68 PINK FAMILY. 



A. diffusa, SPREADING S. Shady grounds S. Plant soft-downy ; stems 

 prostrate, 1 or more long; leaves lanceolate; peduncles lateral, 1 -flowered ; 

 petals shorter than the sepals or none. ^ 



# * Petals conspicuous, longer than the calyx, white. ^ 



A. laterifldra, SIDE-FLOWERING S. Gravelly shores and banks N. 

 Plant minutely downy ; stem erect, 3' 10' high, sparingly branching ; pedun- 

 cles few-flowered, soon becoming lateral by the farther growth of the leafy stem ; 

 leaves oval or oblong. 



A. Stricta. Rocky or shady banks N. Tufted, smooth, 4' -6' high ; steins 

 crowded with slender almost bristle-form leaves ; flowers several in a terminal 

 open cyme ; sepals sharp-pointed. 



A. squarr6sa, PINE-BARREN S. In sand, coast of New Jersey and S. 

 Densely tufted on a deep root, 3' - 5' high ; leaves much crowded, short, awl- 

 shaped, smooth ; the flowering branches or few-flowered peduncles glandular ; 

 sepals obtuse. 



A. Groenlandica, MOUNTAIN S. On rocky summits of mountains and 

 N. E. coast. Densely tufted, soft; leaves thread-form ; flowering stems 2' -4' 

 high, few-flowered, the flowers large in proportion ; petals notched at the end. 



A. peploides, SEA SANDWORT, in sands of sea-shore N., is large, with 

 very fleshy ovate leaves, and axillary flowers. 



11. SPERGITLARIA, SAND SPURREY. (Name from likeness to 

 Spergitla.) A sort of Sandworts with scaly-membranaceous stipules, and 

 reddish flowers, produced all summer : chiefly maritime. "21 ? 



S. rtibra. The field form of this is common in sand or gravel, along roads 

 and paths, E., quite away from salt water ; smoothish, prostrate in tufts ; leaves 

 thread-shaped ; pod and pink-red corolla hardly exceeding the calyx ; seeds 

 rough, wingless, half-obovate. 



S. salina. Larger and more fleshy, only in brackish sands ; with short 

 peduncles, pale corolla, pod longer than the calyx, and rough obovate-rounded 

 (winged or wingless) seeds. 



S. media. Like the last, in salt marshes and sands, but with longer pedun- 

 cles and smooth seeds. 



12. SPERGULA, SPURREY. (Latin spargere, to scatter, i. e. its seeds.) 

 S. arvensis, CORN S. Stems 1 or so high ; bearing several thread- 

 shaped leaves in the whorls, and terminating in a panicle of white flowers. 

 A weed in grain-fields, cult, in Europe as a forage plant, sheep being fond of it : 

 fl. summer. 



13. ANYCHIA F ORKED CHICKWEED. (Name of obscure mean- 

 ing.) 



A. dichotorua, a common little herb ; in shady places it is smooth and 

 erect, 6' - 10' high, with repeatedly forking long-jointed very slender stems, 

 minute short-stalked greenish flowers in the forks, and oval or oblong leaves : in 

 dry or parched soil it is spreading on the ground, short-jointed, narrower-leaved, 

 often pubescent, the flowers more clustered and nearly sessile : all summer. 



14. SCLERANTHUS, KNAWEL. (From Greek words meaning hard 

 and flower, referring to the indurated tube of the calyx.) 



8. annu.U.8, our only species, is nat. from Eu. in gravelly grounds, around 

 gardens, &c., a very pale little herb, 3' -5' high, very much branched and 

 spreading, with short awl-shaped leaves, and greenish small flowers clustered or 

 sessile in the forks, in late summer and autumn. 



15. MOLLUGO, CARPET -WEED. (An old Latin name for some soft 

 plant.) 



M. verticillata. A very common, small, prostrate and spreading little 

 weed, in waste gravelly soil, gardens, &c., with spatulate leaves and 1-flowered 

 pedicels in clusters or whorls at the joints ; the sepals white inside ; stamens 8 

 9. all summer. 



