32 CARYOPHYLLACEyE. 



garden plant which occurs occasionally as an escape, 

 e.g., on the hill side below the church at Kodaikanal. 



CERASTIUM. F.B.I. i8 x. 



Chickweed. 



Named from the Greek KERAS, a horn, because of 

 the comparatively long and curved capsule, its most 

 distinguishing characteristic. Pubescent and sticky 

 weak-stemmed herbs with broad sessile leaves and small 

 white flowers in terminal cymose panicles, and having 

 the sepals free. Not unlike STELLARIA but for the long 

 pod. 



Species loo distributed over the northern temperate regions 

 and on tropical mountains, but absent from Australia (except 

 the common garden Chickweed, C. vulgatum Z. 

 Capsule ^ inch, or less ; flowers few, the branches of the 



panicle bifurcating C. indicum. 



Capsule % inch or more ; branches of panicle constantly 



branching into three C. vulgatum. 



Ccrastium indicum Wight and Arnott ; Wight Herh, 



No. 149 ! ; F.B.L i 227, X 3. Stems very slender. Leaves 



lanceolate or elliptic, acute, I^ by Ys inch, smaller 



towards the top, and reduced to small scales under the 



branches of the inflorescence. Flowers few in dichot- 



omous cymes, with widely spreading pedicels. Capsules 



not much longer than the sepals, t. 25. Wight 111. i 26. 



In sholas on the Nilgiri and Pulney hills, but not on the 

 Bombay Ghats. Fyson 331, 389. ^ Bourne 231, 756. 



Cerastium vulgatum Litui. var glomerata Thuillier ; 

 F.B.L i 228, X 4 ; Common or Mouse-ear Chickweed. A 

 coarsely hairy, more or less sticky herb, typically annual 

 but occasionally perennial, very variable in habit. 

 Ground leaves narrow and stalked, stem leaves sessile. 



