Q NYCTAGINACE.K Boerhuavia. 



petioles, Tniimtely black-clotted, lighter colored beneath : panicle very open : bracts minute and 

 liowers very small : la.scicles usually 3-5-llo\vered : fruit sessile or shortly pedicellate, nearly "J 

 lines long, glabrous, clavate, truncate at top, 5-costate and rugulose between tlie ribs. — Ciioisy, 

 1. c. 450. — Across the continent from the Tacitic to Florida and the West Indies. A form is 

 common in Lower California, Arizona and New Mexico, usually slender and very scabrous below, 

 mostly with narrow leaves on very siiort i)etioles. 



• • Flowers spicnte. 



B. SPICATA, Choisy, 1. c. 456. A low annual, resembling B. erecta, but the flowers mostly 

 solitary and scattered along the slender branches : fruit very sliortly pedicellate, glabrous, rounded 

 at the ape.\. — Lower California to Arizona and New ilexico. 



• • • Flowers umbellate. 



B. scANDE.Ns, Linn. Perennial, glabrous : leaves cordate or ovate, acute or acuminate, 1 or 2 

 inches long, on ratlier short petioles : umkds 6-10-flowered on simple a.xillary peduncles, or the 

 inflorescence somewhat paniculate : bractlets a line or two long : pedicels slender, 2 to 6 lines 

 long ; flowers greenish, 2 to 4 lines long including the base : stamens e.x.serted : fruit glabrous, 

 linear-clavate, terete and obscurely 10-costate, black-glandular toward tiie apex. — Choisy, 1. c. 

 454. B. Grahami, Cray, Am. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xv. 323. — From Peru to the W. Indies, New 

 Mexico and Southern Arizona. 



5. HERMIDIUM, Watson. 

 Characters as in Jlirabilis, but tlic involucre of distinct broail foliaceous bracts, 

 each adnata to tlio pedicel of a single tiower. Perianth campanulate-funiielfoini. 

 Stamens 5 to 7. — Flowers in capitate terminal and axillary racemes, A single 

 species. 



1. H. alipes, Watson. Perennial, stout and fleshy, glabrous and glaucous, the 

 stems branchuil and ascending, a foot high : leaves bn)adly ovate to lanceolate, acute 

 or obtuse, somewhat cordate at base, 1 to 2h inches long, on very short thick peti- 

 oles : heads about G-flowered, on short peduncles : bracts corilate-ovate, somewhat 

 membranaceous and more or less colored, 6 to 10 lines long, acute : perianth about 

 equalling the bract, slightly 5 1obed, light i)urple : stamens and style not exserted : 

 fruit globular, smooth. — lint. King Exp. 28G, t. 32. 



On low foothills in Northwestern Nevada, near the Humboldt and Truckee Rivers, Watson, 

 Lemmon, Flowering in May. 



Order LXXVII. POLYGONACE^. 



Herbaceous or woody plants, with tumid joints, alternate and entire leaves (ex- 

 cept in Fterostet/ia), or sometimes verticillate and often only radical, with sheathing 

 stipules or none ; flowers mostly jierfect, on jointed pedicels ; calyx more or less pcit- 

 aloid, usually persistent about the free 1-celled 1-ovnled ovary; stamens mostly 4 to 

 9, perigynous, Avith oval or oblong anthers ; styles 2 to 4, distinct or somewhat con- 

 nate, opposite the angles of the ovary ; seed erect, orthotropous, with the embryo 

 curved and at one side of the usually mealy albumen, or straight and Avithin it. — 

 Flowers rather small, the perianth of 3 to G distinct or more or less united segments, 

 the inner ones or all usually petaloid ; fruit an akene, compressed or 3 - 4-angled 

 or -winged. 



An order of 30 genera and 700 species, mostly belonging to northern temperate regions, the large 

 tribe of Erioyonciv restricted almost exclusively to Western America. This tribe, largely repre- 

 sented in our flora, is wholly valueless except as a few species may become cultivated for orna- 

 ment. The larger group of Puli//joncce furnishes the ofliciiiai IMiubarb, as well as the ganlen 

 vegetable of the same name (species of Ilhcum), and the Vnukwhcut (Fatjo)njrum csculeniutn). 

 Many species abound in oxalic acid, some have been used in dyeing, and the roots are frequently 

 medicinal. 



