CLASS VI. ORDER 1. ] LEUCOJUM. 465 



Stigmas capitate. Capsule membranous, two celled, many seeded 



— '* Named from TrsTrXiov, anciently applied to the genus Portu- 



laca, now to one somewhat similar in habit." — Hooker. 



1. P. PorHula^ Linn. (Fig. 528.) Water Purslane. Leaves opposite, 



obovate, narrowing into a footstalk ; flowers solitary in the axis of the 



leaves. 



English Botany, t. 1211. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 187. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 157. — Nat. Ord. Salicarice, Juss. in Lindley's 

 Synopsis, p. 71. 



A small herbaceous plant, with slender fibrous roots, and square, 

 smooth, tender, prostrate stems about six inches long, creeping 

 around, and putting out roots from the axis of the leaves. Leaves 

 numerous, opposite, obovate, tapering at the base into a slender foot- 

 stalk as long as the leaf, quite smooth, a pale yellowish green. Flowers 

 small, solitary in the axis of the leaves, almost sessile. Calyx inferior, 

 of one piece, bell-shaped, persistent, smooth, reddish, twelve ribbed, 

 the limb of twelve teeth, six erect, closing over the flower before 

 bursting, in a conical shape, tipped with a small black gland, the six 

 alternate teeth smaller and spreading. Corolla of six small pinkish 

 petals enclosed within the calyx, or wanting. Stamens inserted into 

 the tube of the calyx, alternating with the petals, shorter than the 

 calyx. Style very short. Stigmas capitate. Capsule round, smooth, 

 pale, membranous, crowned by the persistent style, and enveloped at 

 the base by the calyx, two celled, many seeded. Seeds small, pale, 

 brown, smooth, angular. 



Habitat. — Watery places and marshes; not unfrequent. 

 Annual; flowering from July to August. 



This little plant is not unfrequent in humid places and the banks of 

 streams in almost all parts of Europe, but it does not appear to have 

 been applied to any particular use. 



GENUS IV. LEUCO'JUM.— Linn. Snow/lake. 

 Nat. Ord, AMARyLLi'DE^E. R. Brown. 



Gen. Char. Perianth with a short tube and a campanulate limb, of 

 six equal pieces, thickened at the apex. Flowers from a mem- 

 branous spatha. — Named from XwKog, white; and lov, a violet. 

 The name Xsvko^ov appears to have been applied by the ancients 

 both to violets and the ivall-Jlower, and they seem to have used 

 them all for the same medicinal purposes. 

 1. L. j^strvum, Linn. (Fig. 529.) Summer Snoivjlake. Spatha 



many flowered ; style filiform, club-shaped. 



English Botany, t. 621. —English Flora, \ol. ii. p. 130.— Hooker, 



British Flora, vol i. p. 157.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 265. 



