AMAKANTACEiE. 183 



apex of the stem and branches, rarely with a few solitary axillary ones 

 beneath. Calyx segments oblong, obtuse, with a broad white scarious 

 border. 



In sandy fields. Rare. Norfolk and Sufl:blk, especially on the con- 

 fines of the two counties. In the Manual of British Botany it is 

 recorded also from Stanner rocks, Radnor. 



S. perennis is veiy closely allied to var. 3 of S. annuus, and this latter 

 form is mdeed often mistaken for it, but the very obtuse calyx seg- 

 ments, with a much broader scarious mai'gin, will always suffice to 

 distinguish S. perennis. It is only dwarf forms of S. perennis that 

 resemble S. annuus, for when it is luxuriant the stems are very nume- 

 rous, nearly simple, and crowded with falcate and siibsecund leaves, 

 with fascicles of leaves in their axils. The fruitmg calyx tube also 

 is generally puberulent, less deeply furrowed, less constricted at the 

 base of the teeth, which are always connivent and hooded at the apex ; 

 the plant is also much more glaucous, and the bracts shorter, seldom 

 longer than the tube of the calyx ; and the stamens are commonly 

 longer than the styles, while the reverse is generally the case in S. 

 annuus. 



Perennial Knawel. 



German, ausdauerender Knauel. 



EXCLUDED SPECIES. 



HERNIARIA HIRSUTA. Umi. 

 Eng. Bot. cd. i. No. 1379. 



Included in the older Bi'itish lists by mistake; but it has recently 

 occurred near Coventry, no doubt accidentally introduced. 



ORDER LX.— A MARANTACE^. 



Annual or perennial herbs or undershrubs, with the leaves alternate 

 or opposite, generally entire ; stipules none. Flowers perfect or more 

 generally polygamo-dioecious, each one generally with 3 scarious 

 bracts, arranged in heads, spikes, or glomerules. Calyx scarious or 

 more rarely herbaceous, of 3, 4, or 5 sepals, or 4- or 5-cleft or -partite. 

 Petals none. Stamens hypogynous, usually 5, fertile, sometimes with 

 tootli-like sterile ones alternate Avith the fertile ones, or all united into 



