Oligomerhs. RESEDACE^E. 53 



petals 2 lines long : fruit 3 to 4 lines broad ; the oblong-obovate valves nerved and 

 surrounded at the truncate extremity by a row of stout blunt tubercles : style 3 

 lines long : stipe 3 to 4 lines long, refracted. — Proc. Am. Acad viii. 628. 

 On the Lower Colorado River, Paluicr. 



6. OXYSTYLIS, Torr. 



Distinguished (so far as known) from Wid'uenia by the subulate persistent at 

 length spinescent style, and by the ovoid-globose 1 - 2 -seeded valves completely 

 closed at the scar. — A smooth annual, with 3-foliolate leaves, and small yellow 

 flowers in capitate axillary racemes. 



I. O. lutea, Torr. Bather stout, erect, 12 to 15 inches high : leaflets 1 to li 

 inches long, obtuse : heads of flowers half an inch in diameter, not elongated in 

 fruit : petals 2 lines long. — Frem. Eep. 2C4 & 313. 



Known only from specimens collected by Fremont in April, 1S44, in a single locality in the 

 valley of the Armagosa River near its bend. 



Order IX. RESEDACE^l. 



A small order of herbs, or slightly shrubby plants, related only to the preceding ; 



with alternate leaves, merely glands for stipules, and terminal racemes or spikes of 



small and rather inconspicuous flowers ; these both irregular and unsymmetrieal, the 



stamens not covered in the bud, the one-celled ovary and capsule 3-6-beaked and 



with as many parietal placenta?. — Flowers perfect, bracteate. Calyx 4-7-parted, 



herbaceous, hypogynous, persistent. Petals 2 to 7, mostly with broad ami thickened 



nectariferous claws, and the blade cleft. Stamens 3 to 40, usually on a more or less 



one-sided hypogynous disk. Stigmas 3 to 6, terminating the diverging beaks of the 



ovary. Ovules numerous, campylotropous. Seeds reniform, and with a crustaceous 



coat, tilled by the incumbently incurved embryo. 



The family belongs I" ill' 1 I '1.1 World, mainly to the Mediterranean and adjacent warm regions; 

 the watery juice is destitute of pungency and generally of active properties. 



Reseda Lt/teola, Linn., the Dyer's Weed or Weld, however, has been used for dyeing yellow. 

 It is tli,' only species of the genus which has become spontaneous in the United States. Having 

 been found in the streets of Oakland, it inaj becomes naturalized weed of roadsides, as in the 

 Atlantic' States. The genus may he known by the soveral-lobed or parted petals, and the 10 to 

 40 stamens bun,- ,,n the inside of a lleshy disk, which projects on the upper side of the llowcr : 

 and this species is a stout erect herb, 2 or SJeel high, with lanceolate haves, greenish-yellow 

 flowers in a long and narrow raceme, 1 petals, and a short small capsule, 



•'• tAT.v, Linn., the i unon Sweet Mignonette, cultivated as an annual for its fragrant 



flowers, may also escape from cultivation. 



1. OLIGOMERIS Cambess. 



Sepals 4, lateral. Petals 2, next to the axis, free or united at base, entire or 

 2-3-lobed, persistent. Disk none. Stamens 3 to 8 ; filaments united at base. 

 Ovary sessile, 4-angled, t-beaked. Capsule L-sulcate, many-seeded, opening at tho 

 summit, — Low branching herbs; with numerous lineal entire leaves, and small 

 white flowers in terminal spikes. 



A genus of only 5 species, four confined to S. Africa, the fifth ranging from the Canary Islands 

 to India, and also seemingly indigenous to \. A rica. 



I. O. subulata, I 'miss. Annual, glabrous, ."> to lit inches high, branching from 



