DECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA, 277 



S95. TRIBULUS. L. (Caltrops.) 



Calix 5 -parted. Petals 5, spreading. Style 

 none; stigma partly 5-cleft. Capsules usually 

 5, gibbous, mostly spinose, each £ or 3 seeded. 



Herbaceous plants, mostly prostrate or decumbent; 

 leaves abruptly pinnate, flowers solitary, alternate, yel- 

 low. 



Species. 1. T.* trijiigatns. Leaflets 3 pair, terminal 

 ones largest, under side pubescent; capsules 5, small, 1- 

 seeded, muricate, spineless. Hab. In wastes and g-ar- 

 dens, as a weed around Savannah in Georgia, probably 

 introduced from the West India islands, allied to T. max' 

 imm, but cei-tainly distinct. Obs. \nnual; stem diffuse, 

 prostrate, terete, pubescent, and striated. Leaves oppo- 

 site, bistipulate, equally pinnate, pinnx always 3 pair, 

 uppermost leaflets largest, oblique, lateral ones oblong-, 

 all abruptly and minutely pointed, upper side smooth, 

 the under pubescent. Calix and peduncle pilose, seg- 

 ments ovate, acuminate. Petals roundish, spreading, yel- 

 low; — the flower resembling that of a small Cistus. Sta- 

 mina 10, small. Fruit smooth, turbinate, pentangular, 

 acuminated, not larger than that of Pt/rola, capsules 5, 1- 

 seeded, cristately muricate, attached to a large common 

 axis. 



Of this genus there are 2 other species in tropical Ame- 

 rica, 1 in Ceylon, and 1 common to Barbary and the 

 south of Europe. 



396. DION^A. L. (Venus's Fly-trap.) 



Calix S-parted. Petals 5. Stigma fimbri- 

 ate, spreading. Capiide roundish, meaibranace- 

 ous, 1 -celled, many seeded. 



Herbaceous; leaves radical, marcescent, alternately im- 

 bricated at the base so as to produce a sq lamose bulb, 

 petiole spathulately alated, terminating m ai articulated 

 circular ciliated lamina, expanding to the light, and re- 

 markably sensible to the touch of any extrarieous body, 

 and thus by suddenly folding, accidentally enclosing in- 

 sects or the smaller leaves of neighbouf;;)^: plants.f 



f This sensibihty is said to reside principally in tiie 4 Ci'piUa- 

 ry processes situated upon the disk of the lamina. While en- 

 gaged in collecting this plant in its singularly insulated situa- 

 4»tion near "Wilmington, in Korth Carolina, I had occasion to 

 B B 



