62 CARYOPHYLLE. [Gypsophila. 
1. GYPSOPHILA, Linn. 
Annual or perennial herbs, often glaucous, sometimes glandular- 
pubescent or hispid. Flowers usually small, paniculate or solitary 
in the forks of the stem. Calyx campanulate or turbinate, 5-toothed 
or 5-lobed, with 5 broad green nerves separated by membranous 
interspaces. Petals 5, with a narrow claw; limb entire or notched. 
Stamens 10. Ovary 1-celled; styles 2; ovules many. Capsule 
globose or ovoid, 4-valved to or below the middle. Seeds subreni- 
form, laterally attached, embryo curved round the albumen. 
A genus of about 50 species, with the exception of the following one all 
limited to the Mediterranean region and extratropical Asia. 
1. G. tubulosa, Boiss. Diagn. Fl. Or. i. 11.—A dichotomously 
branched erect or spreading annual 2-6in. high, glandular-pubes- 
cent in all its parts, often viscid; stems and branches slender, 
terete. Leaves linear-subulate, 4-4in., rarely longer. Flowers 
solitary in the forks of the branches, sometimes appearing axillary 
from one branch only being developed : peduncles slender, 14tin. 
long. Calyx tubular, with 5 short teeth. Petals red or whitish-red, 
linear-oblong, slightly exceeding the calyx. Capsule ovoid-oblong, 
longer than the calyx, 5-valved at the apex. Seeds black, trans- 
versely rugose and pitted.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 325; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 22; Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 155; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 54. 
NortH Is~tanp: Hast Coast, from Ahuriri to Cape Palliser, Colenso! 
SoutH Istanp: Nelson—Tarndale, Travers. Marlborough, Buchanan. Can- 
terbury—Lake Forsyth, Lake Lyndon, Kirk! Rangitata Valley, Siclair and 
Haast; Mackenzie Plains and Lake Tekapo, T. #.C.; Lake Ohau, Haast. 
Otago—Common in the interior, Hector and Buchanan, Petrie ! Altitudinal 
range from sea-level to 3000 ft. November—January. 
Also widely diffused in Australia, but found elsewhere only in South Europe 
and Asia Minor, from whence it was originally described. Several botanists 
have suggested that it has been introduced both into Australia and New Zealand, 
but so far as the latter country is concerned no evidence has ever been obtained 
in support of such a view. 
2, STELLARIA, Linn. 
Annual or perennial herbs of very various habit, usually low- 
growing and diffuse, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers white, solitary 
or cymose, orien or lateral. Sepals 5, rarely 4. Petals the 
same number, 2-cleft, rarely wanting. Stamens 10 or fewer by 
abortion, hypogynous. Ovary l-celled; styles 3, or rarely 2, 4, or 
5; ovules few or many. Capsule globose to oblong, few or many- 
seeded, dehiscing to below the middie into twice as ‘many valves as 
styles. Seeds granulate, tuberculate, or pitted. 
A genus of about 75 species, dispersed over the whole world, but most 
abundant in cold and temperate regions. The 6 indigenous species are all 
endemic, but 3 others from the Northern Hemisphere have become naturalised. 
One of these, S. media, Linn., the common chickweed, is now so well established 
and has penetrated into such remote localities (it has been gathered in Mac- 
