192 CISTACEiE. Lechea. 



3. LECHEA, Kiilm. Pinweed." {Prof. J. Ler}n,oi Xho.) — rerenniuls, 

 with base hardly sulirutescent, branching, and bearing numerous small purplish 

 flowers : leaves from alternate to irregularly verticillate, oval to linear or on the 

 branchlets subulate. Flower buds seldom larger than the head of a pin, expand- 

 in «• only in the absence of sunshine, produced in summer. Capsule in all more 

 or less triangular. — Kalm in L. Amoju. Acad. iii. 10, & Gen. ed. o, no. 102; 

 Gsertn. Fruct. t. 129; Torr. &, Gray, Fl. i. 152. Lechea & Lechidium, Spacli 

 in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 282, 286. [Revised by B. L. RoBrxsoN.] 



§ 1. EoLECHEA.i Flowers either glomerately or sparsely paniculate: pla- 

 centae in fruit thinnish, hardly crustaceous, fragile, free (the partitions becoming 

 evanescent), their sides recurving around the one or two seeds : all or most of the 

 species producing from the base of the flowering stem copious prostrate or barely 

 ascending sterile shoots, which are thickly beset with mainly opposite or verticil- 

 late thyme-like leaves. 



* Pubescence villous and more or les.s spreading : leaves about half as broad as long : flow- 

 ers glonierate-cymulose, very short-pedicelled. 



L. major, Miciix. Stem erect, 2 or 3 feet high, with short lateral flowering branches, very 

 leafy: loaves tiiinnish, puucticulate, abruptly mucronate; cauliiie iialf inch to inch long, 

 oblong, many of them as well as tlie smaller ones of the radical shoots in whorls of 2 to 4 : 

 flowers at length much crowded : capsule depressed-globose, about one sixteenth of an inch 

 iong, at maturity slightly exceedii^g the calyx. — Fl. i. 76 ; Poir. Snppl. iii. 340 ; Puxsh, Fl. 

 i. 90; Torr. & Ciray, Fl. i. 153; Gray, Man. 49; not L., which is a Ilelianthemum. L. minor, 

 Smith in Rees, Cycl. xxi., not of L., although a specimen in herb, belongs to it. L. villosa, 

 Ell. Sk. i. 184; Nutt. Gen. i. 90.-^ L. miicronata, Raf. Prec. De'couv. 37, & (?) in Desv. Jour. 

 Bot. iv. 269 (1814). Probably L. Drummondii, Spach in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 284 

 (elaborately described from single and very imperfect fruiting s])ecimen, coll. Apalachicola, 

 Drtimmondj, from the pubescence and thin leaves of the radical slioots ; but capsule said to 

 be " ellipsoid." — Dry sandy or gravelly soil, New England and adjacent Canada to Nebra.ska 

 and W. Kansas, and ^outh to Florida and Texas. 



Var. divaricata, Gr.\y, n. var. Long-branched from near the base : flowering 

 branchlets sunictimes divaricate : leaves oblong-lanceolate, quarter to half inch long, mostly 

 alternate ; stamens commonly more numerous. — L. divaricata, Sliuttl. in distr. coll. Rugel.'^ 

 — Sandy pine woods, Florida (Manatee, &c.), Bucklei/, Rngal, Garber ; Texas, Palmer. 

 (Mex., Shaffmr.) 



* * Pubescence appressed: leaves narrower: flowers paniculate: capsule globose to 

 ellipsoid. 



-1- Leaves of the sterile basal shoots oval to oblong, relatively broad. 



L.* minor, L. About 2 feet high, quite erect or with ascending brandies, finely pubescent 

 . but not canescent : cauhne leaves oval or oblong, 3 to 4 or the larger 5 to 6 lines long, 

 abruptly short-petioled, mucronate, some hairy (at least the margins), some whorled or 

 opposite ; those of the crowded i>anicles varying to linear : capsule obovate-globose, com- 

 monly surpassed by at least one of tlic outer sepals. — Spec. i. 90, as to one out of several 

 specimens, .^f/e Britton, 1. c. 24 Z- L. thi/mifolia, Michx. El. i. 77 ; Smith in Rees, Cycl. xxi. 

 L. NovcE-Cipnare/E, Au.stin in Gray. Man. ed. 5, 81. — Dry ground. New England near the 

 coa.st to S. Carolina and even to Florida. 



L.* maritima, Leogett. Stout and bushy, a foot or two high, canescent-tomentose : 

 radical shoots formed late in the autumn, commonly ascending with thickish oblong leaves, 



1 Dr. Gray's latest views regarding this group have been largely incorporated in the sixth edition 

 of the Manual, and his treatment of the genus for the present work h;is been somewhat freely modified 

 in the light of Dr. Britton's careful revi.sion (Bull. Torr. Club, x.xi. 244-253) based upon the long 

 study and exten.sivc collection of W. H. Leggett, Esq. 



- Add Britton, 1. c. 248. 3 Add Britton, 1. c. 249. 



