Heliotropium. BOER AGIN ACE-E. 521 



2. HELIOTROPIUM, Tourn. HELIOTROPE. TURNSOLE. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla funnelform or salverform, imbricated and the sinuses 

 plaited in the bud. Stamens included : filaments mostly short or none : anthers 

 connivent and sometimes cohering by their usually acuminate or mucrouate tips. 

 Style entire or none : stigma a fleshy ring or the edge of a peltate or umbrella- 

 shaped disk, which is surmounted by a conical, capitate, or subulate often 2-cleft 

 appendage (this obsolete in H. Curassavicum). Ovary 4-celled, 4-ovuled. Fruit 

 dry, often 4-lobed, sometimes 2-lobed, splitting into 4 one-seeded or sometimes into 

 2 two-seeded nutlets. Embryo either straight or curved, commonly surrounded by 

 some albumen. Herbs or low shrubby plants, with the usually small flowers more 

 commonly spiked and bractless, sometimes accompanied by leafy bracts; the so- 

 called "spikes" one-sided and coiled at the apex, straightening as the blossoms 

 open. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 49. 



A large genus, widely dispersed over the wanner parts of the world, represented in the United 

 States by fully a dozen species, only three of which occur in California, and two of these are of 

 great range. The Sweet Heliotrope of cultivation is Peruvian (H. Peruvianum, Linn.). U. Indi- 

 cum, Linn., the common representative of the section Twridium, Lehm., or Heliophytum, DC. 

 (by these and other authors regarded as a distinct genus), although a common weed of waste 

 grounds in warm-temperate and tropical countries, appears not to have run wild in California. The 

 two following are true Heliotropes, with fruit of 4 one-seeded nutlets, distinct stamens, flowers in 

 bractless spikes, &c. 



1. Fruit i-lobed, splitting into 4 one-seeded nutlets. True HELIOTROPIUM. 



1. H. Curassavicum, Linn. A glabrous and somewhat glaucous succulent 

 herb, a span to a foot high, diffusely spreading : leaves oblanceolate, varying either 

 to linear or to obovate-oblong (an inch or two in length) : spikes mostly either in 

 pairs or twice forked, forming a kind of cyme : flowers crowded, pure white, rather 

 large for the genus : stigma sessile, umbrella-shaped, nearly flat-topped, as broad as 

 the glabrous ovary. 



Sands of the sea-shore, also in damp saline soil in the interior ; widely spread over the world. 

 Specimens from Tijou (Uotkruck) apparently have blue flowers ! 



2. H. inundatum, Swartz. Annual, hoary with a fine appressed pubescence, 

 a foot or two high : leaves spatulate-oblong or sometimes oblanceolate, tapering at 

 base into a slender petiole : spikes 2 to 4 in a cluster, filiform : flowers very small 

 and close : corolla only a line long, white : stigma sessile, thick, surmounted by a 

 short blunt cone. 



California, Coulter (probably on the Rio Colorado) : thence to Texas ; also "West Indies, Tropical 

 America, &c. 



2. Fruit 1-globose, solid, each lobe or carpel splitting into 2 hemispherical one-seeded 

 nutlets : corolla pretty large : style long : truncate cone of the stigma bearded 

 with a, tuft of strong bristles. EUPLOCA, Gray. (Euploca, Xutt.) 



3. H. convolvulaceum, Gray. Annual, with diffuse or spreading branches 

 from the base (a span to a foot long), hoary or strigose-hispid : leaves oblong-lance- 

 olate or ovate, petioled : flowers scattered, short-pedicelled, generally opposite the 

 leaves, sweet-scented, opening towards evening : corolla white, with the upper part 

 of the hairy tube somewhat enlarged and the orifice narrowed, and a rotate scarcely 

 lobed but plaited border : anthers with slightly cohering tips. Mem. Am. Acad. 

 vi. 403 ; Proc. Am. Acad. v. 340, x. 50. Euploca convolvulacea, Nutt. in Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. v. 189 ; Torr. in Marcy, Hep. t. 15. 



In white sand near "Soda Lake," Dr. Cooper. Otherwise known only east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, on sandy plains, from Nebraska to Texas. 



