300 DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Stellaria. 



Nat. Ord. see n. 232. 



Cal, inferior, of 5 ovate-lanceolate, concave, acute, spread- 

 ing, permanent leaves. Pet. 5, deeply cloven, spreading, 

 flat, oblong, withering, without claws or scales. Nect. 5 

 notched glands, at the base of the stamens. Filam. thread- 

 shaped, shorter than the petals, 5 alternate ones shortest. 

 A7ith. roundish. Germ, nearly globular, superior. Styles 

 3, capillary, spreading. Stigmas obtuse, downy. Caj)s. 

 ovate, cylindrical, or globular, covered by the calyx and 

 withered corolla, of one cell and 6 valves. Seeds nume- 

 rous, roundish, compressed. 



Some foreign species have the lobes of the petals subdi- 

 vided. 



Herbaceous, smooth or downy, with weak, straggling, forked, 

 leafy stems. Leaves opposite, undivided. Flowers white, 

 inodorous, on solitary, or forked and panicled, stalks. 



1. S. iiemoruin. Wood Stitchwort. 



Lower leaves heart-shaped, stalked; upper ovate, sessile. 

 Panicle repeatedly forked. 



S. nemorum. Linn. Sp. Fl. 603. IViUd. v. 2. 710. Fl. Br. 473. 



Engl. Bot. V. 2. t. 92. Hook. Scot. 135. Fl. Dan. t.27\. 

 Myosotis n. 886. Hall. Hist. v. 1. 388. 

 Alsine montana, folio smilacis instar, flore laciniato. Moris, v. 2. 



550. sect. 5. t. 23. f. 2. Dill, in Rail Sijn. 347. 

 A. altissima nemorum. Bauh. Pin. 250. 

 A. montana hederacea maxima. Column. Ecphr. 289. t. 290. f. 2. 



In moist woods, and the neighbourhood of shady springs^ in the 

 north of England^ and low-lands of Scotland. 



By Casterton mill, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, and in 

 other parts of that county. Also at Meavis bank, near Edin- 

 burgh, as mentioned by Dr. Parsons. Mr. Robson found it in 

 Cliff-wood, near Darlington. 



Perennial. Maij, June. 



Root slender, creeping. Stems lax and spreading, round, hollow, 

 leafy, with a few soft scattered hairs, pointing every way, chiefly 

 about the upper part 3 forked and panicled at the summit. 

 Leaves pale green, tender and rather succulent, most hairy when 

 young ; lower ones heart-shaped, on long stalks ; upper ovate, 

 pointed, larger, and sessile. Fl. numerous, pure vvhite, on downy 

 stalks. Styles never more than 3. Capsules deflexed as they 



ripen. Haller supposed the *S. dicliotona of Linnaeus to be 



this plant in a more advanced state, having lost its lower leaves. 

 But the real dichotoma from Siberia, published in Sm. Plant. Ic. 

 t. \A, is evidently very different. 



