MY O S U R U S minimus.
Moufe-tail.
P E N T A N D R I A Polygynia.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. o f 5 leaves, each w ith a fpur at th e
bafe. Petals 5 , with a tu b u la r c law . Seeds n u me
rous .
S p e c . C h a r . . . . .
Syn. Myofurus minimus. Linn. Sp. PI. 407. Hudf.
136. TPith. 326. Relh. 132. Sibth. 107. Curt.
Lond.fafc. 4. t, 26,
Myofuros, Rail Syn, 251.
A N A TIVE of gravelly corn-fields, not unfrequent about
London. It has alfo been obferved in feveral parts of Norfolk,
always flowering in the early part of fummer ; after which it
foon fheds its feeds, and withers away.
Root annual, fibrous, very fmall. Herb fmooth, varying
iextremely in fize according to the luxuriance of the foil. Stem
none. Leaves numerous, nearly upright, a little fleftvy, of a
linear fomewhat fpatulate form, entire, pale green. Stalks feveral,
upright, longer than the leaves, Ample, round, a little thicker
upwards, each bearing a fmall, erect, pale yellowilh flower.
Calyx of 5 elliptical concave leaves, fpurred at the bafe below
their infertion. Petals 5, fcarcely longer than the calyx, pale,
jflender, confuting of a honey-bearing tubular claw, and a fhort
fpreading lanceolate border. Stamina generally about 5, but
jn luxuriant plants much more numerous, the length of the
corolla, with vertical linear anther». Piftillum conical, longer
than the Itamina, compofed of a conical receptacle, covered
with a great number (even 2 or3 hundred) of ovate, ftriatedger-
mens, each furnifhed with its own minute feflile ftigma. This
plant affords a remarkable and rare inftance of a very great disproportion
of males to females in the fame flower, and yet the
latter are generally all prolific. The feeds are juftly defcribed
by Linnaeus as naked ; for the part which Juflieu denominates
a capfule, is furely nothing more than a thickened infeparable
coat, as in Ranunculus, to which the Myofurus very nearly belongs;
there being the clofefl affinity between the nedtariferous
pore in the claw of the petals in that genus, and the tubular
claw of Myofurus,