PRIMULACE^E. (PRIMROSE FAMILY.) 279 



spreading spikes j calyx funnel-shaped, smooth, the lobes of the scarious limb 

 alternating with 5 smaller ones. Salt marshes, Florida, and northward. Aug. 

 and Sept. Scape - 2 high. Leaves 3'- C' long. Flowers blue. 



2. PLUMBAGO, Tourn. LEAD WORT. 



Calyx tubular, 5-ribbed, 5-toothed. Corolla salver-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 

 5, inserted on the receptacle. Styles united. Stigmas linear. Utricle splitting 

 into valves from the base upward. Herbs or shrubs, with alternate entire 

 mostly clasping leaves, and blue or white flowers in terminal spikes. 



1. P. scandens, L. Shrubby; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, narrowed 

 into a clasping petiole ; calyx glandular-viscid, half as long as the tube of the 

 corolla ; lobes of the corolla ovate, white ; style smooth. South Florida. 

 Leaves 2' - 3' long. Spike elongated. 



ORDER 87. PRIMUL-ACE^E. (PRIMROSE FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with simple alternate or opposite leaves, and regular flowers. 

 Calyx 4 - 5-lobed, persistent. Corolla 4 5-lobed. Stamens 4-5, oppo- 

 site the lobes of the corolla, and inserted on its tube. Ovary free, or 

 partly adherent to the calyx, 1-celled, many-ovuled. Placenta central, 

 globose. Style single. Capsule 1-celled, many-seeded, valvate or circum- 

 scissile. Seeds anatropous or amphitropous. Embryo straight in fleshy 

 albumen. 



Synopsis. 



* Ovary free from the calyx. 

 ^ *- Capsule opening by valves or teeth. 



1. HOTTONIA. Corolla salver-shaped. Leaves pectinately dissected. 



2. LYSIMACIITA. Corolla wheel-shaped. Stems leafy. Leaves opposite, entire. 



3. DODECATHEON. Corolla wheel-shaped. Stemless. Leaves radical. 



t- -i- Capsule opening transversely. 



4. ANAGALLIS. Parts of the flower 5. Leaves opposite. Stamens bearded. 



5. CENTUNCULUS. Parts of the flower 4. Leaves alternate. Stamens beardless. 



* * Ovary partly adherent to the calyx. 



6. SAMOLUS. Stamens 5, with sterile filaments interposed. Capsule valvate. 



1. HOTTONIA, L. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla salver-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 5. Style slender. 

 Capsule globose, at length splitting into 5 valves, which cohere at the base and 

 apex. Seeds fixed by the base, anatropous. Aquatic perennial herbs, with 

 pectinately dissected leaves. Flowering stems mostly clustered, nearly leafless, 

 inflated, bearing at the joints whorls of small white flowers. 



1. H. inflata, Ell. Flowering stems 3 -several in a terminal cluster, much 

 inflated ; upper stem-leaves crowded, with filiform divisions ; bracts entire. 

 Ponds and ditches in the upper districts, Mississippi, and northward. June. 



