102 FLORA OF NOVA SC')TIA — LAWSON. 



S. f/raminea ; leaves broadest above the base, pedicels spread- 

 ing- -widely, seeds rough (rugose). 



Stellaria ulioixosa, Murray. Margins of ponds, ditches, 

 and wet places in the woods, around Bedford Basin, etc. Halifax 

 County, A. H. Mackay. Connnon in small rills, Point Pleasant, 

 Halifax, Macoun and Buro-ess. 



Stellaria borealis, Bigeloiv. Magdalene Islands, A. H. 

 Mackay. 



Cerastium vulgatum, Linn. Sp. PI. Abundant in many 

 places. Halifax Peninsula, Dartmouth, Bedford Basin, Sackville, 

 etc. Our plant is perennial, with leafy barren shoots, hairy but 

 not glandular, petals rather larger than the calyx, and it corre- 

 sponds with C. triviale, Link. It agrees with the description in 

 Species Plantarum, lait not with Vaillant's figure and description 

 of " Myosotis arvensis hirsuta, 'parvo jiore albo," upon which it 

 is founded, which has small flowers, the j^etals equalling the 

 calyx. It is not " clammy-hairy," as descriljed in the Gth edition 

 of Gray's Manual. Linnaeus distinguishes his vvJgatuni as simi- 

 lar to viscosum, but more tufted, which seems of itself to iden- 

 tify our Nova Scofeian plant with it ; he notes viscosum as an 

 annual. 



Cerastium viscosum, Linn. Sp. PI. Owing to the confusion 

 in names between this and the preceding species, I forbear giving 

 special localities until specimens can be examined with care. 

 Vaillant's figure of " M. hirsuta altera viscosa," cpioted for C. 

 viscosum in Species Plantarum, has large flowers, with petals 

 exceeding the calyx, whereas what is now regarded as the visco- 

 sum of Sp. PI. by botanists generally, has small flowers, petals 

 shorter than the calyx. 



Two unfortunate mistakes, (1.) the misquoting l)y Linnaeus of 

 Vaillant's figures and descriptions in Botanicon Parisiensi, and 

 (2.) the transposition of the specimens of these two species 

 (viscosum and vulgatum) in the Linnasan Herl)arium, have caused 

 such confusion in the nomenclature of these plants, that many 

 European botanists give up the two names as hopeless, and re- 



