APETALiE 193 



the Greek scler, hard, and anthos, flower, from the 

 hard character of the perianth. 



This plant is found in all parts of the British Isles, 

 as far north as Caithness, but is commoner in the 

 south, and ascends to 1000 ft. in the Highlands, being 

 also native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



Cultivated ground, cornfields on a gravelly soil, 

 fields, waste places, form the habitat of this plant. 

 It grows on sandy soil also in grass heath. 



The habit is tufted. The plant is much branched, 

 erect or spreading, the stems green, repeatedly forked, 

 slender, slightly downy. The leaves are narrow, 

 linear, awl-like, fringed with hairs at the base, bent 

 back, and are adapted to dry conditions. 



The flowers are green, in terminal forked cymes, or 

 corymbose, tufted, solitary in the lower axils. The 

 lobes of the calyx are nearly erect in fruit, acute, stiff, 

 narrow, as long as the tube, with a narrow mem- 

 branous border, the tube ten-grooved, and enlarged 

 after flowering. There are ten stamens, which are 

 not so long as the styles. 



Knawel is 2-8 in. in height. It flowers from May 

 or June to September, and is a herbaceous annual. 



There is a biennial form which has a shorter stem 

 and is found in dry places. 



Like some other apetalous flowers Knawel is depen- 

 dent upon pollination by the wind. The styles exceed 

 the stamens in length. The stamens are numerous. 



The fruit is a utricle which does not open, and is 

 one-seeded. It falls, when ripe, close to the plant. 

 VOL. III. 13 



