The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 77

[+][+] Flowers twin; their ovaries united into one. Fruit a 2-eyed berry.

4. Mitch.e.l.la. Corolla funnel-form; its lobes 4. A creeping herb.

[+][+][+] Flowers axillary, separate. Fruit dry when ripe. Herbs.

5. Spermacoce. Corolla funnel-form or salver-form; lobes 4. Fruit separating when ripe into 2 carpels, one or both of them opening.

6. Diodia. Fruit separating into 2 or 3 closed and indehiscent carpels; otherwise as n. 5.

III. STELLATae. Ovules solitary; leaves in whorls, without stipules.

7. Galium. Corolla wheel-shaped, 4- (or rarely 3-) parted. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit twin, separating into 2 indehiscent 1-seeded carpels.

8. Sherardia. Corolla funnel-form. Calyx-lobes lanceolate. Flowers subsessile, involucrate.

1. HOUSTNIA, L.

Calyx 4-lobed, persistent; the lobes in fruit distant. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form, usually much longer than the calyx-lobes, 4-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud. Stamens 4; anthers linear or oblong. Style 1; stigmas 2. Ovary 2-celled. Pod top-shaped, globular, or didymous, thin, its summit or upper half free from and projecting beyond the tube of the calyx, loculicidal across the top. Seeds rather few (4--20 in each cell), peltate and saucer-shaped or globular-thimble-shaped, pitted.--Small herbs, with short entire stipules connecting the petioles or narrowed bases of the leaves, and cymose or solitary and peduncled flowers. These are dimorphous, in some individuals with exserted anthers and short included style; in others the anthers included and the style long, the stigmas therefore protruding. (Named for _Dr. Wm. Houston_, an English botanist who collected in Central America.)

[*] _Small and delicate, vernal-flowering; peduncles 1-flowered; corolla salver-form; upper half of the broad and somewhat 2-lobed pod free; seeds globular, with a very deep round cavity occupying the inner face._

[+] _Perennial by delicate filiform creeping rootstocks or creeping stems; peduncles filiform, 1--2' long._

1. H. caerulea, L. (BLUETS. INNOCENCE.) Glabrous; _stems erect_, slender, sparingly branched from the base (3--5' high); _leaves oblong-spatulate_ (3--4" long); peduncle filiform, erect; corolla _light blue_, pale lilac or nearly white with a yellowish eye, with tube much longer than its lobes or than those of the calyx.--Moist and gra.s.sy places, N. Eng.

to Ga., west to Mich. and Ala.; producing from early spring to midsummer its delicate little flowers.

2. H. serpylliflia, Michx. Like the last, but filiform _stems prostrate_, extensively creeping and rooting; _leaves...o...b..cular to ovate_ (2--4" long); corolla rather larger, and _deep violet-blue_.--Along streamlets and on mountain-tops, Va. to Tenn. and S. C.

[+][+] _Winter-annuals, branching from the simple root; peduncles much shorter._

3. H. patens, Ell. An inch to at length a span high, with ascending branches and erect peduncles; leaves spatulate to ovate; corolla much smaller than that of n. 1, violet-blue or purplish without yellowish eye, _the tube longer than its lobes, twice the length of the calyx-lobes_.--Dry or sandy soil, S. Va. to Tex. and Ill. (?)

4. H. minima, Beck. More diffuse, _commonly scabrous_; stems at length much branched and spreading (1--4' high); lowest leaves ovate or spatulate, the upper oblong or nearly linear; earlier peduncles elongated and spreading in fruit, the later ones short; _tube of the purplish corolla not longer than its lobes or the ample calyx-lobes_ (1" long).--Dry hills, Mo. to Tex. March--May.

