Venus' Pride

Houstonia lanceolata (Poir.) Britton, Man. 861. 1901
Hedvotis lanceolata Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 3: 14. 1813.
Anotis lanceolata DC. Prodr. 4: 433. 1830.
Houstonia macrosepala Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 2: 40, as svnonvm. 1841.
JHedyotis Frankii Presl, Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. V. 3: 86. 1843.
tDiodia Frankii Steud. & Hochst. ; Presl, Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. V. 3 : 86, as synonym. 1843.
Spermacoce lanceolata Frank; Presl, Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. V. 3: 86, as synonym. 1843.
Hedyotis calycosa Shuttlew.; A. Gray, PI. Wright. 1: 81, as synonym. 1852.
Houstonia purpurea calycosa A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. 1': 26. 1884.
Houstonia calycosa C. Mohr, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6: 739. 1901.
Erect perennial, 1.5-4 dm. high, the stems few or numerous, simple below and branched above, stout, quadrangular, densely short-pilose or hirsutulous below, glabrous above, the internodes mostly longer than the leaves; stipules 4 mm. long or shorter, scarious, whitish, acute or cuspidate, often dentate or laciniate; basal leaves wanting at anthesis, petiolate, the blades mostly elliptic, obtuse or acutish at the apex, hirsutulous or glabrate on the upper surface, glabrous beneath, ciliolate; cauline leaves sessile, or the lowest petiolate, lanceolate, lance-oblong, or linear-oblong, 2.5-6 cm. long, 0.4-2 cm. wide, obtuse to attenuate at the apex, rounded to acute at the base, hirsutulous, scaberulous, or glabrate on the upper surface, glabrous and paler beneath, scaberulo-ciliolate, 3-5-nerved; flowers numerous, in small, usually dense, leafy cymes, the pedicels 6 mm. long or shorter, scaberulous; hypanthium at anthesis about 1 mm. long, glabrous; calyx-lobes lance-linear, attenuate, several times as long as the hypanthium, in fruit often twice as long as the capsule or longer; corolla funnelform, 6-7 mm. long, purple, glabrous outside, the lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse or acute, more or less whitevillous within, usually less than half as long as the tube; anthers exserted; capsule subglobose, 3-4 mm. long, longer than broad, very slightly compressed, half inferior, rounded or retuse at the apex, the free portion glabrous; seeds concavo-convex, subcrbicular, 0.5-0.8 mm. in diameter, coarsely scrobiculate, black.
Type locality: Carolina.
Distribution: Maine to Illinois, Oklahoma, Alabama, and North Carolina.