110 Lindernia dilatata. 



"Whole plant very smooth, from six to twelve inches high. Root 

 fibrous, annual. Stem branching, jointed, procumbent part of its 

 length, then assurgent, quadrangular, purplish towards the ground, 

 and sending off radicles from the joints. Leaves opposite, ovate, 

 dilated towards the base, and embracing the stem. They are of 

 various sizes, but the largest rarely exceed the size of finger 

 nails ; sometimes, however, they are three-fourths of an inch long, 

 and half an inch broad in shady places ; in such specimens they 

 are semi-membranaceous. They are of a dull grass-green, with oc- 

 casional spots of dull purple in the direction of the three or five 

 nerves on the under side, which are often obscure, except when 

 the plant is held to the light. Margin mostly entire, though a few 

 teeth are often found on the leaves of some specimens. Flowers 

 numerous, axillary, commencing from the lowest part of the stem, 

 situated on delicate, often filiform, quadrangular, erect peduncles, 

 about three-fourths of an inch or one inch in length, which have a 

 tendency to become deflexed as the flower advances towards seed. 

 Indeed the fruiting specimens are generally deflexed as in Sper- 

 gula. Calicine segments somewhat unequal, subulate, slightly pu- 

 bescent, but often wholly glabrous. Corolla pale purple or nearly 

 white, twice or thrice the length of the calix; tube attenuated to- 

 wards the base, divided at the limb into four segments, the upper- 

 most being broader than the other three ; tlw> latter are lower, ob* 

 tuse, and form the inferior lip. Filaments four, inserted into the 

 tube of the corolla,: the two- longest ones nearly equal la it k 