[*][*] _Erect, mostly perennial herbs (6--20' high), with stem-leaves sessile, and flowers in small terminal cymes or cl.u.s.ters; corolla funnel-form, purplish, often hairy inside; seeds meniscoidal, with a ridge across the hollowed inner face._

5. H. purpurea, L. p.u.b.escent or smooth (8--15' high); _leaves varying from roundish-ovate to lanceolate_, 3--5-ribbed; calyx-lobes longer than the half-free globular pod.--Woodlands, Md. to Ark., and southward.

May--July.--Varying wonderfully, as into--

Var. ciliolata, Gray. A span high; leaves only ' long, thickish; cauline oblong-spatulate; radical oval or oblong, rosulate, hirsute-ciliate; calyx-lobes a little longer than the pod.--Rocky banks, from the Great Lakes and Minn. to Ky.; pa.s.sing into

Var. longiflia, Gray. A span or two high, mostly glabrous, thinner-leaved; leaves oblong-lanceolate to linear (6--20" long); radical oval or oblong, less rosulate, not ciliate.--Rocky or gravelly ground, Maine to Minn., south to Ga. and Mo.; also northward.

Var. tenuiflia, Gray. Slender, lax, diffuse, 6--12' high, with loose inflorescence, and almost filiform branches and peduncles; cauline leaves all linear, hardly over 1" wide.--S. E. Ohio to Va., N. C., and Tenn.

Var. calycsa, Gray. Almost 1 high; leaves broadly lanceolate, thickish; calyx-lobes elongated (2--4" long), much surpa.s.sing the pod.--From Ill. (_Hall_) to Ark. and N. Ala.

6. H. angustiflia, Michx. Stems tufted from a hard or woody root; _leaves narrowly linear_, acute, 1-ribbed, many of them fascicled; flowers crowded, short-pedicelled; lobes of the corolla densely bearded inside; _pod obovoid, acute at base, only its summit free_, opening first across the top, at length through the part.i.tion.--Barrens, Ill. to Kan., south to Tex., Tenn., and Fla.

2. OLDENLaNDIA, Plumier.

Calyx 4-lobed, persistent. Corolla short, in our species wheel-shaped; the limb 4-parted, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4; anthers short. Style 1 or none; stigmas 2. Pod thin, 2-celled, many-seeded, opening loculicidally across the summit. Seeds very numerous, minute and angular.--Low herbs, with small stipules united to the petioles.

(Dedicated to the memory of _Oldenland_, a German physician and botanist, who died early at the Cape of Good Hope.)

1. O. glomerata, Michx. An inconspicuous, p.u.b.escent or smoothish, branched and spreading annual (2--12' high); leaves ovate to oblong; flowers in sessile axillary cl.u.s.ters; corolla nearly wheel-shaped (white), much shorter than the calyx.--Wet places, near the coast, N. Y.

to Fla. and Tex.

3. CEPHALaNTHUS, L. b.u.t.tON-BUSH.

Calyx-tube inversely pyramidal, the limb 4-toothed. Corolla tubular, 4-toothed; the teeth imbricated in the bud. Style thread-form, much protruded. Stigma capitate. Fruit dry and hard, small, inversely pyramidal, 2--4-celled, at length splitting from the base upward into 2--4 closed 1-seeded portions.--Shrubs, with the white flowers densely aggregated in spherical peduncled heads. (Name composed of ?efa??, _a head_, and ?????, _a flower_.)

1. C. occidentalis, L. Smooth or p.u.b.escent; leaves petioled, ovate or lanceolate-oblong, pointed, opposite or whorled in threes, with short intervening stipules.--Swamps and along streams, throughout the continent. July, Aug.

