404 ILLECEBRACE^ 



5. P. Coronopus (Buck's-horn Plantain). — The only British 

 species with divided leaves. They are linear and usually pin- 

 natifid, and more or less downy; the flower-spike is slender; 

 stamens pale yellow ; capsule 3 — 4-chambered, 3 — 4-seeded. — 

 Gravelly places, especially near the sea ; common. — Fl. June — 

 August. Annual or biennial. 



6.* P. arendria (Sand Plantain), a downy, branching, leafy 

 plant, with sessile, linear leaves, and an ovoid spike on a long 

 stalk, has occurred casually on sand-hills in Somerset and Jersey. 



2. LiTTORELLA (Shore-wecd).— A genus comprising only the 

 one species, L. unifloray which is not unlike Plantdgo maritima in 

 habit ; but has runners, and when under water forms a matted 

 turf. Its leaves are all radical, linear, fleshy, flat above and curved 

 beneath, and nearly glabrous. The solitary staminate flowers each 

 rise on a peduncle 2 — 4 in. high, have 4 sepals, a tubular, 4-lobed 

 corolla, and 4 long, exserted stamens with large anthers. The 2 

 or 3 carpellate flowers, sessile among the leaves, have 3 — 4 sepals, 

 an urceolate, 3 — 4-lobed corolla, and a i-chambered, i — 2-ovuled 

 ovary with a long stiff style. — Marshes and lake-margins ; com- 

 mon. (Name from the Latin littus, a shore.) — Fl. June — 

 September. Perennial. 



OrD. LXI. iLLECEBRACEiE. ThE KnOT-GRASS FaMILY 



A small Order of small, branching, often tufted, herbaceous 

 plants, mostly natives of warm, dry climates. A few only are 

 found so far north as Great Britain, and nearly all of these are 

 confined to our southern counties. They have simple, sessile 

 leaves, generally entire and with membranous stipules; minute, 

 perfect, and cymosely arranged flowers; sepals usually 5, some- 

 times 4, persistent, and closing over the fruit ; petals 5, minute, 

 alternating with the sepals, sometimes wanting; stamens 1 — 10, 

 opposite the petals when equalling them in number; ovary 

 superior, i-chambered, i-ovuled ; style 2 — 3-fid ; fruit enclosed 

 in the calyx, dry, indehiscent, i-seeded. 



T. Illecebrum. — Leaves opposite, not connate ; sepals white, 

 with long points ; stigmas 2. 



2. Herniaria. — Leaves scattered and opposite, not connate; 

 sepals green, blunt ; stigmas 2. 



3. CoRRiGfoLA.— L^az;^5 scattered ; sepals green, blunt, united 

 at the base ; stigmas 3. 



4. ScLERANTHUS. — Lcaves opposite, connate; sepals 4—5, 

 united ; petals absent ; stigmas 2 — 4. 



