12 f ENTANfcRlA MONOGYNIA. ^ OllOStnCt. 



pillary, few -Stem slender, round, divided into simple branches, 



as well as all the other parts covered with small vesicular dots, each 

 terminating in a straight, simple bristle. — Leaves scattered, sessile, 

 hispid and dotted above, smoother below, with three longitudinal 

 nerves, uniting a little above the base, sometimes with another 

 pair from the middle rib ; varying considerably in size, mostly lan- 

 ceolate, four or five inches long ; sometimes sub-linear and in that 

 case generally shorter. — Racemes gradually expanding and becoming 

 erect as the flowers open, very hispid, one or two inches long.— 

 ■Flowers small, copious, secund, erect, on short pedicels, which equal 

 their linear, solitary bractes. — Calyx ovate, five-angled, growing 

 larger with the ripening seeds ; lacini/z triangular, acute, the base of 

 their sinuses forming five prominent corners. — Corolla pale, bluish 

 toward its mouth, twice the length of the calyx, hairy, five-keeled, 

 with as many deep furrows ; the base inverted over the ovaria, and 

 embracing the base of the style ; throat contracted ; lacinits ovate, 

 acute. — Filaments inserted on five villous protuberances, below the 

 middle of the corolla, corresponding to the external five furrows ; 

 anthers linear-sagittate, larger than the filaments, converging into 

 a cone ; their slightly twisted bases cohering. — Style longer than the 

 corolla, slender ; stigma annular. — Seed brownish, shining, dotted, 

 and tubercled, keeled on the inner side, ending in a compressed, short 

 beak, and in other respects exactly like those of O. simpler, Gaert. 

 Carp. i. 325. tab- 6?. 



Obs. I should have taken this plant to be the same as O. tincto- 

 rium, had any of the authors I have consulted, and who appear to 

 have copied Marschal a Bieberstein's description of that species, 

 made any allusion to the remarkable structure of the corolla. Its 

 base is bent inwards, forming a narrow margin, which closely embra- 

 ces the lower part of the pistil ; its middle is sharply five-keeled and 

 marked within with five large protuberances on which the stamina 

 are inserted- — The root is used as a material for dying blue, and im- 



