336 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



young shoots are formed which take root, and replace 

 the original plant. 



Brookweed is found throughout the British Isles, 

 and in the Channel Islands. It seems, however, to 

 be more frequent on the west coast. 



As the English name implies, this plant is found 

 by the margins of brooks, in wet ground and ditches, 

 inland as well as by the sea, where perhaps it is most 

 native, in sandy places and salt-marshes. 



The habit is more or less the rosette habit, but the 

 stems bear leaves. The whole plant is smooth, 

 bright green, and shining. There is but a short 

 root-stock. The stem is erect with prostrate or 

 ascending branches, sometimes rooting. The leaves 

 are inversely ovate or spoon-shaped, blunt, with 

 a short point, entire. The radical leaves form a 

 rosette, but the stem-leaves are alternate. 



The flowers are white and small, in erect, loose, 

 racemes. The flower-stalks are fairly long, with a 

 green bract just above the middle, adnate to the axes 

 like small bracteoles, the bract and axes elongating 

 together, small and lance-shaped. The tube of the 

 calyx is hemispherical, the lobes triangular, acute. 

 The calyx adheres to the ovary. The corolla is 

 crowned with a short tube, five lobes spreading, and 

 a scale between each, alternating with the stamens. 

 The capsule is round and small, crowned by the 

 short teeth of the calyx, opening by five valves. The 

 ovary is inferior, being sunk in the receptacular tube. 



The flowers open between June and September. 



