A low and diffuse somewhat scurfy herb, with a stout perennial root. Leaves from sinuate to pinnatifid, somewhat fleshy. Peduncles most commonly in pairs from the axils of the leaves, sometimes solitary, or in fascicles of 3-5. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, in fruit inflated, sharply 5-angular and reticulate, enclosing the fruit, the lobes connivent. Corolla flat-rotate, pentagonal in outline, veiny, violet or purplish. Anthers opening by a longitudinal slit. Seeds comparatively few, kidney-shaped, somewhat flattened, with thick margins, rugose-tuberculate. [Name unexplained.]

A monotypic genus of central North America.

1. Quincula Lobata (Torr.) Raf. Purple-Flowered Ground-Cherry

Fig. 3713

Physalis lobata Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 2: 226. 1827. Quincula lobata Raf. Atl. Journ. 145. 1832.

Perennial, low, spreading or prostrate, more or less scurfy-puberulent; stem obtusely angled and striate, much branched. Leaves oblanceolate or spatulate to oblong, sinuately toothed, or pinnatifid with rounded lobes, or rarely subentire, cuneate at the base, thickish and veiny, tapering into margined petioles; peduncles 1'-2' long, in fruit reflexed; calyx-lobes triangular, acute, shorter than the tube; corolla purplish, 10"- 15" in diameter; anthers yellow, tinged with purple; fruiting calyx about as wide as long, sharply 5-angled, sunken at the base.

On high plains, Kansas to California, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. May-Sept.