HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



CAR 



Caruncula, (adj. Carunculate, Caruncular.) 

 A wart or protuberance round or near the 

 hilum (which see) of a seed. 



Cart/ophyllacece, (Silenece, Alsinece, Queriacece, 

 Miitttartiece, Molluginece, Steudelue, Sile- 

 nads, Cloveworts, the Chickweed family.) 

 A natural order of Thalamifloral Dicotyle- 

 dons belonging 1 to Lindley's Silenal Al- 

 liance. The plants of this order are 

 herbs with stems swollen at the joints, j 

 entire and opposite leaves, and a definite 

 (cymose) inflorescence; the sepals are 

 four to five, separate or cohering; the 

 petals are four to five, with narrow claws, 

 which are sometimes wanting; the sta- 

 mens are usually as many or twice as 

 many as the petals. The ovary is often 

 supported on a stalk, (gynophore, which ! 

 see,) usually one-celled, with a free cen- 

 tral placenta; the styles are two to five, 

 with papillae on their inner surface. The 

 fruit is a capsule, opening by two to five 

 valves, or by teeth at the apex, which are 

 twice as many as the stigmas; the seeds 

 are usually indefinite; the embryo is 

 curved round mealy albumen. There are 

 three sub-orders, viz.: 1. Silenece, the 

 Pink tribe, with united sepals opposite 

 the stamens, when the latter are of the 

 same number. 2. Alsinece, the Chick- 

 weed tribe, with separate sepals, bearing 

 the same relation to the stamens as in 

 Silenece. 3. Mottuginece, the Carpet-weed 

 tribe, in which the petals are wanting, 

 and the stamens are alternate with the 

 sepals when of the same number. The 

 plants of this order are natives principal- 

 ly of temperate and cold regions. They 

 inhabit mountains, rocks, hedges, and 

 waste places. Humboldt says that Clove - 

 worts constitute a twenty-secondth part 

 of the flowering plants of France, one 

 twenty- seventh of those of Germany, one 



CAS 



seventeenth of Lapland, and one seventy- 

 secondth of North America. The order 

 has no very marked properties. There 

 are some very showy flowers in the order, 

 such as the well-known and popular Pinks 

 and Carnations; but the greater number 

 are mere weeds. The Clove Pink (Dian- 

 thus Caryophyllux) is the origin of all the 

 cultivated varieties of Carnations, as Pi- 

 cotees, Bizarres, and Flakes. The com- 

 mon Chickweed (Stellaria media) and 

 Spurry, (Spergula arvensis,) the latter 

 used as fodder for sheep, are other ex- 

 amples. There are about sixty genera 

 and 1,100 species. Dianthus, SUene, 

 Lychnis, Cerastium, Arenaria, Alsine, Sa- 

 ponaria, are examples of this order. 



Caryophyllaceous, Carophylla'tts. A corolla 

 whose petals have long, distinct claws, as 

 in the Clove Pink. 



Cassideous. Having the form of a helmet; 

 as the upper sepal in the flower of an 

 Aconite. 



Castratus. When an important part is 

 missing, as in the case of filaments which 

 have no anthers. 



Casuarinacece. A group of about a score of 

 species of jointed, leafless trees or shrubs 

 which, in their striated internodes and 

 toothed-ribbed sheaths, have some re- 

 semblance to Equisetums, while in other 

 respects they are allied, in some meas- 

 ure, to Ephedra and the Coniferce, under 

 which they were formerly classed, and 

 still more with Myricacece and other 

 amentaceous groups, near to which they 

 are now placed as a small, distinct fam- 

 ily. Their flowers are unisexual, the 

 males, in distinct whorls, forming a cylin- 

 drical spike; each stamen is inclosed in 

 four scale-like leaflets, the two outer 

 ones considered as bracts, persistent at the 

 base of the stamen, while the two inner 



