PHYTOLACCACEAE. 47 



Family 4. PHYTOLACCACEAE. Pokeweed Family. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees. LeaA'es alternate : blades entire, rather fleshy. 

 Flowers perfect or dioecious, in racemes or panicles. Hypanthium want- 

 ing. Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals. Corolla wanting. Androecium of 4-8 

 stamens, or more, borne below the ovary. Gynoecium 1-many-carpellary, 

 borne in the calyx. Fruit baccate. 



Gynoecium 1-carpellary : style single : fruits laterally flattened. 1. Rivina. 



Gynoecium 2-many-carpellary : styles 2-many : fruits vertically 



flattened. 2. Phytolacca. 



1. RIVINA [Plum.] L. Eelatively small often partially woody plants. 

 Flowers racemose. Sepals narrow, partly enclosing tlie simple fruit. 



1. R. humilis L. Plants 3-7 dm. tall, or with elongate vine-like stems: leaf- 

 blades ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, 3-15 cm. long, undulate: sepals cuneate 

 to linear-oblong, 2-2.5 mm. long: berries 2-3.5 mm. long, mostly red. — Ham- 

 mocks and coastal sand-dunes, II. S. keys, U. keys, L. keys, L. S. keys. — [E. K.] 

 — {Bah., Cuba, Ant.) 



2. PHYTOLACCA [Tourn.] L. Eelatively large or stout plants. Flowers 

 paniculate, the panicles often raceme-like. Sepals broad, spreading under the 

 compound fruit. 



1. P. rigida Small. Plants 1-3 m. tall, or sometimes arborescent and becom- 

 ing 6 or 7 m. tall, the branches greenish-purple: leaf -blades lanceolate to 

 oblong-lanceolate, 7-34 cm. long: berries 10-12 mm. wide. — Hammocks, U. 

 keys. — [E. K.] — Poke. Ink-berry. 



Family 5. PETIVERIACEAE. Petiveria Family. 



Woody plants, usually strong-scented. Leaves alternate: blades firm, 

 entire. Flowers perfect, in virgate spikes. Hypanthium present. Calyx 

 of 4 nearly equal sepals. Corolla wanting. Androecium of 4^8 stamens, 

 borne like the calyx on the long hypanthium. Gynoecium a single carpel 

 borne in the hypanthium. Fruit an achene with reflexed spines at the top. 



1. PETIVERIA [Plum.] L. Plants with extensively creeping or hori- 

 zontal rootstocks. Leaves with narrow stipules. Achenes appressed to the 

 spike-rachis. 



1. P. alliacea L. Stems 3-10 dm. tall, often with virgate branches: leaf- 

 blades obovate, elliptic-obovate, or elliptic, 4-12 em. long: spikes 1-3 dm. 

 long, interrupted: sepals linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-4 mm. long, about as 

 long as the hypanthium: achenes linear-cuneate, 6-10 mm. long, the spines i 

 as long as the body or less. — Hammocks, U. keys. — [E. K.] — (Bah., Cuba, 

 Ant.) 



Family 6. BATIDACEAE. Saltwort Family. 



Maritime partially succulent shi-ubs. Leaves opposite, fleshy, half- 

 terete, linear or clavate, entire. Flowers small, dioecious, in axillary 

 cones. Staminate cones with persistent imbricate scales each subtending 

 a flower : calyx cup-shaped, 2-lobed : stamens 4—5, inserted at the base of 

 the calyx: filaments thick, alternating with staminodia. Pistillate cones 

 peduncled, 4-12-flowered, the scales deciduous: the flowers each consisting 

 of merely a 4-celled ovary with a sessile stigma. Ovule 1 in each cavity. 

 Fruit a fleshy cone. 



