Part 1, 1918] RUBIACEAE 29 
11. Houstonia asperuloides (Benth.) A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 5: 
} 158. 1860. 
Hedyotis asperuloides Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 19. 1844. 
Erect or ascending annual, 1-3 dm. high, diffusely branched, the branches very slender, 
subangulate, minutely hispidulo-puberulent or glabrous, the internodes longer than the leaves; 
stipules minute, scarious, copiously setiferous; leaves sessile, linear, 0.5—2.5 em. long, 0.5-1 mm. 
wide, obtuse or acutish, glabrous, or obscurely puberulent on the upper surface; flowers axillary 
and in lax terminal cymes, mostly on filiform pedicels 2.5 cm. long or shorter; hypanthium less 
than 1 mm. long, glabrous; calyx-lobes lance-linear, very acute, longer than the hypanthium, 
in fruit much exceeding the capsule; corolla funnelform, 7-8 mm. long, usually minutely 
puberulent outside, pink, the lobes ovate or oblong-ovate, obtuse, glabrous within, usually 
as long as the tube; stamens exserted; capsule turbinate, 2-3 mm. long and scarcely more 
than half as wide, almost wholly inferior, retuse at the apex; seeds oval-oblong, peltate, 
concavo-convex, minutely scrobiculate, pale-brown. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Cape San Lucas, Lower California. 
DISTRIBUTION: Sandy plains, southern Lower California. 
ILLUSTRATION: Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. pl. 13. 
12. Houstonia minima Beck, Am. Jour. Sci. 10: 262. 1826. 
Hedyotis minima T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 2: 38. 1841. 
Oldenlandia minima A. Gray, Man. ed. 2. 173. 1856. 
Erect annual, 3-10 cm. high, simple or branched, the stems very slender, angulate, scaberu- 
lous or glabrous; stipules about 0.5 mm. long, scarious, ovate or truncate, naked; leaves crowded 
at the base of the stem, distant above, the petioles sometimes longer than the blades, the upper- 
most leaves often subsessile, the blades rounded-ovate, spatulate, or the uppermost elliptic, 
5-10 mm. long, 1.5-6 mm. wide, rounded to acute at the apex, rounded to acute at the base, 
thin, glabrous, or scaberulous on the upper surface, the margins plane, ciliolate; flowers few, 
solitary, axillary and terminal, the slender pedicels 1-3 cm. long, erect or ascending, or rarely 
spreading; hypanthium about 1 mm. long, scaberulous or glabrate; calyx-lobes lance-oblong, 
acute, twice as long as the hypanthium, in fruit foliaceous and exceeding the capsule; corolla 
salverform, purplish, 6-9 mm. long, the tube thick, about equaling the calyx-lobes, the lobes 
oblong or ovate, obtuse or acute, nearly or quite as long as the tube; anthers included; cap- 
sule subdidymous, 3—4 mm. broad, half inferior, glabrous; seeds subglobose, crateriform, about 
0.8 mm. in diameter, brown, scrobiculate. 
TYPE LOCALITY: St. Louis, Missouri. 
DISTRIBUTION: Dry woods or meadows, Illinois to Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Britt. & Brown, Ill. Fl. f. 3396; ed. 2. f. 3915. 
13. Houstonia pusilla Schoepf, Reise 2: 306. 1788. 
Houstonia Linnaei minor Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 85. 1803. 
?Hedyotis crassifolia Raf. Fl. Ludov. 77. 1817. 
Houstonia patens Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1: 191. 1821. 
?Houstonia geniculata Raf. New FI. 4: 102. 1838. 
Hedyotis caerulea minor T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 1: 39. 1841. 
Oldenlandia patens Chapm. FI. S. U.S. ed. 2. 625. 1883. 
Houstonia patens pusilla A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. 12: 25. 1884. 
Houstonia minor Britton, Mem. Torrey Club 5: 302. 1894. 
Oldenlandia caerulea patens Maza, Anal. Hist. Nat. Madrid 23: 287. 1894. 
Houstonia minor pusilla Small, Fl. SE. U.S. 1107. 1903. 
Erect or ascending annual, 3-15 cm. high, usually copiously branched, the branches very 
slender, glabrous, the upper internodes much elongate; stipules minute, scarious, naked or 
ciliolate; leaves crowded at the base of the stem, distant above,.the petioles often as long as the 
blades, the uppermost leaves subsessile, the blades rounded-ovate, oval, or elliptic, 4-9 mm. 
long, 1.5-6 mm. wide, rounded to acute at the base, thin, glabrous, or scaberulous on the 
upper surface, ciliolate; flowers few, terminal and axillary, solitary, the slender pedicels 1-3 cm. 
long, erect or ascending; hypanthium about 1 mm. long, glabrous or scaberulous; calyx-lobes 
linear-oblong, acute, twice as long as the hypanthium, in fruit about equaling the capsule; 
corolla salverform,' violet-blue or purple, 6-9 mm. long, the tube slender, twice as long as the 
