18 PORTULACEiE— PURSLANE TRIBE 



and very different parts of the earth. The rocky hills of St. Helena are in 

 the rainy season rendered verdant by this plant alone. Several species of 

 the family have large and handsome flowers ; but its only native representa- 

 tive in Britain is an inconspicuous plant. 



1. Blinks (Montia). — Calyx of 2 sepals; corolla of 5 petals, 3 smaller 

 than the others, and all united at the base ; tube of the corolla split to the 

 base ; capsule containing 3-dotted seeds. Name from Joseph de Monti, a 

 botanist of Bologna. 



2. Spring Beauties (Claytdma). — Sepals 2, oval, persistent. Petals 5, 

 usually clawed, and joined at the base. Stamens, 5 attached to base of 

 petals. Style, 3-cleft at apex. Capsule 1-celled, opening by 3 valves and 

 containing a few seeds. Name from Dr. J. J. Clayton, an American botanist. 



1. Blinks (Montia). 



Water Blinks (M. fontdna). — Leaves opposite, tapering at the base. 

 Plant annual. This lowly chickweed-like plant varies much in size, but is 

 always remarkable for its succulence. It flowers from June to August; 

 its small white blossoms, drooping at first, and scarcely ever expanding, 

 acquired for it the name of Blinks. It is abundant in wet places throughout 

 tha country. Linnaeus, who found it in Lapland, remarks that it was a plant 

 which had never come in his way before. " In Kalheden," he says, "I found 

 it particularly abundant, and I afterwards found it in West Bothnia." The 

 French call this plant La Montie ; the Germans, Die Quellenmonti It is the 

 BronminneivJe montia of the Dutch. 



2. Spring Beauty (Claytdnia). 



L Perfoliate Spring Beauty (C. perfolidta). — Root fibrous. Radical 

 leaves, broad ovate, long-stalked, fleshy. Annual. The Perfoliate Claytonia 

 is not indigenous; it is a plant of North-west America, which has been 

 introduced to our gardens as a pot-herb, whence it has escaped and success- 

 fully established itself in the wild condition outside. It sends up an un- 

 branched flower stem in May, and this bears, below the cyme of small white 

 flowers, a basin formed by the junction of two stalkless leaves. It is to the 

 fact that the stem passes through this basin that the specific name perfoliata 

 refers. The plant is from six inches to a foot in height. 



2. Sandwort Spring Beauty {C. alsinoides). — This species has more 

 slender oval radical leaves, and those on the stem are round and stalkless, 

 but not united by the bases as in C. perfoliata. The flowers are larger and 

 more numerous. Annual. This species has no more claim than the previous 

 one to be regarded as British, but it has firmly established itself in places. 



Order XXXIV. ILLECEBRACE^— KNOT-GRASS TRIBE. 



Sepals usually 5 ; petals 5, minute, inserted between the lobes of the 

 calyx, sometimes wanting ; stamens varying in number, opposite the petals 

 if equalling them in number ; ovary not combined with the calyx ; pistils 

 2 — 5 • fruit 1-celled ; opening with 3 valves, or not opening. The Knot- 

 grass Tribe is composed of small shrubby or herbaceous plants, with minute 



