XVI. CARYOPHYLLEiE. 8S 



8. SPERGULARIA, Pers. 



(Altered from Si>cn/ula.) 



(Lepigonum, Fries.) 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire or rarely none. Stamens 10 or feiyer. Styles 8. 

 Capsule 3-valved. — Herbs, usually diffuse. Leaves linear or filiform, often 

 clustered in the axils so as to appear verticillate. Stipules small, scarious. 

 Flowers pedicellate, pink or white, in the forks of the stem or in terminal 

 cymes or 1-sided racemes. Seeds with or without a scarious border. 



A small genus, widely dispersed over the temperate or subtropical regions oJ the globe, chiefly 

 in maritime or saline localities, or heathy places, differing from Arenaria almost solely in the 

 presence of stipules. The Australian species is the same as the common northern one. — Benth. 



1. S> rubra (red), Pers. Syn. i. 504 (as a subgenus of Arenaria); Benth. Fl. 

 Amtr. i. 161. An annual, biennial or rarely perennial, glabrous or with a short 

 viscid pubescence in the upper parts, with numerous stems branching from the 

 base and forming spreading or prostrate tufts 3 or 4in., or when luxuriant 6in. 

 long. Leaves narrow-linear, the scarious stipules at the base short but con- 

 spicuous. Flowers very variable in size, usually pink, on short pedicels, in 

 forked cymes, usually leafy at the base. Petals shorter or rather longer than 

 the sepals. Seeds more or less flatttened, often surrounded by a narrow scarious 

 border or wing.— A. Gray, Gen. 111. t. 108 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 41 ; F. v. M. 

 PI. Vict. i. 207 ; Arenaria rubra and A. meilia, Linn.; DC. Prod. i. 401 ; Lepi- 

 ffonuw ritbruin, etc., Fries., Nov. Fl. Suec. Mant. iii. 32 ; L. hretifolmm, Bartl. in 

 PI. Preiss. i. 243 ; L. anceps and L. laxijiuritm, Bartl. I.e. 244 (of these last I 

 have only seen authentic specimens of L. ancep.t) ; Spenjiolaria rupestris, Fenzl. in 

 Hueg. Enum. 9 ; Schlecht. in Linnssa, xx, 632. 



Hab.: Southern parts of the colony. 



Widely spread over Europe, temperate Asia, and North America, and some pajrts of South 

 America, chiefly, in maritime countries or in sandy heathy places more inland. There are two, 

 often rather marked varieties ; one chiefly occurring inland has slender leaves, small flowers, 

 aJld short capsules, with the seeds less frequently bordered than in the larger variety, which has 

 a sometimes perennial stock, thicker somewhat fleshy leaves, and larger flowers. Both forms 

 occur in Australia and pass into each other as they do in Europe ; the larger and more succulent 

 ones are, however, the most common in Australia. — Benth. 



9. DRYMARIA, Willd. 

 (From the plants being found in forests.) 



Sepals 5, herbaceous or sqarious at the edge. Petals 5, 2 — 6-cleft. Stamens 

 5 or fewer, slightly perigynous. Style 3-cleft. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds later- 

 ally attached ; embryo curved round the albumen. — Herbs, usually diffuse, rarely 

 erect, with dichotomous branches. Leaves flat, broad or narrow. Stipules very 

 small, sometimes very fugacious or wanting. Flowers pedicellate, usually small, 

 either solitary in the forks or in little axillary or terminal cymes. Petals usually 

 shorter than the calyx. 

 The genus comprises a considerable number of American species. 



1. S. diandra (two stamens), Blume, Bijdr. tot de Fl. van Nederl. Indie 63 ; 

 F. r. M. Papuan Plants 86. Leaves glabrous, rhomboid or cordate-orbicular, 

 conspicuously stalked. Stipules fringy-cleft ; cymes paniculate, with elongated 

 glandular-powdery peduncles. Flowers small ; sepals only slightly scarious, 

 their middle nerve forming a narrow pulverulent keel ; petals deeply cl^ft into 2 

 segments, stamens usually 2, style almost none, stigmas 2. Fruit valveless or 

 imperfectly 2-valved. Seeds large, 1 rarely 2, closely filling the cavity of the 

 pericarp, black, opaque, glandular-scabrous. — P. v. M. Papuan Plants 86. 

 Hab.: Tropical parts of the colony. 



