376 ILLECEBRACEAE (KNOTWORT FAMILY) 



ILLECEBRACEAE (KNOTWORT FAMILY) 



Herbs, with mostly opposite and entire leaves, scarious stipules (except in 

 Scleranthus} , a ^-b-toothed or -parted herbaceous or coriaceous persistent calyx, 

 stamens borne on the calyx, as many as the lobes and opposite them or fewer, 

 styles 2 and often united, and fruit a l-seeded utricle. Seed upon a basal 

 fimicle, the embryo (in ours) surrounding the mealy albumen. Small diffuse 

 or tufted herbs, with small greenish or whitish flowers in clusters, or dichoto- 

 mous cymes, with petals minute or none. 



1. Scleranthus. Stamens borne on the throat of the indurated 5-cleft and pointless calyx. 



Styles 2. Stipules none. 



2. Anychia. Stamens on the base of the 5-parted awnless calyx. Styles hardly any. 



3. Paronychia. Stamens on the base of the 5-parted calyx ; the sepals hooded at the summit 



and bristle-pointed. Style 1, 2-cleft at the top. 



1. SCLERANTHUS L. KNAWEL 



Sepals 5, united below into an indurated cup, inclosing the utricle. Stamens 

 10 or 5. Styles 2, distinct. Homely little weeds, with awl-shaped leaves, ob- 

 scure greenish clustered flowers, and no stipules. (Name from <TK\r}p6s, hard, 

 and ttvdos, flower, from the hardened calyx-tube.) 



1. S. ANNUUS L. Much branched, spreading (7-12 cm. high); flowers sessile 

 in the forks; calyx-lobes scarcely margined. Waste places and roadsides. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



2, ANYCHIA Michx. FORKED CHICKWEED 



Sepals 5, scarcely concave, indistinctly mucronate on the back, greenish. Sta- 

 mens 2-3, rarely 5. Stigmas 2, sessile. Utricle larger than the calyx. Radicle 

 turned downward. Small many times forked annuals, with small stipules; the 

 minute flowers in the forks, produced all summer. (A contracted derivative of 

 Paronychia.) 



1. A. polygonoides Raf. More or less pubescent, short-jointed, low and 

 spreading; leaves somewhat petioled, mostly very narrowly lanceolate or ob- 

 lanceolate ; flowers nearly sessile and somewhat clustered. (A. dichotoma Man. 

 ed. 6, not Michx.) Mostly in open places, N. E. to Fla., w. to Minn, and Ark. 



2. A. canadSnsis (L. ) BSP. Smooth, longer-jointed, slender and erect ; leaves 

 thinner, broader and longer (1-3 cm. long) ; flowers more stalked and inflores- 

 cence diffuse. (A. dichotoma Michx.; A, capillacea DC.) Dry woodlands 

 through nearly the same range; more abundant north w., and extending w. to 

 Neb. 



3. PARONYCHIA [Tourn.] Adans. WHITLOW-WORT 



Sepals 5, linear or oblong, concave, awned at the apex. Petals (or staminodia) 

 bristle-form, or minute teeth, or none. Stamens 5. Style 2-cleft at the apex. 

 Utricle inclosed in the calyx. Radicle ascending. Tufted herbs (ours peren- 

 nial), with dry and silvery stipules, and clustered flowers. (Greek name for a 

 whitlow, and for a plant thought to cure it.) 



1. P. argyr6coma (Michx.) Nutt. Forming broad tufts, freely branched, 

 few of the branches fertile ; leaves linear, flat, permane ntly silky; inflorescence 

 densely cymose, surrounded by conspicuous large silvery bracts ; calyx hairy, 

 short-awned, the awns flatfish and usually hairy; petals mere teeth between 

 the stamens. Rocky slopes among the mts., w. Va. to Tenn. and Ga. 



Var. albimontana Fernald. Branches mostly floriferous; leaves glabrate, 

 the margins involute; cymes mostly lax; calyx usually longer, the awns subu- 

 late, glabrescent. Bare mountain slopes, w. Me. and N. H. ; and locally by the 

 Merrimac R., Newburyport, Mass. 



