CLASS X. ORDER IV.) SPliRGULA. 655 



GENUS XIX. SPER'GULA LINN. Spurrey. 

 Nat Ord. CARYOPHYL'LE^E. Joss. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx of five pieces. Petals five, entire. Stamens lea, 

 or by abortion fire. Styles five. Capsule of five valves, many 

 seeded. Name from Sparyo, to scatter ; from the circumstance 

 of its widely scattering its seeds. 



* Leaves apparently whorled, not united at. the base. 



1. S. arven'sis, Linn. (Fig. 745.) Com Spurrey. Leaves linear, 

 subulate, in fasciculated whorls, with minute membranous stipules at 

 the base ; pedicles reflexed in fruit ; seeds globoso-compressed, roughisb, 

 with a narrow winged margin. 



English Botany, t 1535. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 336. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 217. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 48. 



/3. pentandra. Flowers usually pentandrous ; seeds with a broader 

 winged margin. 



English Botany, t. 1536. S. arvensis.j3. English Flora, vol. ii. 

 p. 337. 



Root small, tapering. Stem from six to eighteen inches high, mostly 

 branched from the base and spreading, round, smooth or downy, with 

 distant whorls of leaves, swollen under each joint, above somewhat 

 angular, and more viscid than below. Leaves opposite, linear, awl- 

 shaped, roundish, somewhat channeled above, smooth or slightly downy, 

 from one to two inches long, with a fascicle of numerous leaves from 

 the axis, giving them a whorled appearance, accompanied at the base 

 with a pair of angular membranous stipules, very short. Paniclt 

 terminating the stem and braucbes, forked, spreading, with a solitary 

 flower from the axis. Pedicles slender, more or less clothed with 

 glandular pubescence, each with a pair of stipules at the base, spreading 

 in flower, reflexed when in fruit. Calyx in five ovate concave obtuse 

 segments, with a narrow membranous margin, and more or less clothed 

 with glandular pubescence. Petals ovate, white, rather longer than 

 the calyx. Stamens ten, or often five, on short filaments, with yellow 

 ovate anthers, of two cells. Styles short five. Capsules ovate, acute, 

 rather longer than the calyx, opening with five valves to about the 

 middle. Seeds numerous, small, roundish, compressed in a lenticular 

 shape, smooth or rough, with elevated points, and surrounded with a 

 simple or crenated pale membranous border, of greater or less width. 



Habitat. Corn fields ; very common, especially in a light sandy 

 soil. 



Annual ; flowering during the summer months. 



This in many parts of the country is an extremely common and very 

 troublesome weed, and is not with us applied to any particular use; 



