686 THE PARONYCHIA FAMILY. 



cumbent ; opposite or rarely alternate leaves ; small, scarious 

 stipules (rarely deficient) ; and small, often granular flowers, in 

 terminal or axillary cymes or bunches, rarely solitary. Calyx 

 shortly or. deeply divided into 5, rarely 4 or 3 lobes or segments. 

 Petals usually none, or represented by 5 small filaments, or rarely 

 as many as the sepals and inserted at their base. Stamens as many 

 as the sepals, rarely fewer, inserted between the filaments or petals 

 when present. Ovary and capsule 1-celled. Styles or sessile 

 stigmas 2 or 8. Seeds solitary (or rarely several, on a free, cen- 

 tral placenta, as in the Pink family), with a curved embryo, and 

 mealy albumen. 



A small Order, widely diffused over the globe, intermediate, as it 

 were, between the JPink family, next to which it was placed in the for- 

 mer edition of this work, and the Amarantus family, to which it appears 

 on the whole the most nearly allied, for the petals, except in Corrigiole, 

 are reduced to small filaments which may be considered as imperfect 

 stamens, or are altogether wanting, as in Amarantacece, thus placing 

 them amongst Monochlamyds. 



Leaves alternate I. Coerigiole. 



Leaves opposite. 



Calyx with a distinct ovoid or globular tube .... IV. Scleranth, 

 Calyx divided almost to the base. 



Flowers green. Calyx without points II. Herniary. 



Flowers white and scarious. Calyx with fine points . III. Illecebrum. 



I. CORRXGXOIiE. CORRIGIOLA. 



Annuals, with alternate leaves, and small white flowers in terminal 

 cymes. Calyx of 5 divisions. Petals 5, oblong or oval. Stamens 

 5. Stigmas 3, sessile. Seed solitary, in a small nut, enclosed in the 

 calyx. 



Besides the British species there are two or three others in southern 

 Europe, Africa, and South America, all seacoast plants. 



1. Sand Corrigiole. Corrigiola littoralis, Linn. (Fig. 826.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 668. Strapwort.) 



Stems numerous, procumbent or ascending, slightly branched, slender, 

 and glabrous. Leaves linear or oblong, obtuse, tapering at the base, 

 with a minute scarious stipule on each side. Flowers crowded in little 

 heads or cymes at the ends of the branches; the white, ovate or ob- 

 long petals barely protruding beyond the calyx, whose divisions how- 

 ever are white and petal-like on the margin, and green in the centre 

 only. Nuts enclosed, when ripe, in the scarcely enlarged calyx. 



