H E R N I A R I A glabra.
Smooth Rupture-Wort.
P E N T A N D R I A Digynia.
G e n . Ch a r . Cal. in 5 fegments. Cor. none. Fit
barren jlamina. Capfule with one feed.
Spec. C h a r . Herbaceous and fmooth.
Syn. Herniaria glabra. Linn. Sp. PL 317. HudJ.Ei
An. 108. With. Bot. Arr. 250.
Herniaria. R a il Syn. 160.
T his was found in Ray’s time in gravelly foil about tJ
Lizard point, Cornwall, where it Hill grows abundantly. Tli
Rev. M r . Hemfted gathered this wild fpecimen near Newmarket.
Root taper, annual. Stems feveral, various in lengtl,
fpreading flat on the ground in the form of a liar, alternately
branched, round, fometimes minutely pubefcent. Leaves of
polite about the lower part of the Item, one often fm a ller than
the other, elliptical, entire, fmooth. Stipulre membranous.
Flowers in leafy cluftered racemi, oppofite to the folitary leaves,
fmall, green, fhort-lived, very numerous. The calyx is clofen
after flowering, and embraces the ripening capfule. It flowers
about July and Auguft.
Whence this plant obtained its abfurd name, and credit m
curing ruptures, is hardly worth enquiring.
The variety /3 of Mr. Hudfon is manifeftly (from Plukenet’s
figure copied by Petiver) nothing but Glaux maritima. W“1
H. lenticulata of Linnaeus may be, it is not our purpofe now®!
determine, but there is much reafon to fuppofe it Crefla crew