210 FLORA OP TEXAS. 



abruptly acute ; seeds miuute, globose-obovate, smooth ; 



caruncle none; stems 2°-4° high; corymbs very large 



and compound, or small and simple; flowers yellow; 

 plant yellowish 



♦* Spikes solitary ; leaves alternate. 

 + Flowers purple or rose-color ; annuals, stems branching. 



P. iNCARi^ATA, L. Ste7n often simple, glaucus ; leaves 

 scattered, linear, fleshy, sometimes minute and subulate ; 

 spikes lanceolate, acute, dense-flowered; petals united into 

 a tube which is twice as long as the elliptical wings, con- 

 spicuously crested ; caruncle spongy, as long as the stalk 

 of the oval hairy seed; bracts deciduous; flowers and 

 often the rachis purple. 



§ Flowers in slender racemes or spikes. 

 * Leaves alternate; perennials or biennials. 



P. ALBA, Nutt. Stems several from a somewhat woody 

 root, erect or ascending, angular, at length branched 

 above; leaves linear, narrowed toward the base, acute or 

 lowest ones obtuse ; spike long-peduncled, linear-lanceolate, 

 acuminate; fioicers short pediceled, wings oval, rather 

 longer than the capsule; lobes of the caruncle shorter than 

 the oblong-obovate very hairy seed. Flowers white. North 

 Pork of Red River. — Torrey. 



41. RHATANY FAMILY. Order, Krameriace^. 



Silky-pubescent herbs or shrubs, wdth diffuse stems, al- 

 ternate leaves, and irregular hypogynous i[>\\v^\\sh flozvers, 

 on axillary 2-bracted and jointed peduncles. Sejmls 5, col- 

 ored, deciduous; petals 5, shorter than the sepals; the 

 3 posterior ones long-clawed, often united ; the 2 anterior 

 broad, sessile, and fleshy ; stamens 4, the posterior ones 



