^^0^^-] violacejB. 21 



On Mount Parker, Champion. Not seen in any other collection. It lias much the ap- 

 pearance of the r. serpens. Wall., from Northern' India, except that it has no stolones. 

 When better known, however, it may prove to he a variety of that species. 



Order XIII. CARYOPHYLLEJE. 



Sepals 4 or 5, free iu the Hongkong genera, united in some others. Petals 

 as many, contorted in the bud, sometimes minute or wanting. Stamens free, 

 twice as many as the petals or fewer, hypogynous or very slightly perigynous. 

 Ovary 1-celled, with a free central placenta and several ovules, or veiy rarely 

 divided into cells. Styles or style-branches 2 to 5, stigmatic along their 

 whole length. Capsule 1-celled, opening at the top into as many or twice as 

 many teeth or valves as there are styles. Seeds with- a slender embryo cui-ved 

 or coiled round a mealy albumen. — Herbs, with opposite entire leaves. Sti- 

 pules none, or small and scarious. Flowers usually small, in dichotomous 

 panicles or leafy cymes. 



A considerable Order, widely spread over the globe, most numerous in temperate regions, 

 especially in the northern hemisphere ; rare within the tropics, except as weeds of cultivation. 

 Capsule ] -celled. Petals 5. 



Styles 3 or rarely 6. Petals bifid I. Stellaria. 



Style 3-lobed or almost entire. Petals minute. 



Sepals herbaceous. Stipules minute. Leaves broad .... 3. Dkymabia. 

 Sepals and stipules white and scarious. Leaves linear or subulate . 3. Polycakp^a. 

 Capsule 3-celled, no petals, sepals often white at the edge 4. Mollugo. 



1. STELLABIA, Linn. 



Sepals 5, free. Petals 5, bifid. Styles 3 or rarely 5, free from the base. 

 Capsule opening to the middle or lower down in as many or tvidce as many 

 valves. 



A considerable genus, having nearly the geographical range of the Order. 



Lower leaves ovate-cordate, on long stalks. 



Perennial. Petals longer than the calyx. Styles usually 5 . . . \. S. aquatica. 



Annual. Petals shorter than the calyx. Styles 3 2. 5. media. 



All the leaves narrowed at the base, sessile or shortly stalked : ... 3. 5. uliginosa. 



1. S. aquatica. Scop. A glabrous perennial, with weak stems a foot or 

 more in length. Leaves ovate-cordate ; the lower ones small, on long stalks ; 

 the upper ones more sessile or stem-clasping, often 1 to 2 in. long, and very 

 pointed. Flowers in the forks of leafy cymes, the pedicels turned down, after 

 flowering. Sepals about 2 lines long when in flower, often enlarged after- 

 wards. Petals narrow, deeply cleft, about one-half longer than the calyx. 

 Styles usually 5, but sometimes 3 only, as in the rest of the genus. — Mala- 

 cMum aquaticum, Fries ; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Eoss. i. 416. Cerastiiim petiolare, 

 Hance in Kew Joum. Bot. i. 143. Stellaria fecunda, Hance in Walp. Ann. 

 ii. 95. 



In fields, Wright, Hance. Widely diffused over Europe and central and temperate north- 

 ern Asia, and accompanying cultivation in other parts of the world. 



2. S. media, Vill. ; DC. Prod. i. 396. A weak much-branched annual, 

 glabrous with the exception of a line of hairs down one side of the stem, and 



