GENUs I. UNICORN-PLANT FAMILY. 239 
Family 32. MARTYNIACEAE Link, Handb. 1: 504. 1829. 
UNICORN-PLANT FAmMILy. 
Herbs, with opposite leaves, or the upper sometimes alternate, and perfect 
irregular flowers, racemose in our species. Calyx inferior, 4-5-cleft or 4-5-parted 
or sometimes split to the base on the lower side. Corolla gamopetalous, irregular; 
the tube oblique, often decurved, the limb slightly 2-lipped, 5-lobed, the lobes 
nearly equal, the 2 upper ones exterior in the bud. Anther-bearing stamens 4, 
didynamous, or the posterior pair sterile; anthers 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally 
dehiscent. Ovary 1-celled, with 2 parietal placentae expanded into broad surfaces, 
or 2~4-celled by the intrusion of the placentae or by false partitions ; ovules numer- 
ous or few in each cavity of the ovary, anatropous; style slender; stigma 2-lobed 
or 2-lamellate. Fruit various in the different genera. Seeds oblong or orbicular, 
compressed, wingless or narrowly winged; endosperm none; embryo large; cotyle- 
dons fleshy, flat; radicle short and straight. 
Three genera and about 12 species, mainly tropical. 
1. MARTYNIA L. Sp. Pl. 618. 1753. 
Coarse diffusely branched glandular-pubescent and viscid strong-scented herbs, with oppo- 
site or alternate long-petioled leaves, and large violet purple whitish or mottled flowers in 
short terminal racemes. Calyx 1-2-bracteolate at the base, campanulate, inflated, unequally 
5-cleft, deciduous. Corolla funnelform-campanulate, oblique, decurved, the 5 lobes nearly 
equal, spreading. Stamens 4 in our species; anthers gland-tipped, their sacs divergent. Ovary 
1-celled, the 2 parietal placentae intruded and expanded in the center of the cavity into broad 
surfaces bearing the ovules in I or 2 rows. Fruit an incurved beaked loculicidally 2-valved 
capsule, the exocarp somewhat fleshy, the endocarp fibrous, woody, crested below or also 
above, 4-celled by the extension of the placentae. Seeds numerous, tuberculate. [Named for 
John Martyn, 1693-1768, professor of botany at Cambridge, England.] 
About 8 species, natives of America. Besides the following, 2 others occur in the south- 
western United States. Type species: Martynia annua L 
1. Martynia louisiana Mill. Unicorn-Plant. 
Elephant’s Trunk. Martinoe. Double- 
claw. Fig. 3887. 
M. louisiana Mill. Gard. Dict. Ed. 8, no. 3. 1768. 
Martynia proboscidea Glox. Obs. 14. 1785. 
Annual, densely glandular-pubescent all over; 
stem stout, much branched, the branches pros- 
trate or ascending, 1°-3° long. Leaves broadly 
ovate to orbicular, rounded at the apex, cordate 
at the base, repand, undulate or entire, 3’-12’ in 
diameter, the petiole stout, mostly longer than 
the blade; bractlets at the base of the calyx ob- 
long or linear, deciduous; calyx somewhat cleft 
on the lower side; racemes several-flowered ; 
pedicels slender; corolla whitish or yellowish, 
mottled with purple or yellow within, 13’-2’ long, 
the limb nearly as broad, the lobes obtuse; sta- 
mens all anther-bearing; fruit strongly curved, 
4-6’ long when mature, the beak longer than the 
body, splitting into 2 elastically diverging seg- 
ments, the endocarp crested on the under side 
only. 
In waste places, escaped from gardens, Maine to 
western. New York, New Jersey and Georgia. Native 
from Indiana to Iowa, Utah, Texas and New Mexico. July—Sept. 
Family 33. ACANTHACEAE J. St. Hil. Expos. Fam. 1: 236. 1805. 
ACANTHUS FAMILY. 
Herbs, or some tropical genera shrubs or small trees, with opposite simple 
exstipulate leaves, and irregular or nearly regular perfect flowers. Calyx inferior, 
persistent, 4-5-parted or 4-5-cleft, the sepals or segments imbricated, equal or 
unequal. Corolla gamopetalous, nearly regularly 5-lobed with the lobes convolute 
in the bud, or conspicuously 2-lipped. Anther-bearing stamens 4, didynamous, 
