HYPERICACEAE 271 



HYPERICUM, Linnaeus. (St. John's-Worts). 



About half our species are shrubs, evergreen or nearly so, 

 and the rest herbs. All have simple opposite leaves, and yellow 

 flowers, in summer. Some of them are quite showy, but they 

 seem to be little known to persons other than botanists, at least in 

 the South, and perhaps have no bona-fide common name in this 

 country, the name given above having originated in Europe, where 

 there are several species of the same genus. 

 Hypericum prolificum, L. 



Reported from rocky banks in Lauderdale County, presum- 

 ably in region 1 A. by Prof. M. C. Wilson. 



Hypericum aureum, Bartram. 



Evergreen or nearly so, two to six feet tall. Blooms mostly 

 in June. An ornamental shrub, sometimes cultivated in the North. 



Grows mostly on bluffs of limestone and shale; rather abun- 

 dant in some places. (Probably commoner in Alabama than any- 

 where else. ) 



lA. Bluffs on both sides of the Tennessee River, near Florence and 

 Sheffield. 



IB. On limestone slopes, Jackson, Madison, Morgan, Lawrence and 

 Franklin Counties. 



2A. Pisgah gorge, Jackson County (Harbison). 



2B. Bluffs along Warrior River a few miles above Tuscaloosa. 



3. On limestone, Etowah and Bibb Counties. 



5. Clay County (Mohr). Rocky bluffs along Coosa River in Chilton 

 County and Tallapoosa River in Elmore. 



7. Chalk bluffs along Tombigbee River near Epes and Demopolis. 



8. (Grows on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River near Eu- 

 faula, and presumably on the Alabama side also.) 



Hypericum myrtifolium, Lam. 



A small evergreen with rounded leaves covered with a fine 

 waxy powder which gives them a soapy feel. Flowers rather large 

 and showy. 



Grows in shallow pine-barren ponds. (Commoner in Geor- 

 gia.) 



13. Near Bay Minette and Oak, Baldwin County. 

 15. Dauphin Island, Mobile County (Mohr). 



The next three or four species form a sort of linear series, 

 differing mainly in size of leaves, which might be correlated 

 merely with soil fertility; but their ranges and habitats are differ- 

 ent, and it is not certain that they intergrade, so that it is expe- 

 dient to treat them separately. 



