ALSINACEAE. 



VOL. II. 



g. Cerastium cerastioides (L.) Britton. Starwort Chickweed. Fig. 1771. 



Stellaria cerastioides L. Sp. PL 422. 1753. 



Cerastium trigynum Vill. Hist. PL Dauph. 3: 645. 1789. 



C. cerastioides Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 150. 1894. 



Perennial, glabrous except a line of minute hairs 

 along one side of the stem and branches, rarely 

 pubescent throughout. Flowering branches ascend- 

 ing, 3'-6' long; leaves linear-oblong, 4"-8" long, 

 about i" wide, obtuse, the lower often smaller and 

 slightly narrowed at the base ; flowers solitary or 

 few, 5"-6" broad, long-pedicelled ; petals 2-lobed, 

 mostly twice as long as the obtuse or acutish scarious- 

 margined sepals; capsule nearly straight, twice the 

 length of the calyx; styles 3, rarely 4 or 5; sepals 

 and petals 5 or 4. 



Gaspe, Quebec, and in arctic America. Also in arctic 

 and alpine Europe and Asia. Summer. 



3. HOLOSTEUM [Dill.] L. Sp. PI. 88. 1753. 



Annual erect herbs, often viscid-pubescent above, with cymose-umbellate, white flowers 

 on long terminal peduncles. Sepals 5. Petals 5, emarginate or eroded. Stamens 3-5, 

 hypogynous. Styles 3. Ovary i-celled, many-ovuled. Capsule ovoid-cylindrical, dehiscent 

 by 6 short valves or teeth. Seeds compressed, attached by the inner face, rough. [Greek, 

 signifying all bone, an antiphrase, the herbs being tender.] 



About 3 species, natives of Europe and temperate Asia, the following typical. 



i. Holosteum umbellatum L. Jagged Chickweed. 



Holosteum umbellatum L. Sp. PL 88. 1753. 



Glabrous or slightly downy below, viscid and 

 glandular-pubescent above, simple, tufted, s'-i2 r 

 high. Basal leaves spreading, oblanceolate or ob- 

 long; stem-leaves oblong, acute or obtuse, sessile, 

 i'-i' long; umbel terminal, 3-8-flowered; pedicels 

 very slender, about i' long, erect or ascending in 

 flower, subsequently reflexed and again erect when 

 the fruit is mature; flowers white, 2"-3" broad; 

 sepals obtuse, about 2" long, scarious-margined, 

 somewhat shorter than the eroded petals; capsule 

 ovoid, nearly twice the length of the sepals, its teeth 

 recurved. 



Very abundant in the vicinity of Lancaster, Pa. ; Dela- 

 ware ; Georgia. Naturalized from Europe. Native also 

 of northern Asia. April-May. 



Moenchia erecta (L.) Gaertn., a low annual, native of 

 Europe, with entire petals, an 8-toothed ovoid pod, the 

 styles opposite the sepals, collected many years ago about 

 Philadelphia and Baltimore, has not been found there 

 recently, and is not illustrated in this edition. 



1772. 



