Coffiyiola.] LXI. ILLECEBRACEJL 869 



Besides the British species there are two or three others in southern 

 Europe, Africa, and South America, all seacoast plants. 



1. O. littoralis, Linn. (fig. 834). Strapwort. Stems numerous, 

 procumbent or ascending, slightly branched, slender, and glabrous. 

 Leaves linear or oblong, obtuse, tapering at the base, with a minute 

 scarious stipule on each side. Flowers crowded in little heads or cymes 

 at the ends of the branches ; the white, ovate or oblong petals barely 

 protruding beyond the calyx, whose divisions, however, are white and 

 petal-like on the margin, and green in the centre only. Nuts enclosed, 

 when ripe, in the scarcely enlarged calyx. 



On the sandy seashores of western and southern Europe, and northern 

 Africa, extending sparingly into the east Mediterranean region, and 

 western Asia, occurring here and there more inland in west-central 

 Europe. In Britain, confined to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. 

 Fl. tummcr and autumn. 



II. HEENIAEIA. RUPTURE-WORT. 



Herbs, either annual or with a perennial stock of short duration ; with 

 prostrate, much branched, annual stems ; opposite leaves ; very minute, 

 scarcely visible scaripus stipules; and small, green, granular flowers, 

 crowded in little axillary cymes. Calyx of 5 divisions. Stamens 5, 

 alternating with 6 small filaments. Stigmas 2. Seed solitary, in a thin, 

 indehiscent capsule enclosed in the calyx. 



A genus of very few species, all growing in sandy places, chiefly near 

 the sea, in southern Europe, central Asia, and Africa. 



1. H. glabra, Linn. (fig. 835). Common R. The very much branched 

 stems spread along the ground to the length of a few inches, and are 

 usually crowded from the base with their little green flowers intermixed 

 with small, opposite, oblong, obovate, or rarely orbicular leaves. The 

 whole plant is glabrous, with the exception of a few usually recurved 

 hairs at the edge of the leaves. 



In sandy places, in temperate and southern Europe and Russian Asia, 

 extending into Scandinavia, but not to high latitudes. In Britain, it 

 occurs in several counties of southern and central England. Fl. summer. 

 It varies with the clusters of flowers all crowded into a leafy spike, or, 

 in H. cttiata, Bab., the lower ones separated by considerable intervals. 



[H. hirsuta, Linn., distinguished by having narrow hirsute leaves, is a 

 very common Continental and west Asiatic species, and has lately been 

 found near Christchurch, in Hampshire.] 



III. ILLECEBRUM. ILLECEBRUM. 



Calyx of 6 thickish white divisions, hooded at the top, with a subulate 

 point. Stamens 5, alternating with 5 small filaments. Stigmas 2, 

 sessile. Seed solitary, in a capsule enclosed in the calyx, but opening 

 at the base in 6 or 10 valves, which remain cohering at the top. 



A genus now reduced to a single species, but which formerly included 

 several south European ones, now forming the genus Paronychia. 



1. I. verticillatum, Linn. (fig. 836). A small, glabrous, much 

 branched annual, prostrate and spreading at the base; the branches 



Si 



