14 CARYOPHYLLACE^. 



Herbs chiefly annual and depressed, dichotomously much 

 branched and prohferous; the leaves flat, opposite, but by 

 fasciculation usually falsely verticillate or rosulate : the stip- 

 ules early fugacious or obsolete. Flowers small, in cymes 

 or sessile umbels, rarely solitary, terminal, but commonly 

 appearing as if axillary on account of the repeated proliferous 

 evolution of one or more branches from each node. 



Etymology. The name is a kind of diminutive of mollis, coined by 

 Linnfeus, in allusion to the softness of these plants. 



Geographical Distribution. These humble weeds belong to the tropi- 

 cal region of both worlds, one species extending to the Northern United 

 States, where it abounds in waste or cultivated places, especially near dwell- 

 ings ; but it has probably been introduced from a more southern latitude. It 

 is through some mistake, doubtless, that M. arenaria, H. B. K., is cited by 

 Fenzl as having been found in Connecticut by Drummond. 



PLATE 101. MoLLUGO verticillata, Linn. ; — a small specimen, of the 

 natural size. 



1. Diagram of the flower, with a magnified section of the ovary. 



2. A flower, enlarged. 



3. A stamen, more magnified. 



4. Pistil, enlarged ; the calyx removed. 



5. Vertical section of an enlarged pistil and of the base of the calyx 



(showing also a minute hypogynous disk). 



6. An ovule, magnified. 



7. Dehiscent capsule and persistent calyx, enlarged. (The valves are 



represented too thick.) 



8. A magnified seed. 



9. Section of the same and of the annular embryo. 



