132 THE HTPERICTTM FAMILY. 



A single species only has any claims for admission into a Bri- 

 tish Flora, and that only as an introduced plant, and no others 

 are likely to be met with iu our gardens. 



I. TAMARISC. TAMAEIX. 



Maritime shrubs, -with slender, twiggy branches, covered with small, 

 green, alternate, scale-like leaves ; the flowers smaU, in terminal spikes or 

 racemes. Sepals 4 or 5. Petals as many. Stamens as many, or twice as 

 many, hypogynous. Ovary free, with 3, rarely 2 or 4, styles. Capsule 

 1-ceUed, oj)enmg in as many valves as styles. Seeds several, erect, crowned 

 each with a tuft of cottony hairs. No albumen. 



1. Common Tamarisc. Tamarix gallica, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1318. T. anglica, Brit. Fl.) 



An elegant shrub of 3 to 5 or 6 feet ; the slender branches erect, or 

 slightly pendulous at the extremities ; the numerous scale-like, pointed leaves 

 scarcely above a line long ; flowers pink or white, very small, crowded in 

 spikes of from | to \\ inches long, forming frequently branching terminal 

 panicles, the petals persisting till the fruiu ripens. 



Very common on the sandy or marshy seacoasts of the Mediterranean, 

 and extending up the Atlantic shores of Spain and France. Now found 

 on several parts of the southern coast of England, and apparently esta- 

 blished there, but beheved to be only where it has been planted. Fl. early 



XIV. THE HYPERICUM FAMILY. HTPEEICINE^. 



A family confined in Britain to the single genus Hypericum. 

 The tropical genera associated with it differ slightly in the 

 number of parts, or in the arrangement of the stamens or of 

 the seeds, and some are tall shrubs or even trees. The chief 

 distinction of the Order from those nearest allied to it, lies in 

 the arrangement of the stamens in 3 or 5 clusters or bundles. 



I. HYPERICUM. HYPERICUM. 



Herbs, usually perennial (in some exotic species shrubs), often marked 

 with glandular dots ; the leaves opposite and entire, and no stipules ; the 

 flowers regular, usually yellow. Sepals 5. Petals 5, hypogynous, usually 

 obhque. Stamens indefinite, clustered or shortly united at the base into 

 3 or 5 bundles. Capsule more or less completely divided into 3 or 5 cells 

 by as many placentas projecting from the sides to the axis, and usually open- 

 ing in 3 or 5 valves. Seeds numerous, small, without albumen. 



An extensive genus, particularly abundant in southern Europe, western 

 Asia, and North A m erica, but represented also witliin the tropics, as well 

 as in the southern hemisphere, both in the new and the old world. The 

 glandular dots are of two kinds, the peUucid ones, which can be easily seen 

 by holding up the leaves against the Hght, and the black ones, which are 



