DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Arenaria. 309 



5. A. verna. 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. PL v. 2. 724. Fl. Br. 482. 

 Engl. Bot. v.^.t.b\2. Dicks. Dr. PL 6. Hort. Sicc.fasc. 13.17. 

 Hook. Scot. 138. Light/. 231. Jacq. Austr. t. 404. 



A. saxatilis. Huds. ed. 1. 168. Penn. Tour in JVales, t. 2./. 1. 



A. juniperina. IVit/i. 424. 



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



A. csespitosa. Ehrh. Herb. 55. 



Alsine n. 807. HalL Hist. v. 1.383. 



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



A. caryophylloides tenuifolia, flore albo punctato. Pink. Al- 

 mag. 22. Phyt. t. 7./ 3. 



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

 12./. 



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



Mount Chick weed. Pet. H Brit. t.f)d./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 aUxxsJiowers, whose red 

 anthers Plukenet mistook for spots. The leaves are smooth, 

 3-ribbcd 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, mem- 

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

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

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



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

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

 laricifolia of Linnaeus ; all very ditVerent from this and from 

 each' other, and hitherto not found wild in Britain. 



6. A.fastigiata. Level-topped Sandwort. 



Leaves awl-shaped. Stem erect, strai<rht, densely corym- 

 bose. I'etals very short. Lateral ribs ot the calyx di- 

 lated. 



