Fig. 302.—The Sea Campion
A variety of the Common Milk Wort (Polygala vulgaris)—order Polygalaceæ—is moderately common on sandy shores. The ordinary form of the species, which is so common on heaths, is a small plant with a woody stem, small ovate leaves crowded below, and opposite lanceolate leaves above. The flowers are irregular with five persistent sepals, two larger than the others; three to five petals, the lowest keeled, and all united to the tube formed by the eight stamens, which are divided above into two bundles; and the fruit is a flat capsule with two one-seeded cells. The flowers are very variable in colour, being white, pink, lilac, or blue; and the seeds are downy. The sea-side variety (oxyptera) has smaller flowers than the normal form, and the wings of the calyx are narrower.
One species of Pansy (Viola Curtisii) is occasionally to be met with on sandy shores, and may be at once recognised as one of the Violaceæ by its irregular spurred corolla, its five persistent sepals, and the three-parted, one-celled ovary. The flowers are variable in colour and size, the prevailing tints being blue and yellow, and the diameter of the corolla occasionally reaching to one inch. It has a creeping woody rootstock, and a rough angular stem; and the petals are generally but little longer than the sepals.
Fig. 303.—The Sea Pearl Wort
Fig. 304.—The Shrubby Mignonette