606 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



Family 78. ONAGRACE^E. Evening-primrose Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, with mostly 4-merous, regular flowers, and inferior 

 ovaries ; stamens 1-2 times as many as the petals, inserted along with 

 them on top of the calyx-tube, or on an epigynous disk. Ovary usually 

 4-merous, ovules many. Seeds small, with scanty endosperm. 



Species 350, most in America. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



A. Capsule globular or cylindric ; floral axis not produced above it ; and calyx not deciduous. 

 Flowers bracted, 4-6-merous. Stamens 8-12, in 2 series. Marsh plants with aerenchyme. 



1. Jussteua, p. 606. 

 A2. Capsule with floral axis more or less prolonged above it, constricted and deciduous. Flowers 



not bracted, 4-merous. 

 b. Seeds crowned with a plume. Stamens 8, unequal. Pollen in tetrads. Stipules none. 



2. Epilobium, p. 607. 

 l>2. Seeds naked, coriaceous, or crowned. Calyx-limb reflexed. Pollen-grains separate. 



c. Floral tube long-cylindric. 



d. Stamens unequal, filaments short. Corolla-tube with a hairy crown. Stigma- 

 lobes short. 3. Godetia, p. 611. 

 dz. Stamens equal, with very long filaments. Anthers versatile. Stigma 4-branched, 

 branches linear. Seeds ovoid, ascending. Flowers yellow, erect in the bud. 



4. (Enot)iera, p. 6 1 1 . 

 c2. Floral tube short-campanulate. Stamens i -seriate. Stigma unbranched, capitate. 



Capsule sessile, linear. Seeds naked. Herbs with small leaves. 



5. Chamissonia, p. 614. 

 A$. Fruit a fleshy berry. Floral axis prolonged, colored, deciduous. Flowers bractless, 4- 



merous, with 8 stamens. Mostly shrubs with opposite leaves and deciduous stipules. 



6. Fuchsia, p. 615. 



i. JUSSIEUA Linn. (Jussiaa Lour.) 



Water-plants, mostly with cortical, spongy tissue (aerenchyme) ; and 

 4-6-merous flowers, having the calyx adnate to, but not prolonged above, 

 the globose or cylindric capsule. Stamens 8-12, in 2 series. 



Species 36, tropical, many in Brazil. (Fig. in Eng. & Prantl, iii, 7, pp. 

 206, 207.) 



J. REPENS Linn. (Cubospermum palustre Lam.) 



Glabrous, creeping. Leaves oblong-obovate, retuse, petioled. Flow- 

 ers long-pedicelled, slightly callous at the base. Calyx villous, its tube 

 cylindric, attenuate below; its lobes 5, lanceolate. Petals only half as 

 long, obovate. 



