Plumbaginca.'] PLUMBAGlNEiii. 281 



Order LXXXV. PLUMBAGINE^. 



Flowers regular. Calyx tubular, often enlarged and scarious or petal-like 

 at the top. Petals 5, often united at the base. Stamens 5, inserted at the 

 base of the corolla or between the petals. Ovary single, L-celled, with ] sus- 

 pended ovule. Styles 5, distinct or united at the base. Capside 1-seeded, 

 indehiscent or opening irregidarly. Seed albuminous. Embryo axile, straight ; 

 the radicle superior. — Herbs or rarely undershrubs, usually hard and stift". 

 Leaves mostly radical. Mowers in temiinal heads,, spikes, or panicles. 



A small family, exteudiug over most parts of the world, but chiefly wilhiu the iuflucuce 

 of the sea air or occasionally on high mountains. 



1. STATICE, Linn. 



Calyx more or less expanded at the top into a dry membranous coloured 

 and slightly 5-lobed limb, each lobe traversed by a green or tlark nerve. 

 Petals slightly united at the base. Styles glabrous. — Flowers solitary or 2 

 or 3 together in little spikelets forming one-sided spikes, aiTanged in dicho- 

 tomous or trichotomous panicles or rarely in simple spikes. 



The principal genus of the family, ranging chiefly over maritime districts in the northern 

 hemisphere. 



1. S. sinensis, Gir.; Boiss. in DC. Prod. xii. 162. Stock short and 

 thick. Leaves aU radical, obovate-oblong, \\ to 3 in. long, quite entii'e, nar- 

 rowed into a petiole of variable length. Scape 9 to 18 in. high, repeatedly 

 forked so as to form a broad corymbose panicle, with a small green bract un- 

 der each branch, and in some specimens there are a few entire or forked 

 barren branches, ^ to 1-| in. long, at the base of the panicle. Flowers nu- 

 merous, in short dense unilateral spikes, scarcely distributed into spikelets, 

 with an obtuse broadly oblong bract under each flower. Calyx pale pink at 

 the top, wdth short obtuse teeth. Petals yeUow, rather longer than the calyx 

 at first flowering. — S. Fortimei, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1845, t. 63. 



In estuaries, salt-water pools, and bogs, Champion. On the adjacent continental coasts, 

 and northward to Amoy and Loochoo. It is probably the same species as the S. bicolor, 

 Bunge, from N. China ; but not having seen specimens of the latter I have hesitated to adopt 

 the name. 



The Boerhaavia diffusa, Linn., belonging to the Order Nyctaginecp, is in several of tiie 

 islands of the Canton river, but has not yet been received from Hongkong. 



Order LXXXVI. CHENOPODIACE^. 



Perianth small ; segments 5 or in some flowers fewer, herbaceous. Stamens 

 5, opposite the perianth-segments. Ovaiy free, with a single erect ovule. 

 Styles 2 or 3, either free or united at the base. Fmit consisting of a single 

 seed, in a very thin or sometimes succulent pericai-p, and enclosed in the per- 

 sistent calyx, which is sometimes enlarged or altered in form. Seed usually 

 orbicular and flattened. Embryo coiled round a mealy albumen, or spirally 

 twisted, without or with scarcely any albumen. — Herbs or undershrubs, often 

 succulent. Stipules none. Leaves alternate or very rarely opposite, some- 

 times none. Flowers in sessile clusters, either in axillary or terminal spike.- 



