34 RUBIACEjE. Spermacoce. 



+- Corolla very villous in the throat, very short: root apparently perennial. 



S. glabra, Michx. Spreading or decumbent, smooth and glabrous : stems a foot or so long : 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate and oblong (inch or two long), not prominently veined: corolla 

 more campanulate than funnelform, little surpassing the large calyx-teeth (only a line and a 

 half long) : subsessile anthers and style included: fruit somewhat turbinate, smooth (nearly 

 2 lines long), crowned by the 4 conspicuous at length triangular-lanceolate spreading calyx- 

 teeth, their bases slightly united. —El. i. 82 ; Pursh, Fl. i. 105 (excl. the remark that corolla 

 is longer than in the next) ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 27. Diodia glabra, Pers. Syn. i. 124. Prob- 

 ably Spermacoce verticillis tenuioribus, Dill. Elth. 1. c, therefore S. tenuior, L. Spec, except as 

 to syn. Pluk. — River-banks, S. Ohio to Florida, Arkansas, and Texas. 



4— -l_ Corolla glabrous or merely pubescent in the throat: root annual. 



S. tenuior, L. partly, Lam. Ascending or spreading : leaves oval-oblong to oblong-lance- 

 olate, more or less scabrous, with 4 or 5 pairs of more prominent veins : corolla funnelform, 

 twice or thrice the length of the calyx, and with more or less exserted stamens and style, 

 yet in some plants nearly as short as in the preceding species, and with stamens and style 

 included (probably dimorphous) : fruit didymous-obovate, commonly pubescent or puberu- 

 lent (only a line or so long), coriaceo-crustaceous, crowned with the four short deltoid 

 or triangular-lanceolate distinct calyx-teeth. — L. Spec. i. 102, as to Pluk. Aim. t. 136, f. 4, 

 perhaps also of Dill. Elth. 1. u. ; Pursh, Fl. 1. c. ; Lam. 111. i. 273, t. 62, f. 1 ; Schk. Handb. 

 t. 32 ; A. Rich. Mem. Rub. t. 4, no. 2, excl. fig. c "? ; Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 349. &. Chapmanii, 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl.,ii. 27, form with the more conspicuous corolla, &c. — River-banks, Florida 

 and Louisiana ; rare. ( W. Ind. to Brazil. ) 



S. Portorioensis, Balbis. Annual or perhaps perennial, diffusely spreading, wholly 

 smooth and glabrous : leaves smaller than in the preceding (half-inch to inch long), drying 

 blackish, with inconspicuous venation : glomerules mostly small and few-flowered : corolla 

 only half-line long, short-campauulate, glabrous inside : subsessile anthers and style included : 

 fruit globular (a line or less long), very smooth or rarely obscurely puberulent, thinnish, 

 crowned with small narrowly subulate calyx-teeth, their bases distant : seed strongly scro- 

 biculate-punctate. — DC. Prodr. iv. 552; Polak in Linn. xli. 373. S. tenuior, Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. ii. 27, & of distrib. Rugel, Curtiss, &c. <S. tenuior, var. Portoricensis, Griseb. — Keys and 

 near shores of Southern Florida, Blodgett, Rugel, Garber, Curtiss. (W. Ind., &e.) 

 # # Leaves in our species narrow and sessile : fruit septicidal through the thin dissepiment and 

 both carpels ventrally dehiscent. — Species of Borreria, Meyer, 1. c. j DC. I. c. Bigelovia, 

 Spreng. Syst. 



S. parviflora. Annual, glabrous or a little hirtellous-pubescent : stems slender, spreading 

 or erect, a span to a foot high : leaves from narrowly lanceolate to spatulate-oblong (inch or 

 less long), obscurely veined : glomerules in many of the axils, globose: corolla salverform, 

 about a line long: stamens and style included: fruit half a line long, didymous-globular, 

 thinnish, surmounted by the four attenuate-subulate and longer nearly equal calyx-teeth, two 

 on each carpel: seed scrobiculate. — Borreria parviflora, Meyer, Fl. Esseq. 83, t. 1, f. 1-3; 

 DC. 1. c. B. micrantha, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 28. B. Domingensis, Griseb. Cat. Cub. 141. 

 Hardly Spermacoce hirta, Swartz, referred here by Griseb. — Waste grounds, S. Florida, 

 Leavenworth, Garber, Curtiss. (W. Ind., Mex., S. Am.) 



S. podocephala. Suffrutescent perennial, a span to a foot high in tufts, glabrous and 

 smooth or sometimes obscurely hirtello-puberulent : stipular bristles few : leaves numerous, 

 about the length of the internodes and usually axillary-fascicled, narrowly linear (inch or 

 less long), seldom over a line wide, veinless, not rarely with revolute margins, 2 to 6 upper- 

 most raised on a longer peduncle-like internode and involucrating the solitary terminal glo- 

 bose glomerule : corolla short-funnelform, a line or little more in length : fruit obovate and 

 didymous, each carpel surmounted by a rather shorter subulate or obtuse calyx-tooth ; inter- 

 mediate teeth rudimentary or wanting : seed minutely scrobiculate. — Borreria podocephala, 

 DC. Prodr. iv. 542; Chapm. Fl. 175 (var. pumila); Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 350, the W. Indian 

 specimens attenuate and with less fascicled leaves. Spermacoce pi/gmcea, Wright in Sauv. Fl. 

 Cubana, 72. — S. Florida, Blodgett, &c. S. Texas, Berlandier, Palmer. (Mex., W. Ind.) 



25. DlCJDIA, Gronov. (AtoSos, a thoroughfare, wayside plants'.) — Low 

 herbs (nearly all American), usually decumbent ; with white or bluish flowers 



