CLOVE PINK TRIBE 117 



nectarium would hold twelve pints of water ; of the Barhacenia, which the 

 Chevalier Schomburgk describes as having flowers six inches long, on a stem 

 twelve feet high ; of the immense Fourcroya, of the aloe family, which 

 Karwinski found on the mountains of Mexico, whose tufts of leaves, six feet 

 long, produced innumerable large white flowers, and rose to nearly ninety 

 feet in height ; and of various other plants renowned for their immense size. 

 Many a specimen of the Pearlwort might be covered — stem, leaves, and 

 flowers — -with a florin, yet the tiny blossoms have their stamens and their 

 pistils, and produce in abundance their little seeds. The hand of God has 

 formed them with as much skill as the larger blossoms, and His work is as 

 discernible in the smallest as in the greatest. 



This little Pearlwort is not a favourite with the gardener ; for it possesses 

 itself too readily of his gravel paths, dispersing itself by its innumerable 

 seeds, and taking root very easily, wherever it can find a suitable soil. The 

 gravelly heath, the crevices of the stone wall, and other waste places, are its 

 common haunts ; and it may be found among the short grass of the pasture, 

 or alpine hill, or lowly valley. The central stem is erect and flowerless ; but 

 the stems which arise from this spread over the ground, being from two to 

 four inches long ; often sending out roots from different parts, at the insertion 

 of the leaves, and new plants arising from these. The little green blossoms 

 are to be seen all the summer, growing singly at the end of the stalks, or 

 placed in the angles formed by the stalks and leaves. The leaves, which are 

 awl-shaped, are scarcely thicker than a packthread, and have membranaceous 

 margins at the base. 



2. Annual Small-flowered Pearlwort (^S*. ap6tala). — Stems slightly 

 hairy, erect, or ascending ; leaves awned and fringed ; sepals 4. This little 

 Pearlwort is much like the last species, but smaller and more slender in all 

 its parts ; its stems too are erect and slightly hairy, and the fringed leaves 

 afford a characteristic feature, while its petals, being usually present, distin- 

 guish it from the next species. It grows on dry walls and gravelly places, 

 flowering from May to September. Curtis says that it ripens its seed much 

 more rapidly than any other English plant. 



3. Sea Pearlwort (»S^. maritima). — Stems erect, or procumbent only at 

 the base ; leaves fleshy, obtuse, or with a short point ; petals none. Plant 

 annual. This species is not uncommon at the sea-coast, or on land occa- 

 sionally overflowed. It is generally of a reddish or purplish hue ; but many 

 writers think that its difference from the preceding species is simply referable 

 to the place of its growth. Old writers called the Pearlworts, Chickweed 

 Breakstone ; the French term the plant, La Sagine ; the Germans, Der 

 VierUng ; and the Dutch, Vetmunr. Hooker regards this as a sub-species of 

 aS^. apetala. 



7. MCENCHIA. 



Upright Moenchia (M. erkta). — Sepals 4, large, pointed, and with a 

 white membranaceous edge. Plant annual. This Moenchia in not uncom- 

 mon ; it blossoms during May and June, on some of our pastures which have 

 a gravelly soil, and may be easily distinguished from any other of our wild 

 plants. Its stem is from two to four inches in height ; its white flowers are 

 large in proportion to the rest of the plant, and open only in the sunshine. 



