CLOVE PINK TRIBE 127 



in flower from May to July, may be known by its four stamens ; and this is 

 a pretty constant character, though it occasionally has five : the corolla is 

 also 4-cleft, and it has leafy bracts. It grows on waste places, walls, and 

 sandy grounds, chiefly, as at Yarmouth, near the sea ; but it is not a common 

 plant, and a form of the preceding species is often mistaken for it. 



* * Petals miu'li longer than the calyx. 



5. Field Chickweed (C arvrnse). — Leaves narrow, tapering, downy ; 

 petals twice as long as the sepals ; stem much branched, and bending down 

 at the base. Plant perennial. This is by far the handsomest of our common 

 Mouse-ear Chickweeds, having large milk-white flowers, growing two or three 

 together on terminal stalks. It blossoms during May and June, and it 

 would remind us of the flower of the greater stitch wort, but that the petals 

 are thicker in texture, while the foliage has a dull, greyish-green tint, instead 

 of the rich bright green of the stitchwort leaf, which resembles the young 

 blade of corn in its verdure. The Field Chickweed grows in dry sandy and 

 gravelly places, on sunny banks or downs, and is, in some parts of England, 

 a common flower, though in others unknown. It is less frequent in Scotland. 



6. Alpine Mouse-ear Chickweed (C. alpmurn). — Stem ascending; 

 leaves elliptical, egg-shaped, or oblong ; flowers few ; bracts leafy, having 

 usually a narrow membranous margin. Plant perennial. This is a truly 

 alpine plant, growing high up on the mountains of the Highlands, on 

 Helvellyn, and other lofty places, and often in great abundance. It is from 

 three to five inches high, and bears, from June to August, large handsome 

 white blossoms, which delight the lover of alpine flowers. The whole plant 

 is often covered with soft silky down. 



7. Broad-leaved Alpine Mouse-ear Chickweed (C. latifulium). — 

 Leaves somewhat egg-shaped ; stem prostrate and tufted ; branches usually 

 single-flowered. Plant perennial. This, too, is a mountain flower, its foliage 

 wearing a deeper green tint than that of the last species, which it much 

 resembles. It is chiefly distinguished by its often solitary flowers, and by 

 the short yellowish down with which its leaves are covered. 



8. Stitchwort Mouse-ear Chickweed (C. trlgynum). — Stems bending, 

 with an alternate hairy line ; leaves oblong, tapering at the base ; flowers 

 mostly terminal, two or three together. Plant perennial. This j^lant, which' 

 grows on the Breadalbane mountains of Scotland, and on other mountains 

 north of that range, has large flowers of pure white, during July and August. 

 The much-branched stems are from four to six inches high, and the foliage 

 is downy. This plant is by some writers called Stellaria cerastoides. 



9. Water Mouse-ear Chickweed(C. aqudticum). — Lower leaves stalked, 

 upper ones sessile, lance-shaped, tapeying to a point ; capsule opening with 

 five 2-cleft teeth. Plant perennial. This plant is the largest of the genus, 

 and is, in its general habit, so similar to Stellaria nimorum, that many writers 

 think that it should at least be considered as belonging to the same genus. 

 It difters, however, from that plant by its fewer styles, and by having hairs 

 only on the margin of its leaves. It has white flowers during July and 

 August, and its stem is one or two feet high. Some writex's make it a 

 distinct gcjius, under the name of Maldchium, naming it from the Greek 



