Var. ciliolàta, Gray. A span high; leaves only ½´ 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.; passing into
Var. longifòlia, 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. tenuifòlia, 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. calycòsa, Gray. Almost 1° high; leaves broadly lanceolate, thickish; calyx-lobes elongated (2–4´´ long), much surpassing the pod.—From Ill. (Hall) to Ark. and N. Ala.
6. H. angustifòlia, 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 partition.—Barrens, Ill. to Kan., south to Tex., Tenn., and Fla.
2. OLDENLÁNDIA, 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. glomeràta, Michx. An inconspicuous, pubescent or smoothish, branched and spreading annual (2–12´ high); leaves ovate to oblong; flowers in sessile axillary clusters; corolla nearly wheel-shaped (white), much shorter than the calyx.—Wet places, near the coast, N. Y. to Fla. and Tex.
3. CEPHALÁNTHUS, L. Button-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 κεφαλή, a head, and ἄνθος, a flower.)