Menize.Ua. LOASACE/E. 235 



Orpeii XL. LOASACEiE. 



Herbaceous plants with either stinging or jointed and rongh-harbcd liairs, no 

 stipules, calyx-tube adnate to a 1 -celled ovary, parietal placent.T., or sometimes a 

 solitary suspended ovule, a single style, and anatropous seeds with a straight em- 

 bryo, mostly with little or no albumen. Stamens usually very numerous, rarely 

 few and definite, some of the outer occasionally petaloid or intermediate between 

 stamens and petals. Flowers i)erfect, often showy. 



An Amcriran order (with one African exception), of nl)out 100 species, many in orniuncntal 

 cultivation, esi)c(;iany species of Loana and lilumenhachia of S. America (wliioh twine and sting), 

 and of our first two genera. Of no other economical importance. 



1. Mentzella. Stamens many, inserted below tlic petals. Style 3-clcft at the apex. Seeds 



few to many, on 3 parietal pla(;cntic. 



2. Eucnide. Stamens many, adnate to the united bases of the petals and deciduous with them 



in a ling. Style 5-cleft. Seeds minute, very numerous, covering 5 expanded placenta;. 



3. Petalonyx. Stamens 5. Style entire. Seed solitary. 



1. MENTZELIA, Linn. 



Calyx-tube cylindrical to ovoid or turbinate ; tlie limb 5dobed, persistent. Petals 



5 or 10. Stamens numerous, inserted below the petals on the throat of the calyx 



and not adnate to them : hlaments free or in clusters opposite the petals, hliform, 



or the outer more or less dilated or sometimes petaloid and barren. Ovary truncate 



at the summit, 1-cellod : stylo 3-cleft, the lobes often twisted : ovules pendulous or 



horizontal, few to many in onn or two rows on the {\\\v{\ linear parietal piacentu'. 



Capsule short-oblong to cylindrical, few -many-seeded, ojiening by valves or usually 



irregularly at the truncate apex. Seeds flat or angled. — Annual or biennial herbs, 



erect, more or less rough with rigid tenacious barbed hairs, the stems becoming 



white and shining ; leaves alternate, mostly coarsely toothed or pinnatifid ; flowers . 



cyniose or solitary, sessile or nearly so, orange, golden yellow, yellowish, or white. 



About 30 species, nearly all confined to western North and South America ; forming several well- 

 marked subgenera. Confined, like the other genera, to dry hillsides and valleys. 



§ I. Seeds few, pendnlom, ohlonp (1 to 2 lines lovp), someirkat fnftened, not winged, 

 minutely jlexunns-striate lo7i(/itndinallt/ : petals .'i, vo( large : filaments all 

 filiform: leaves pelioled, serrately toothed. — Eumentzelia. 



M. ASPFRA, Linn. Annual, slender : leaves hastately 3-lobed, on slender ]-ietioles : flowers 

 axillary, sessile : petals about 3 lines long, but little exceciling the calyx-lobes : capsule narrowly 

 linear-clavate, an inch long. — A tropical species reaching to Lower California (Xanlus), Sonora 

 (Thurber), and Arizona (Eothrock), and to be looked for in Southeastern California. This is the 

 only species of true Menzelia that approaches the borders of the State. 



§ 2. Seeds pnidnlotis, fem to rather inani/, small, in 1 to .3 7-au's, irregnlarli/ angled 

 or sometvhat cuhical, not ininged, opaque, miuntelg fidirrrnlafe : Jjourrs vi ter- 

 minal cymes, mostly small: calyxlimh ly-jiarfed : petals ,") : filaments all fili- 

 form or the 5 outer more or less dilated : capsule linear : leaves sessile, fiat, 

 sinnately toothed or pinnatifid: animals. — TuAOUvrnvruM, 'iorr. Sc Gray. 

 ( Trachyphyt um, Nutt. ) 

 1. M. albicauliS, Dougl. Slender, \ to 1 foot high or more: leaves linear- 

 lancoolato, piiniatilid with numerous narrow lobes, \\w upper leaves broader and 

 often lobed or toothed at base only : flowers mostly approximate near the ends of 

 the branches: calyx-lobes 1^ to 2 lines long, a little shorter than the spatulatc or 

 obovate petals : filaments not dilated : capsule linear-clavate. fi tn 9 lines long : 

 seeds numerous, rather strongly tuberculate, irregularly angled with oVitnse margins. 



