Ileliotropium. BORUAGrXACE-E. * 521 



2. HELIOTROPIUM, Tourn. Heliotrope. Turnsole. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla funnelform or salverform, imbricated and the sinuses 

 plaited in the bud. Stamens included : filaments mostly short or none : anthers 

 connivent and sometimes cohering by their usually acuminate or mucronate tips. 

 Style entire or none : stigma a fleshy ring or the edge of a peltate or umbrella- 

 shaped disk, which is surmounted by a conical, capitate, or subulate often 2-cleft 

 appendage (this obsolete in H. Curassavicum). Ovary 4-celled, 4-ovuled. Fruit 

 dry, often 4-lobed, sometimes 2-lobed, splitting into 4 one-seeded or sometimes into 

 2 two-seeded nutlets. Embryo either straight or curved, commonly surrounded by 

 some albumen. — Herbs or low shrubby plants, with the usually small flowers more 

 commonly spiked and bractless, sometimes accompanied by leafy bracts ; the so- 

 called " spikes " one-sided and coiled at the apex, straightening as the blossoms 

 open. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. x. 49. 



A huge genus, widely dispersed over the warmer parts of the world, represented in the United 

 States by rally a dozen species, only three of which occur in California, and two of these are of 

 great range. The Sweet Heliotrope of cultivation is Peruvian (//. J'- ruvianum, Linn.). H. Indi- 

 eum, Linn., the common representative of the section Tiaridium, Lehm., or Beliophytwm, 1"'. 

 (by these and other authors regarded as a distinct genus), although a common weed of waste 

 grounds in warm-temperate and tropical countries, appears not to have run wild in California. The 

 two following are true Heliotropes, with fruit of 4 one-seeded nutlets, distinct stamens, Howers in 

 bractless spikes, &c. 



§ 1. Fruit 4-lobed, splitting into 4 one-seeded nutlets. — True Heliotropium. 



1. H. Curassavicum, Linn. A glabrous and somewhat glaucous succulent 

 herb, a span to a foot high, diffusely spreading : leaves oblanceolate, varying either 

 to linear or to obovate-oblong (an inch or two in length): spikes mostly either in 

 pairs or twice forked, forming a kind of cyme : flowers crowded, pure white, rather 

 large for the genus : stigma sessile, umbrella-shaped, nearly flat-topped, as broad as 

 the glabrous ovary. 



Sands of the sea-shore, also in damp saline soil in the interior; widely spread over the world. 

 H : :.iii Tejou {Jtothroclc) apparently have blue (lowers ! 



-. H. inundatum, Swartz. Annual, hoary with a fine appressed pubescence, 

 a fool or two high: leaves spatulate-oblong or sometimes oblanceolate, tapering at 

 base into a slender petiole : spikes - to 4 in a cluster, filiform : Sowers very small 

 and close: corolla only a liuo long, white: stigma sessile, thick, surmounted by a 

 short blunt cone. 



California, Coulter (probably on the Rio Colorado) : thence to Texas ; also Wot Indies, Tropical 

 America, &c. 



§ 2. Fruit 2-globose, solid, each lobe or carpel splitting into 2 hemispherical one-seeded 

 null, is: corolla pretty large: style long: tr ■ of the stigma bearded 



villi n tuft of strong bristles. — Ei pi oi \. I fray, | Euploca, Nutt.) 



3. H. convolvulaceum, ( ii-iy. Annual, with diffuse or spreading branches 

 from tie 1 base (a span to a 1<»>i long), hoary or strigose-hispid : leaves oblong-lance- 

 olate or ovate, petioled : Bowers scattered, short-pedicelled, generally opposite the 

 cented, opening towards evening : corolla white, with the upper part 



of the hairy tube somewhat enlarged and t! tiflce narrow ed, and a i 



lobed but plaited border: anthers with slightly cohering tips. — Mem. Am. \ 

 vi. 403; Proc. Am. Acad. v. 340, \. 50. Euploca convolv . Nutt in [Vans. 



Am. l'hil. Soc. n. ser. v. 189; Torr. in Maroy, Rep. t. 15. 



In while sand near "Soda Lake," i Otherwi < known only east of the Rock} 



Mountains, on Bandy plains, from Nebraska to Texas. 



