208 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Caryophylka. 
An erect, ascendent or decumbent herb, from a few inches to about one foot high. Root in age often 
perennial, stout, sometimes of several inches length and quite woody, producing usually many stems; in 
seedling plants slender, the plant then assuming the appearance of an annual, in colder climates often only of 
one year’s duration. Branches almost cylindrical or compressed, tumid at the nodes, glabrous or oftener and 
especially upwards glandulous-downy. Leaves attaining the length of 2J inches, although usually shorter, 
and often the floral ones reduced by degrees to extreme shortness and bract-like appearance, glandulous-downy, 
or the lower ones or all glabrous, acute or short-mucronulate. Stipules semilanceolate or deltoid, acuminate 
|-3 lines long, glabrous, nerveless, seldom denticulated, never jagged, sometimes imbricately crowded. 
Pedicels constituting' a terminal, often somewhat leafy biracemose cyme, 1-6 lines long, filiform, seldom 
capillary, patent or some in age refract, seldom quite smooth. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, 1-3J lines long, 
glandulous-downy at the back, the inner broader margined than the outer ones, their middle-field green. 
Petals glabrous, lanceolate-ovate, as long as or somewhat shorter than the calyx, pale- or deep-pink, or 
white. Stamens 10. Filaments linear-setaceous, about half as long as the corolla. Anthers yellow, dorsi- 
fixed, ovate; the narrow-ellipsoid cells introrsely dehiscent, J line or less long. Styles free, line long, 
filiform, imvard stigmatose. Capsule broad-ovate, somewhat longer sometimes rather shorter than the calyx. 
Columella reaching hardly beyond the middle of the cavity, stout, bearing from the base to the summit 
exceedingly short funicles. Seeds scabrous or smooth, pyriform- or orbicular-renate, i-f line long, perfectly 
wingless or surrounded by a broader or narrower membranous pale striolated wing, impressed seldom turgid 
at the sides, more or less shining or opaque, dark-brown or black. Albumen rather scanty. Embryo semi- 
annular or horseshoe-shaped, cylindrical. Radicle almost as long as the cotyledons. 
The description here offered is derived exclusively from Australian specimens, between which all the 
principal forms occurring in the northern hemisphere exist, and which do not appear to have clear claims for 
specific distinction. 
SAGINA. 
Linn . Gen . Plant . 176.—Pearl wort. 
Sepals 4-5. Petals as many as sepals or wanting. Stamens 4-5, opposite to the sepals, or 10, 
all fertile. Filaments free. Ovary sessile, one-celled, free. Ovules numerous, inserted to the basal 
columella. Styles 4-5, short, alternate with the sepals . Capsule membranous, one-celled, 4 -5-valved, 
the valves entire, opposite to the sepals. Seeds numerous, very small, without strophiole. Embryo 
imperfectly annular. 
Annual or perennial minute herbs, seemingly transmigrated from the temperate zone of the 
northern hemisphere to other parts of the globe. Leaves opposite, narrows without stipules. Flowers 
minute, on capillary pedicels, axillary or terminal, cymose or solitary.— Fenzl, in den Annul, des Wien. 
Museums, i. 43; Bartl. Ord . Natur.p. 305; Spergella, JReichenb. Flor. Germ. 110. 
Sagina procumbens, Linne , Spec. Plant. 185; Engl. Pot. t. 880; Schhihr , Botan. HandbucJi, 
t. 27; Gcertn. de Fruct. <j’ Semin . 1. 129; Koch, Synops. FI. Germ. $ Helvet. ed. 2, vol. i. 118 & 119; Toney 
<$' Gray , FI. of North Amer. i. 177. 
Perennial; stems mostly procumbent, much branched; leaves linear, acute; pedicels after florescence 
usually curved at the summit, finally again erect; fomers tetramerous , seldom pentamerous; sepals blunt, 
ovate-orbicular; petals half or less than half as long as the calyx, seldom wnnting; styles recurved; capsule 
somewhat longer than the calyx. 
In morassy mossy valleys between Mount Linster and the Limestone River, at an elevation of about 
4000 feet; not yet found in any other part of Australia. Distributed over a great part of the temperate 
northern zone. 
