SPERGULARIA 
21 
Not uncommon on light, dry, sandy soils; heaths, commons, roadsides, and arable land; 
northwards to Orkney, rare in northern Scotland; very local in Ireland — co. Cork, co. Wexford, 
Queen’s co., co. Armagh, co. Down, co. Antrim, co. Londonderry. 
Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe (ascending to 2310 m. 
in Switzerland), Russia, southern Europe; northern Africa; Asia; North America. 
4. SPERGULARIA SALINA. Small-flowered Sea Spurrey. Plates 19 ; 20 
Spergularia salina J. s. et C. B. Presl FI. Cechia 95 (1819) fide Mertens und Koch Deutschl. FI. iii, 
295 in obs. (1831); Arenaria rubra var. marina L. Sp. PI. 423 (1753) partim ; Ar. marina Roth FI. Germ, i, 189 
(1788) partim; Smith FI. Brit. 480 (1800) partim; Wallroth Sched. Crit. 201 (1822) excl. syn. pi.; nomen con- 
fusum ; Ar. media Withering Arr. ed. 3, ii, 422 (1796) partim non L., nomen confusum ; Lepigonum medium 
Wahlberg FI. Gothob. 46 (1820) gen. descr. nulla; More in Thirsk Exch. Club Rep. fur 1861, 8 (1862); Arenaria 
salina Seringe ms. ex DC. Prodr. i, 401 (1824); Reichenbach FI. Germ. Excurs. 566 (1832); Alsine marina var. 
minor Koch Syn. 111 (1835); Lepigonum salinum Fries FI. Suec. Mant. iii, 34 (1842)!, incl. L. neglectum\\ 
Kindberg Monogr. Lepigon. 14 et 36, fig. 27 (1863); Lange Dansk. FI. 302 (1856—1859); L. neglectum Fries 
loc. cit. (1842)! inch L. salinum ; Kindberg Syn. Lepigon. 6 (1856); Spergularia neglecta Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 129 
(1864) excl. t. 255 ; S. media Boissier FI. Orient, i, 733 (1867); 5 . dillenii Lebel in Mem. Soc. Sc. Cherbourg xiv, 
43 (1868); Alsine media Hiern in Journ. Bot. xxxvii, 318 (1899) non L. ; S. dillenii race salina Rouy et 
Foucaud FI. France iii, 304 (1896). 
leones: — FI. Dan. t. 2231, as Arenaria marina. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 19. (a) Flowering shoots, (b) Stipules (enlarged), (c) Laminae (enlarged). 
(d) Calyx with capsule (enlarged). Jersey (E. W. H.). (e) Seeds (enlarged). Jersey (E. W. H.). (/) Flowering 
shoot, (g) Portion of stem with stipules and laminae (enlarged), (h) Calyx and capsule (enlarged). ( i ) Seeds 
(enlarged). Somerset (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 3344; 3539 , as Arenaria rubra var. marina ; Fries, viii, 37, as Lepigonum medium ; xiv, 
42, as L. salinum ; xv, 46, as L. neglectum ; v. Heurck et Martinis, viii, 352, as S. salina ; Reichenbach, 477, as 
Alsine marina ; Wirtgen, viii, 328, as L. medium ; viii, 329, as L. salinum. 
Perennial. Shoot glabrous or more or less glandular. Root often stout and strong. Branches 
prostrate or decumbent, compressed a little, terete. Stipules broadly triangular, about as broad as 
long. Laminae linear, plano-convex, up to about 2 cm. long, rather succulent, dark green. 
Inflorescence few-flowered. Pedicel of the lower flowers about as long as the calyx. Flowers 
about o'6 — o'8 cm. in diameter, appearing a little later than those of S. marginata ; June to 
September. Sepals rather longer and rather narrower than the petals. Petals purplish-pink with 
a white base. Stamens 4 — 7, often 5. Capsule about as long as or a little longer than the 
persistent calyx. Seeds broadly pyriform or elliptical, rimmed or not, either smooth or with minute 
tubercles especially at the margin of the rim, brown, wingless, rather larger than those of S', rubra. 
This plant has been the subject of much dispute among British botanists. So far, however, as our own experience 
goes, we have only to say that we have never experienced any difficulty in determining it on the salt-marshes of Great Britain 
and France. One of the difficulties seems to arise from the erroneous assumption that Lepigonum neglectum Kindberg and 
L. salinum Kindberg are two different plants: Kindberg ( Monogr . pp. 36 and 37) himself, however, plainly shows that they 
are one and the same. Other difficulties arise from a vain attempt to distinguish the varieties named in Syme’s English Botany. 
Syme (to some extent following More and Fries), however, strongly hints that he himself attached very little importance to 
those varieties. Still further difficulties arise from what we feel compelled to regard as wrong descriptions in the books. It 
is often stated that the plant is annual : we find it to be perennial. It is also often stated that some of its seeds are winged ; 
but we have never observed winged seeds in the numerous fresh and dried plants we have examined, though we admit that 
plants which we infer to be hybrids of this species and S. marginata occasionally occur which possess both winged and 
wingless seeds. Finally, confusion arises because of incomplete knowledge regarding the variation which the species exhibits. 
Judging again from our own observations, we find that some individuals are glandular and others eglandular, and that 
some have smooth seeds and others minutely tubercled seeds. These variations are possibly Mendelian in their hereditary 
behaviour : they seem to be transmitted whole ; and they exist in nature in every possible combination. Variations of this 
nature are not amenable to the ordinary methods of naming adopted by systematists ; and it is, in our judgment, best in 
such cases to adopt some symbolical method of nomenclature. In time, we hope that a universal system will be invented 
for cases of this kind. At present, let us name the glandular individuals “G” and the eglandular ones “g,” and the rough- 
fruited ones “T” and the smooth-fruited ones 1 “t.” This would permit us to name the four possible combinations of these 
characters : GT (the glandular form with tuberculate seeds), gT (the eglandular form with tuberculate seeds), Gt (the 
glandular form with smooth seeds), and gt (the eglandular form with smooth seeds). We have observed all four forms on 
the salt-marshes near Hunstanton, in Norfolk. 
1 This is much rarer than the rough-fruited form among which it grows. It includes Lepigonum leiospermum Kindberg 
Monogr. 23, fig. 10 (1863) and Corion marinum var. leiosperma N. E. Brown in Eng. Bot. ed. 3, suppl. 48 (1891). 
