ILLECEBRACE^E 413 



brous, deep green, opaque, without any distinguishable midrib or 

 other nerves ; lamina 2-5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide ; petiole flattened 

 above or slightly grooved, scabrous on the midrib beneath, 1 mm. 

 long, connate at the base. 



Stem annual, erect, terete, glabrous, pale green ; 1st internode 

 undeveloped ; 2nd 1-2-5 mm. long. 



Leaves simple, entire, radical and cauline, opposite, stipulate, 

 petiolate, glabrous, dark opaque green ; petiole flattened above, sca- 

 brous on the midrib beneath, subconnate at the base ; stipules 

 interpetiolar, scarious, small, united in pairs. 



First and second pairs oval or elliptic, obtuse. 



Herniaria hirsuta, L. (fig. 605). 



Ovary one-celled, one-ovuled ; ovule basal, erect, anatropous ; 

 radicle inferior. 



Fruit an achene, or utricle, somewhat obovoid, laterally com- 

 pressed, glabrous, pale-coloured, tipped with the short persistent 

 style and stigma, enclosed in the persistent, comparatively large, 

 hairy calyx, one-celled, one- 

 seeded, indehiscent. 



Seed erect on a basal 

 funicle, obovate-rotund or 

 almost orbicular, laterally 



compressed, very minute, P-'\ j ' J""' r 

 glabrous, black, shining ; 

 testa crustaceous, compara- 

 tively thick ; hilurn close to PIG 603 ._ Herniaria hirsut(lj 



the base and oblique ; raphe A> longitudinal section of seed. B, trans- 



and chalaza inconspicuous ; ^^ctio^s^P^n^^; 

 micropyle basal and con- cotyledon, 

 tiguous to the hilum. 



Endosperm farinaceous, pale, subtransparent white, confined to 

 a space between the embryo and that side of the seed on which is 

 the hilum. 



Embryo comparatively large, curved round one side of the seed, 

 outside the endosperm, and across the upper end, colourless ; coty- 

 ledons linear, obtuse, entire, plano-convex or semiterete, lying in the 

 narrow plane of the seed with their backs to the axis or the hilum, 

 not broader than the radicle, curved; radicle terete, less curved 

 than the cotyledons, and equal to them or slightly shorter, suddenly 

 narrowed to an obtuse point. 



Germination The solitary seed is retained in the achene, and 

 that again in the perianth when the whole falls to the ground at 



