CLASS V. ORDER 111.1 COKRIGIOLA. 445 



The tamarisk is frequent in shrubberies, but a very doubtful native 

 plant In Cornwall, where it grows with the appearance of being 

 wild, it is called by the common people Cypress, and forms in many 

 places a beautiful ornamental fence round gardens and fishermen's 

 huts ; and it is commonly believed amongst the people that a Monk 

 from the Continent, on lauding on the Cornish coast, stuck his staff 

 into the ground, and it grew into a tamarisk shrub. It is frequent in 

 almost all parts of the Continent. 



GENUS XCVIII. CORRIG TOLA.— Linn. Strapworf. 



Nat. Ord. Parony'chie^. St, Hil, 



Gen. Char. Calyx five-parted, persistent, inferior. Petals five, in- 

 serted into the base of the calyx, and as long. Hiiginas three, 

 sessile. Capsule covered by the calyx, single seeded. Seed 

 suspended by its cord, which arises from the bottom of the capsule. 

 —Named from corri(jia,A strap or thong, from its long pliant stems. 

 1. C. littora'lis, Linn. (Fig. 508.) Sand Strapioort. Stem leafy 

 among the corymbose flowers ; leaves of the stem linear, wedge- 

 shaped. 



English Botany, t. 1318. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 112. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 147. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. CO. — (Ord. 

 lllecehrece ) 



Root small, tapering, and branched. Stems numerous, much 

 branched, and spreading on the ground in every direction, from six to 

 eighteen inches long, slender, smooth, round, and leafy. Leaves alter- 

 nate, sometimes opposite, a pale glaucous green, quite smooth, linear, 

 with an acute point, and those of the stem tapering at the base in a 

 wedge-shaped manner into a short footstalk, each having at the base a 

 pair of ovate acute very thin membranous stipules. Inflorescence in 

 terminal and lateral corymbose leafy racemes at the end of the 

 branches. Floivers very small, white, on short stalks. Bractea small, 

 lanceolate, membranous. Calyx of five deep obovate segments, nearly 

 as long as the corolla, green. Corolla of five obovate white spreading 

 petals. Stamens with awl-shaped filaments, shorter than the corolla, 

 and small roundish anthers, of a dark purplish colour. Stigmas three, 

 sessile, very small. Capsule eveloped in the calyx, broadly ovate, of 

 one cell, single seeded. Seed suspended from the top by its cord, 

 which arises from the base of the capsule, black and shining. 



Habitat. — South-west coast of England; rare. Slapham sands, 

 and near the Star point, Devonshire ; and at Helston and banks of 

 the Loor, Cornwall. 



Annual ; flowering in July and August. 



This rare little plant is very common on almost every sand bank in 

 Portugal, where it grows to a much larger size than with us. 



