84 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



larger than the others, petal-like and elegantly veined, are 

 commonly called wings. The corolla is very irregular ; the 

 petals much smaller than the sepals, the two lateral ones ob- 

 long-linear, the lowest keel-shaped tipped with a little crest, 

 and all more or less united with the stamens, which form two 

 parcels, each with four anthers. The ovary and capsule are 

 both flat, and contain a single seed in each of the two cells. 



Another small family, that of the Frankeniaceous plants, is 

 represented by the Sea Heath or Common Frankenia"^ a dif- 

 fuse-growing much-branched perennial, with the small leaves 

 crowded in little opposite clusters along the branches, the 

 flowers very few, pink, sessile among the upper leaves, and 

 regular in structure. The sepals are combined into a tubular 

 calyx with four or five teeth ; the petals, four or five in num- 

 ber, have each a long claw, and a spreading limb ; there are 

 four or five stamens alternating with the petals and usually 

 two or three opposite to them ; the stigma is three-cleft ; and 

 the capsule, which opens in two or three or four valves, con- 

 tains very small seeds. It is found on maritime sands, and 

 salt marshes on the south-eastern coasts. 



A comprehensive family of Thalamiflores, that of the Caryo- 

 phyllaceous plants, is illustrated by the Pink,t a plant found 

 in a half- wild state in a few localities in England, but probably 

 an escape from cultivation. This handsome plant, the original 

 doubtless from which some at least of the favourite double 

 florists^ Pinks have descended, is a perennial, with peculiar 

 rigid grassy glaucous leaves, and a flower-stem 6-12 inches 

 high, branched, and bearing from two to five pinkish fragrant 

 aromatic flowers, the calyx of which is tubular, with five teeth, 

 and clasped at the base by two opposite pairs of green scales, 



* Frankenia IcBvis — Plate 8 D. 

 t Dianthus plv/marius — Plate 9 A. 



