LOASACE.E. (LOASA FAMILY.) 193 



3. G. COCCinea, Nutt. Canescent, puberulent or glabrate (6-12' high), 

 very leafy ; leaves lanceolate, linear-oblong or linear, repand-denticulate or entire ; 

 flowers in simple spikes, rose-color turning to scarlet ; fruit terete below, 4-sided 

 and broader above, 2 - 3" long. Minn, to Kan., and westward. 



* # Fruit slender-pedicelled. 



4. G. filipes, Spach. Nearly smooth; stem slender (2-4 high) ; leaves 

 linear, mostly toothed, tapering at base ; branches of the panicle very slender, 

 naked ; fruit obovate-club-shaped, 4-angled at the summit. Open places, Va. 

 to Fla., west to 111., Kan., and Ark. 



6. STENOSIPHON, Spach. 



Calyx prolonged beyond the ovary into a filiform tube. Filaments (8) not 

 appendaged at base. Fruit 1-celled, 1 -seeded. Otherwise as Gaura, which it 

 also resembles in habit. (From crrv6s, narrow, and (rl<f>wv, a tube.) 



1. S. virgatus, Spach. Slender, 2 - 4 high, glabrous, leafy , leaves nar- 

 rowly lanceolate to linear, pointed, entire, much reduced above ; flowers nu- 

 merous in an elongated spike, white, ' long ; fruit pubescent, oblong-ovate, 

 8-ribbed, small. E. Kan. to Col. and Tex. 



7. CIRC JEA, Tourn. ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE. 



Calyx-tube slightly prolonged, the end filled by a cup-shaped disk, deciduous ; 

 lobes 2, reflexed. Petals 2, inversely heart-shaped. Stamens 2. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, small and bur-like, bristly with hooked hairs, 1 - 2-celled ; cells 1-seeded. 

 Low and inconspicuous perennials, in cool or damp woods, with opposite thin 

 leaves on slender petioles, and small whitish flowers in racemes, produced in 

 summer. (Named from. Circe, the enchantress.) 



1. C. Lutetiana, L. Taller (1-2 high) ; leaves ovate, slightly toothed ; 

 bracts none; hairs of the roundish 2-celled fruit bristly. Very common. (Eu.) 



2. C. alplna, L. Low (3-8' high), smooth and weak; leaves heart-shaped, 

 thin, shining, coarsely toothed ; bracts minute ; hairs of the obovate-oblong l-cel/ed 

 fruit soft and slender. Deep woods, N. Eng. to Ga., Ind., and Minn. (Eu.) 



ORDER 43. LOASACE^E. (LOASA FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with a rough or stinging pubescence, no stipules, the calyx-tube 

 adherent to a 1-celled ovary with 2 or 3 parietal placentce ; represented 

 here only by the genus 



1. MENTZELIA, Plumier. 



Calyx-tube cylindrical or club-shaped ; the limb 5-parted, persistent. Petals 

 5 or 10, regular, spreading, flat, convolute in the bud, deciduous. Stamens in- 

 definite, rarely few, inserted with the petals on the throat of the calyx. Styles 

 3, more or less united into one ; stigmas terminal, minute. Capsule at length 

 dry and opening by valves or irregularly at the summit, few -many-seeded. 

 Seeds flat, anatropous, with little albumen. Stems erect. Leaves alternate, 

 very adhesive by the barbed pubescence. Flowers terminal, solitary or cymose- 

 clustered. (Dedicated to C. Mentzel, an early German botanist.) 



