HoNCKENYA. CARYOPHYLLACEiE. d3 



l.HONCKENYA. Ehrk.beitr. 2. p. 61 {noiofWilld.); Endl. gen. 5229. SEA CHICKWEED- 



[Named in honor of J. G. Hokckent, a German botanist.] 



Sepals 5, slightly united at the base. Petals 6, perigynous, with short claws, entire. Stamens 

 10, inserted with the petals into a glanduliferous disk. Styles 3-5. Capsule 3 - 5-Talved ; 

 the valves entire, 8 - 10-seeded. Seeds large, smooth, not strophiolate. — Fleshy, mari- 

 time, perennial herbs, with a creeping rhizoma, and erect or prostrate branches. Flowers 

 axillary, and generally solitary. 



1. HoNCKENYA PEPLoiDES, Ekrh. Commou Sea C/iichceed. 



Sepals broadly ovale, mostly obtuse, with scarious margins ; petals spatulate-obovate ; 

 leaves and stem very fleshy. — Torr. <^ Gr.fl. N. Am. I. p. 176. Arenaria peploides, Linn.; 

 Willd. sp. 2. p. Ill ; Eng. hot. t. 189 ; Pursh, fl.l.p. 317 ; Torr.fl. I. p. 453 ; Bigel. ft. 

 Bost. p. 181 ; DC. prodr. 1. p. 413 ; Hook. Jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 102 (in part). Adenarium 

 peploides, Raf. in Desv.jour. phys. (1818); DC. prodr. 3. p. 366. 



Rhizoma creeping extensively, and throwing up numerous simple or divided branches from 

 6 to 10 inches high. Leaves ovate or oval, about tliree-fourths of an inch long, closely sessile 

 or clasping, spreading or somewhat recurved, abruptly acute or mucronate. Flowers polygamo- 

 dioecious, on very short pedicels. Petals about as long as the calyx. Stamens usually 10 

 (in some of the flowers occasionally 8). Styles three in the lower, and usually 5 in the upper 

 flowers. Capsule somewhat globose, the size of a pea. Seeds large, pyriform, finely gra- 

 nulated. 



On the seacoast of Long Island, forming often large patches in the pure white sand, above 

 high-water mark. Whole plant very succulent and heavy. Flowering from the middle of 

 May to near the end of June. 



2. SAGINA. Bartl. ord. nat.p. 305; Endl. gen. 5224. pearl-wort. 



[In Latin, the name signifies something nourishing: it has little application to the small weeds of this genus.] 



Sepals 4-5, united at the base. Petals 4-5, entire, sometimes abortive. Stamens 4-10. 

 Styles 4-5. Capsule 4 - 5-valved ; the valves entire at the apox. Seeds numerous, not 

 strophiolate. — Flowers on axillary and terminal peduncles. Leaves often fascicled in the 

 axils. 



1. Sagina procumbens, Linn. Procumbent Pearl-ivort. 



Plant smooth; stems procumbent ; leaves linear, mucronate ; peduncles ascending in fruit; 

 sepals broadly ovale, obtuse, twice the length of the petals, and two-thirds the length of the 



