CLASS X. ORDER III. J STELLARIA. 641 



Root fibrous. Stem from twelve to eighteen inches high, slender, 

 and procumbent at the base, round, hollow, and more or less thickly 

 clothed with soft somewhat glutinous pubescence, especially above, 

 simple, rarely branched below, but above divided into forked panicles. 

 Leaves mostly an inch and half long, opposite, entire, with a mid-rib 

 and slender branched veins, of a cheerful green colour, paler beneath, 

 and more or less clothed with pubescence, the upper ones sessile, ovate, 

 acute, the lower ones ovate, acute, rounded, or heart-shaped at the 

 base, and elevated upon a footstalk of greater or less length, sometimes 

 as long as the leaf. Flotvers pure white, numerous, in terminal forked 

 panicles, with a solitary one from the axis of the divisions. Peduncles 

 about an inch long, slender, downy, erect in flower, recurved when in 

 fruit. Calyx in five lanceolate segments, with membranous margins, 

 smooth, or slightly downy, with three or five slender ribs. Petals 

 about as long again as the calyx, deeply divided into two narrow lobes. 

 Stamens on slender Jilaments, with ovate yellow anthers. Styles three, 

 with obtuse stigmas. Capsules cylindrical, separating to below the 

 middle into six linear valves. Seeds numerous, small, attached to a 

 central linear elongated receptacle. 



Habitat. — Moist woods, especially in the North of England and the 

 Lowlands of Scotland. 



Perennial ; flowering in May and June. 



This species has sometimes been mistaken for Cerastium aquaticmn, 

 Linn., from which, however, it is readily distinguished by its petiolated 

 heart-shaped leaves in the lower part of the stem, independent of other 

 characters. It varies considerably in the hairiness of the stem and 

 leaves, which are sometimes nearly smooth, except on the margins. 



Sect. 2. DicHODON, Bartling. Koch Flora Germ, et Helvet, p. 

 118. Capsule bursting at the apex, with six teeth; columella 

 linear, elongated ; stem round. 



2. S. cerasioi' des, Linn. (Fig. 730.) Alpine Stitchwort. Stem 

 round, procumbent at the base, with an alternate hairy line, about 

 three flowered; peduncles hairy, after flowering reflexed; leaves 

 sessile, oblong, lanceolate, acute, the lower ones obtuse ; calyx downy, 

 about half as long as the bifid petals. 



a. Leaves hairy. 



S*. cerastoides, Linn. — Cerastium nivale, Don Mos. — C. trigyrum, 

 Vill. delph. 3. p. 645. t. 46.— Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 208.— 

 De Cand. Prod. p. 1. p. 398. 



/3. glabra. Leaves smooth. 



S. cerastoides. — Wulf in Jacq. Coll. v. 1. p. 254. t. 19. — English 

 Botany, t. 911.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 305. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 

 53.—^. triflora.—J)e Cand Prod. p. 1. p. 398. 



Root fibrous. Stems from three to four inches long, the base naked, 

 procumbent, branched, becoming erect and leafy, round, with an 

 alternate hairy line from one pair of leaves to another, terminating in 



