392 apocynace^:. (dogbane family.) 



3. SPIGELIA, L. Pink-root. Worm-grass 



Calyx 5-parted ; the lobes slender. Corolla tnbular-funnel-form, 5-lobed at 

 the summit, valvate in the bud. Stamens 5 : anthers linear. Style 1, slender, 

 hairy above, jointed near the middle. Pod short, 2-celled, twin, laterally flat- 

 tened, separating at maturity from a persistent base into 2 carpels, which open 

 loculicidally, few-seeded, — Chiefly herbs, with the pair of leaves united by 

 means of the stipules, and the flowers spiked in one-sided cymes. (Named for 

 Adrian Spiegel, latinized Spigelius, who wrote on botany at the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, and was perhaps the first to give directions for 

 preparing an herbarium.) 



1. S. Marilaridiea, L. (Maryland Pink-root.) Stems simple and 

 erect from a perennial root (6' -18' high); leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate, 

 acute ; spike simple or forked, short ; tube of the corolla 4 times the length of 

 the calyx, the lobes lanceolate ; anthers and style exserted. — Eich woods, 

 Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and southward : not common northward. June, 

 July. — Corolla 1^' long, red outside, yellow within. — A well-known officinal 

 anthelmintic, and a showy plant. 



4. MITREOLA, L. Mitrewort. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla little longer than the calyx, somewhat funnel-form, 

 5-lobed, valvate in the bud. Stamens 5, included. Ovary at the base slightly 

 adnate to the bottom of the calyx, 2-celled : styles 2, short, converging and 

 united above ; the stigmas also united into one. Pod projecting beyond the 

 calyx, strongly 2-horned or mitre-shaped, opening down the inner side of each 

 horn, many-seeded. — Annual smooth herbs, 6' -2° high, with sma'l stipules 

 between the leaves, and small white flowers spiked along one side of the 

 branches of a terminal petioled cyme. (Name, a little mitre, from the shape 

 of the pod.) 



1. M. petiolata, Torr. & Gray. Leaves thin, oblong- lanceolate, petioled. 

 — Damp soil, from Eastern Virginia southward. 



2. M. sessilifdlia, Torr. & Gray, with thickish sessile and roundish 

 leaves, probably occurs as far north as Virginia. 



Order 79. APOCYNACEJE. (Dogbane Family.) 



Plants almost all with milky acrid juice, entire (chiefly opposite') leaves 

 fcitJwut stipules, regular b-merous and h-androus flowers ; the 5 lobes of the 

 corolla convolute and twisted in the bud ; the filaments distinct, inserted on 

 the corolla, and the pollen granular ; the calyx entirely free from the 

 two ovaries, which (in our genera) are distinct (and forming pods), 

 though their styles or stigmas are united into one. — Seeds amphitro- 

 pous or anatropous, with a large straight embryo in sparing albumen, 

 often bearing a tuft of down (comose). — Chiefly a tropical family (of 

 acrid-poisonous plants), represented in gardens by the Oleander and 

 Periwinkle, and among wild plants by three genera ; — - 





