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1. SILENE L. (Catcuriy campion.) 
Annuals or perennials, with cylindrical 4 or 5-toothed calyx, 4 or 5 
petals with narrow claws and a crown (2 scales at the base of each 
blade), 10 stamens, 3 styles, and a pod dehiscent by 6 (rarely 3) short 
teeth. 
1. S. antirrhina L. Glabrous annual, with a part of each joint viscid, erect, 
slender, 3 to 7.5 dm. high: leaves lanceolate or linear: flowers small, pink, in a 
naked dichotomous panicle, on long pedicels: petals obcordate, minutely appendaged, 
equaling the calyx: pod ovoid, very shortly stipitate, 6 to 8 mm. long.—Collected 
in western Texas and as far east as Gillespie and Bexar Counties; doubtless through- 
out the State. Known as “sleepy catchfly.” 
2. S. laciniata Cav., var. GREGGII Watson. Pubescent perennial, erect, 3 to 4.5 
dm. high: leaves oblong-lanceolate to ovate: flowers very large, bright scarlet, in a 
naked usually spreading panicle: petals deeply 4-cleft, the lateral lobes spreading 
and shorter: pod oblong, shortly stipitate.x—On the summits and upper slopes of the 
mountains of extreme western Texas, 
2. CERASTIUM L. (MousE-EAR CHICKWEED.) 
Mostly pubescent or hirsute low herbs, with white flowers in termi- 
nal leafy or scariously bracted dichotomous cymes, 5 sepals, 5 emargi- 
nate or bifid petals, 10 stamens, 5 (rarely 4 or 3) styles, and a cylindric 
often incurved many-seeded pod, which is dehiscent by twice as many 
equal teeth as there are styles. 
1, C, vulgatum L. Stems clammy-hairy and spreading: leaves oblong: upper 
bracts scarious-margined : flowers at first clustered : earlier fruiting pedicels mostly 
much longer than the obtuse sepals: petals equaling the calyx.—A very common and 
perhaps indigenous plant in the Atlantic States, and reported from Gillespie County. 
This is the species heretofore called C. viscosum L., the names of the two species 
having been transposed by mistake in the herbarium of Linnwus. 
2. C. Texanum Britton. Stem slender, 15 to 20 cm. high, pilose, especially toward 
the base: leaves 2 to 4 pairs on the lower part of the stem, spatulate with an acute 
apex, sparingly pilose on both surfaces, 8 to 15 mm, long: flowers few, small, ter- 
Muinating the branches: petals slightly longer than the ovate acute sepals: teeth of 
the pod revolute.— ‘Hills, Blanco, March, April” (Wright). It isto be hoped that 
this plant, collected many years ayo by the Mexican Boundary Survey, will be redis- 
covered, 
3. STELLARIA L. (CHIcKWEED. STARWORT.) 
Low mostly diffuse herbs, with white solitary or cymose terminal (or 
becoming lateral) flowers, 4 or 5 sepals, 4 or 5 deeply 2-cleft petals, 10 
Stamens (or fewer), 3 styles (in ours), and an ovoid several to many- 
seeded pod, which is dehiscent to below the middle by twice as many 
valves as there are styles.—Ours are both annuals. 
1. S. media Smith. (Common CHICKWEED.) Stems spreading, flaccid, marked 
with one or two pubescent lines: leaves ovate or oblong, the lower ones on hairy 
petioles; petals shorter than the sepals: stamens 3 to 10,—A very common introduced 
plant, and reported from the San Antonio Valley, though doubtless common enough 
elsewhere, 
2. S. prostrata Baldw. Stems forking and prostrate, smooth or nearly so: leaves 
ovate, acute, all on slender petioles, the lower ones often cordate: petals twice as 
long as the sepals.—In shady places along streams throughout southern and western 
