160 XYl. CAKYOPHYLL-E-E. ' [Sagina. 



mens 8, 10, or fewer. Styles as many as sepals, and alternate with them. 

 Capsule opening to the base into as many valves as styles, alternating with 

 the sepals. — Small matted or tufted herbs, with subulate leaves and small 

 flowers, usually borne on long pedieels. 



A small genus, dispersed over the temperate or cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, 

 the commonest species also ahuudaut in the southern hemisphere. 



1. S. procxunbens, Linn, DC. Frod. i. 389. A minute annual or rarely 

 perennial, 1 to 2 in. or rarely 3 in. higli, usually branching from tlie base and 

 decumbent, forming little spreading tufts, glabrous or very minutely pubes- 

 cent. Leaves small and subulate, joined by a short scarious sheath, the radi- 

 cal ones longer and tufted. Flowers very small, on capillary peduncles longer 

 than the leaves. Sepals 4, about 1 line long. Petals much shorter, often 

 wanting. Valves of the capsule as long as the sepals or rather longer. All 

 these parts usually in fours, but occasionally met with in fives. — Keichb. Ic. 

 Y\. Germ. t. 20G ; F. Muell. PL Viet. i. 20'S ; S, apetala, Linn. ; I)C. 1. c. ; 

 Pcichb. L c. t. 200. 



Victoria, Morasses and mossy valleys hetween Mount Seviter and Limestone river, at 

 an elevation of 4000 feet (the perennial form) ; the common annual form abundant about 

 Mtlbourne, Port Phillip, etc., F, Mueller. 



S. Australia. St. Viuc^ent's Gulf, lofty ranges, etc., F. Mueller, 



Very abundant, in a great variety of situations, over the whole range of the genus. 



i 





with a fine almost pungent point, 2 or rarely 3 lines long, rigid and sprcadin 

 riowtrs almost sessile within the tufts of 'leaves, and not exceeding theui. 

 Se])al3 5, about 1^ lines long, lanceolate, acute and rigid. Capsule nearly as 

 long as tlie calyx.— -S/je/ywZrt mhulata, Dnrv. PL Malouin. 51, not of Swartz ; 

 ColobantJius BenlhamianHS, Fenzl, in Ann. ^lus. Vind. i. 49 (the plate qiioted 

 from Endl. Atakt. never publidied); C. puhinatus, F. Muell. in Trans. Phil. 

 Soc. Vict. L 201, and PL Vict. L 213, t. 11. 



Victoria. Bart; gravelly suraaiiU of the Muuyang mountains, buried the greater part 

 of the year under snow^ not occurrinj? below GOOO ft,, T. Mueller, 



The species is also found in New Zealand and in Antarctic Auieriea. The New Zealand 

 specimens, and fiorae of those from Campbell's Island, are precisely like the Australian 







fi. COLOBANTHUS, Earth 



Sepals 4 or 5. Petals none. Stamens as many as sepals and alteniating 

 Tvilh them, slightly perigynous. Styles as many as sepals and opposite to 

 them. Capsule opening in as many valves as sepals, and opposite to them 

 Small tnfted herbs, glabrous and often somewhat fleshy. Leaves narrow, or 

 short and imbricate. Flowers solitary. 



A small genus, spread over the mountainous or antarctic rct^Ions of South America, Aus- 

 tralia, and New Zealand. Both the Australian species are con^mon to New Zealand and 

 Antarctic America. The genus has been referred by Fenzl to Portulacea, on account of 

 the position of the stamens; but all other characters are much more those of CaryophylleiS- 



Leaves short and spreading. Flowers nearly sessile 1, C, suhulatns. f- 



Leaves erect or elongated. Pedicels much longer than the calyx . . . 2. C. BiUardieri, 



1, C. subulatns, Booh. f. Fl Ard. i. 13, t, 93, and ii. t. 47. Stems 

 short, with crowded k^aves, forming dense moss-like tufts often covering a 

 considerable spaee of ground. Leaves linear, conrave and strongly keeled, 



