CARYOPHYLLACEAE. 145 



or recurved, 8-12 mm. long; flowers sessile, in axillary clusters; calyx-lobes 

 divergent, twice as long as the tube; petals minute. 

 On high sea-beaches along the ocean coast. 



179. TISSA. 



Low annual, biennial or perennial herbs; leaves fleshy, linear 

 or setaceous, with scarious stipules; flowers in terminal racemose 

 cymes; sepals 5; petals 5 (in ours), purplish or white; stamens 

 2-10, commonly 10; styles 3, very rarely 5; ovary 1-celled; 

 capsule-valves as many as the styles, when 5, alternate with the 

 sepals. 



Plants not maritime; leaves not fleshy; stipules elongate, sil- 

 very. T. rubra. 

 Plants maritime; leaves very fleshy; stipules ovate. 



Annual, fibrous-rooted; flowers 4-5 mm. long. T. marina. 



Perennial, large-rooted; flowers 6-7 mm. long. T. macrotheca. 



Tissa rubra (L.) Britt. Annual, sometimes biennial or perennial, prostrate 

 or decumbent; stems slender, 10-30 cm. long, smooth below, glandular above; 

 leaves linear, cuspidate, 8-12 mm. long; stipules silvery, attentuate-lanceolate, 

 4-5 mm. long; flowers in a small cyme; pediceis filiform, exceeding the leaf- 

 like bracts; petals pink, hardly longer than the sepals. 



Gravelly prairies, common. 



Tissa marina (L. ) Britt. More or less glandular pubescent, the branches 

 spreading or procumbent; leaves fleshy; stipules ovate, acuminate; sepals ovate, 

 obtuse, 4-5 mm. long; petals pink; capsule acute, equalling or longer than the 

 sepals. 



On sandy or gravelly sea beaches. 



Tissa macrotheca (Hornem.) Britt. Glandular-pubescent perennial 

 with a stout fleshy root; stems decumbent to ascending, 10-30 cm. high; leaves 

 fleshy, mucronate; sepals lanceolate, subacute; petals pink, nearly as long as 

 the sepals; capsule ovoid, acute, as long as the calyx. 



Sea beaches; much less common than T. marina. 



180. SPERGULA. Spurrey. 



Annual branched herbs; leaves subulate, fascicled, with scari- 

 ous stipules; flowers in a cymose panicle; sepals 5; petals 5, 

 white; stamens 10, rarely 5; ovary 1-celled; capsule-valves 5, 

 opposite the sepals. 



Seeds papillate; herbage nearly glabrous. 5. arvensis. 



Seeds not papillate; herbage viscid. S. sativa. 



Spergula arvensis L. Annual, the decumbent stems 15-30 cm. long; 

 leaves whorled, filiform, 2-5 cm. long; inflorescence naked, loosely cymose; 

 pedicels often deflexed in fruit; sepals 4-5 mm. long; petals white; seeds dark, 

 minutely roughened with pale papillae. 



Common weed in fields; introduced from Europe. 



Spergula sativa Boenn. Very similar to 5. arvensis but minutely viscid ; 

 flowers ill-scented; seeds not papillate. 

 Victoria, Macoun. 

 II 



