518 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



small and narrow ; stamens usually 3, sometimes more ; capsule 

 incompletely 3-celled, 3-valved, with 3 other apparent valves 

 within, 1- or 2-seeded. Found on dry, rocky hills, and sunny 

 fields. 



Sp. 1. Large Pin-Weed. L. major. Michaux. 



A stiff, hairy plant, with a purple, brittle, erect stem, one or 

 two feet high. The leaves are refiexed at the margin, downy, 

 whitish beneath. The lower branches spread on the ground in 

 tufts, with small, roundish leaves. The stem has longer and 

 more pointed leaves ; the upper branches, lanceolate leaves ; the 

 flowers are small and very numerous, densely crowded on the 

 sides of the upper branches, and succeeded by 3-sided, roundish 

 capsules, about the size of a large pin's head. 



Sp. 2. Thyme-leaved Pin-Weed. L. thymifblia. Pursh. 



A plant about a foot high, with a stout, erect stem, and nu- 

 merous, somewhat whorled branches, forming a small pyramidal 

 head, with sharp, straight, narrow leaves, the whole covered 

 with whitish wool. It is intermediate between the last species 

 and the next. It is found in sand on the sea-coast. 



Sp. 3. Small Pin-Weed. L. minor. Lamarck. 



A plant smaller than the two preceding species, resembling 

 them strongly, but distinguished by being less hairy, by having 

 its flowers and capsules larger, and by having a somewhat more 

 slender and delicate appearance. The capsules are nearly glob- 

 ular, about the size of a grain of mustard. 



XXXVII. 3. THE HUDSONIA. HUDSO^NIA. L. 



An anomalous American genus of three species of excessively 

 branched, woody, tufted, heath-like under-shrubs, with small, 

 stiff, sessile, awl-shaped or needle-shaped, densely imbricated, 

 persistent, downy leaves, without stipules; and small yellow 

 flowers with reddish calyx, on the ends of very short branches. 

 Sepals 5, united at base, the 2 outer ones awl-shaped and mi- 

 nute, the 3 inner oblong, expanded at flowering, forming a tube 