4. MITCh.e.l.lA, L. PARTRIDGE-BERRY.

Flowers in pairs, with their ovaries united. Calyx 4-toothed. Corolla funnel-form, 4-lobed; the lobes spreading, densely bearded inside, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4. Style 1; stigmas 4, linear. Fruit a berry-like double drupe, crowned with the calyx-teeth of the two flowers, with 4 small seed-like bony nutlets to each flower.--A smooth and trailing small evergreen herb, with round-ovate and s.h.i.+ning petioled leaves, minute stipules, white fragrant flowers often tinged with purple, and scarlet edible (but nearly tasteless) berries, which remain over winter. Flowers occasionally 3--6-merous, always dimorphous; all those of some individuals having exserted stamens and included stigmas; of others, included stamens and exserted style. (This very pretty plant commemorates _Dr. John Mitch.e.l.l_, an early correspondent of Linnaeus, and an excellent botanist, who resided in Virginia.)

1. M. repens, L.--Dry woods, creeping about the foot of trees, especially Coniferae, throughout our range and southward. June, July.--Leaves often variegated with whitish lines. Rarely the two flowers are completely confluent into one, with a 10-lobed corolla.

5. SPERMACCE, Dill. b.u.t.tON-WEED.

Calyx-tube short; the limb parted into 4 teeth. Corolla funnel-form or salver-form, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4. Stigma or style 2-cleft.

Fruit small and dry, 2-celled, 2-seeded, splitting when ripe into 2 carpels, one of them usually carrying with it the part.i.tion, and therefore closed, the other open on the inner face.--Small herbs, the bases of the leaves or petioles connected by a bristle-bearing stipular membrane. Flowers small, whitish, crowded into sessile axillary whorled cl.u.s.ters or heads. (Name compounded of sp??a, _seed_, and a????, _a point_, probably from the pointed calyx-teeth on the fruit.)

1. S. glabra, Michx. Glabrous perennial; stems spreading (9--20' long); leaves oblong-lanceolate; heads many-flowered; corolla little exceeding the calyx, bearded in the throat, bearing the anthers at its base; filaments and style hardly any.--River-banks, S. Ohio to Ark., Tex., and Fla. Aug.

6. DIDIA, Gronov. b.u.t.tON-WEED.

Calyx-teeth 2--5, often unequal. Fruit 2- (rarely 3-) celled; the crustaceous carpels into which it splits all closed and indehiscent.

Flowers 1--3 in each axil. Otherwise resembling Spermacoce. Flowering all summer. (Name from d??d??, _a thoroughfare_; the species often growing by the wayside.)

1. D. Virginiana, L. Smooth or hairy perennial; stems spreading (1--2 long); leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile; corolla white (' long), the _slender tube abruptly expanded into the large limb; style 2-parted; fruit oblong, strongly furrowed_, crowned mostly with 2 slender calyx-teeth.--Low grounds along streams, southern N. J. to Fla., west to Ark. and Tex.

2. D. teres, Walt. Hairy or minutely p.u.b.escent annual; stem spreading (3--9' long), nearly terete; leaves linear-lanceolate, closely sessile, rigid; _corolla funnel-form_ (2--3" long, whitish), with short lobes, not exceeding the long bristles of the stipules; _style undivided; fruit_ obovate-turbinate, _not furrowed_, crowned with 4 short calyx-teeth.--Sandy soil, N. J. to W. Ill., Fla., and Tex.

7. GaLIUM, L. BEDSTRAW. CLEAVERS.

Calyx-teeth obsolete. Corolla 4-parted, rarely 3-parted, wheel-shaped, valvate in the bud. Stamens 4, rarely 3, short. Styles 2. Fruit dry or fleshy, globular, twin, separating when ripe into the 2 seed-like, indehiscent, 1-seeded carpels.--Slender herbs, with small cymose flowers (produced in summer), square stems, and whorled leaves, the roots often containing a red coloring matter. (Name from ???a, _milk_, which some species are used to curdle.)

-- 1. _Naturalized species; fruit dry._

G. VeRUM, L. (YELLOW BEDSTRAW.) Perennial; stems smooth, erect; leaves 8 or sometimes 6 in the whorls, linear, roughish, soon deflexed; flowers very numerous, paniculate, yellow; fruit usually smooth.--Dry fields, E. Ma.s.s. (Nat. from Eu.)