Pretty alpine plants, with blue flowers.
ORDER CL.—PLUMBAGINEÆ.
This order probably belongs to Monochlamydeæ. The principal genera are Sea Lavender (Statice), remarkable for the coloured footstalks of the flowers; Thrift (Armeria); and Leadwort (Plumbago). The corolla in these plants is either monopetalous, with the stamens free from the corolla and growing from beneath the pistil, or with five petals, to which the stamens are attached. There are five styles and five stigmas, but only a one-celled and one-seeded ovary. The fruit is thin and dry. The pedicels of all the species of the Sea Lavender, particularly of Statice arborea, are often mistaken for the flowers.
CHAPTER II.
PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS—DICOTYLEDONEÆ.—
II. MONACHLAMYDEÆ.
In all the plants contained in this division, the stamens and pistils have either no floral covering, or only one; and as, when this is the case, the covering is called the calyx, the plants in this division are said to have no corolla. Some botanists think that the calyx and corolla have become intermixed, so as to form only one covering, which they call the perianth; a word applied to the calyx and corolla together.