Class VIIL— OCTANDRIA. 



Okder I.— MONOGYNIA. 



f Germ inferior, 



559. RHEXIA. Z. 



Calix urceolate, 4 to 5-cIeft. Petals 4, oblique, 

 inserted upon the caiix. »^«f/iers declinate. Cap- 

 side setigerous, 4-ceUed, included in the ventri- 

 cose ca]ix. Receptacles subulate. Seeds nume- 

 rous. (Stamina sometimes 10.) 



Annual or perennial, rarely suftruticose; stems mostly 

 quadrangular; leaves very entire, longitudinally nerved, 

 opposite; flowers by 3s, dichotomal and terminal, often 

 trichotomously compounded and subcorymbose or glo- 

 merate, rarely, if ever, axillary, by defection sometimes 

 solitary and terminal; petals primarily convolute in a cone, 

 caducous, violaceous or purple, rarely yellow. — Anthers 

 very long and curved, at first deflected and equally ar- 

 i-anged round the tube of the calls, 1-celled, adnate to 

 the filaments, emitting the pollen by a sing-le clandes- 

 tine pore, situated^ at the junction with the filament, the 

 pore guarded by a single seta. Seeds subreniform and 

 angular. 



Species. 1. R. mariana. Stem subterete, hirsute. O. 

 2. virginica. Stem with alated angles, nearly smooth. 3. 

 ciliosa. Stem subquadrangular, smooth; leaves small, sub- 

 petiolate, oval-acute, beneath smooth, a little hairy^above, 

 margin conspicuously ciliated; flowers conglomerated by 

 .Ss, sessile, invoiucrate, anthers short; calix acute, fruiting 

 base subglobose, smooth. Pursli, Fl. Am. 1. 1. 10. A very 

 imperfect specimen. Pluk. Amalth. p. 138. t. 425. f. 4. 



4. * serrulata. Stem quadrangular, smooth: leaves small, 

 subpetiulate, roundish-oval, acute, smooth on both sides, 

 jnargin serrulate, base subciliate; flowers pedunculate, 

 very large, growing by 3s; calix glandularly hirsute, bor- 

 der very short and obtuse. Hab. In the open swamps of 

 Georgia and Florida, communicated to me by Dr. Baldwyn, 

 who considered it as a dwarf variety of the preceding, to 



