326 ACANTHACEiE. Ruellia. 



form: capsule puberulent. (Torr. in lierb., unpublished.) — Dry woods, in W. Louisiana, 

 J. Hale. Arkansas, Bigelow, Mrs. Harris. Corolla about an inch and a half long. 



# * # Flowers subsessile and commonly glomerate in the axils, when short-peduneled with 

 foliaceous primary bracts or bractlets: stamens of almost equal length: capsule at most 8-seeded: 

 short hispid hairs of the seed spreading when wet, containing a fixed spiral fibre or band, but no 

 uncoiling spiricles. 



+- Suffrutescent : leaves rigid : corolla white : capsule oblong, with hardly any stipe-like base. 



R. Parryi. A span high, much branched from the lignescent base : leaves obovate-oblong, 

 or the upper oblong-lanceolate, tapering into a distinct petiole, hispid-ciliate, otherwise 

 glabrate, an inch or less long (the older have cystoliths) : flowers mostly solitary in the 

 axils, on a peduncle shorter than the petiole or subsessile : bractlets oblong, surpassing 

 the slender-subulate often unequal calyx-lobes: tube of the corolla (inch long) slender, 

 dilated at the summit into a small narrowly funnelform throat, which is shorter than the 

 lobes. — Dipleracanthus suffruticosus, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 122 (but there is a R.suffru- 

 licosa, Roxb.). — South-western borders of Texas: at Presidio del Norte, Parry, in flower. 

 Valley of the Pecos, in fruit, Wright. 



-(— H— Herbaceous : stems mostly simple : corolla usually blue or violet, except in li. tubiflora: 

 capsule more broadly clavate and obcompressed. 



■w- Calyx-lobes filiform-attenuate, longer than the capsule : cleistogamous flowers seldom seen. 



R. noctiflora. Puberulent, or very young parts soft-villous, a foot or less high : leaves 

 narrowly oblong (1 to 3 inches long), mostly with tapering base, but sessile: bracts and 

 bractlets of the solitary or few flowers linear-lanceolate : calyx generally soft-puberulent ; 

 its lobes somewhat linear-filiform and hardly widened at base (sometimes 18 lines long), 

 barely half the length of the elongated (fully 2 inch) tube of the white corolla, the throat 

 of which is funnelform. — R. tubiflora, LeConte in Ann. Lye. N. Y. i. 142, not HBK. 

 Dipleracanthus noctiflorus, Nees in DC. 1. c, partly; Chapm. Fl. 304. — Low pine-barrens, 

 Lower Georgia, LeConte. W. Florida, Rugel, Chapman, &c. S. Mississippi, Ingalls. Night- 

 blooming 1 



R. ciliosa, Pursh. Usually hirsute with long spreading hairs, especially the (about inch 

 long) filiform attenuate calyx-lobes : leaves oblong or the lower oval (an inch or two long), 

 almost sessile : tube of the blue corolla commonly twice the length of the calyx and of the 

 limb with the obconical throat, the whole not rarely 2 inches long. — Fl. i. 420 ; Gray, Man. 

 ed. 5, 339. Dipleracanthus ciliosus, Nees in Linn. xvi. 294, & Prodr. 1. c, with var. hijbridus, 

 mainly. — Dry ground, Michigan and Illinois to Florida and Louisiana : in various forms. 



Var. longiflora. Pubescence sometimes cinereous, with or without long hirsute 

 hairs : stems sometimes flowering when 2 or 3 inches high, sometimes tall and slender : 

 leaves narrowly oblong or the lower obovate-spatulate, usually small: slender tube of 

 corolla 1 or 2 inches long. — R. humilis, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil, Soc. n. ser. v. 182. Jus- 

 ticia, with char. & no name, Torr. in Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 235. Dipleracanthus Drummondii, 

 Torr. & Gray in PI. Lindh. i. 50. D. noctiflorus, Nees, in DC. 1. i:., as to Texan pi. and var. 

 humilis, also D. ciliosus, var. hijbridus, in part. — Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. 



Var. hybrida. Either hirsute or cinereous-pubescent, sometimes almost velvety- 

 pubescent: leaves from ovate to oblong, mostly with distinct petioles : tube of the corolla 

 shorter than the throat and limb, sometimes shorter than the linear-setaceous calyx-lobes, 

 which often want the hirsute hairs. — R. hybrida, Pursh, Fl. ii. 420; LeConte in Ann. 

 Lye. 1. c. R. steepens, L. as to Dill. Elth. t. 249, at least in part. R. Ursula, Ell. Sk. ii. 109. 

 Dipteracanthus ciliosus, var. hybridus, in part, & D. Mitclullianus, Nees, 1. c. D. steepens, var. 

 Di/knii, Nees, 1. c. — S. Carolina to Florida. Verges to the two following species. 



Var. amblgua. Sparingly hirsute-pubescent or glabrate : leaves ovate-oblong, usu- 

 ally short-petioled, larger: tube of corolla little exceeding the hardly hirsute calyx.— 

 Dipleracanthus ciliosus,va.r.parvifloru.s,~Nces, 1. e. — Virginia and Kentucky to Alabama. As 

 if a hybrid between R. ciliosa and R. steepens, with aspect of the latter, but the calyx of 

 the former. 



R. Drummondiana. Cinereous-puberulent, .tall : leaves ovate, 3 to 6 inches long, peti- 

 oled: filiform-setaceous and canescent calyx-lobes (commonly an inch or more long) more 

 or less shorter than the tube of the (inch and a half long) corolla. — Dipleracanthus Drum- 

 mondianus, Nees in DC. 1. c. D. Lindheimerianus, Scheele in Linn. xxi. 764, 1848. — Texas, 

 Drummond, Lindheimer. 



