LOGANIA FAMILY 



LOGANIACEAE 



INDIAN PINK 



Spigelia marilandica L. 



The Logania family is largely a family of warm and 

 tropical regions. The beloved Yellow Jasmine of the 

 south is its most famous member. Some violent poisons, 



strychnine for example, are ob- 

 tained from the family, but 

 apart from the beauty of its 

 flowers it is of little note. This 

 genus is named for Adrian 

 Spiegel, a seventeenth century 

 writer on botany, who was possi- 

 bly the first to give instructions 

 for preparing an herbarium. 



The Indian Pink is found in rich woods 

 from Ohio to Missouri and south to Florida 

 and Texas. In Illinois it occurs only in the 

 south. It is a perennial whose smooth 

 4-angled stem grows i-2 feet high, branch- 

 ing or not. The opposite sessile leaves are 

 similar to those shown and smooth except 

 for a few hairs on the veins underneath. 



The very attractive flowers are pro- 

 duced from May to July, usually in a soli- 

 tary i-sided spike at the end of the stem. 

 The green calyx is deeply 5-parted. The 

 long tubular corolla, 5-lobed at the end, 

 is bright red outside and yellow within. 

 Five stamens, whose anthers are narrow 

 and 2-lobed at the base, are attached to the 

 corolla tube. The pistil consists of a short 

 2-celled ovary, a long slender style which 

 is hairy at the upper end and jointed a little below the middle, 

 and a blunt stigma. In fruit the 2 cells of the ovary enlarge to 

 produce a sort of twin capsule. 



The corolla tubes are so long that nectar cannot be obtained 

 from them by bees or flies; instead, hummingbirds and butter- 

 flies visit and pollinate the flowers. 



234 



