Shady banks of streams, Pennsylvania! to the mountains of Georgia!
west to Missouri! S. Wysox, Pennsylvania, Mr. John Carey ! June-July.—
Shrub 4-8 feet high; the young branches and cymes pubescent. Leaves
3-6 inches long ; the veins pubescent on both sides.— Common Hydrangea.
2. II. radiata (Walt.) : leaves ovate, mostly cordate, acuminate, sharply
serrate; silvery-tomentose beneath ; cymes fastigiate ; flower-buds depressed
; a portion of the marginal flowers radiate and sterile,— Walt.! Car. p.
251; Willd.! spec. 2. p. 634. H. nivea, Michx.! 1. c .; Pursh ! 1. c .; Ell.
1. c .; D C .! prodr. 4. p. 14.
In the upper country of S. Carolina! and Georgia! also in Tennessee.
May-June.—Shrub 6-8 feet high. Sterile flowers large. In cultivation
the flowers are said to become wholly sterile, and the leaves to lose a portion
of the white tomentum of the lower surface.
3. H. quercifolia (Bartram): leaves deeply and somewhat sinuately 3-5-
lobed, somewhat serrate, tomentose beneath; cymes thyrsoid-paniculate;
sterile flowers very large, numerous.—Bartr. ! trav. p. 336, t. 7 ; Willd!
spec. 1. c . ; Pursh! 1. c .; Ell. 1. c .; DC.! 1. c. H. radiata, Smithy ic. not of
Walt.
Banks of streams, Georgia! to Florida! May-June.—Shrubs 4-5 feet
high, showy. Leaves very large, variously lobed or sinuate, minutely serrate
with salient teeth, when young tomentose; the upper surface at length
nearly glabrous. Flowers in a large crowded thyrsus ; the branches simple
or dichotomous, bearing here and there little clusters of fertile flowers, and at
its extremity a very large sterile flower. Sterile flowers often staminate;
the sepals orbicular, dull white changing to reddish.—A showy species, not
uncommon in gardens.
15. DECUMARIA. Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 403; DC. prodr. 3. p. 206.
Flowers all fertile and uniform. Tube of the calyx turbinate-campanu-
late, coherent with the ovary, 7-10-toothed; the teeth at length deciduous.
Petals as many as the teeth of the calyx, narrowly oblong, somewhat attenuate
at the base, valvate in aestivation, with the margins more or less induplicate.
Stamens thrice the number of the petals, inserted in a single series
into an epigynous ring: filaments subulate-filiform. Ovary 5-10-celled,
with numerous suspended scobiform ovules: stigmas thick (5?) 7-10,
united in a disk, radiate. Capsule turbinate, 10-15-ribbed, the conical apex
free, crowned with the persistent style, 5-7-celled (or as many cells as stigmas?),
opening irregularly between the ribs; the endocarp and dissepiments
thin, composed of fasciate oblique fibres: placenta persistent in the axis.
Seeds numerous and imbricated, suspended from the inner angle of each
cell by a subulate-attenuate base: testa membranaceous, reticulated, produced
at the extremity opposite the insertion into a thickened obtuse and
entire cellular appendage, about the length of the oblong nucleus. Embryo
oblong-linear, terete, surrounded with a very thin granular albumen: cotyledons
semiterete, nearly as, long as the radicle; the latter directed towards
the subulate extremity or hilum.—A sarmentose shrub, with opposite entire
or somewhat toothed glabrous leaves (more or less marked with minute
linear dots), and numerous white fragrant flowers, in compound terminal
cymes.
lira-111
This genus is allied, not so much to Philadelphtts as to Deutzia (which Prof.
Zuccarini has recently so ably illustrated in his and Siebold’s Flora Japonica, and
which he justly retains in Hydrangeas), and especially to the interesting Schizo:
phragma of the same author, (FI. Japan, t. 26.) which is very nearly allied to
Hydrangea itself, and yet does not differ essentially from Decumaria except in its
radiate sterile flowers, if they may so be called, the rather smaller number of the
floral organs, and the erect seeds.—In examining the contents of the capsule, with
a good lens, we discovered an abundance of very minute acicular bodies, lying
loose among the seeds and the fibrous portions of the dissepiments, which have
entirely the appearance of aciCular raphides. We have only examined dried specimens,
and are unable to determine what is the organic situation of these bodies.
D. barbara (Linn.! spec, appx.)— Willd.! spec. 2. p. 850 ; D C .! 1. c.
D. barbara & sarmentosa, Bose, ait. soc. hist. nat. Par. 1. p. 76. t. 13 ;
Pursh, fi. 1. p. 328; Ell. ! sk. 1. p. 533. D. radicans, Meench. meth. p. 17.
D. Forsythia, Michx.! fl, 1. p. 282. Forsytbia scanderis, Walt.! Car.
p. 154.
In shady places along the margin of swamps, North Carolina! to Florida!
and western Louisiana, Dr. Hale! May-June.—Stem climbing by rootlets;
often ascending trees to considerable height. Leaves petioled, Cither broadly
or oblong-ovate; rather variable in form, either acute at each end, or often
rounded at the base, sometimes coarsely repand-toothed towards the apex.
Stamens as long as the petals. Capsule strongly ribbed; the endocarp
with the dissepiments separating from the chartaceous exocdrp, thin and
scarious, but rather firm, splitting when mature into innumerable band-like
fibres, as in Schizophragma, Zmcc., except that the fibres pursue an obliquely
descending course from the dorsal stlture to the axis.15 * Placenta attenuate
below, dilated (and when dry hollow) towards the summit of the capsule:
Integument.of the seed (arillUs, DC.) apparently simple, and certainly the
testa, not an arillus.
16. JAMESIA.
Flowers polygamous ? Calyx campanulate, deeply 5-Cleft, coherent with
the ovary at the base only ; the segments ovate-lanceolate, somewhat unequal,
persistent. Petals 5, oblong, obtuse, narrowed at the base, concave;
minutely pubescent within; the margins induplicate in aestivation. Stamens
as many or twice as many ? as the petals : filaments subulate, longer than
the petals. Ovary ovoid-conical, 3- (or sometimes 4 -5 -) celled, at first incompletely
(the dilated placentae being scarcely coherent in the axis): ovules
numerous, linear-oblong, ascending, imbricated: styles long, more or lesS
united at the base, much exserted : stigmas small, terminal, truncate. Fruit
unknown— A shrubby plant, with opposite serrate petioled leaves, and
small few-flowered axillary and terminal cymes; the branchlets, as well
as the peduncles and calyx, clothed with simple soft hairs; the leaves can-
escent beneath. Flowers small.
J. Americana.
Along the Platte or the Canadian River, hear the Rocky Mountains ? Dr:
James!—Shrub erect? with terete branches: Leaves, including the petioles;
* Nearly the same structure is observable both in Hydrangea and in Philadel--
phus, but in these the fibres do not separate spontaneously.
ill