64 
CARYOPHYLLACEjE. (PINK FAMILY.) 
many-seeded, 4-5-valved, the valves opposite the sepals. — 
Small matted herbs, with thread-like or awl-shaped leaves, and 
minute flowers. (Name from sagina, fattening ; but it would 
apparently take a long time to fatten any thing upon these minute 
weeds.) 
1- S* piocumbens, L. Perennial, depressed ; leaves thread- 
form or narrowly linear; peduncles ascending in fruit; stamens 4-5; 
petas shorter than the calyx , sometimes none. — Springy places, Maine 
to Penn. May-Aug. V M V 
apctala, L. Annual, erect, thread-like; leaves almost 
mu e-form ; stamens 4 ; petals obsolete or none. — Sandy fields, New 
York to Penn. Plant 2'-4'high. 
S. erecta, L., now considered to be Cerastium, is naturalized at 
Baltimore. 
Suborder III. ILLECEBRE^E. The Knotwort Family. 
tO. SPERGtLA, L. Spurrey. 
Sepals 5. Petals 5, large, entire. Stamens 10. Styles 5. 
o many seeded, 5-valved, the valves opposite the sepals. —• An¬ 
nuals with narrow leaves in whorls, and cymose (white) flowers. 
f 1 arae 5 P ar S°i 1° scatter, alluding to its rapid dispersion by 
its numerous seeds.) 
1- S. arvensis, L. (Corn Spurrey.) Leaves awl-shaped- 
mear, numerous in the whorls, with minute interposed stipules, often 
c ustere in the axils; flowers in a compound cyme, slender-stalked. 
Oram fields and waste places, introduced. — A foot high: the 
black seeds thick, with a sharp edge. 
II. SPEBGIILAbia, Pers. Sporrey-SandworT. 
Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire. Stamens 3 - 10. Styles and valves 
ot t e many-seeded pod 3, or if 5 the valves alternate with the se- 
pa s ! — Low herbs, of brackish sandy soil, with fleshy opposite 
leaves, and smaller ones often clustered in the axils: stipules 
scaly-membranous. 
1 . 
smooths'll • i ra ’ ” erS * ^ e P resse d and much branched, smootl 
color- maA eaVe ® narrow linear, rather fleshy; petals purple-r< 
rubr*/ T \ °I Wlthout membranaceous margins. (Aren; 
more flthT. / fie ' ds ’ " eM b ‘ a ‘ k *h water, and, Var. mar. 
June Sprit a " A ar ® e . r n al1 its P arts i on the sea-coast, comm 
June -Sept. _ Annual ? Stamens 3 -10, commonly 3 or 5. 
