over both the New and the Old World. 

 1. M. stricta, Linn.; Fenzl in Walp. Rep. ii. 241. A diffuse much- 

 branched glabrous annual, a few inches or seldom near a foot high. Eadical 

 leaves obovate or oblong, stem-leaves in false whorls of 4 or 6, all or the 

 upper ones much narrower and acute at both ends. Flowers very small, in 

 slender bifid racemes or dichotomous cymes, on slender peduncles. Pedicels 

 short and filiform. Sepals greenish, with white edges, about f line long. 



Hongkong, Wright. A common weed of cultivation throughout India and the Archi- 

 pelago, and northward to S. China. The Hongkong specimens are narrow-leaved. When 

 nearly all the leaves are broad and obtuse, it becomes the M. triphylla, Linn., or M. penta- 

 phylla, Linn., neither of which are specifically distinct. 



Order XIV. HYPERICINEJE. 



Sepals 5, rarely 4, free, imbricate in the bud. Petals as many, contorted 

 in the bud. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous, usually united at the base or 

 collected together into 3 or 5 bundles. Ovary single, of 2 to 5 united carpels, 

 either divided into as many cells or with as many projecting parietal placentas, 

 each with several ovules. Styles as many as carpels, free or united at the 

 base. Stigmas terminal. Fruit a capsule, berry, or drupe. Seeds without al- 

 bumen, the embryo straight or curved. — Herbs, shrubs, or rarely tre'es. Leaves 

 opposite, entire or with glandular teeth. Stipules none. Leafy parts often 

 glandular-dotted and sometimes the flowers also. 



A widely-diffused though not very large family, the shrubby and arboreous species most 

 abundant in the tropics, the herbaceous ones chiefly in the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere. 



Capsule opening at the placentas. Seeds not winged. Herbaceous . . 1. Hypericum. 

 Capsule opening between the placentas. Seeds winged. Shrubby . . 2. Cratoxylon. 



1. HYPERICUM, Linn. 



Fruit a capsule, opening in 3 to 5 valves at the placentas or dissepiments. 

 Seeds not winged. — Herbs or, in some extra-colonial species, shrubs. Leaves 

 veiy rarely serrate, and most frequently dotted, either with black or transpa- 

 rent dots. Flowers usually yellow. 



The largest genus of the Order, and ranging over the whole of its area, but most numerous 

 without the tropics. 



1. H. japonicum, Thunb.; DO. Trod. i. 548; Boyle, Illustr. t. 24, 

 /. 2. A small glabrous annual or perennial of short duration, diffusely 

 branched or ascending, from a few inches to near a foot high. Leaves small, 

 ovate, stem-clasping, with numerous transparent dots. Flowers small, yellow, 

 in terminal dichotomous cymes. Sepals oblong, entire or with a few glandular 

 teeth. Capsule 3-valved. — H. nervatum, Hance in Walp. Ann. ii. 188. 



Common in marshes and fields, Champion and others. -Frequent in India and the Archi- 

 pelago, extending northward to Japan and southward to Australia and New Zealand. 



