CLASS V. ORDER I.] ILLECEBRUM. 333 



surrounded by the calyx, of one cell, marked with five longtitudinal 

 stria. Seed single, attached to the side of the cavity. Name 

 illecebra, an enticement, or attraction, anciently given to a showy 

 tribe of plants. 



1. /. verticilla'tum, Linn. (Fig. 401.) whirled Knotgrass. Stem 

 procumbent, thread-like; leaves broadly ovate; flowers in crowded 

 axillary whirls. 



English Botany, t. 895. English Flora, vol. i. p. 336. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 124. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 61. 



Hoot small, fibrous, with creeping stems, putting out roots from the 

 joints. The whole plant quite smooth. Stems slender, thread-like, 

 much branched, or simple, spreading upon the surface of the ground, 

 green, or of a pinkish colour, round, or somewhat angular at the whirls. 

 Leaves numerous, in alternate pairs, roundish, oblong, or spatulate, 

 sessile, or on short footstalks, somewhat fleshy, having at their base 

 thin pale membranous lacinated stipules. Flowers numerous, crowded 

 in axillary whorls, small, white, or pinkish. Calyx of five white seg- 

 ments, scarcely united at the base, ohlong, fleshy, pointed, and 

 terminating in a curved slender awl-shaped bristle, compressed on the 

 sides, hollowed out in the inside into a kind of hood, where it is of a 

 green colour. Petals either wanting or reduced into thin awl-shaped 

 pinkish scales, alternating with the segments of the calyx. Stamens 

 opposite the segments of the calyx, and inserted into their base. Anthers 

 ovate, of two cells Style very short. Stigmas two, obtuse. Capsule 

 surrounded by the persistent calyx, oblong, pointed, marked with five 

 longtitudinal lines, along which it separates. Seed solitary, ovate, 

 pointed, attached to one side of the capsule. 



Habitat. Damp marshy places in Devonshire and Cornwall ; not 

 uncommon. 



Perennial; flowering in July. 



A small interesting plant, from the singular construction of its 

 flowers; and though not obtruded upon the notice from any gay charms 

 that it has, the Botanist will find, on its examination, much that is 

 worthy of notice, especially in the calyx, and its curious formation 

 hollowed out in its inside, forming a cavity, which is closed around, 

 and protecting the important parts of fructification from intrusion or 

 injury by external causes ; and at the same time their fleshy substance 

 supplies those parts with nutriment, and form reservoirs in case of need, 

 a circumstance not unlikely to occur during the Summer months, 

 from the moisture of the situation in which the plant grows becoming 

 dried up. These, it will appear, are thus formed, and supply the 

 want of a glandular disk, which we see in many other plants ; and 

 thus we observe in this unobtrusive plant another instance of admirable 

 and beautiful arrangement of its parts, adapted to the circumstances 

 and situation of its growth, and that all things are made, though so 



