GREATER STITCHWORT 139 
inwards, and the inner ones closely surround the stigma, and self- 
pollinate it, but honey and pollen seekers cross-pollinate it. The 
visitors are Hymenoptera (Apide), Diptera (Syrphide, Muscidee), 
Coleoptera (Nitidulida, Curculionide). 
Jack-by-the-hedge is dispersed by its own agency. The dry pods 
curl and burst open, and the seeds are dispersed to some distance. 
The plant is a sand plant and a humus-loving plant, and flourishes 
best upon a sand soil, in which there is a fair proportion of humus 
soil. 
It thrives on sandstone formations, Keuper, and Liassic formations. 
There are no fungal pests. A Hemipterous insect, S7phonophora 
altiari@, feeds on it. 
Alharia was an old genus proposed by Fuchs, derived from 
Allium, garlic, alluding to its smell. 
This species is called Beggarman’s Oatmeal, Cardiacke, Caspere, 
Eileber, English Treacle, Garlick-wort, Hedge-garlick, Jack-by-the- 
hedge, Leek-cress, Garlick Mustard, Penny Hedge, Poor Man’s 
Mustard, Poor Man’s Treacle, Sauce Alone, Swarms. 
Once it was used as a vegetable and boiled with meat, hence 
the name Sauce Alone. It was fried in Wales with bacon and 
herrings. The garlic smell is most noticeable when the plant is 
rubbed between the fingers. It was employed as a sudorific, and for 
cancers and gangrene. The seeds were used to promote sneezing. It 
was reputed to be antiseptic. 
EsseNTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
32. Sesymbrium Alharia, Scop.—Stem tall, erect, leafy, leaves 
cordate, radical leaves reniform, dentate, sinuate, veined, strong- 
smelling, flowers white, small, pods longer than pedicels, seeds striate. 
Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria Holostea, L.) 
This plant has been found in Interglacial beds in Great Britain. 
It is distributed throughout the Temperate Zone in Europe and 
Western Asia. The Greater Stitchwort is found in every English, 
Scotch, and Welsh county except Mid Lancs, Stirling, N. Perth, 
N. Ebudes, the Hebrides, and Shetlands. It is found at a height 
of nearly 2000 ft. in the Highlands. 
The pretty starlike flowerets of the Greater Stitchwort are a 
welcome sign in early spring of the return of the flowers, and this 
reminder we meet with in every hedgerow or brake, where this 
charming wild flower grows. It is perhaps commoner in narrow 
