Ruellia. ACANTHACEiE. 325 



equalling the corolla : calyx-lobes subulate-setaceous, more or less liispid-ciliate, hardly 

 more than twice the length of the narrow tube : corolla purple ? ( 10 lines long) ; the tube 

 not longer than the abruptly ampliate throat: anther-cells linear-oblong, aristulate.— 

 JJipteracantlms ( Calopkmes) linearis, Torr. & Gray in PI. Lindli. i. 50. C. ovuta Benth PI 

 Hartw. 89, as to Texan sp. ; Nees, 1. c. ; surely not Ruellia ovata, Cav. C. oblonglfoha, var. 

 Texejws Sees, 1. c. ; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 122 -Dry ground, Texas (Derlandler, Drum- 

 vwnd, Wrajlit, &c.) to the border of New Mexico. (Adjacent Mex.) 

 • C. decumbens. Cinercous-puberulent throughout, not at all hirsute, nor scabrous- 

 stems mostly spreading on the ground : leaves spatulate, or the lowest obovate and the 

 uppermost oblanceolate, with attenuate base, but Iiardly petioled (6 to 14 lines long) : 

 flowers few in the foliose-bracteolate clusters : setaceous-subulate calyx-lobes hardly twice 

 the length of the tube : corolla purple (8 or 10 lines long) ; its tube double the length of 

 the throat, nearly equalling the calyx-lobes: anther-cells oblong, mncroiMiie.— Calopkanes 

 ohlongi/olia, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 12.'), not Don. — Dry soil, western borders of Texas 

 ( Wright, &c.) to S. Arizona, Thurber, Wriylit, Rolhrock, &c. (Adjacent Mex.) 



4. RUELLIA, Plum. (/. Ritel, or de la Ruelle, of France, early lierbalist.) 

 — Large genus, chiefly American and tropical, perennials ; witli mostly entire 

 and broad leaves, and rather large flowers (in summer), usually violet or lilac- 

 purple, solitary or commonly clustered in the axils or in evolute cymes ; in several 

 species the earlier or later blossoms cleistogamous. Seeds in many clothed with 

 fine appressed hairs, which when wetted diverge and elongate, either marked with 

 fixed spiral bands or developing spiricles. — Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 1077. — Our 

 species all rank under Ruellia proper {Cryphiacantkus and Dipter acanthus, Nees 

 in DC), with straight tube and almost or quite regular limb to the corolla, and 

 included stamens. Both stigmas equally developed occasionally in R. strepens 

 and R. ciliosa. Five stamens have been found in the latter. 



# Flowers in open pedunculate cvnies from upper axils and forming a terminal panicle : bracts and 

 bvactlets small, linear or subulate: capsule 8-12-seeded, narrow: hairs of the seed developing 

 long .spiricles when wetted. 



R. tuberosa, L. Glabroscent or minutely pubescent, a foot or two high, with somewhat 

 tuberous-thickened roots: leaves (2 or 3 inciics long) with undulate or obscurely repand- 

 dentate margins, ovate-oblong or elliptical, and with base cuneate-contracted or decurrcnt 

 into a rather long petiole: primary and secondary peduncles of tiie loose cyme slender: 

 calyx-lobes subulate-filiform (half inch or more long), much exceeding the bractlets, hardly 

 equalling the slender tube of the (inch and a half long blue or sometimes white) corolla, 

 which is about as long as the funnelform-campanulate throat: capsule narrowly subcla- 

 vate, 7 to 9 lines long, the stipitiform solid base mostly short but manifest, — Spec ii.6o5; 

 Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 452, but hardly of Desc. Ant. ii. 1. 113. R. claniiesUmi, L. 1. c. (Dill. Elth. 

 328, t. 148.) R. humilis, etc., Plum. Nov. Gen. Amer. 12, t. 2: Crfiphiamnllms Barbademis, 

 Nees in DC. 1. c. 197. Di/ileracanl/iiis nudijlorus, Engelm. & Gray, PI. Lindli. i. 21. — River- 

 bottoms, Texas. (W. Ind., Mex., S. Am.) 



Var. OCCidentalis. Rather large and tall : inflorescence and (^aXyx conspicuously 

 viscid-pubescent; the latter usually shorter than the tube of the (1^ to fully 2 inch) 

 corolla: leaves from glabrate to velvety-pubescent, mostly ovate and with more abrupt or 

 even subcordate base, sometimes 6 or 7 inches long. — W. & S. Texas, DerUmdicr, Wrigld. 

 S. Arizona, Roilirock. " California " (or probably Arizona), Coulter. Tiie two latter glabrate 

 forms. (Mex.) 



* * Flowers .solitary or 3 and cymulose on an axillary peduncle as long as the leaf: bracts foli- 

 aceous: seeds and 'capsule of the succeeding: stems branching. 



R. pedunculata, Torr. Slightly pubernlent, 2 feet high, with spreading branches : 

 leaves ovate-oblong, acute, short-petioled (H to 3 inches long): peduncles spreading, 

 slender, 1 or 2 inches long, bearing a pair of bracts similar to the leaves (half inch or more 

 long) and equaUing the calyx and capsule of the single flower, or sliortcr than the similarly 

 2-.bracteolate pedicels when they are developed: calyx-lobes subulate-filiform, pubescent, 

 about the length of the narrow tube of the corolla : throat of the latter dilated-f unnel- 



