1 M. proboscídea, Glox. Leaves heart-shaped, oblique, entire or undulate, the upper alternate; corolla dull white or purplish, or spotted with yellow and purple; endocarp of the fruit crested on one side, long-beaked.—Banks of the Mississippi and its lower tributaries, from S. Ind., Ill., and Iowa, to northern Mexico. Also cultivated and naturalized farther north.
Order 80. ACANTHÀCEÆ. (Acanthus Family.)
Chiefly herbs, with opposite simple leaves, didynamous or diandrous stamens, inserted on the tube of the more or less 2-lipped corolla, the lobes of which are convolute or imbricated in the bud; fruit a 2-celled and few- (4–12-) seeded capsule; seeds anatropous, without albumen, usually flat and supported by hooked projections of the placentæ (retinacula).—Flowers commonly much bracted. Calyx 5-cleft. Style thread-form; stigma simple or 2-cleft. Pod loculicidal, usually flattened contrary to the valves and partition. Cotyledons broad and flat.—Mucilaginous and slightly bitter, not noxious. A large family in the warmer parts of the world; represented in gardens by Thunbergia, which differs from the rest by the globular pod and seeds, the latter not on hooks.
[*] Corolla not obviously bilabiate, the 5 lobes broad and roundish, spreading; stamens 4.
1. Calophanes. Calyx-lobes long-filiform. Capsule 2–4-seeded.
2. Ruellia. Calyx-lobes mostly linear or lanceolate. Capsule 6–20-seeded.
[*][*] Corolla bilabiate, upper lip erect and concave, lower spreading; stamens 2.
3. Dianthera. Capsule obovate, flattened, 4-seeded.
1. CALÓPHANES, Don.
Calyx deeply 5-cleft or parted; its lobes elongated setaceous-acuminate or aristiform. Corolla funnel-form, with ample limb, convolute in the bud. Stamens 4, the anthers mucronate or sometimes aristate at base. Ovules a single pair in each cell. Capsule oblong-linear, 2–4-seeded.—Low branching perennials, pubescent or hirsute, with proportionally large axillary nearly sessile flowers (solitary or few), and blue corolla. (Name from καλός, beautiful, and φαίνω, to appear.)