with the petiole on both sides, entire, toothed, or sometimes fringed with
bristles. Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary, cymulose, or glomerate.
Plant often turning blackish in drying.
§ 1. Corolla hypocrateriform ; the tube much longer than the teeth or segments
o f the calyx (which are distant in fru it); the binib glabrous: stamens and
style dioscio-diinorphous, i. e., the stamens in one plant inserted in err near
the throat of the corolla, and often somewhat exserted, and then the style included
; in the other, the stamens inserted into the tube of the corolla near
the base, and the style exserted: filaments short: anthers linear or oblong:
capsule somewhat didymous or %-lobed, the very broad summit free from the
calyx, loculicidal: seeds several (8—20 in each cell), scrobiculate or reticulated,
oval or roundish, with a deep hollow on the face : small annual or sometimes
perennial herbs-, stipules entire, minute: peduncles axillary or terminal,
one-flowered.—H oustonia, Linn. hort. Cliff. (Species of Anotis, DC.,
A m . ? Endl. Poiretia, Gmel. Panetos, Raf. ?)
The name Houstonia must be retained for whatever section shall include H.
cterulea, on which that genus was founded in the Hortus Cliffortiamis. This, if considerably
extended, would probably include a large portion of De Candolle’s species
of Anotis, but in a more restricted sense perhaps very few. Hedyotis (Anotis)
gentianoides, Endl. iamogr. t. 89, certainly belongs to this section.
1. H. minima: annual, glabrous, at length dichotomous and depressed;
leaves linear-spatulate, with a long attenuate base ; peduncles not exceeding
the leaves; capsule obcordate, free only at the summit; seeds oval, nearly
smooth, with a broad cavity on the face.—Houstonia minima, Beck, in Sill,
jour. 10. p. 262.
Banks of rivers and prairies of the South Western States. Near St. Louis,
Missouri, Beck, Dr. Engelmann! New Orleans, Nuttall! Arkansas and
Western Louisiana, Nuttall! Dr. Pitcher! Dr. Hale! March-May.__
Plant less than an inch high when it begins to flower; when old 3-4 inches
high, the peduncles becoming axillary or alar. Leaves 4-5 lines long,
scarcely a line wide. Corolla rose-color or pale purple, large for the size of
the plant, but smaller than in H. caerulea; the tube narrowed at the base, as
long as the semiovate-oblong lobes, at length about thrice the length of the
calyx-segments. Seeds 10-15 in each cell; the cavity of the face wider
than in the following, with a longitudinal central ridge.
2. H. crerulea (Hook.) : annual or biennial, glabrous; stems numerous*
erect or spreading, dichotomous; leaves oval-spatulate or oblanceolate, the
radical and lower ones tapering to the base or somewhat petioled, usually
minutely ciliate; peduncles filiform, elongated, spreading; capsule very
broadly obcordate, free above the middle ; seeds roundish, scrobiculate.—
Hook. ! fl. Bor.-Am. Is p. 286 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 104 ; not of Wight
8f Am . Houstonia caerulea, L in n .! spec. 1. p. 105 ; Bot. mag. t. 370 ;
Pursh, fl. 1. p. 106; Ell. sk. 1. p . 192; Torr.! fl. 1. p. 172; Bart. fl.
Amer. Sept. t. 34, ƒ. 1. H. pusilla, “ Schcepf, it. 2. p. 306” ; Gmel. syst. 1. p.
236. H. Linnaei a. elatior, Michx.! fl. 1. p. 85. Chamaejasme inodora
&c. Pluk. aim. 1. 97, f . 9.
fl. minor: smaller; the branches and peduncles divaricate or spreading;
flowers smaller.—Hook. 1. c. Houstonia Linnaei fl. minor, Michx. l. c.
