GENUS 5. 



CHICKWEED FAMILY. 



57 



14. Arenaria groenlandica (Retz) Spreng. 

 Mountain Sand wort or Starwort. Fig. 1790. 



Stellaria groenlandica Retz, Fl. Scand. Ed. 2, 107. 1795. 

 Arenaria groenlandica Spreng. Syst. 2: 402. 1825. 



Perennial from a slender rootstock, densely 

 tufted, glabrous, flowering stems slender, 2'-$' high; 

 leaves linear-filiform, the upper distant, the lower 

 matted, 3" -6" long ; cyme terminal, several-flowered ; 

 pedicels 2"-6" long, filiform; flowers 4"-6" broad; 

 sepals oblong, obtuse, scarious-margined, nerveless; 

 half the length of the entire or retuse petals and 

 shorter than the oblong pod; seeds compressed, 

 smooth. 



On dry rocks, Labrador and Greenland to northern 

 New York Connecticut, the mountains of southern New 

 York and Pennsylvania, and on the higher Alleghanies of 

 Virginia and North Carolina. Flowers rarely apetalous. 

 June-Sept. 



6. MOEHRINGIA L. Sp. PI. 359. 1753. 



Low herbs, our species perennial, with oblong ovate ovate-lanceolate or linear soft 

 leaves, sessile or very short-petioled, and small white flowers solitary in the axils or in termi- 

 nal cymes. Sepals and petals 4 or 5. Stamens 8 or 10. Capsule oblong or ellipsoid, few- 

 seeded. Seeds mostly smooth and shining, appendaged at the hilum by a membranous 

 broad strophiole. [In honor of P. H. G. Moehring, naturalist of Danzig.] 



About 20 species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Only the following are known to occur 

 in North America. Type species : Moehringia muscosa L. 



Leaves oblong or oval, usually obtuse ; sepals obtuse or acute, shorter than the petals. 



i. M. lateriflora. 

 Leaves lanceolate, usually acute ; sepals acuminate, longer than the petals. 2. M. macrophylla. 



i. Moehringia lateriflora (L.) Fenzl. Blunt-leaved 

 Moehringia or Sandwort. Fig. 1791. 



Arenaria lateriflora L. Sp. PI. 423. 1753. 



Moehringia lateriflora Fenzl, Verbr. Alsin. table, p. 18. 1833. 



Stems erect or ascending, simple or at length sparingly 

 branched, finely pubescent throughout, 4'-i2' high. .Leaves 

 thin, oval or oblong, i'-i' long, obtuse, spreading, the mar- 

 gins and nerves ciliate ; cymes lateral and terminal, few- 

 flowered or flowers sometimes solitary ; flowers 3"-4" 

 broad, their parts in 4'$ or s's; sepals oblong, obtuse or 

 acute, half as long as the nearly entire petals; ovary at 

 first 3-celled ; capsule ovoid, nearly twice as long as the 

 calyx, dehiscent by 3 2-cleft valves. 



In moist places and on shores, southern New York and New 

 Jersey to Missouri, north to Newfoundland and Alaska, extend- 

 ing south in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. Also in 

 Oregon and British Columbia and in northern Europe and Asia. 

 Showy-sandwort. May-July. 



