1. C. occidentàlis, L. Smooth or pubescent; 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. MITCHÉLLA, 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 shining 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 Mitchell, an early correspondent of Linnæus, and an excellent botanist, who resided in Virginia.)
1. M. rèpens, L.—Dry woods, creeping about the foot of trees, especially Coniferæ, 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. SPERMACÒCE, Dill. Button-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 partition, 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 clusters or heads. (Name compounded of σπέρμα, seed, and ακωκή, a point, probably from the pointed calyx-teeth on the fruit.)
1. S. glàbra, 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. DIÒDIA, Gronov. Button-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 δίοδος, a thoroughfare; the species often growing by the wayside.)
1. D. Virginiàna, L. Smooth or hairy perennial; stems spreading (1–2° long); leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile; corolla white (½´ 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.