Annual. — Flowers in July and August. 
Root small, slender, tapering. Stems many, from 2, to G or 8 
inches long, spreading on the ground, slender, flaccid, round, leafy, 
smooth, often reddish, mostly simple, flowering at the extremity. 
Leaves alternate, strap-spear-shaped, blunt, very entire, rather 
fleshy, smooth, glaucous, tapering at the base into a short foot- 
stalk f petiole J. Stipulas (see fig. 11.) in pairs, at the base of each 
leaf, pointed, membranous, white. Flowers very small, numerous, 
of a pearly white, in terminal and lateral, subdivided, or interrupted 
clusters, often sessile. Calyx very like the corolla, but the seg- 
ments towards the base are of a rich chesnut brown. Fruit (fig. 5.) 
a small nut, covered with the permanent calyx ; it is crustaceous, 
wrinkled, and tubercled, brown, 1-celled, 1 -seeded, and indehiscent. 
Seed nearly globular, smooth, reddish-brown. A thread-shaped 
umbilical cord (funicle) ascends from the base of the nut to the 
top of the seed (see fig. 7). The embryo is roundish, inverted, pale 
yellow, and surrounds the albumen like a ring (see figs. 9 & 10). 
This curious and delicate little plant is a native throughout 
Europe, on sandy shores. Mr. Hudson, I believe, was the first 
who discovered it to be a native of England. In Portugal, Dr. 
Withering observes, it is not limited to the sea-side, but grows 
in hedge-banks, and in ploughed fields at a distance from the 
sea. 
For the specimen from which the drawing was made, as well as 
for many other very rare British Plants, I am indebted to the kind- 
ness of W. Borrer, Esq. of Henfield, Sussex, who obligingly com- 
municated them to me in July last. 1 have also received specimens 
of the Corrigiola from my friend, Mr. W. Pamplin, jun. of Lavender 
Hill, Wandsworth, Surrey. 
“ Nature ! to me, thou art moro beautiful 
In thy most simple forms, than all that man 
Hath made, with all his genius, and his power 
Of combination : for not he can raise 
One structure, pinnacled, or domed, or gemm’d, 
By architectural rule, or cunning hand, 
Like to the smallest plant, or flower, or leaf. 
Which living hath a tongue, that doth discourse 
Most eloquent of Him, the great Creator 
Of all living things. Man’s makings fail 
To tell of aught but this, that he, the framer. 
Sought also to create, and fail’d, because 
No life can he impart, or breath infuse. 
To give inertness being.” 
Hone’s Every-day Book. 
