CARYOPHYLLACE.E. 87 



Flowers sessile ; petals 4 ; stamens 8 ; capsule 4-celled ; 

 seeds curved. Yet rarer than the preceding, and 

 growing in similar situations. FL July September. 

 Annual. 



fNri HEXANDRA (Six s tame ned Water-wort). 



ORDER XIV. CAKYOPHYLLACE^. 



Sepals 5 or 4, distinct, or connected into a tube ; petals 

 equal in number to the sepals ; stamens usually twice as 

 many as, sometimes equalling, the petals, and like them 

 inserted on the stalk or ring of the ovary ; ovary 1, 

 raised on a short stalk, or inserted in a ring ; stigmas 

 2 5, running along the inner surface of the styles ; 

 capsule 1 or imperfectly 2 5-celled, opening by twice 

 as many teeth, or valves, as there are styles ; seeds in- 

 serted on a central column. An extensive and well 

 marked order of herbaceous plants, -inhabiting the tem- 

 perate and frigid regions of the globe, and not unfre- 

 quently bearing ornamental flowers. The stems are 

 swollen at the joints : the leaves always opposite and 



