74 CARYOPHyLLACK.E. [Haliatithus. 



H. Wahlenh. Fl. Suee. ed. prim. i. p. 288, No. 519 ? 



On dry banks, wall-tops, sandy heaths and pastures ; very frequent. Fl. 

 March— May. 0. 



E. Met?.— Abundant on sandy ground of the Dover, Byde, and on the spit 

 below St. Helen's. On the embankment of the sea-wall at Sandown, opposite the 

 fort. 



W. il/cii.— Common on most of our high downs. Afton down, by the sea, Mr. 

 Smoke. High downs at Freshwater, Dawson Turner, Esq. in Suooke's Bot. of 

 the I. of Wight. 



B. Scarcely an inch high. On the Dover, Ryde, and the spit below St. Helen's, 

 abundant. On the sea-bank at Sandown fort, &c. 



In my Eyde specimens the margins of the calyx-leaves vary extremely in breadth 

 eren in the same plant, they are mostly broader on the alternate segments, at one 

 time this membranous border is very wide, at another nearly or quite obsolete. 

 Flowers far most frequently 4-cleft with 4 stamens and- 4 styles, sometimes 

 5-cleft with 5 stamens and 4-cleft on the same plant, and not unfrequenlly I find 

 4-cle(t flowers with 5 stamens and only 4 styles. The hairs on the calyx, &c., 

 are not always glandular ; the bracts are certainly not at all scarious in any of my 

 specimens ; this is also remarked by Mr. Jos. Woods in his ' Tour in Brittany.' * 

 In dry open and turfy spots this plant scarcely rises above the surface, and is con- 

 spicuous only by its white petals disposed in the form of a cross. 



My own impression, after much careful investigation, now more confirmed than 

 ever, is that C. tetrandrum, as I understand it, is a dwarf maritime state of C. 

 semidecandrum, which last Mr. W. Wilson suggests, I think with great probabi- 

 lity, may itself prove to be an early flowering form of C. iriviale, as it is difiicult 

 to assign a character to one that is not occasionally assumed by the other. Mr. 

 Wilson however retains C. tetrandrum as a good species. For my own part, I am 

 not without doubts whether C. glorneratum and C. triviale may not be the same 

 species under difierent forms. 



XI. Haiianthus, Fries. Sea Chickweed. 



" Flowers polygamous. Sepals 5. Petals 5, conspicuous, undi- 

 ,vided. Stamens 10, alternating with glands : anthers abortive in 

 the fertile flowers : ovary with 3 — 5 styles, abortive when the 

 anthers are perfect. Capsule opening with 3 — 4 entire valves, or 

 with 5 alternate with the sepals. Seeds 8 — 10, large. "+ 



1. H. peploides, Fries. Sea Chickweed. " Sepals ovate obtuse 

 with scarious margins, petals obovate, leaves ovate acute and 

 stems very fleshy." — Honckenya (Ehrh.) Br. FL p. 65. Are- 

 naria, L. : E. B. t. 189. Alsine, WaJil. 



On sandy and pebbly sea-shorea, and on waste ground adjacent to the sea. 

 FL April— July. Fr. July, August. If. 



Whole herb very smooth and succulent, growing mostly in round tufts or 

 patches a few inches high only. Root long, slender, chordiform, whitish or red- 

 dish, running pretty far under the sand or pebbles, and emitting at intervals bun- 

 dles of flowering stems that are whitish or purplish, naked and decumbent at the 

 base, enlarged upwards, their extremities erect or inclining, shortly branched and 

 leafy, with a lateral groove or furrow on opposite sides, alternating with the posi- 

 tion of the leaves, beneath each pair of which the stem is a little swollen. Leaves 

 numerous, opposite, decussate, sessile, subconnate, ovate or ovate-elliptical, yel- 

 lowish green, thick, fleshy and shining, acute and mucronate, the tips a little 

 recurved, slightly keeled beneath and edged all round with a pellucid crenate 



* Hooker's Conip. to Bot. Mag. ii. p. 263. 

 f [Gen. character oi Honckenya in 5th ed. of Br. Fl., Edrs."] 



