12 
ILLECEBRUM 
Rare and local; on dry sandy or gravelly soils, as in fallow fields and waste places; Isle of 
Wight, Hampshire (perhaps extinct), Middlesex (perhaps extinct), northwards to Lincolnshire, at low 
levels only. 
Recorded as follows : — Southern Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, 
central Europe (recorded up to 1715 m.), Russia, southern Europe; Africa; Asia. 
Genus 3. Illecebrum 
Illecebrum L. Sp. PI. 206 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 97 (1754) pro min. parte; Bentham and Hooker 
Gen. PI. iii, 13 (1880); Pax in Engler und Prantl iii, pt. 1 b, 89 et 91 (1889); Rouy FI. France xii, 2 (1910); 
\Corrigiola Dillenius App. Cat. Giss. 169 (1719)]. 
Annual herbs. Leaves opposite. Stipules scarious. Sepals 5, with long, persistent, and often 
curled acuminations, white, thick. Staminodes or petals 5, broad below, acuminate. Stamens 5 — 3. 
Style very short or absent. Stigmas 2-lobed, capitate. Fruit dehiscent at the base only, monospermic. 
Seed erect. Embryo nearly straight. 
If we followed the letter of the international rules of botanical nomenclature (cf. Art. 45) in the case of this 
genus, it would be necessary to transfer its name to Paronychia. Not only so, but, by the same article, many other well- 
known names (e.g., Chelidonium) would have to disappear or be applied to other genera with well-established names. To 
avoid highly inconvenient name-changes of this character, nomina conservata are established by the rules ; and although 
lllecebru?n and Chelidonium are not yet officially placed on this list, there can be no doubt that it is the intention of 
the framers of the rules to conserve all established generic names which, by the letter of the existing laws, are invalid. 
Consequently, we refrain from inverting the names Illecebrum and Paronychia ; and we expect that these names will be 
retained as nomina cotiservata by the next international congress of botanists. We hope that British field-botanists, who 
in the last few years have been misled into adopting a number of unnecessary changes in the names of plants, will 
revert to the use of generic names which they know to be definitely established in botanical literature. 
Only species : — /. verticillatum. 
1. ILLECEBRUM VERTICILLATUM. Plate 11 
Polygala repens Johnson in Gerard Herball 563 (1636); Alsine floribus ad instar polygoni marina ad singulas 
alas albis Merrett Pinax 5 (1666); Polygonum serpyllifolium verticillatum Ray Cat. Angl. 248 (1670); Corrigiola 
Dillenius App. Cat. Giss. 169 (1719); Ray Syn. ed. 3, 160 (1724). 
Illecebrum verticillatum L. Sp. PI. 206 (1753)!; Smith FI. Brit. 268 (1800)!; Eng. Bot. no. 895 
(1801); Eng. FI. i, 335 (1824); Syme Eng. Bot. vii, 180 (1867); Rouy FI. France xii, 2 (1910); Paronychia 
verticillata Lamarck FI. France iii, 231 (1778). 
leones : — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 895 ; Baxter Phaen. Bot. vi, 471 ; FI. Dan. t. 335. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate //. (a) Fruiting branches. (b) Leaves (enlarged). ( c , d) Fruits (enlarged). 
Berkshire (A. H. E.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 556; Dickson, xii, 13 (the lax form), et 57 (the dense form); Fries, xii, 60 ; v. Heurck 
et Martinis, vi, 270; Reichenbach, 476; Schultz, i, 51 ; Wirtgen, ix, 475. 
Annual. Shoot glabrous. Branches prostrate or decumbent, filiform, rooting, fertile ones 
floriferous almost from the base. Stipules small, mem- 
branous, ultimately laciniate. Petiole very short. Laminae 
oval to oboval, obtuse, rather thick. Lnflorescence verticilloid, 
crowded. Bracts scarious. Flowers sessile, whorled, minute 
(3 — 4 mm. long) ; July to September. Calyx small (about 
5 mm. in diameter), white or pinkish, with 5 segments ; 
segments almost free, thickened, ending in a long, twisted 
bristle. Staminodes or petals reddish, alternisepalous. 
Stamens 5 — 3, antisepalous, filaments very short. Style very 
to each fruit, oval, brown, shining ; September and October. 
Rare ; in wet or damp sandy places, in Cornwall, Devonshire, and Berkshire. 
Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia, southern Europe; 
north-western Africa, from Tunis to the Canary Islands. 
Tribe II. CORRIGIOLEAE 
Corrigioleae Fenzl in Endlicher Gen. PI. 956 (1836 — 1840) as a subtribe; Ascherson und Graebner 
FI. Nor dost. Flachl. 316 (1898). 
For characters, see page 9. Only genus : — Corrigiola. 
Map 5. Distribution of /. verticillatum in England 
short. Capsule with 2 carpels. Seeds 1 
