CtASS IV, ORDER III.] RADIOLA. 219 



erect, but soon beconiiug uuuieious and decumbent. Leaves opposite, 

 combined at the base, oval, obtuse, smooth, succulent, and of a reddish 

 colour. Flowers axillary. Peduncles often accompanied by a pair of 

 smaller leaves. C'«///.r, leaves three, pointed. Petals narrow, pointed, 

 white or tinged with red. 



This minule and depressed plant becomes conspicuous only in ample 

 reddish patches, which it presents to the eye, throughout the sandy 

 wastes where it delights to grow. The whole plant is smooth. " The 

 flowers are naturally three-cleft, and of course triandrous, but they are 

 sometimes four-cleft in strong plants, and Gsrtener says five-cleft. 

 Still the want oi nectaries keeps them generally distinct from the chiefly 

 African genus Crassulay 



Habitat. — Common in Norfolk and Suff"olk. 



Annual ; May and June. 



GENUS XXIV. RADIO'LA.— Gmel. Flax-seed. 



Calyx of four leaves, united, half-way up dividing into four segments, 

 each deeply three-cleft. Petals four, undivided. Germin superior, 

 four-lobed. Capsules round, of eight cells, and eight valves. 

 Seeds ovate, solitary, compressed, and polished. Named from 

 radius, a ray, on account of the ray-like segments of the calyx. 



1. R. millegra'na, Sim, (Fig. 287.) Thyme-leaved Flax-seed. 



English Bot. t. 890.— English Flora, vol, i. p. 243.— Hooker, British 

 Flora, vol. i. p. 80. — Radiola linoides of Lindley, Synopsis, p. 54. 



Root tapering, more or less fibrous. Stein one to two inches high, 

 erect, frequently branched, rather spreading, and somewhat corymbose. 

 Leaves opposite, sessile, distant, ovate, entire, smooth. Flou-ers solitary, 

 axillary, terminal, stalked, and on short peduncles. Calyx apparently 

 of one piece, numerously and distinctly toothed. 



Habitat. — Wet, sandy places. 



Annual ; July, August. 



VOL. I. 



