228 CARYOPHYLLACEiE. Agrostemma. 



8. AGROSTfiMMA, L. Corn Cockle. (Name from dypd?, field, and 

 a-refifia, crown.) — Gen. no. 379 ; Pax, 1. c. 70. Githago, Desf . Cat. Hort. Par. 

 266; Baill. Hist. PL ix. 108. Lychnis § Githago, DC. Prodr. i. 387; Benth. 

 & Hook. Gen. i. 148. — A genus of two species, both natives of the Mediterra- 

 nean region ; one of them growing in cultivated fields, now cosmopolitan, having 

 been widely disseminated in grain seed. Although often united with Lychnis, 

 these species through the different relative position of the carpels and petals seem 

 to deserve rank as a separate genus, especially if Sagina is to be kept distinct 

 from Arenaria upon the same ground. 



A. Githago, L. Annual or biennial, covered with a long silky appressed or spreading pubes- 

 cence : stem 1 1 to 3 feet high, somewhat branched : flowers few, long-peduncled : leaves 

 linear, acute, 2 to 4 inches in length : corolla 1 to IJ inches in diameter; petals obovate, dark 

 purplish red, somewhat lighter toward the claw, and with small black spots : calyx-teeth 

 usually an inch or more in length. — Spec. i. 435; Fl. Dan. t. 576; Eng. Bot. t. 741; 

 Eeichenb. 1. c. Lychnis Githago, Scop. Fl. Carn. ed. 2, i. 310. Githago segetum, Desf. 1. c. 

 266. — An attractive but troublesome weed, common in grain fields; fl. summer. (Introd. 

 from Eu.) The fresh seeds have been found to contain an active poisonous principle, which 

 is expelled, it is said, by roasting. 



9. H0L6STEUM, Dill. ("OXo?, whole, and oo-reov, bone; 'OXoareov is 

 used by Dioscorides for some unknown plant, possibly, as Prof. Ascherson sug- 

 gests, in allusion to supposed healing properties in cases of bone fracture.) — 

 Nov. Gen. 130, t. 6 ; L. Gen. no. 928 ; Reichenb. 1. c. v. t. 221 ; Gay, Ann. Sci. 

 Nat. ser. 3, iv. 23 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 148. — A small genus of Old World 

 annuals and biennials much resembling Cerastium except in inflorescence and 

 seeds. The commonest species is adventive in America. 



H. UMBELLATUM, L. Finely glandular-pubescent, somewhat glaucous: stems 3 to 18 inches 

 high: leaves sessile, ovate-oblong: umbels 3-12-flowered, terminal upon long naked pedun- 

 cles ; pedicels 8 to 1 2 lines long, some of them reflexed : filaments shorter than the calyx. 

 — Spec. i. 88; Eng. Bot. t. 27. — Locally established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 

 Delaware, Porter, Austin, Canby, Small, Heller & Halbach ; fl. April, May. (Adv. from 

 Eu.) 



10. CERASTIUM, L. Mouse-ear Chickweed. (Kepas, a horn, from 

 the elongated curved capsules.) — Annuals or perennials, mostly pubescent and 

 often viscid. Leaves usually fiat. Flowers white, borne in more or less expanded 

 leafy or naked cymes. — Gen. no. 376 (name ascribed to Dill, by Linn. Syst. 

 ed. 1); Seringe in DC Prodr. i. 414; Grenier, Flora, 1840, pt. 1, 266; 

 Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. v-vi. t. 228-236; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 39, t. 114; Benth. 

 & Hook. Gen. i. 148; Pax. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. .Pflanzenf . iii. Ab. lb, 80; 

 Robinson, Proc. Am. Acad. xxix. 275. — A genus distinguished from Stdlaria 

 and Arenaria somewhat by habit, but chiefly, although not always satisfactorily, 

 by the form and dehiscence of the capsule. 



§ 1. Strephodon, Seringe, 1. c. Styles 3 to 5 ; teeth of the capsule finally 

 circinate-revolute from the tip. — Our species have pubescent leaves. 

 C. Texanum, Britton. Annual, viscid : stems several, slender, almost erect, leafy below, 

 nearly naked and dichotomons above : leaves oblanceolate or spatulate, 6 lines to 2 inches 

 in length, very pubescent or subcinereous on both surfaces : flowers rather small : petals 

 bifid: styles 3 to 4 (to 5 ?) : capsule 1^ to 2 times the length of the calyx. — Bull. Torr. 

 Club, XV. 97 ; Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 29. Stellaria montana, Rose, Contrib. 