H. patens, Ell. 1. c.
Canada! (from lat. 48°) to Louisiana! on grassy banks, wet rocks &c.
fl. Mostly in dry soil throughout the Southern States! April-(Feb. or March
in the Southern States) Sept.—Stems 3-6 inches high, branching from the
base, sparingly dichotomous. Radical leaves often minutely hispid on the
surfaces as well as the margin, usually 3-5 lines long. Peduncles 1-2
inches long in fruit. Corolla 4-5 lines long (in fl. often much smaller), blue
or blue and white (sometimes all white), with a yellowish throat; the tube
3 or 4 times longer than the oblong-lanceolate calyx-segments; the lobes
somewhat ovate and acute, shorter than the tube. Capsule, when mature,
more than half free, dehiscent down to the calyx. Seeds 8-15 in each cell;
tfle cavity of the face circular.—Dwarf Pink. Bluets.
3. H. serpyllifolia: perennial, nearly glabrous; stems numerous or cses-
pitose, filiform, procumbent or creeping, elongated ; leaves roundish-ovate,
abruptly narrowed into a petiole, often slightly cordate, ciliolate ; peduncles
terminal, very long; lobes of the corolla about the length of the tube.—
Houstonia serpyllifolia, Michx.! fl. 1. p. 85; Pursh! f l . l . p . 106. H. te-
nella, Pursh, l . f i . f f
About springs, on the high mountains of Carolina, Michaux! Sfc. Mountains
of North Carolina, Mr. M. A . Curtis! May.—The filiform stems, in
the specimens of Mr. Curtis, are 6 to 10 inches long; and the plant has
quite the habit of Arenaria Balearica, as Michaux has remarked: the leaves,
including the slender petioles, do not exceed 3 lines in lenglh; the peduncles
1-2 inches long; the corolla about as large as in H. casrulea, with the lobes
broadly oval. We know not whether the root is really perennial. From
the same region, Mr. Curtis has sent us specimens of H. casrulea (apparently),
with the leaves nearly of the same shape and almost as distinctly petiqled,
but they belong to a much stouter and nearly erect, or diffuse plant.__
The prior Hedyotis serpyllifolia of Poiret, is referred to H. trinervia by
Wight & Arnott.
4. H. rotundifolia : perennial; stems branched, creeping; leaves roundish
or broadly oval, ciliate when young, thickish, abruptly narrowed into a short
petiole; peduncles axillary and shorter (and sometimes terminal and longer)
than the leaves; capsule free above the- middle, very broad, emarginate,
few-seeded ; seeds roundish, scrobiculate.—Houstonia rotundifolia, Michx. !
fl. 1. p. 85 ; Pursh ! 1. c .; Ell. 1. c. Panetos rotundifolia, Raf. Anonymos
procumbens, Walt. Car. p. 86. Poiretia procumbens, Gmel. syst. p . 263.
Anotis (Panetos) rotundifolia, DC. ! prodr. 4. p. 433.
Sandy soil, S. Carolina! to Florida! and Louisiana! flowering nearly
all the year.—Leaves persistent, at length nearly glabrous, about half an
inch long. Flowers (white Ell.) about as large as in H. casrulea; the peduncles
nodding in fruit. Lobes of the corolla shorter than the slender tube.
Capsule splitting almost to the base.—The Hedyotis rotundifolia of Sprengel
is also referred to H. trinervia.
§ 2. Corolla infundibuliform, often hairy or villous inside ; the tube longer
than the teeth of the calyx, which are distant in fru it: stamens and style
dicecio-dimorphous, and alternately includedjor more or less exserted (as
in § 1) •' anthers linear: capsule sub globose or ovoid, the upper half free
from the calyx: seeds rather few (4-15 in each cell) aval, with a deep hollow-
on the face: small erect perennial herbs, often corymbosely branched; stipules
entire: flowers in terminal di-trichotomous cymules._Amphiotis
DC.* (§ of Anotis.)
* In De Candolle’s sectional character, the phrase “ Corollas hypocrateriraorohee”
occurs: but the only species of the section is said to have an infundibuLiform corolla.