

DECANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. 427 



Com M 









595. Corn fields, gravelly meadows and pastures, at the foot 

 of walls, dry banks and heaths, in Cambridgeshire. Dupper's 

 Hill, near Croydon. [About Bury, frequent, amongst corn. 

 Mr. Woodw. Near Norwich. Mr. Crowe. By hedges, but 

 rarely among corn. Mr. Robson.] P.May — Sept. 



C. Flowers with 5 stamens : petals notched at the end. semidecan'- 



drum 

 Diets. h. s.-Curt. 122-Ray 15. l.atf. 348-Vaill. 30. 2. 



Stems very short. Leaves egg-shaped, opposite, somewhat 

 " channelled, blunt, sprinkled with very short hairs. Fruit-stalks 

 very short, each with 1 flower. Calyx with glutinous hairs, 

 membranaceous at the point and edges* Petals strap-shaped, 

 white, sharply notched at the end. Stam* 5, with white an- 

 thers, the 5 inner ones without anthers. Five nectariferous dots 

 between the fruitful stamens and the petals. Linn. Barren fila- > 

 ments not found with us. Stamens fertile ones sometimes more 

 than five. Flowers white. 



Least Mouse-ear. Walls, pastures and heaths. A. April, May* 



C Flowers with 5 stamens : petals cloven, as long as the pu'milunu 



calyx : capsule twice as long. 



Curt. FL Lond. 



Discovered by Mr. Dickson. Nearly allied to the C. semi- 

 decandrum, but distinguished from that by the flowers being 

 more conspicuous, the petals being near twice the size, fully as 

 long as the calyx, and cloven to y of their length. The cap- 

 sules also are much longer, being for the most part twice the 

 length of the calyx. Curtis. 



On dry banks near Croydon. A Feb. March. 



1 



(2) Capsules roundish* 



C. umbellatum* see Holosteum umbellatum. 



C. Leaves oblong, cottony: fruit-stalks branched: cap- tomento 'sura. 



sules globular. 



Whole plant white, with a dense, compact down. Stems in 

 a thickly matted tuft, forked, with sometimes a single flower on 

 a long fruit-stalk from the division; the divisions branched, 

 expanding, each branch bearing a sort of umbel. Leaves gra- 

 dually narrower downwards. Petals white, as long again as the 

 calyx, cloven not half way down, segments blunt. Woodward. 



Woolly mouse-ear. Specimens gathered in the garden of Mr. 

 Bonfoy of Ripton, whose Gardener, Mr. Whitelock, now Nur- 

 seryman at Fulham, assured me that it was the individual plant 



