DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. 533 



length of the calyx, erect ; bent downward as the fruit ripens. 

 Cal. of 4 hairy, viscid, pointed leaves, the 2 innermost narrowest, 

 with a broader membranous margin. Pet. 4, white, cloven half 

 way down, and somewhat rounded, so as to be inversely heart- 

 shaped. Stam. 4, rarely 5. Styles 4, short. Caps, a little 

 longer than the calyx, straight, with 8 long linear teeth. Seeds 

 roughish at the outer edge. 

 The figure in Engl. Bot., drawn, like Mr. Curtis's, from a garden 

 specimen, is very correct and characteristic. Of the distinctions 

 between this species and the last there is no question ; nor can 

 any good botanist who has really compared them together, all 

 theory apart, have a doubt remaining. There is more uncer- 

 tainty about our teirandrum and the Spanish pentandrum, which 

 it most resembles in size, habit, colour, and calyx j but C. pentan- 

 drum has 5-cleft flowers with small, acute, scarcely cloven, petals, 

 and a remarkably broad membranous margin to the calyx. The 

 Jiower-stalks moreover, even when in fruit, do not exceed the 

 calyx in length. It is true that the flowers of C. tetrandrum by 

 culture now and then become 5-cleft and pentandrous j but its 

 taper-pointed calyx is alone sufficient to keep it distinct from 

 the semidecandrum. 



5. C. arvense. Field Chickweed. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, bluntish; fringed at the base. 

 Petals twice the length of the calyx ; capsule shorter. 



C. arvense. Lifin. Sp. PL 628. Willd. v. 2. 8\3. FL Br. 499. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 2. t. 93. Curt. Lond.fasc. 6. t. 29. Hook. Scot. 143. 

 FL Dan. t. G26. 



Myosotis n. 889. HaU. Hist v. 1. 389. 



M. arvensis, polygoni folio. Tourn. Inst. 245. Faill. Par. 141. 

 <. 30./. 5. 



M, arvensis subhirsuta, flore majore. Tourn. Inst. 24b. VailL 

 Par. 141. *. 30./. 4. 



Caryophyllus arvensis hirsutus, flore majore. Bauh. Pm. 210. 

 Rail Syn. 348. 



C. Holostius. Ger. Etn. 595./. Lob. Ic. 446./. 



Auricula muris pulchro flore albo. Bauh. HisL v. 3. p. 2. 360./. 



In fields, and on banks and hillocks, on a gravelly or chalky soil. 



Perennial. May — August. 



Root creeping. Stems numerous, slightly branched, leafy, round, 

 covered with fine deflexed hairs j recumbent and matted at the 

 base 5 then ascending j from 4 inches to a foot in length. 

 Leaves lanceolate, about an inch long, various m breadth, 

 bluntly pointed, for the most part densely hany ; sometmies 

 smooth, but always fringed about the lower part. Panicles ter- 

 minal, of a few large brilliant-white flowers, whose petals are 

 inversely heart-shaped, and veiny, twice as long as the hairy 

 membranous-bordered calyx. Germen globose. Caps, cylmdri- 



