f03 



CALYCIFLOR^ 



North American origin, but has become a plentiful and well- 

 established weed in several parts of England. Fl. April to July. 

 Annual. 



2. C. Sibirica, of the same origin as the above, has ovate root- 

 leaves, tapering to a point ; roundish sessile stew 

 leaves ; and is about as common. 



2. Montia {Water Blinks) 



i. M. fontana (Water Blinks). The only 

 species. An unpretending little plant, with op- 

 posite or nearly opposite leaves and minute 

 flowers, in solitary or in few-flowered, drooping, 

 axillary racemes ; calyx 2-cleft ; corolla irregu- 

 lar, white, the corolla-tube split in front. Whole 

 plant smooth and rather succulent. Common in 

 wet places. Fl. May to August. Annual. 



Montia Fontana 

 (Water Blinks) 



Natural Order XXXII 



PARONYCHIACEiE. The Knot-Grass Tribe 



Sepals 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 i-celled, opening with 3 valves or not at all. 

 Small, branching, herbaceous, or somewhat shrubby plants, with 

 sessile, undivided leaves and minute flowers, principally confined to 

 the south of Europe and north of Africa, where they grow in the 

 most barren places, covering with a thick vegetation soil which is 

 incapable of bearing anything else. A few only are found as far 

 north as Great Britain, and nearly all of these are confined to the 

 southern shores. 



1. Corrigiola (Strap wort). Sepals 5 ; petals 5, as long as the 

 calyx ; stamens 5 ; stigmas 3, sessile. (Name from corrigia, a 

 strap, from the shape of the leaves.) 



2. Herniaria (Rupture-wort). Sepals 5 ; petals 5, resembling 

 barren filaments ; stamens 5, inserted on a fleshy ring ; stigmas 2, 

 nearly sessile. (Name from the disease for which the plant was 

 formerly supposed to be a remedy.) 



3. Illecebrum (Knot-grass). Sepals 5, coloured, thickened, end- 

 ing in an awl-shaped point ; petals o or 5 ; stigmas 2. (Name from 

 the Latin, illecebra, an attraction.) 



