DECANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Stellaria. 411 



Seeds many, roundish, compressed, rough with tuber- 

 cles, fixed to the receptacle. 



Common Chick-weed. Alsine media. Linn. Alsine media* 



pentastemon, or 5-stamened, fl. dan. 525; Bot. arr. ed. ii. 323. 

 Alsine media decastemon, or 10-stamened, fl. dan. 438 ; Bot. 



arr. 324. 



A March— Oct.* 



S. Leaves strap-shaped, very entire: flowers in panicles. gramin'ea 



E. bet. 803~X»ij>L IQ-Gmel. iv. 6l, 2-Pet. 58. Z-Ger. 



43. 2-J. B. iii. 36l. 3. 



Calyx leaves ribbed, in the S. Holostea not so. Dr. Stokes. 

 Leaves strap-spear-shaped. Petals as long as the cup ; white. 



Meadows, pastures, hedge banks. 



t 



May 



S, Leaves spear-strap-shaped, very entire, glaucous green, glau'ca. 



in cross-pairs : petals half as large again as the calyx. 



FL ox.\ 



E.b$t. 825-Pet, 58. 9. 



Corners of the stem roughish. Leaves strap-shaped, acute, 

 very entire ; but when magnified the edges appear set with very 

 minute teeth, though not rough to the touch. Panicle lateral. 

 Petals not quite twice the length of the calyx. The stem and 

 leaves appear under a lens sprinkled with numerous, minute, 

 white dots, and its glaucous colour is owing to this circum- 

 stance. Mr. Brown. 



Differs from the S. graminea } not only in having shorter 

 and stiffer stems, but the leaves also are more rigid, glaucous 

 and acute, and the flowers are larger. Ray. Syn. 347. 3. Flowers 

 white. 



Glaucous leaved Stitchwort. S. media. Fl. ox. S. graminea* 



fi. Huds. On ditch banks in the Isle of Ely, plentiful. Rat* 



* Flowers upright, and open from 9 in the morning to noon ; but if it 

 rains that day they do not open. After rain they become pendent, but 

 in the course of a few days rise again. Caps, opens with 6 valves, let- 

 ting fall the seeds. Seeds round, compressed, yellow, rough with little 

 tubercles. Bloss. white.— This species is a notable instance of what is 

 called the Sleep of Plants — for every night the leaves approach in pairs, so 

 as to include within their upper surfaces the tender rudiments of the new 

 shoots ; and the uppermost pair but one, at the end of the stalk, are fur- 

 nished with longer leaf- stalks than the others, so that they can close upon 

 the terminating pair, and protect the end of the branch. Lins. The 

 young shoots and leaves, when boiled, can hardly be distinguished from 

 spring spinach, and are equally wholesome. Swine are extremely fond of 

 it ; cows and horses eat it ; sheep are indirferent to it ; and goats refuse it. 

 It is a grateful food to small birds and to young chickens. 



+ As it appears necessary to introduce the Alsine media into this genus, 

 the trivial name affixed to this plant by Dt. Sibthorpe, could not well be 

 retained. 





