254 XXVI. CARYOPHYLLE^. 



extending into central Asia and north-western India ; they are very rare in the tropics and southern 

 latitudes. 



Frankenia are mucilaginous and slightly aromatic. F. portttlacifolia, which grows on maritime 

 rocks in St. Helena, was formerly used by the colonists as tea. 



XXVI. CARYOPHYLLE^E, Jiissieu. 



SEPALS free or united. PETALS 4-5, hypogynous or sub-perigynmts, sometimes (). 

 STAMENS usually twice as many as the petals, and inserted with them. OVARY l-cdled, 

 or with 2-5 imperfect cells. OVULES vent rally attached, placentation central or basilar. 

 SEEDS smooth or granular, albumen usually floury. EMBRYO wore or less curved. 

 LEAVES opposite. 



Annual or perennial HERBS, rarely shrubby. STEM and branches often thickened 

 at the nodes, and sometimes jointed. LEAVES opposite, entire, usually 1-3-nerved, 

 sometimes without nerves, often united at the base, exstipulate, or furnished with 

 small scarious stipules. FLOWERS regular, ? , or rarely unisexual. INFLORESCENCE 

 centrifugal, sometimes many-flowered, in a simple or dichotomous loose or dense 

 cyme, rarely in a thyrsoid or panicled raceme ; sometimes few-flowered, simply 

 forked, or reduced to a single flower ; bracts opposite, at the forks, upper often 

 scarious. SEPALS 4 5, persistent, free or united into a 4-5-toothed ealyx, aestivation 

 imbricate. PETALS inserted on a hypogynous or sub-perigynous disk, entire, 2-fid 

 or laciniate, claw naked or appendiculate within, aestivation imbricate or twisted ; 

 sometimes minute, scale-like, or 0. STAMENS 8-10, inserted with the petals, 

 sometimes equalling and alternate with them, very rarely alternate with the sepals 

 (Colobanthus), sometimes fewer than the petals; filaments filiform ; anthers introrse, 

 dorsally fixed, cells opening longitudinally. TORUS usually small, sometimes (in 

 some Silenea') elongated into a gynophore, and bearing the staiwena on its summit 

 beneath the ovary; sometimes (in many Alsi nea;) forming a staminiferous annular 

 disk, slightly adnate to the base of the calyx, or swelling into short glands between 

 the stamens, or bearing, outside the stamens, staminodes opposite to the sepals. 

 OVARY of 5 or 4 united carpels, or of 3 of which 2 are anterior, or of 2 which are 

 antero-posfcerior, free, 1 -celled, or rarely 2-5-celled owing to more or less perfect 

 membranous septa which disappear early ; stales 2-5, stigmatiferous along their 

 inner edge or at their top, free or united into a single lobed or toothed style 

 (Poly carped) ovules 2-oo , very rarely solitary (Queria), fixed by the middle of the 

 inner edge and face to funicles springing from the bottom of the ovary, distinct or 

 cohering into a central column, ascending, micropyle inferior or transverse. CAPSULE 

 membranous or crustaceous, rarely berried (Cucubalus), bursting loculicidally or 

 septicidally by valves or apical teeth ; valves sometimes as many as the sepals, and 

 when 5 opposite either to the sepals (Lychnis, Viscaria, Petrocoptis] or to the petals 

 (Agrostemma), sometimes double in number, rarely sub-indehiscent (Drypis, Oucubalus, 

 Ac.). SEEDS GO , or solitary by arrest, smooth and shining, tubercular or muricate, 

 rarely winged on their circumference ; sometimes reniform, globose, obovoid or com- 

 pressed, hilum marginal; sometimes depressed, scutiform, hilum facial; albumen 

 floury or rarely sub-fleshy, placed in the bend of the embryo or on its sides, some- 



