I. CINCHONEÆ. Ovules numerous in each cell; leaves opposite. 1. Houstonia. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form, 4-lobed. Seeds rather few, thimble-shaped or saucer-shaped. Low herbs. 2. Oldenlandia. Corolla wheel-shaped in our species, 4-lobed. Seeds very numerous and minute, angular. Low herbs. II. COFFEINEÆ. Ovules solitary in the cells; leaves mostly opposite. [+] Flowers in a close and globose long-peduncled head. Fruit dry. Shrubs. 3. Cephalanthus. Corolla tubular; lobes 4. Fruit inversely pyramidal, 2--4-seeded. [+][+] Flowers twin; their ovaries united into one. Fruit a 2-eyed berry. 4. Mitchella. Corolla funnel-form; its lobes 4. A creeping herb. [+][+][+] Flowers axillary, separate. Fruit dry when ripe. Herbs. 5. Spermacoce. Corolla funnel-form or salver-form; lobes 4. Fruit separating when ripe into 2 carpels, one or both of them opening. 6. Diodia. Fruit separating into 2 or 3 closed and indehiscent carpels; otherwise as n. 5. III. STELLATÆ. Ovules solitary; leaves in whorls, without stipules. 7. Galium. Corolla wheel-shaped, 4- (or rarely 3-) parted. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit twin, separating into 2 indehiscent 1-seeded carpels. 8. Sherardia. Corolla funnel-form. Calyx-lobes lanceolate. Flowers subsessile, involucrate. 1. HOUSTÒNIA, L. Calyx 4-lobed, persistent; the lobes in fruit distant. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form, usually much longer than the calyx-lobes, 4-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud. Stamens 4; anthers linear or oblong. Style 1; stigmas 2. Ovary 2-celled. Pod top-shaped, globular, or didymous, thin, its summit or upper half free from and projecting beyond the tube of the calyx, loculicidal across the top. Seeds rather few (4--20 in each cell), peltate and saucer-shaped or globular-thimble-shaped, pitted.--Small herbs, with short entire stipules connecting the petioles or narrowed bases of the leaves, and cymose or solitary and peduncled flowers. These are dimorphous, in some individuals with exserted anthers and short included style; in others the anthers included and the style long, the stigmas therefore protruding. (Named for _Dr. Wm. Houston_, an English botanist who collected in Central America.) [*] _Small and delicate, vernal-flowering; peduncles 1-flowered; corolla salver-form; upper half of the broad and somewhat 2-lobed pod free; seeds globular, with a very deep round cavity occupying the inner face._ [+] _Perennial by delicate filiform creeping rootstocks or creeping stems; peduncles filiform, 1--2´ long._ 1. H. cærùlea, L. (BLUETS. INNOCENCE.) Glabrous; _stems erect_, slender, sparingly branched from the base (3--5´ high); _leaves oblong-spatulate_ (3--4´´ long); peduncle filiform, erect; corolla _light blue_, pale lilac or nearly white with a yellowish eye, with tube much longer than its lobes or than those of the calyx.--Moist and grassy places, N. Eng. to Ga., west to Mich. and Ala.; producing from early spring to midsummer its delicate little flowers.