PINK FAMILY. 63 



3. ELODES, MATCSH ST. JOHN'S-WORT. (Greek for marshy.) In 

 water or wet bogs, with pale often purple-veined oblong or ovate leaves, and 

 close clusters of small flowers in their axils, produced all summer. Petals 

 pale purple or flesh-color, equal-sided, erect. 2/ 

 E. Virginica, the commonest, has the roundish or broadly oblong leaves 



clasping by a broad base. 



E. petiol&ta, commoner S., has the leaves tapering into a short petiole. 



18. ELATINACE^I, WATER-WORT FAMILY. 



Little marsh annuals, resembling Chickweeds, but with mern- 

 branaceous stipules between the opposite leaves, and seeds as in 

 preceding family. Represented by 



1. ELATINE, WATER-WORT. ( Greek name of some herb. ) Sepals, 

 petals, stamens and cells of the ovary and stigmas or styles of the same num- 

 ber, each 2, 3, or 4, all separate on the receptacle. Seeds straightish or curved. 

 Flowers minute in the axils of the leaves. 

 E. Americana. Creeping and spreading on muddy shores of ponds, &c., 



about 1 ' high, not very common ; leaves obovate ; parts of the flower 2, rarely 3 ; 



pod very thin. 



19. TAMARISCINE^J, TAMARISK FAMILY. 



Shrubs or small trees of the Old World, represented in orna- 

 mental grounds by 



1. TAMARIX, TAMARISK. (Named for the Tamarisci, or the river 

 Tamaris, on which these people lived.) Sepals and petals 4 or 5, persistent, 

 or the latter withering, and stamens as many or twice as many, all on the 

 receptacle. Ovary pointed, 1-celled, bearing many ovules on three parietal 

 placentae next the base : styles 3. Seeds with a plume of hairs at the 

 apex. Shrubs or small trees of peculiar aspect, with minute and scale-shaped 

 or awl-shaped alternate leaves appressed on the slender branches, and small 

 white or purplish flowers in spikes or racemes. The only one planted is 

 T. Gallica, FRENCH T. Barely hardy N., often killed to the ground, a 

 picturesque, delicate shrub, rather Cypress-like in aspect, glaucous-whitish, the 

 minute leaves clasping the branches, nearly evergreen where the climate permits. 



20. CARYOPHYLLACEJE, PINK FAMILY. 



Bland herbs, with opposite entire leaves, regular flowers with not 

 over 10 stamens, a commonly 1-celled ovary with the ovules rising 

 from the bottom of the cell or on a central column, and with 2 5 

 styles or sessile stigmas, mostly separate to the base. (See Les- 

 sons, p. 120, fig. 258, 259.) Seeds with a slender embryo on the 

 outside of a mealy albumen, and usually curved into a ring around it. 

 Calyx persistent. Petals sometimes minute or wanting. Divides 

 into two reat divisions or suborders, viz. the true PINK FAMILY, 

 and the CHICKWKKD FAMILY, to the latter of which many plants 

 like them, but mostly .-ingle-seeded and without petals, are appended. 



I. PINK FAMILY PROPER. Sepals (5) united below into a 

 tube or cup. Petals with slender claws which are enclosed in the 

 calyx-tube, and commonly raised within it, with the 10 stamens, on 

 a sort of stalk, often with a cleft scale or crown at the junction of 

 the blade and claw. (Lessons, p. 101, fig. 200.) Pod mostly open- 

 ing at the top, many-seeded. 



