28 CARYOPHYLLACEyE. 



verticillate ; the scarious stipules conspicuous, the adjacent 

 ones often united into one. Flowers pedicellate, termi- 

 nal, by the evolution of the branches becoming lateral : 

 pedicels refracted after anthesis, at length again upright. 

 Corolla purple, rose-color, or white. 



Etymology, &c. The name is taken from Spergula ; to which the genus 

 is more nearly related than to Arenaria. Their stipules at once distinguish 

 them from the Arenariea; ; their emhryo, the position of the valves of the 

 capsule, and the want of verticillate leaves, from Spergula. 



Geographical Distribution. Natives of the sea-shore in most parts of 

 the world, either strictly littoral, or sometimes found in sandy soil at some 

 distance inland, but scarcely extending beyond the influence of a saline soil. 



PLATE 108. Spergularia rubra, Pers. (Waste fields, Cambridge.) 



1. Diagram of the flower. 



2. Flower, with a leafy branch, magnified. 



3. A stamen, magnified, inside view. 



4. The same, outside view. 



5. The pistil, magnified. 



6. The same, the ovary and placenta longitudinally divided. 



7. Dehiscent capsule with the persistent calyx, magnified. 



8. A seed, more magnified. 



9. Vertical section of the same, and of the contained embryo and albumen. 



