CARYOPIIYLLACE^E. 123 



decumbent but rarely rooting at the base until after flowering, erect 

 or ascendiug' at the apex. Lower leaves crowded, stem leaves dis- 

 tant, all slightly fleshy, linear-subulate, acute, gradually contracted 

 into a mucro. Cyme usually reduced to a solitary flower. Pedun- 

 cles slightly recurved at the tip after flowering, ultimately erect, 

 extremely long and slender, more or less pubescent. Sepals 5, 

 oblong-lanceolate, obtuse at the apex, with distant gland-tipped 

 hairs, applied to the capsule when it is mature. Petals about as long 

 as the sepals. Cajisule at first nodding, at length erect, 5-valved, 

 a little longer than the sepals. Seeds semicircular-obovate, slightly 

 rugose. Plant more or less covered with scattered gland-tipped 

 hairs. 



On damp sandy places, and on heaths. Rather rare. Sparingly 

 but widely distributed over the whole country, though more rare 

 in the South. 



England, Scotland, and Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Closely allied to S. saginoides, but having the leaves insensibly 

 instead of abruptly tapering into the mucro, which is longer than 

 in that species. The rootstock has longer and thicker branches, and 

 the tufts to which these branches give rise are much more com- 

 pact from the stems assuming an ascending direction nearer to 

 the base ; they are from 2 to 5 inches high, including the pedun- 

 cles, which are considerably longer than those of S. saxatilis. The 

 flowers are larger, but the sepals are narrower in proportion, and 

 cover more of the capsule than in S. saginoides. The glandular 

 hairs on the plant are an obvious distinction, but one on which 

 much dependence cannot be placed. 



Mr. Bentham unites S. subulata with S. saginoides, giving to 

 the two Presl's name of S. Linnaei ; but if any of the species should 

 be combined, it should surely be S. saxatilis and S. procumbens, 

 which have exactly the same habit and mode of growth, and indeed 

 are often extremely difiicult to separate in the dried state, unless 

 the specimens happen to have mature capsules. 



The mode of growth in this and the other perennial species of 

 Sagiua is, first, the production of a rosette, from the lower leaves of 

 which axillary stems are produced. These lateral stems in S. pro- 

 cumbens and saginoides take root early, but in S. subulata, nivalis, 

 and nodosa, not until a much later period. The lateral stems alone 

 produce flowers, which are in a terminal cyme. Besides this 

 they produce, later in the season, a bud towards the base of the 

 flowering stem, which grows into the central barren rosette of the 

 succeeding year. The rosette of the parent at last withers, and 

 the lateral stems become separate plants, united together until set 

 free by the decay of the connecting portion, which is superficial 



