102 



HYPERICACE^. 



HYPERICACE/E. 



Character of the Order. — Herbs or shrubs, with opposite, entire, dotted 

 leaves, and commonly yellow flowers. Sepals 4 or 5, distinct or cohering, 

 unequal, dotted, persistent. Petals 4 or 5, hypogynous, generally oblique 

 and twisted in the bud, often dotted. Stamens indefinite, hypogynous, 



collected in three or more 

 clusters. Ovary single ; 

 styles several, rarely uni- 

 ted ; stigma simple, occa- 

 sionally capitate. Fruit a 

 capsule, many-valved, 

 many-seeded ; juice acrid 

 and resinous. 



A comparatively large 

 order, but rej)resented in 

 North America by only- 

 three genera, namely, As- 

 cyrum, Hypericum, and 

 Elodes. 



HYPERICUM.— St. John's 

 Wort. 



Hypericum perfora- 

 tum Linne. — St. John's 

 Wort. 



Description. — Calyx : se- 

 pals 5, nearly equal, erect, 

 acute, persistent. Corolla : 

 petals 5, oblique, convolute 

 in the bud, ovate, twice as 

 long as the sepals, deep yel- 

 low with black dots. Sta- 

 mens very numerous, in 3 or 5 clusters ; anthers dotted like the petals. 

 Styles 3, separate, commonly diverging. Capsule 3-celled, many-seeded. 



An herbaceous perennial weed, with a ligneous root and an erect 

 branching stem, 1 to 14- foot high. Leaves opposite, entire, sessile, el- 

 liptical-oblong or oblong-linear, beset with numerous pellucid dots re- 

 sembling iDerforations, whence the specific name. Flowers numerous, in 

 open leafy cymes, appearing throughout the summer. 



Habitat. — St. John's wort is a plant of Eastern origin which has become 

 naturalized in all temperate regions, and is to the farmer a most per- 

 nicious weed and one very difficult to eradicate. 



Fig. 112. — Hypericum perforatum. 



