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T I L L Æ A mufcofa.
Mojfy Tillaa.
T E T R A N D R I A Tetragynia.
G e n . C h a r . Calyx three or four-cleft. Petals three or
four. Capjules three or four, with many feeds.
S p e c . C h a r . Stems procumbent. Flowers three-cleft.
S y n . Tillæa mufcofa. Linn. Sp. PI. 1 86. Hudf. FI.
An. 132. With. Bot. Arr. 132. Roje's Elem. (A p pendix)
448. /. 2. ƒ. 2.
T h e moft dreary fands are not always unprofitable to a ba-
tanift, their loofe and flu&uating furface being often arrefted
for a while, and deftined to afford fupport to a tribe of plants
whofe conftitution is fitted by the all-wife Creator to thrive bell
on the meagre nourifhment they afford. Thus fome of the vaft
African defarts are turned to account by means of Mefembry-
anthemums, Cotyledons, and other fucculent vegetables, and we
have here a production nearly allied to the latter, which flourilhes
on the drieft fandy heaths, where few others would live, and at
a feafon when Moffes and Lichens are dried up. Large trafts
of the above defcription in Norfolk, as Drayton, Cawfton and
Moufhold heaths, as well as Brandon heath in Suffolk, are enlivened
by its red colour from the end of May to September. Mr.
Rofe fays this plant was firft determined by the Rev. Mr.
Bryant in 1766. Sir Thomas Cullum has found it near Bury,
from whence our fpecimen was fent by W . Mathew, Efq.
The root is fmall, and annual. Stems after a while procumbent,
round, becoming quadrangular when dry. Leaves op-
pofite and ftridly perfoliate, very flefliy, obtufe, pundated,
concave above, convex on the under fide, foon turning red as
well as the Item. The flowers are one or two together in the
bofoms of the leaves, nearly feflile, and fometimes accompanied
with a pair of fmaller leaves, denominated braRea by Mr. Rofe.
Calyx of three ftill fmaller leaves, diftinguifhable by their lharp
points. Petals 3, ovate, acute, pellucid, lefs than the ealyx.
Stamina and ftyles ftill Ihorter. Germens 3, ovate, each producing
two feeds.
Although this plant is always triandrous, yet as the three remaining
fpecies of Tillsea have 4 ftamina, we cannot (with Dr.
Withering) accommodate the Englilh ftudent fo far as to remove
the genus from the fourth clafs, where Linnseus ha*
placed it, to the third.