92 HYPEKiCACE^. [Hypericum- 



embelHshmfnt of our sloping banks, and its beauty is still further diminished by 

 the paucity of blossom exhibited by it at one time, and the unsightly remains of 

 the already faded flowers. 



7. H. indchrmn, L. Small Upright St. Johns-wort. " Sepals 

 broadly ovate obtuse with (black) glandular serratures, stem erect 

 glabrous, leaves cordate amplexicaul glabrous." — Br. Fl. p. 80. 

 E. B. t. 1227. 



Tn dry woods and thickets, and on open sandy fields and heaths, plentifully. 

 Fl. July, August. Fr. September, Oclober. 2jl. 



Root brownish, slender, woody, flexuose, much-branched and fibrous, occasion- 

 ally a little creeping in loose sandy soils, and frequently emitting short trailinij 

 and barren shoots in a CEEspitose manner at the crown. Stems several, often 

 extremely numerous, ascending or shortly decumbent at bottom, where they are 

 commonly of a fine blood-red, afterwards erect, from a foot or less to 24 or 30 

 inches in height, terete, slender, rigid, smooth and glabrous like the rest of the 

 plant, filled with a loose pith, scarred and leafless at base, emitting from the axils 

 of each pair of leaves two opposite, short, erect and somewhat ascending, almost 

 filiform branches, which towards the summit of the stem are floriferous and nearly 

 naked, those lower down leafy and barren or occasionally bearing a flower or two. 

 Leaves opposite, in pairs, very small, quite entire, very olituse, closely sessile, deep 

 green and slightly glaucous above, occasionally turiiing to a bright red, much 

 paler underneath, a little thick and fleshy, pellucido-punctate, but without margi- 

 nal glands, their edges a little deflexed ; those of the main stem distant (3 inches or 

 moie), broadly ovato-cordate, mostly with a slight sweep or curve inwards in mar- 

 ginal contour, semiamplexicaul and overlapping by their lobes, somewhat deflexed 

 and vaulted or concave beneath, from 6 to 9 lines in length by 6 to 6 or 8 in 

 breadth, those of the branches more numerous, smaller and narrower, oblong- 

 elliptical, cordate or rounded. Bracts in pairs a little below each flower, and at 

 the forks of the panicle, small, ovate or oblong, pellucidly dotted. Flowers about 

 8 — 10 lines iu diameter, in small, rather irregular, but mostly trichotomously 

 forked panicles terminating the stem and higher branches, forming together one 

 narrow, oblong, very loose, slightly leafy panicle. Cali/x subcampanulate, pellu- 

 cidly veined, streaked and dotted, cleft about f of its length into 5 rather unequal, 

 broad, ovate, flat segments, which are very obtuse and rounded or slightly pointed, 

 serrated, the serratures tipped with a black sessile gland. Petals about twice the 

 length of the calyx, obovato-oblong, somewhat oblique, bright gamboge-yellow, stri- 

 ate, streaked and tipped with clear brownish red, particularly in the bud, their mar- 

 gins entire, but fringed with sessile glands like those on the calyx. Stamens pretty 

 numerous, in 3 sets or triadelphous, about as long as the petals, persistent ; Jila- 

 tnents bright yellow ; anthers orange-scarlet, of 2 almost spherical lobes, destitute of 

 glands at the back. Styles 3, straight, divaricate, as long as the stamens, reflexed 

 in fruit ; stigmas simple, glandulose, dark purple. Germen ovoid, whitish, finely 

 striated, smooth, 3-lobed by a furrow between the styles. Capsules reddish brown, 

 3-celled, ovoid-conical, 3-cieft at the summit (or tricarpellary), about 3 times the 

 length of the sepals, smooth, striated and membranous. Seeds numerous, light 

 yellowish or ashy brown, oblong-cylindrical, a little curved, rounded at each 

 extremity, furfuraceo-scabrous, not punctate nor striated. 



In dry, open or sandy pastures the stems are wholly or partly red all over, the 

 plant shorter, more irregularly branched, flexuose and straggling than when 

 growing in woods 8,nd sheltered places. 



f\- Stems procumbent. 



8. H. elodes, L. Marsh St. John's-uwrt. " Sepals with (red- 

 dish) glandular serratures glabrous, leaves roundish shaggy, stem 

 rounded creeping, panicle of few flowers." — Br. Fl. p. 81. E. B. 

 t. 109. 



