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H E R N I A R I A liirsuta.
Hairy Rupture-wort.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. in 5 segments, inferior. Cor. none.
Stamina with 5 thread-shaped scales between them.
Caps, with 1 seed, covered with the calyx.
Spec. Char. Herbaceous and hairy.
Syn. Herniaria hirsuta. Linn. Sp. PI. 3 1 7 . Sm. FI.
Brit. 272. Huds. 109. With. 270. Hull. 57.
D ill, in Raii Syn. 161.
H U D S O N mentions Colney-Hatch near Barnet as the place
of growth of this Herniaria. We have no authority to confirm
or to contradict his assertion; but we are certain that the
plant is wild in Cornwall, from whence we have received
specimens. It is in general of rare occurrence, and is probably,
according to the opinion of Mr. Stackhouse, who has
studied it in its native soil, merely a variety of H. glabra, v. 3.
t. 206. W e are also obliged to that gentleman for the information
of both plants being perennial, not annual. They
grow in a sandy soil, flowering copiously in July and August.
W e can discover no difference between the two, except the
present being clothed all over the stem, calyx, bracteae, and
one or both sides of the leaves, with short rigid minute bristles
or hairs, with which also the leaves are strongly fringed. We
have a Swiss specimen of H. glabra which has acquired this
pubescence, of a minute size, on its stem only, but which
evidently betrays an approach to the more hairy plant now
before us.