36 CARYOPHYLLACEiE. 



Etymology. Dedicated to Maehring, a German physician and botanist, 

 of the time of Linnaeus. 



Geographical Distribution, &c. A genus founded on a tetramerous 

 plant (M. muscosa, Linn.), but now extended so as to comprise a number of 

 usually pentamerous species ; — all natives of the colder portions of the 

 northern hemisphere. 



Note. The ovary of M. lateriflora is three-celled, and plainly shovi^s (vi'hat 

 appears to be a general rule when there are three carpels in a pentamerous 

 flower) that two of the carpels are placed opposite the two exterior sepals, 

 while the third necessarily opposes, not the third sepal, but the sinus between 

 it and the fifth. 



PLATE 112. McEHRiNGiA lateriflora, Fenzl; — of the natural size. 



1. Diagram of the flower, in transverse section of a bud, showing the three- 



celled ovary, &c. (The petals in this instance were convolute in 

 aestivation, as in the Sileneae ; but they are usually imbricated.) 



2. An expanded flower, enlarged. 



3. Magnified vertical section through the ovary, receptacle, &c. 



4. Stamen, more magnified, outside view. 



5. Inside view of the same. 



6. An ovule, more magnified. 



7. Dehiscent capsule in the calyx, enlarged. 



8. A seed, with the cellular strophiole, magnified. 



9. Vertical section of the same, through the crustaceous testa, the coiled 



embryo, and the albumen. 



