94 CARYOPHYLLACEiE. Sagina. 



ovate capsule ; stamens, petals and sepals 4-5. — Gart. fruct. t. 129 ; Eng. Lot. t. 880 ; 

 Ell. sk. 1. p. 221 ; Torr. jl. 2. p. 195 ; Hook. jl. Bor.-A?n. I. p. 92; Torr. ^ Gr. Jl. N. 

 Am. 1. p. 177. 



Annual or biennial. Stems 2 - 4 inches long, diffuse, and rooting at the lower joints. 

 Lower leaves connate at the base, spreading or somewhat recurved. Peduncles longer than 

 the leaves. Petals white, sometimes wanting. Capsule rather broadly ovoid. 



Borders of creeks and springs, and in rather moist sandy soils ; on Long Island, abundant ; 

 also near the city of New-York ; on the banks of the Hudson near Troy, etc. May - August. 



2. Sagina apetala, Linn.? Apetahus Pearl-wort. 



Stem almost setaceous, erect, nearly smooth ; leaves subulate, mucronate ; peduncles erect, 

 the terminal ones somewhat fasligiate ; sepals 4-5, oblong, about half the length of the 

 mature ovoid capsule ; petals none ; stamens and sepals 4-5. — DC. prodr. 1. p. 389 ; 

 Torr. 4- Gr. fl. N. Am. I. p. Ill 1 



Annual. Stem 2-4 inches high, scarcely as stout as a horse-hair, somewhat branching 

 towards the summit. Leaves 2-5 lines long, not half as broad as in the preceding species, 

 with a conspicuous mucronate point, nearly smooth ; upper ones connate and scarious at the 

 base. Pedicels filiform ; the upper ones nearly three-quarters of an inch long, forming a 

 loose few-flowered cyme. Sepals more than twice as long as broad. No traces of petals. 



Dry hill-sides on the Island of New- York, near Manhattanville. May. — This plant differs 

 from S. apetala in its smoothish stem and leaves, and in llie entire absence of petals : in that 

 species, Mr. Wilson states that they are always present, but very minute. 



3. ARENARIA. Linn.; Bartl. ord. nat. p. 305. sandwort. 



[Named from the Latin, arena, sand ; because most of the species grow in sandy soils.] 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire. Stamens 10, or by abortion fewer. Styles 3, rarely 2 or 4. 

 Capsule 3-valved. Seeds numerous, roundish or reniform, not strophiolate. — Flowers 

 terminal. 



^ 1. Arenauia proper. Valves of the capsule 2-tooihed al the summit. 



1. Arenaria serpyllifolia, Linn. Thyme-leaved Sand-tcort. 



Plant retrorsely roughish-pubescent ; leaves (small) ovate, acute, minutely ciliate ; calyx 

 acuminate, scabrous, 3 - 5-nerved, nearly twice the length of the petals, and equal to the 

 ovate capsule. — Willd. sp. 2. p. 720; Eng. hot. t. 923 ; Micha;. fl.l.p. 274 ; Pursh.fl. 1. 

 p. 316; Ell. sk.l. p. 5\8; Torr. fl.l.p. ^bi; DC. prodr. I. p. Ul ; Torr. ^Gr.fl. N.Am. 

 1.^.182. 



Annual. Stems 2-6 inches high, usually several from one root, al first erect, at length 

 more or less decumbent and somewhat diffuse. Leaves scarcely one-fourth of an inch long. 



