Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/461

A REVISED LIST OP THE BRITISH CARYOPHYLLACE^. 429 mens under this name seem to belong to C. tetrandrum, yet Sar- dinian specimens of Cerastium pentandriim Mor. (non Linn.), and Sicilian specimens gathered sufficiently far from localities with sandy soil, closely agree with specimens of the English plant. 30. Malacliium aquaticum. — An earlier name is Myosoton aqua- ticum Moench (1794). 32. Stellaria cerastoides. — I have followed Boissier and Enrico Tanfani in restoring this species to Stellaria; but in Parlatore's MS., utilized by the latter botanist in the compilation of the Flora Italiana, it is described under Cerastium, 41. Arenaria leptoclados. — M. Fran9ois Orepin has observed that this plant, growing in similar localities to those where A. ser- pyllifolia is found, seems quite distinct, and that its characters are fixed and constant. 46. Sagina Boydii — It is probable that further examination of living specimens of this genus will result in a satisfactory reduction of species grouped under two types, with respectively tetramerous and pentamerous flowers. 47. S. apetala. — I have pointed out in this Journal (1890, p. 294) that Arduino first named and described this species ; though the correction is not noted in recent floras. 56. Honckenya. — This genus is so frequently maintained as dis- tinct from Arenaria in different European floras, that it is desirable that the alternative name for Honckenya, Willd. (a Tropical African genus of Tiliacece) should be definitely substituted for it. One of the species has already been named by Decaisne Clappertonia Jicifolia, and I would propose for the other the name of C. minor ( = H. minor Baill.). 59. Alsine rubella. — This plant is frequently cited (Nyman, &c.) as A. hirta Hartm., but there is no reason for displacing the name given to the plant by the botanist who re-established the genus. 66. Spergulana rupicola. — This plant is certainly conspecific with a Corsican sand-spurry, S. macrorrhiza Marsilly (not of Gren. & Godr., as given in the Index Kewends, who placed it in Spergula). By those taxonomists who do not regard the apetalous orders as phylogenetically heterotypic and distinct from the polypetalous orders, and have intercalated them with these to form the division of Choripetalce, the genera included in IllecehracecB have been placed next to CaryophyllacecB. Some botanists, such as Prof. Ferdinand Pax, in Engler and Prantl's Natilrlichen Pjianzenfamilien, have followed Endlicher in arranging these genera as subsidiary groups of Caryophyllacea. The character of free central placentation of the contents of the ovary is generally recognized as one of primary importance, but the systematic position of monochlamydeous genera which are homotypic with the genera of CaryophyllacecB is a matter for further consideration.