f 84 HYPERICACEiE. Ascyrum. 



Group 4. Ovary compound, icith the placenta: parietal, or 2 - b-celled from their 

 meeting i?i the axis : styles distinct or partly united. Estivation of the calyx 

 imbricated. Stamens and petals inserted on the receptacle. Seeds with a 

 straight embryo and little or no albumen. 



Order XVII. HYPERICACEyE. Juss. The St. John's-wort Tribe. 



Calyx of 4 - 5 sepals, which are distinct or somewhat united at the base ; the 2 

 exterior often smaller. Petals as many as the sepals, and alternate with them ; 

 the veins oblique ; aestivation twisted. Stamens usually numerous, and more 

 or less cohering at the base in three or more parcels ; anthers fixed by the 

 middle, introrse. Styles distinct or partly united : stigmas simple or somewhat 

 capitate. Fruit either baccate, or more commonly a capsule with 2-5 valves 

 and a septicidal dehiscence, 2 - 5-celled with the placentge in the axis, or 1- 

 celled with the placentee nearly or quite parietal. Seeds very numerous 

 (rarely few), straight or a little curved, anatropous : albumen none, but the 

 tegmen sometimes fleshy. "Embryo cylindrical, straight. — Shrubs or herbs, or 

 sometimes trees with a resinous juice, and dotted with small pellucid or black 

 immersed glands. Leaves opposite, entire, destitute of stipules. Inflorescence 

 various. Flowers commonly yellow. 



Tribe I. HYPERICEJE. Choisy. 

 Fruit capsular. Seeds terete or roundish. — Herbs or shrubby plants. Leaves mostly sessile, 



1. ASCYRUM. Linn.; Choisy, prodr. Hyper., and i?i DC. prodr. 1. p. 55 ; Endl. gen. 



5463. ST. PETER'S WORT. 



[ Name from the Greek, a, privative, and skyros, roughness; the plant being smooth to the touch.] 



Sepals 4 ; the 2 exterior usually broad and foliaceous ; the inner much smaller. Petals 4, 

 caducous. Filaments slightly united at the base into several parcels. Styles 2-3 (rarely 

 4), sometimes united. Capsule 1-celled, 2 - 3-valved : placentae parietal. — Shrubby or 

 suffruticose plants. Leaves sprinkled with both black and pellucid dots. Flowers 1-3, 

 at the summit of the branches, yellow : a pair of subulate bracteoles at the base of each 

 flower. 



1. Ascyrum stans, Michx. Upright St. Peter's Wort. 



Stem ancipital and somewhat winged, straight, erect, dichotomously branched at the sum- 

 mit ; leaves oblong, closely sessile, somewhat clasping, obtuse, a little glaucous ; flowers on 



