DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Arenaria. 309 



5. A. ve7iia. Vernal Sandwort. 



Leaves awl-shaped, bluntish. Stem panicled. Calyx- 

 leaves with three remote equal ribs; longer than the 

 petals. 



A. verna. Linn. Mant. 72. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 2. 724. Fl. Br. 482. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 8. i. 5 12. Dicks. Dr. PL 6. Hort. Sicc.fasc. 13. 17. 

 Hook. Scot. 138. Light/. 23 1 . Jacq. Austr. t. 404. 



A. saxatilis. i/wf/s. ed. 1. 168. Penn.TonrinWales,t.2.f.\. 



A. juniperina. With. 424, 



A. laricifolia. Ibid. 424. Light/. 232. 



A. caespitosa. Ehrh. Herb. 55. 



Alsine n. 867. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 383. 



A. pusilhi, pulchro flore, folio tenuissimo nostras. Raii Syn. 350. 



A. caryophylloides tenuifolia, flora albo punctato. Pluk.Almag.22. 

 Phyt. t.7./.3. 



A. alpina glabra, tenuissimis foliis, floribus albis. Herm. Parad. 

 12./. 



A. saxatilis et multiflora, capillaceo folio. Vaill. Par. 7. t. 2, /. 3. 



Mount Chickweed. Pet. H. Brit. t.59./.4. 



In mountainous pastures in the north, among fragments of quartz 

 and spar. 



About lead mines in Derbyshire ; as well as in Yorkshire, West- 

 moreland, and Wales. On Arthur's Seat, and many other hills 

 near Edinburgh. 



Perennial. May — August. 



Root long, cylindrical, strong and rather woody, branching under 

 ground. Stems very numerous, ascending, 3 or 4 inches high, 

 round or somewhat angular, leafy, slightly downy and viscid ; 

 panicled at the summit, rarely single-flowered ; forming dense 

 tufts, crowned with innumerable white starry^ou;ers, whose red 

 anthers Plukenet mistook for spots. The leaves are smooth, 

 3-ribbed beneath, with blunt points ; the upper ones shortest 

 and broadest. Bracteas small and short, with 3 ribs. Flower- 

 stalks often downy. Calyx-leaves ovate, acute, hairy, meni- 

 branous at the edges ; furnished at the back with 3 equal, di- 

 stant, not crowded, ribs. Pet. obovate. Caps, cylindrical, of 3 

 valves, longer than the calyx. Seeds compressed, rough. 



Some rather larger or smaller specimens, not to be called varieties, 

 have been occasionally mistaken for A. saxatilis, jnniperina, or 

 larici/olia of Linnaeus j all very different from this and from 

 each other, and hitherto not found wild in Britain. 



6. A. rubella. Little Red Sandwort. 



Leaves awl-shaped, bluntish. Stems single-flowered. Ca- 

 lyx-leaves with three equal ribs ; longer than the petals. 

 Alsine rubella. Wahlenb. Lapp. 128. t. 6. 



