loganiace^e. (logania family.) 391 



Order 78. L.OGANIACE.E. (Logania Family.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with opposite and entire leaves, and stipules or a 

 stipular membrane or line between them, and with regular 4 - b-merous 4-5- 

 androus perfect flowers, the ovary free from the calyx : a connecting group 

 between Gentianacefe, Apocynaceae, Scrophulariacea: (from all which they 

 are known by their stipules) and Rubiaceae, from which they differ in their 

 free ovary : our representatives of the family are all most related to the 

 Rubiaceaj, to which, indeed, they have been appended. 



# Woody twiners : leaves evergreen. 



1. Gelsemium. Corolla large, the 5 lobes imbricated hi the bud. Style slender : stigmas 4. 



# * Herbs. 



2. Polypremum. Corolla 4-lobed, not loDger than the calyx, imbricated in the bud. 



3. Spigelia. Corolla 5-lobed, valvate in the bud. Style single, jointed in the middle. 



4. Mitreola. Corolla 5-lobed, valvate in the bud. Styles 2, short, converging, united at the 



summit, and with a common stigma. 



1. GELSEMIUM, Juss. Yellow (False) Jessamine. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla open-funnel-form, 5-lobed ; the lobes imbricated in 

 the bud. Stamens 5, with oblong sagittate anthers. Style long and slender. 

 Stigmas 2, each 2-parted ; the divisions linear. Pod elliptical, flattened con- 

 trary to the narrow partition, 2-celled, septicidally 2-valved. Seeds many or 

 several, winged. Embryo straight in fleshy albumen ; the ovate flat cotyledons 

 much shorter than the slender radicle. — Smooth and twining shrubby plants 

 with opposite and entire ovate or lanceolate leaves, minute stipules, and showy 

 yellow flowers, of two sorts as to relative length of stamens and style. ( Gelse- 

 mino, the Italian name of the Jessamine.) 



1. G. sempervirens, Ait. (Yellow Jessamine of the South.) Stem 

 climbing high ; leaves short-petioled, shining, nearly persistent ; flowers in 

 short axillary clusters ; pedicels scaly-bracted ; flowers very fragrant (the bright 

 yellow corolla l'-l^' long); pod flat, pointed. — Low grounds, Eastern Vir- 

 ginia and southward. March, April. 



2. POLYPREMUM, L. Polypremum. 



Calyx 4-parted ; the divisions awl-shaped from a broad scarious-margined 

 base. Corolla not longer than the calyx, almost wheel-shaped, bearded in the 

 throat ; the 4 lobes imbricated in the bud. Stamens 4, very short : anthers 

 globular. Style 1, very short : stigma ovoid, entire. Pod ovoid, a little flat- 

 tened, notched at the apex, 2-celled, loculicidally 2-valved, many-seeded. — A 

 smooth, diffuse, much-branched, small annual, with narrowly linear or awl- 

 shaped leaves, connected at their base across the stem by a slight stipular line; 

 the small flowers solitary and sessile in the forks and at the ends of the 

 branches; corolla inconspicuous, white. (Name altered from TrokviTpejxvos, 

 many -stemmed.) 



1. P. prociimbens, L. — Dry fields, mostly in sandy soil, Maryland and 

 southward ; also adventive at Philadelphia. June - Oct. 



