n NYCTAGINACE^. Boerhaavia. 



b 



petiolps, minutely blaclc-dotted, lighter colored l^neath : panicle very open : bracts minute and 

 Sowers verv small : lascicle.s usually 3-5-llowered : fruit sessile or shortly pedicellate, neaily 2 

 lines long/glabrous, -•lavate, truncate at top, 5-costate and rugulose between the ribs. - Choisy, 

 ' 450 - Across the continent irom the Pacific to Florida an.l the West Indies A form is 

 Jomnion'in Lower California, Arizona and New Mexico, usually slender and very scabrous below, 

 mostly with nairow leaves on very short petioles. 



• * Flowers sjncate. 

 B svic.\T\ Choisv 1 c 456. A low annual, resembling B. erecta., but the flowers mostly 

 solitary and scattered along the slender branches : fruit very shortly pedicellate, glabrous, rounded 

 at the ape.\.— Lower California to Arizona and New Mexico. 

 » » * Flowers umbellate. 

 B SCANDENS Linn. Perennial, glabrous : leaves cordate or ovate, acute or acuminate, 1 or 2 

 inches long on 'rather short petioles : umbels 6 -10-flowered on simple axillary peduncles, or the 

 inflorescence somewhat paniculate : bractlets a line or two long: pedicels slender, 2 to 6 lines 

 long • flowers greenish, 2 to 4 lines long including the base : stamens exserted : truit glabrous, 

 lin«vr-clavate, terete and obscurely 10-costate, black-glandular toward the apex. — Choisy, 1. c. 

 454. B. Grahami, Gray, Am. Journ. Sci. 2 -ser. xv. 323. — From Peru to the W. Indies, Isev 

 Mexico and Southern Arizona. 



5. HERMIDIUM, Watson. 

 Characters as iii Mirahilis, but the involucre of distinct broad foliaceous bracts, 

 each adnate to the pedicel of a single flower. Perianth campanulate-funnelform. 

 Stamens 5 to 7. — Flowers in capitate terminal and axillary racemes. A single 

 species. 



1. H. alipes, Watson. Perennial, stout and fleshy, glabrous and glaucous, the 

 stems brauclieil and ascending, a foot high : leaves broadly ovate to lanceolate, acute 

 or obtuse, somewhat cordate at base, 1 to ^ inches long, on very short thick peti- 

 oles : heads about 6-flowered, on short pecfuncles : bracts cordate-ovate, somewhat 

 membranaceous and more or less colored, 6 to 10 lines long, acute : perianth about 

 equalling the bract, slightly Sdobed, light purple : stamens and style not exserted : 

 fruit globular, smooth. — Bot. King Exp. 286, t. 32. 



On low foothills in Northwestera Nevada, near the Humboldt and Truckee Eivers, Watson, 

 Lemmon. Flowering in May. 



Order LXXYII. POLYGONACE^. 



Herbaceous or woody plants, with tumid joints, alternate and entire leaves (ex- 

 cept in Pterostegia), or sometimes verticillate and often only radical, with sheathing 

 stipules or none ; flowers mostly perfect, on jointed pedicels ; calyx more or less pet- 

 aloid, usually persistent about the free 1-celled 1-ovuled ovary; stamens mostly 4 to 

 9, perigynous, with oval or oblong anthers ; styles 2 to 4, distinct or somewhat con- 

 nate, opposite the angles of the ovary ; seed erect, orthotropous, with the embryo 

 curved and at one side of the usually mealy albumen, or straight and within it. — 

 Flowers rather small, the perianth of 3 to 6 distinct or more or less united segments, 

 the inner ones or all usually petaloid ; fruit an akene, compressed or 3 - 4-angled 

 or -winged. 



An order of 30 genera and 700 species, mostly belonging to northern temperate regions, the large 

 tribe of Erio(,oncce restricted almost exclusively to Western America. This tribe, largely repre- 

 sented in our flora, is wholly valueless except as a few species may become cultivated for orna- 

 ment. The larger group of Pohjoonece furnishes the otticinal Rhubarb, as well as the garden 

 vegetable of the same name (species of Jiheum), and the Buckwheat {Farfopijrum esculentum). 

 Many species abound in oxalic acid, some have been used in dyeing, and the roots are frequently 

 medicinal. 



