MADDER FAMILY. 215 



7. 8PEEMACOCE. Flowers sessile, in axillary whorls or clusters. Fruit small and dry, 



2-celled, one or both of the carpels opening (1 carpel, in falling, usually carrying the 

 partition with it, leaving the other open). Calyx teeth 4. 



8. MITCHELLA. Flowers in pairs at the end of branches, the two ovaries united into 



one, which in fruit forms a 2-eyed scarlet berry. Corolla densely white-bearded 

 inside, white or purplish-tinged outside. Style 1 ; stigmas 4, slender. Seeds, or 

 rather little stones, 4 to each of the two flowers. Stipules small, not fringed, 

 t- -i- Shrubs or small trees ; lobes of the corolla overlapping in the bud. 



9. CEPHALANTHUS. Flowers many and small, crowded in a close, round head, raised 



on a peduncle. Calyx 4-toothed. Corolla tubular with 4 very short lobes. Stamens 

 4. Style long and much protruded, tipped with a capitate stigma. Fruit small, dry 

 and hard, inversely pyramidal, at length splitting into 2 or 4 closed, 1-seeded por- 

 tions. * * * Leaves tvhorled, without stipules ; ovules solitary. 



10. GALIUM. Flowers small or minute, mostly in clusters, with a wheel-shaped, 4-parted 

 (or sometimes 3-parted) corolla, and as many short stamens. Ovary 2-celled, form- 

 ing a small and twin, fleshy or berry -like, or else dry and sometimes bur-like, 

 2-seeded fruit. Styles 2. Calyx above the ovary obsolete. Slender herbs, with 

 square stems, their angles and the edges of the leaves often rough or almost prickly. 



1. HOUSTONIA. (Dr. Wm. Houston, an English physician, who 

 botanized on the coast of Mexico, where he died early.) 



* Delicate little plants, with 1-flowered peduncles, flowering from early 

 spring to summer ; corolla salver-form ; pod somewhat 2-lobed, its upper 

 half free; seeds with a deep hole occupying the face. 



H. cserulea, Linn. COMMON H. or BLUETS. Moist banks and grassy 

 places ; 3'-5' high, smooth and slender, erect, with oblong or spatulate 

 leaves only 3" or 4" long, very slender peduncle, and light blue, purplish, 

 or almost white and yellowish-eyed corolla, its tube much longer than 

 the lobes. (2) 



H. minima, Beck. Roughish, l'-4' high, at length much branched 

 and spreading ; leaves ovate, spatulate, or the upper linear ; earlier pedun- 

 cles slender, the rest short, and tube of the purplish corolla not longer 

 than its lobes and those of the calyx. Dry hills from Mo., S. W. (g) 



H. rotundif61ia, Michx. Prostrate and creeping leafy stems ; pedun- 

 cles shorter than the roundish leaves and recurved in fruit; corolla 

 white. Sandy soil from N. Car. , S. ^Z 



* * Erect leafy-stemmed, 5'-20' high, with flowers in terminal clusters or 

 cymes, in summer ; corolla funnel- form ; seeds rather saucer-shaped. 2/ 



H. purptirea, Linn. Wooded or rocky banks, commoner W. ; smooth 

 or slightly downy, with ovate or lanceolate 3-5-ribbed leaves ; pale-purple 

 flowers, and upper half of globular pod free from the calyx. Variable. 



Var. ciliolata, Gray. 3' high, with thick small stem leaves, and oval 

 or oblong ciliate radical leaves. W. 



Var. longifdlia, Gray. The common one N. ; slender or low, with 1- 

 ribbed leaves, those of the stem varying from lance-oblong to linear. 



H. angustifdlia, Michx. Stems tufted erect ; narrow-linear and acute 

 1-ribbed leaves ; crowded short-pediceled flowers with lobes of the white 

 corolla densely bearded inside, and only the top of the obovate pod rising 

 above the calyx. Dry banks from 111., S. and W. 



2. OLDENLANDIA. (H. B. Oldenland was a German botanist who 

 died at the Cape of Good Hope.) 



O. Bdscii, Chapm. 3' or 4' high, diffuse, glabrous ; leaves linear ; 

 flowers few or solitary ; calyx teeth broadly subulate, mostly shorter than 

 the capsule. S. Car., S. and W. H 



