cistace^:. (rock-rose family.) 81 



pods of the smaller flowers not larger than a pin's head. — Late in autumn, 

 crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at the root, whence the popular 

 name. 



2. H. COrymb6sum, Michx. Flowers all clustered at the summit of the 

 stem or branches, the petal-bearing ones at length on slender stalks : calyx 

 woolly. — Pine barrens, New Jersey and southward along the coast. 



2. HUDSONIA, L. Hudsonia. 



Petals 5, fugacious (lasting but a day), much larger than the calyx. Sta- 

 mens 9 - 30. Style long and slender : stigma minute. Pod oblong, enclosed 

 in the calyx, strictly 1-celled, with 1 or 2 seeds attached near the base of each 

 nerve-like placenta. Embryo coiled into the form of a closed hoek. — Bushy 

 heath-like little shrubs (seldom a foot high), covered all over with the small 

 awl-shaped or scale-like persistent downy leaves, producing numerous (small 

 but showy ) bright yellow flowers crowded along the upper part of the branches. 

 (Named in honor of Win. Hudson, an early English botanist.) 



1. H. ericoides, L. Downy but greenish; leaves slender, awl-shaped, 

 loose; flowers on slender naked stalks. — Dry sandy soil near the coast, N. 

 Maine to Virginia. May. 



2. H. toment6sa, Nutt. Hoary with down ; leaves oval or narrowly 

 oblong, short, close-pressed and imbricated ; flowers sessile (sandy coasts from 

 Maine to Maryland), — or short-peduncled, the leaves also narrower: Maine 

 (at Harrison, J. Blake) and along the shores of the Great Lakes to Minnesota. 

 May, June. 



3. LECHEA, L. Pinweed. 



Petals 3, narrow, flat in the bud : not longer than the calyx, withering-per- 

 sistent. Stamens 3-12. Style scarcely any: stigmas 3, plumose. Pod 

 globular, partly 3-celled ; the 3 broad and thin placenta? borne on imperfect 

 partitions, each bearing 2 seeds on the face towards the valve : in our species, 

 the placentae curve backwards and partly enclose the seeds. Embryo straight- 

 ish. — Homely perennial herbs, with very small greenish or purplish flowers, 

 in summer. (Named in honor of John Leche, a Swedish botanist.) 



1. L. major, Michx. Hairy; stem upright (1°- 2° high, stout), simple, 

 producing slender prostrate branches from the base ; leaves elliptical, mucronate- 

 pointed, alternate and opposite or sometimes whorled ; flowers densely crowded 

 in panicled clusters ; pedicels shorter than the very small globose-triangular pod; 

 sepals narrower than its valves. — Sterile grounds : common, especially southward. 



2. L. thymifdlia, Pursh. Hoary with oppressed hairs, especially the de- 

 cumbent stout leafy shoots from the base ; flowering stems ascending, loosely 

 branched, with the leaves linear or oblanceolate ; those of the shoots elliptical, 

 whorled, crowded ; flowers scattered in small and loose clusters ; pedicels as 

 long as the globose pods. — Sandy coast, Maine to New Jersey and southward. 

 — Scarcely a foot high, tufted, rigid ; the pods larger than in No. 1 . 



3. L. Novae-Csesardee, C. F. Austin, ined. Intermediate in appear- 

 ance between No. 1 and the taller forms of No. 4 ; leaves of the former, but 



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