DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. 329 



a. Flowers red. 



Lychnis dioica. Engl. BoL v. 22. 1. 1579. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t.32. 

 Hull 100. 



L. diurna. Sibih. 145. Sym. Syn. 112. 



L, sylvestris rubello flore. Ger. Em.469.f. Rail Syn. 339. Lob. 

 Ic. 335./. 



L. sylvestris, sive aquatica, purpurea simplex. Bauh. Pin. 204. 



|3. Flowers white. 



L. dioica. Engl. Bot. v. 22. t. 1580. Fl. Dan. t. 792. 



L. vespertina. SibthA46. Sym. Syn. ]12. Hull 100. 



L. sylvestris albo flore. Ger. Em. 468. Raii Syn. 339. 



L. sylvestris alba simplex. Bauh. Pin. 204. 



Ocymoides album multis. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 342./. 



y. Flowers flesh-coloured, often with stayn. and pist. together. 



a. In moist shady places, and under hedges, frequent. 



(3. In hedges and cultivated fields, no less common. 



y. In hedges and fields, but rarely. 



Perennial, a. May, June. (5, y, June — September. 



Root tapering, rather fleshy. Herb green, clothed with projecting 

 soft hairs, a little viscid. Stem upright, weak, round, leafy, 18 

 to 24 inches high ; in jS and y 2^ or 3 feet. Leaves ovate, 

 acute, soft, rather wavy ; the lower ones stalked ; upper nar- 

 rower and often lanceolate. Panicle terminal, leafy, many- 

 flowered, partly forked. Cal. tubular, dark red, or purplish, with 

 10 ribs, and frequently, in the fertile plants, intermediate veins. 

 Pet. each with a broad claw, dilated upwards, crowned with 2 

 acute marginal teeth, and 2, more blunt, combined, central ones. 

 Stam. capillary. Germ, sessile, ovate, in the flowers of a sepa- 

 rate plant. Styles 5, with long, twisted, downy stigmas. Caps. 

 ovate, of 1 cell. 



The corolla in a is of a fine rose-colour ; in /3 white, sweet-scented 

 in an evening ; in y blush-coloured, but turns white on the same 

 plant when transplanted. The stam. and pist. are not always 

 united in this blush-coloured variety, nor separated in the white 

 one. No solid permanent sign of specific distinction has oc- 

 curred to me, between a and ^, though I have much wished to 

 find one. The red variety especially is often cultivated in a 

 double state, and called Bachelor's Buttons. Its flowers are 

 rarely found united. 



243. CERASTIUM. Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Linn.Gen.232. Juss. 301. Fl.Br.496. Lam.t.392. Gartn.t.130. 

 Myosotis. Tourn. t. 126. Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 388. 



Nat. Ord. see w. 241. 



Cal. inferior, of 5 ovate- lanceolate, acute, spreading, perma- 

 nent leaves, membranous at the edges. Pet. 5, divided, 



