134 



THE PINK FAMILY. 



Fig. 169. 



ferent flowers of the same plant. Seeds 

 slightly flattened, with or without a nar- 

 row, scarious border. 



In cultivated and waste places, widely 

 spread over Europe, and Russian and 

 central Asia; but in the northern dis- 

 tricts, as in many other parts of the 

 world, only as a cornfield weed. Com- 

 mon in British cornfields. Fl. all sum- 



XIV. POLYCARP. POLYCAKPON. 



Low annuals, with opposite, or apparently whorled, flat leaves, and 

 scarious stipules. Sepals 5. Petals 5, very minute. Stamens 3 to 5. 

 Style very short, with 3 short linear branches. 



A genus of two or three Mediterranean species, very near to Sand- 

 spurry, but in their minute petals and very short styles, combined at 

 the base, showing a further approach to the Far onychia family. 



1. Pour-leaved Polycarp, Polycarpon tetraphyllum, Linn. 



(Fig. 170.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1031.) 



A glabrous, much branched, spreading or prostrate annual, seldom 

 more than 3 or 4 inches long. Leaves obovate or oblong, really op- 

 posite, but placed, as they usually are, under the forks, two pairs are 

 so close together as to assume the appearance of a whorl of 4. Flowers 

 very small and numerous, in loose, terminal cymes ; the sepals barely 

 a line long, and rather concave. Petals much shorter, and very thin. 

 Stamens usually 3. 



