DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cera^tium. Si^9 



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



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



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



^. In hedges and cultivated fields, no less common. 



y. In hedges and fields; but rarely. 



Perennial, a. May, June. /3, y, June — Sept. 



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 j3 and y 2i or 3 feet. Leaves ovate, 

 acute, soft, rather wavy 3 the lower ones stalked j upper nar- 

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

 flowered, partly forked. Cat. tuljular, 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 jjhint. St/jles 5, u'ith long, twisted, downy stigmas. Caps. 

 ovate, of I cell. 



Tlic 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 

 ))iant Avhen transplanted. The statu, 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 /3, 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 Chicku-eed. 



Linn. Gen. 232. Ju.ss,30\. Fl.Br.]96. Lam. t. 392. Gcirtn. t. \30. 

 Myosotis. Tourn. t. 1 26. Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 388. 



Nat. Orel, see ?/. 211. 



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

 nent leaves, membranous at the edges. Pc/. 5, divided, 

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

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

 or i, shorter than the corolla; alternate ones sliorlest. 

 A}ith. roundish, 2-lobed. Chrm. ovate, superior, sessile. 

 Styles 5, rarely but 1, short. S//<^ni. bluntish, downy. 

 ('aj)s. membranous, cylindrical or ovate, of 1 cell, open- 

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

 Seals numerous, roundish, rough. 



n('rl)s, aiuuial or perennial; liairy, smooth, or cottony. 

 Leaves o\'i\\.(i or clli[>lical, rarely lanceolate, always enliic, 



