CERASTIUM. 
C. tomentosum, but so much less woolly that the woolliest forms of 
C. Boissieri only draw near to the baldest of C. tomentosum. 
C. carinthiacum, a shingle-plant of the Eastern Alps, a fearsome 
ramper, running everywhere with masses of grey-green narrow foliage, 
concealed by drifts of white in summer. 
C’. glaciale is a form of C. latifolium, q.v. 
C. gnaphalioeides is woollier yet than the woolliest varieties of 
typically woolly C. alpinum. This is a choice and densely-tufted 
species from the high Alps of Lycia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia, with 
narrow leaves on the stems, erect fruit-pedicels, and a short stem 
carrying from one to five flowers. 
C. grandiflorum, another species of overwhelming habit but most 
beautiful and well known, with its rolling sheets of grey, very narrow 
leaves, thick and recurving often at the edge, snowed under by large 
white flakes of purity. 
C. latifolium is the brilliant chickweed of the uppermost alpine 
stone-shingles, where it associates with Viola cenisia and Campanula 
cenisia ; it is a taprooted thing, matted and straying, with broadly 
ovate leaves, and delightful large bell-shaped blossoms of purest 
white. The species is said to divide into two main branches, of which 
C. latifolium prefers the highest limestone Alps, while the exactly 
similar, but rather hairier and smaller C. uniflorum (C. glaciale) 
prefers the granitic. In cultivation both of these are grateful for 
the moraine in which to do their best and make their loveliest show. 
C. lithospermifolium is a loose velvety plant from the Altai, leafy 
and flopping, with showers of extremely large and notable flowers. 
C. macranthum is the finest, however, of all. It forms a tuft of 
upstanding stems from 5 to 10 inches high, very thickly set, towards 
the base, with narrow grey-white leaves, which can be as much as 
3 inches long towards the bottom of the flowering shoots, while on the 
barren shoots they are much narrower. The whole growth gives the 
effect of some erect wiry little Helianthemum ; until the wide loose 
heads of blossom are produced, large and snowy and splendid, the most 
impressive in the family. It comes from the high screes of Lycia, 
Isauria, &c., and should be treated as such, though it will also prove 
happy in more ordinary places. 
C. maximum, also from the Altai, makes a display of similar 
refulgence, a hairy and almost glandular species, emitting runners, and 
throwing up magnificent pure flowers in a loose head or umbel. 
Neither of these last should be tried in the middle of a select plot, for 
fear that in time they might show the devouring proclivities of C. 
grandiflorum and C. Biebersteinit. 
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