THE PINK FAMILY 59 



THE PINK FAMILY (CaryophyUaceae). 



The Pink family is widely distributed all over the world, most 

 of its members however belonging to the temperate and cold 

 climate. It contains several beautiful garden flowers, amongst 

 them the innumerable kinds and varieties of carnations, and 

 also embraces some troublesome weeds, the seeds of which are 

 frequently found in clover and grass seeds. The characters of 

 all the weeds belonging to the Pink family are well marked. They 

 are herbs with brittle stems, articulated and thickened at the 

 joints, frequently forked. Leaves without teeth or divisions, 

 generally opposite and joined round the stem at the base. The 

 flowers are regular. The calyx is always persistent and the 

 corolla sometimes wanting. The fruits are capsules or pods. 



The seeds, usually many, are attached to the base or to a 

 central column of the solitary 1-celled, (rarely 3 to 5-celled) 

 toothed pod, which opens at the top. They are often kidney- 

 shaped and embossed with tubercles. The germ in most of the 

 seeds is curved so that the apex and base come close together. 

 The seeds do not develop mucilage when soaked in water. 



They are covered with a hard protective coat, through 

 which the water will penetrate slowly, thus keeping the vitality 

 of the seed and delaying its germination for many years when 

 embebbed in the soil. 



They are two tribes of these plants: the Chickweeds 

 (Alsineae), low herbs in which the calyx divisions are distinct or 

 nearly so, and the corolla divisions provided with short claws; 

 and the Cockles (Sileneae) with large and showy flowers, with 

 the corolla divisions united in a tube and provided with long 

 claws. 



The plants belonging to the genera Saponaria and Agro- 

 stemma are said to possess a poisonous principle (sapotoxin) to a 

 greater extent than the other members of the Pink family. It is 



