688 



THE PARONYCHIA FAMILY. 



III. ILLECEBRUM. ILLECEBRUM. 



Calyx of 5 thickish white divisions, hooded at the top, with subu- 

 late points. Stamens 5, alternating with 5 small filaments. Stigmas 2, 

 sessile. Seed solitary, in a capsule enclosed in the calyx, but opening 

 at the base in 5 or 10 valves, which remain cohering at the top. 



A genus now reduced to a single species, but which formerly in- 

 cluded several south European ones, now forming the genus Parony- 

 chia, 



1. Whorled Illecebrum. Illecebrum verticillatum, Linn. 



(Fig. 828.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 895.) 



A small, glabrous, much branched 

 annual, prostrate and spreading at the 

 base ; the branches ascending from 1 to 

 3 inches in height, covered in their whole 

 length with the shining white whorls of 

 the flowers, in the axils of opposite, ob- 

 ovate, green leaves. Sepals somewhat 

 enlarged after flowering, but even then 

 but little more than half a line long, 

 green on the inner edge, but thickened 

 and of a pure white on the back, with a 



fine point, giving the whole calyx a 5-ribbed form, something like the 



capsule of a Sedum. Petals, stamens, and ovary very minute. 



In sands, and especially in sandy marshes, in central and southern 



Europe, from the west coast to the Russian frontier. In Britain, only in 



Devonshire and Cornwall. FL summer. 



Fig. 828. 



IY. SCLERANTH. SCLERANTHUS. 



Small, much branched herbs, with opposite, narrow leaves, con- 

 nected by a narrow, transparent edge at the base ; and numerous small, 

 green flowers, in crowded, terminal cymes. Calyx-tube ovoid or cam- 

 panulate, the limb 5-lobed. Stamens 5, alternating with the 5 small 

 filaments, all inserted at the top of the calyx-tube. Styles 2. Seed 

 solitary in a little nut, enclosed in the somewhat hardened tube of the 

 calyx. 



Besides the two British species, the genus comprises two or three 



