1 12 WILD FLOWERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 
the stem and branches ; the sepals are green with a broad! white membranous margin, so that 
though the white petals are no longer than the sepals, the flowers look distinctly white ; the stems, 
from the crown of the root, are numerous, 3-9 inches long, prostrate, slender, and hairless 
(glabrous), and the alternate leaves are oblong or strap-shaped, blunt, fleshy, and hairless 
(glabrous). 
Very rare. On sandy shores; in Devon and Cornwall. July — October. Annual. 
IV. KNAWEL. (SCLERAN'THUS. Linn.) — Flowers small, green, in small clusters terminating 
the stem and branches or solitary in the forks of the branches. Calyx of 5 sepals, united into a 
tube and separating into 5 teeth with white membranous margins ; petals o, or possibly reduced 
to 5 filaments which alternate with the 5 perfect stamens and are inserted with them in the throat 
of the calyx-tube ; carpels 2, united into a 1 -celled seedcase and separating into 2 distinct styles 
and stigmas ; capsule roundish, i-celled, i-seeded, enveloped in the hardened calyx-tube, decaying 
to free the seed (indehiscent). Small, much-branched herbs, with opposite narrow leaves, united 
at the base with a narrow membranous edge, and without stipules. 
(1) Annual Knawel. (Scleran'thus an'nuus.) — Calyx-lobes pointed ; flowers solitary. 
(2) Perennial Knawel. (Scleran'thus peren'nis.) — Calyx-lobes blunt ; flowers in clusters. 
1. Annual Knawel. (Scleran'thus an'nuus. Linn.)— As just described. The small 
green flowers are solitary in the forks of the stem and branches, the calyx-lobes are pointed and 
with a narrow white membranous border, the stems are 2-8 inches high and are profusely 
branched, and the leaves are small, strap-shaped (linear), and pointed. [ Plate 38. 
Common. Sandy fields and waste places ; throughout England, Ireland, and the south of Scotland. 
June — October. Annual or biennial. 
2. Perennial Knawel. (Scleran'thus peren'nis. Linn.)— A very similar species, but 
with the flowers crowded into terminal clusters, with, occasionally, a few solitary flowers below ; 
the sepals blunt with a broad membranous margin ; and the stems less branched. 
Very rare. In sandy fields ; in Norfolk and Suffolk. June — September. Perennial. 
