120 



THE PINK FAMILY. 



Fine-leaved Sandwort. Arenaria tenuifolia, Linn. 

 (Fig. 150.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 219.) 



A very slender, erect, much branched 

 annual, glabrous or very minutely downy, 

 3 or 4 inches high. Leaves finely subu- 

 late. Pedicels very slender, usually 

 about half an inch long. Sepals narrow- 

 lanceolate, finely pointed. Petals ob- 

 ovate or oblong, usually scarcely half 

 the length of the sepals. Capsule open- 

 ing in 3 valves. 



On old walls, stony wastes, or sandy 

 fields, in central and southern Europe, 

 from southern Sweden to the Caucasus. 

 In Britain, apparently confined to some 

 of the eastern counties of England. Fl. 



Fig. 150. 



4. Ovate Sandwort. Arenaria peploides, Linn. (Fig. 151.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 189; Honclceneya, Brit. Fl. Sea Purslane.) 



Pootstock creeping, with short, pro- 

 cumbent, usually forked flower-stems. 

 Leaves numerous, thick and somewhat 

 fleshy, ovate or elliptical, half an inch 

 long or more, the upper ones smaller 

 and broader. Flowers few, on short 

 pedicels, in small, leafy terminal cymes, 

 usually more or less unisexual. Sepals 

 thickish, about 2\ lines long. Petals 

 scarcely longer. Capsule large, nearly 

 globular, opening in 3 (or sometimes 4 

 or 5) broad valves, with fewer and larger 

 seeds than in the other Sandworts, 

 In maritime sands, in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and Ame- 

 rica, extending down western Europe to Portugal. Rather common 

 all round Britain. Fl. summer, rather early. 



Fig. 151. 



