110 Lindernia dilatata.
W h o l e plant very smooth, from six to twelve inches high. Root
fibrous, annual. Stem branching, jointed, procumbent part of its
length, then assurgent, quadrangular, purplish towards the ground,
and sending off radicles from the joints. Leaves opposite, ovate,
dilated towards the base, and embracing the stem. They are of
various sizes, but the largest rarely exceed the size of finger
nails; sometimes, however, they are three-fourths of an inch long,
and half an inch broad in shady places; in such specimens they
are semi-membranaceous. They are of a dull grass-green, with occasional
spots of dull purple in the direction of the three or five
nerves on the under side, which are often obscure, except when
the plant is held to the light. Margin mostly entire, though a few
teeth are often found on the leaves of some specimens. Flowers
numerous, axillary, commencing from the lowest part of the stem,
situated on delicate, often filiform, quadrangular, erect peduncles,
about three-fourths of an inch or one inch in length, which
have a tendency to become deflexed as the flower advances towards
seed. Indeed the fruiting specimens are generally deflexed as in
Spergula. Calicine segments somewhat unequal, subulate, slightly
pubescent, but often wholly glabrous. Corolla pale purple or nearly
white, twice or thrice the length of the calix; tube attenuated
towards the base, divided at the limb into four segments, the uppermost
being broader than the other three; the latter are lower, obtuse,
and form the inferior lip. Filaments four, inserted into the
tube of the corolla: the two longest ones nearly equal to it in
Lindernia dilatata. l i t
length, abortive and garnished with a fork near the head. The two
shorter, fertile and filiform. Anthers two-lobed, pale straw-yellow.
Germ superior, ovate; style persistent. Stigma bilabiate and flattened.
Seeds small, very numerous, pale-brown or ochre-yellow.
Grows along the margins of rivers, creeks and ditches, in loose
gravelly or sandy soil, from the New England states to Georgia,
flowering from May to September. The variety 0. described by
Pursh, appears to be the very distinct and well-marked species called
attenuata by Muhlenberg.
The genus Lindernia was named by Allioni in honour of Francis
Balthazar Yon Lindern, a physician and botanist of Strasburg, who
flourished in the early part of the last century. The present species
seems specifically distinct from the European Lindernia pyxidaria,
described by Willdenow. This opinion is not founded on Pursh’s remark
to the same effect, induced by his wrong impression of Willde-
now’s description of the length of the peduncles. In the Species Plan-
tarum, that author describes the peduncles as being often longer than
the leaves, on the top of the stem, “ pedunculi foliis breviores sed
in apice caulis ssepius longiores.” I have in my herbarium a small
specimen from France, of Lindernia pyxidaria, an inch and a half
high, which was sent to me by Professor Horneman of Copenhagen.
Comparing our plant with this specimen, relatively to its specific
character, there appears this discrepancy:—in the European
plant the leaves are not dilated towards the base; are simply sessile,