_Herbs or shrubs, with opposite entire dotted leaves and no stipules, regular hypogynous flowers, the petals mostly oblique and convolute in the bud, and many or few stamens commonly collected in 3 or more clusters or bundles. Pod 1-celled with 2--5 parietal placentæ, and as many styles, or 3--7-celled by the union of the placentæ in the centre; dehiscence mostly septicidal._--Sepals 4 or 5, imbricated in the bud, herbaceous, persistent. Petals 4 or 5, mostly deciduous. Styles persistent, at first sometimes united. Seeds numerous, small, anatropous, with no albumen. Embryo cylindrical.--Plants with a resinous juice, dotted with pellucid or dark glands, usually smooth. Leaves mostly sessile. Flowers solitary or cymose. [*] Petals oblique, convolute, yellow; hypogynous glands none. 1. Ascyrum. Sepals 4, in 2 very unequal pairs. Petals 4. Stamens many, distinct. 2. Hypericum. Sepals 5, alike. Petals 5. Stamens usually many and in 3 or 5 clusters. [*][*] Petals equal, imbricate, purplish; glands alternating with the 3 stamen-clusters. 3. Elodes. Sepals and petals 5. Stamens usually 9. Ovary 3-celled. 1. ÁSCYRUM, L. ST. PETER'S-WORT. Sepals 4; the two outer very broad and leaf-like; the inner much smaller. Petals 4, oblique, very deciduous, convolute in the bud. Stamens numerous; the filaments distinct and scarcely in clusters. Pod strictly 1-celled, 2--4-valved.--Low, rather shrubby, smooth plants, with pale black-dotted leaves, and nearly solitary light yellow flowers. (An ancient Greek name of some plant, from α-, _without_, and σκύρος, _roughness_.) 1. A. stáns, Michx. (ST. PETER'S-WORT.) Stem rather simple, 2-edged, 1--2° high, stout; _leaves oval or oblong, somewhat clasping_, thickish; flowers showy; outer sepals round-cordate, inner lanceolate; _petals obovate_; styles 3 or 4.--Pine barrens, Long Island to Penn., and southward. July, Aug. 2. A. Crux-Ándreæ, L. (ST. ANDREW'S CROSS.) Low, much branched and decumbent; _leaves narrowly obovate-oblong, contracted at the base_, thin; _petals linear-oblong_; styles 2, very short; pod flat.--Nantucket; pine barrens of N. J. to S. Ill., Neb., and southward. July--Sept.--Petals scarcely exceeding the outer sepals, approaching each other in pairs over them, in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. 2. HYPÉRICUM, Tourn. ST. JOHN'S-WORT. Sepals 5, somewhat equal. Petals 5, oblique, convolute in the bud. Stamens commonly united or clustered in 3--5 parcels; no interposed glands. Pod 1-celled or 3--5-celled. Seeds usually cylindrical.--Herbs or shrubs, with cymose yellow flowers. (An ancient Greek name, of obscure meaning.) § 1. _Stamens very numerous, 5-adelphous; styles 5, united below, the stigmas capitate; pod 5-celled, the placentæ turned far back into the cells; perennial herb; flowers very large._