330 DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. 



obtuse, spreading, about the length of the calyx, with 

 broad, very short, claws. Filam. thread-shaped, 10, 5, 

 or 4, shorter than the corolla ; alternate ones shortest. 

 Anth. roundish, 2-lobed. Germ, ovate, superior, sessile. 

 Styles 5, rarely but 4, short. Stigm. bluntish, downy. 

 Caps, membranous, cylindrical or ovate, of 1 cell, open- 

 ing with twice as many upright teeth as there are styles. 

 Seeds numerous, roundish, rough. 

 Herbs, annual or perennial; hairy, smooth, or cottony. 

 Leaves ovate or elliptical, rarely lanceolate, always entire, 

 combined at the base, sessile. Fl. white. Most akin to 

 Stellaria and Aretiaria. 



1. Q.vulgatum. Broad-leaved Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Hairy, viscid, tufted. Leaves ovate. Petals as long as the 

 calyx. Flowers longer than their stalks. 



C. vulgatum, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. v. 2. 1039, A. Herb. Linn. A. 



Fl. Suec. ed. 2. 158. Sp. PL 627. Fl. Br. 496. Engl. Dot. v.l\. 



t.789. Lightf.240. Hook. Scot. \42. 

 C. viscosum. Huds.200. W^iM. 433. Hull. 10 1. Relh.l78. Sibth. 



147. Abbot 101. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t. 35. 

 Myosotis n. 895, Hall. Hist. u. 1 . 39 1 . 

 M. arvensis hirsuta, parvo flore. Tourn. List. 245. Vaill. Par. 142. 



#.30./. 3. 

 Alsine hirsuta major, foliis subrotundis dilute virentibus. Moris. 



u. 2. 55 1 . sect. 5. t.23.f.\0. In Morison's herbarium at Oxford. 

 A. hirsuta, Myosotis latifolia preecoclor. Raii Syn. 348. 

 Auricula muris quorundam, flore parvo, vasculo tenui longo. Bauh. 



Hist. V. 3. p. 2. 359. f. 



In fields, waste ground, as well as on walls and dry banks, common. 



Annual. April, May, 



Root fibrous, small. Herb light green, hairy, of a pale tawny yel- 

 lowish hue, when verging towards decay, very hairy, and some- 

 what viscid, all over. Sterns several, rather upright, a span high, 

 round, leafy, panicled, forked, many-flowered, the exterior ones 

 more spreading at first, but finally erect. Leaves of a broad 

 ovate, or elliptical, figure, bluntish, slightly recurved and con- 

 vex, not an inch long. Fl. from the forks of the stem, erect, on 

 stalks shorter than the calyx, slightly glutinous, the upper ones 

 crowded. Calyx-leaves lanceolate, acute ; the inner ones most 

 membranous at the edges. Pet. white, hardly longer than the 

 calyx, cloven nearly halfway down. Stam. 10, all fertile, glan- 

 dular at the base. Caps, twice the length of the calyx, cylin- 

 drical, slightly curved upwards. Seeds furrowed, tuberculated, 

 tawny. 



