80 ELATINACE^E. Elatine. 



ORDER XVIII. ELATINACE^I. 



Low annuals, with membranous stipules between the opposite dotless leaves, 

 regular and completely symmetrical flowers, with free sepals, hypogynous petals 

 and stamens, and distinct styles bearing capitate stigmas, all of the same number 

 (2 to 5), or the stamens rarely twice as many ; the ovary 2 - 5-celled, axile placenta 

 many-ovuled, capsular fruit mostly septicidal or septifragal, and anatropous seeds 

 with a crustaceous coat, tilled by the embryo. Seeds'straight or somewhat curved, 

 and the embryo taking the form of the seed. Comprises only the two following 

 genera. Flowers axillary. 



1. Elatine. Small prostrate aquatics. Parts of the flower each 2 to 4. Sepals obtuse. 



2. Bergia. Erect. Parts of the flower in fives. Sepals acute. 



1. ELATINE, Linn. 



Parts of the flower in twos, threes, or fours. Sepals membranaceous, obtuse, 

 nerveless. Ovary globose. Capsule membranaceous, the partitions remaining at- 

 tached to the axis or evanescent. Small prostrate glabrous annuals, growing in 

 water or wet places, with entire leaves and oblong usually solitary flowers. 



A genus of half a dozen species, belonging to temperate or subtropical regions, all round the 

 world. 



1. E. Americana, Arnott. Stems an inch or two long, tufted : leaves obovate 

 to linear, 1 to 4 lines long : flowers sessile, their parts in twos or rarely in threes : 

 capsule half a line or more in diameter, with 5 or 6 oblong seeds in each cell, rising 

 from the base. Gray, Gen. 111. i. 220, t. 95. 



Near Washoe Lake (Torrey) ; Oregon (Hall) ; in the Rocky Mountains, and frequent in the 

 Atlantic States. Also in Australia and the Fiji Islands. 



2. BERGIA, Linn. 



Parts of the flower in fives. Sepals with a strong midrib or herbaceous in the 

 middle, acute. Ovary ovoid. Capsule somewhat crustaceous, more or less of the 

 partitions in dehiscence remaining with the axis. Branching and often pubescent, 

 nearly erect, with entire or serrate leaves, and larger fascicled or solitary flowers. 



About 14 species in warm or tropical regions, the following the only species found in the 

 United States. 



1. B. Texana, Seubert. Annual, glandular-pubescent, branching from the 

 base, a span high, the lower branches somewhat decumbent : leaves oblanceolate, 

 acute, serrulate, \ to 1| inches long, attenuate to a short petiole : flowers fascicled, 

 shortly pedicelled : sepals carinate, nearly 1 \ lines long, exceeding the petals and 

 stamens : capsule globose : seeds smooth and shining. Watson, Bot. King Exp. 

 45. Merimea (1) Texana, Hook. Ic. PL t. 278. Elatine Texana, Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 678; Gray, Gen. IU. i. 218, t. 96. BergeUa Texana, Schnitz. Icon. t. 219, 

 rig. 1, 2, and 26. 



Sandy river-bank near Sacramento (Greene) ; Carson River bottom, Nevada ( Watson) : iden- 

 tical with the plant common in Texas. 



ORDER XIX. HYPERICACE.ffil. 



Herbs or shrubs, with opposite entire leaves punctate with translucent or dark- 

 colored glandular dots (containing balsamic-resinous secretion), no stipules, and per- 



