130 ENGLISTI BOTANY. 



Tioot annual or biennial. Leaves fleshy, semi - cylindrical, 

 filiform-linear, tapering to an acute point. Stipules deltoid-ovate, 

 entire, dull -wliitisli. Pedicels longer than or equal to the bracts, 

 as long as or longer than the capsule. Sepals oblong-lanceolate. 

 Petals shorter than the calyx, purplish rose, shading into white at 

 the base. Stamens generally fewer than 10. Capsule slightly exceed- 

 ing the calyx, rarely one-third longer. Seeds pale brown, nearly 

 smooth, with or without distinct papilla?, plano-concave, obovate- 

 roundish, with a raised rim round the outer margin, most of them 

 without wings, but occasionally there are a few winged ones towards 

 the base of the capsule. Stem, pedicels, and sepals wdth a few 

 gland-tipped hairs or sub-glabrous. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Lepigonum neglectum, Kindb. Symb. ad Syn. GeD. Lep. Brehisson, Fl. de la Normandie, 

 p. Si. 



Upper pedicels longer than their scarious bracts (destitute of 

 leaf-like bracts, or with very small ones), and generally exceeding 

 the capsule. Seeds with prominent papillae. 



Var. 3, salina. 



Spergularia salina, Presl. Fl. Cech. p. 93 (Fries). 



Lepigonum salinum, Kindh. 1. c. Brehisson, 1. c. p. 54. Fries, Mant. III. p. 34. 



All the pedicels about equal to their leaf-like bracts, and twice 

 as long as the capsule. Seeds without papilloe. 



Var. y, media. 



Lepigonum medium, " Fries." Kindh. 1. c. ; Brebissmi, 1. c. p. 54 ; Fries, 1. c. p. 33. 



All the pedicels shorter than their leaf-like bracts, and scarcely 

 as long as the capsule. Seeds without distinct papillae. 



In sandy and muddy places on the sea-coast. Common and 

 generally distributed, reaching as far North as Orkney. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual or Biennial. Summer 

 and Autumn. 



This plant differs from S. rubra in having the leaves thicker and 

 more fleshy, the stipules vxnited, shorter and duller in colour, the 

 petals paler rose-coloured, and with more of the base white, the 

 capsule generally larger, the seeds more compressed, rounder in 

 shape and of a pale yellowish brown, without tubercles wrinkled 

 at the base. In var. « there are small prominent papilla? upon 

 them, but in varieties 3 and y these are absent, 13esides these 

 differences, there is also the fact of there being occasionally a few 



