40 MALVACEAE. (MALLOW FAMILY.) 



free sepals, hypogynous petals and stamens, and distinct styles bearing 

 capitate stigmas, the ovary 2 to 5-celled with axile placenta becoming 

 capsular in fruit. 



1. ELATINE, L. WATER-WORT. 



Parts of the flower in twos, threes, or fours. Sepals membranaceous, obtuse. 

 Ovary globose. Small prostrate glabrous plants, growing in water or wet 

 places, with entire leaves and usually solitary flowers. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 

 xiii. 361. 



1. E. triandra, Schkuhr. Leaves oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, gradu- 

 ally attenuate at base : petals, stamens, and carpels most frequently 3, with 2 

 sepals : almost the seeds of the next, or more slender, less marked. On the 

 Platte River, in Nebraska or Colorado (Hall) ; also in Illinois. 



2. E. Americana, Am. Leaves obovate, very obtuse: flowers with their 

 parts o/lener in twos, sometimes in threes : seeds cylindraceous, somewhat 

 curved, the crustaceous coat many- (20 to 30-) latticed in 9 to 10 lines. Col- 

 orado and Oregon, also on the Atlantic border. 



ORDER 14. HYPEBICACE^E. (ST. JOHN'S-WORT FAMILY.) 



Herbs (in ours), with opposite entire leaves punctate with translucent 

 or dark-colored glandular dots, no stipules, and perfect flowers with 5 

 petals and numerous stamens, the fruit a many-seeded capsule. Sepals 

 5, imbricate. Petals convolute, glandular-punctate. Stamens very nu- 

 merous in 3 bundles. Styles 2 to 5. 



1. HYPERICUM, L. ST. JOHN'S-WORT. 



In our species the capsule is 3-celled by the union of the placenta with the 

 axis, septicidal, and the flowers yellow with black dots. 



1. H. Scouleri, Hook. Stems erect from a running rootstock, simple 

 or sparingly branched : leaves ovate to oblong, clasping : flowers in an open 

 cyme : styles elongated. Colorado, Utah, southward and westward. 



ORDER 15. MALVACEAE. (MALLOW FAMILY.) 



Mostly herbs, with mucilaginous juice, and alternate leaves with stip- 

 ules ; distinguished by the valvate calyx, convolute petals, their bases 

 or short claws united with each other and with the base of a column of 

 numerous monadelphous stamens, these with reniform 1 -celled anthers. 

 Calyx 5-parted, often surrounded by an involucel. Petals 5. Pistils 

 a ring of ovaries around a projection of the receptacle. Leaves most 

 commonly palmately ribbed. Peduncles axillary. Flowers often large 

 and showy. In all of ours the stamineal tube is anther-bearing at 

 the top. 



