68 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
long narrow plantations which are sparsely wooded, 
and where there is a good deal of sunlight. 
The flowers of this pretty species are larger than 
most of the others, and this and the characteristic 
foliage and brittle stem distinguish it. 
It has the grass habit like most of the Stitchworts. 
The stem is tall and erect, branched above, very 
slender and tumid at the joints, quadrangular, and 
like many other Stitchworts geniculate at the base, 
or bent before it becomes erect. 
The leaves are lanceolate acute, with a carina 
beneath, and with a row of stiff hairs along the 
margin, stalkless or sessile. The upper leaves are 
sub-erect with the margin revolute, the lower not so 
long and bent back. 
The large, white satiny flowers have bifid petals. 
The anthers, yellow at first, turn reddish-brown. The 
sepals are half as long as the petals. The flowers 
are grouped in a panicle, and borne on long slender 
pedicels. The globose capsule contains but few 
large, orange, notched seeds. 
This graceful Stitchwort is often two feet in height. 
The flowers may be met with in April up to June. 
But I have seen it in flower at Blindley Heath in 
Surrey in an early season in mid March, with Willow 
Herbs and the barren Strawberry. 
The nectaries are yellow and situated outside the 
outer row of stamens, which are ten in number and 
not so long as the corolla. 
They have a honey pit above and contain much 
