148 THE PITKSLANE FAMILY. 



are three principal kinds, namely, the Clove carnation, the deep rich crimson 

 unvariegated flower; the Bizarre carnations, with the petals streaked, spotted, 

 and blotched over their whole surface ; and the Picotees, in which the petals are 

 white, hut with a fringe of coloured lines along the margin. 



XXV.— THE PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacacea. 



Pretty little herbaceous plants, resembling the Carnation Family in 

 most points, but distinguished by having only two sepals instead of 

 five, and by a strong tendency to succulence. They are scattered all 

 over the world, but sparingly, and in the British Flora are only known 

 in the " blinks " or Muntla fontdna, a minute, densely-tufted plant, 

 with tiny white flowers, drooping at first, and composed of five petals, 

 three of which are smaller than the others, three (or rarely five) 

 stamens, and three stigmas, the English name derived from the sensi- 

 tiveness of its blossoms to the light. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 By water-courses on all the hills in the district ; also on Hale Moss ; 

 and plentiful and fine at Irlam. (J. S.) Fl. June. Annual. 

 Curtis, i. 153 ; E. B. xvii. 120G. 

 On rockeries there is often seen a pretty little plant, with spoon-shaped leaves 

 and lilac flowers, called Claytonia; and in the open borders occasionally, difierent 

 species of the sbewy genus Calandrinia, succulent, and with flowers remarkably 

 sensitive to the light. 



XXVL— THE FUMITORY FAMILY. Fumaridceee. 



Delicate herbaceous plants, with slender and often scrambling stems, 

 frequently succulent and half-transparent with watery juice ; the leaves 

 usually alternate, much divided and cut, like parsley, and in the 

 scrambling species often tendrilled. Flowers in racemes, red, pink, 

 yellow, or white ; the parts in twos or fours, but very irregular in 

 shape, and distinguished by the lateral petals cohering at their tips, 

 and forming with them a kind of little pouch. They have also a pro- 

 tuberance at the base, and the flower is often remarkably flat. Stamens 

 six, combined in two sets of three each ; pistil solitary ; stigma with 

 two blunt lobes, and nestling among the anthers in the pouch. Fruit 

 a round or oblong capsule, one or few-seeded. 



