Cerastium. CARYOPHYLLACEiE. 229 



U. S. Nat. Herb. i. 93, t. 2. — Hills, Texas, Blanco, Wright, to Arizona, on the Mogollons, 

 Greene, Santa Catalina Mts., Lemmon. (Max., Palmer ; Lower Calif., Brandegee.) 



C. maximum, L. Stolouiferous perennial with stems simple or nearly so, erect or decum- 

 bent, becoming a foot or more in heiglit : leaves linear or lanceolate, attenuate : flowers 

 very large for the genus, an inch in diameter, borne on erect pedicels in simple or compound 

 cymes : sepals oblong or narrowly ovate, obtuse, 3 to 4 lines long : petals obovate, much 

 exceeding the calyx, deeply notched at the apex : capsule symmetrical, much exserted at 

 maturity. — Spec. i. 439 ; Ledeb. Ic. t. 242 ; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 399 ; Seem. Bot. 

 Herald, 51. C. grande, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 229. — Alaska. (Siljeria.) Asiatic specimens 

 of this species, identified at the St. Petersburg Gardens, show that the capsule becomes 

 cylindric and much longer than figured by Ledebour. 



§ 2, Orthodon, Seriuge. Styles normally 5 ; teeth of capsule erect or 

 spreading ; the edges sometimes slightly retiexed. — Seringe, I.e. 415, — Our 

 species have pubescent leaves. 



* Flowers comparatively small : petals 1 to 1 1 times as long as the sepals. 



-K- Pods 1 to If times as long as the calyx : introduced or doubtfully indigenous weeds. 



C. vulgAtum, L. (Common Mouse-ear Chickweed.) Perennial, viscid-pubescent, leaves 

 oblong, obtusely pointed : lower pedicels in fruit considerably exceeding the calyx : bracts 

 herbaceous : sepals 2 to 3 lines long, obtuse, often purple-tipped, appearing acute through 

 the infolding of the scarious margins : petals as long as the calyx. — Spec. ed. 2, 627 ; 

 Kegel, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxv. 313; Wats. Bibl. Index, 101; Wats. & Coulter in 

 Gray, Man. ed. 6, 88. C. viscostan, L. in herb.; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 187; Gray, Man. 

 eds. 1-5, etc. C. fulvum, Raf. Pre'c. De'couv. 36. C. triviale, Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. i. 

 433. — Very common on roadsides, in fields, etc., but also often remote from habitations 

 and cultivated ground, thus perhaps native ; fl. through the summer. (Probably nat. from 

 the Old World.) 



C. viscosuM, L. (Mouse-ear Chickweed.) Annual, lower and less spreading than the 

 last, viscid-pubescent, 3 inches to a span higli : leaves oval or elliptic-oblong, very obtuse ; 

 the lowest narrowed below to short margined petioles : flowers small, at first densely clus- 

 tered at the ends of the branches, becoming laxer in fruit, but even the longest pedicels not 

 exceeding the .acute sepals, which are If to 2 lines in length: bracts herbaceous: petals 

 scarcely equalling the calyx : stamens frequently 5. — Spec. i. 437 ; Hook. f. Arc. PI. 288 ; 

 Wats. Bibl. Index, 101 ; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 88. C. vulgatum, L. in herb. ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 187; Gray, Man. eds. 1-5; and others. C. Mrsutum, Muhl. Cat. 46. 

 C. glomeratum, Tliuill. as used by Hook. f. and others. C. connatum. Beck, Bot. 55. Depau- 

 perate forms with few flcjwers and short capsule have been regarded as indigenous, being 

 the C. viscosum, var. tenellum, Grenier, 1. c. 266, and the C. semidecandrum, of authors, not 

 of L. — Roadsides, lawns, etc., widely distributed in the United States and Canada, but in 

 most regions much less common than the preceding. (Probably nat. from the Old World.) 

 Delicate specimens apparently to be referred to this species, but with minute apetalous 

 flowers, have been collected at San Diego, Calif., Orcutt. 



C. semidecAndrum, L. Near the two preceding, but smaller and with shorter leaves: bracts, 

 at least the upper ones, conspicuously scarious-margined : pedicels in fruit longer than the 

 calyx. — Spec. i. 438; C. rulgntum, var.? semidecandrum, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 94. — New Jer- 

 sey, Britton, Peters, to Norfolk, Va., Britton, Small. (Adv. from Eu., W. Asia.) 



-)— -1— Pods 2 to 3 times as long as the calyx : indigenous species. 



C. brach^podum, Robinson. Pale green annual, finely pubescent and sometimes very 

 viscid: leaves linear-oblong to oblanceolate, obtusish, seldom more than an inch in length: 

 flowers in more or less open dichotomous cymes ; pedicels, even the lower ones, only equal- 

 ling or little exceeding the capsules, erect or deflexed, straight or gently curved, not hooked. 

 — Robinson in Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, v. 1.50, & Proc. Am. Acad. xxix. 277. C. nutans, 

 var. brachi/jiodum, Engelm. in herb. — St. Louis, Mo., Engelmann, to the Black Hills, S. 

 Dakota, Ri/dberg, westward and southward to Nevada, Anderson, Watson, Arizona, Palmer, 

 New Mexico, Fendler, and Louisiana. (Mex., Schaffner, Palmer, Hartman.) C. tenellum, 



