Caryophyllaceæ. 



255 



Stellaria longipes. The primary root lives for a long 

 time. This species has prostrate shoots with very long inter- 

 nodes, with a few or seл^eral adventitious roots, and with 

 very distinct, long and thin, scale-leaf-bearing runners, each 

 with a straight apex. 



Stellaria borealis. The stems are thin, spreading and 

 often very long. From the basal nodes there proceed typi- 

 cally pale, very slender subterranean runners — shoots 

 bearing scale-leaves. 



Moehringia lateri- 

 flora has lo-ng, thin, 

 prostrate and rooting 

 shoots, with long in- 

 ternodes, and, as far 

 as could be observed, 

 thin subterranean run- 

 ners, with slender roots 

 proceeding from the 

 leaf-axils. 



Honckenya peploi- 

 des is the species which has the most decidedly typical, 

 strong and far-spreading subterranean runners. The Arc- 

 tic specimens appear to agree exactly with the Danish 

 as regards the peculiarities of their runners, their 

 serially-placed axillary buds, their dwarf-shoots with as 

 many as 45 close-set leaf-pairs, etc. (described and figured 

 by Warming in 1877—79, see also 1891, 1906, 1918, Fig. 12). 



The germination is described by Joh. Erikson 

 (1896). When gro\Adng on beaches, the cotyledons and 

 the lowermost internodes of the epicotyl stem are bu- 

 ried in the sand by the wind, and are thereby, and perhaps 

 also by root-contraction, carried down into the ground. In 



17* 



Fig. 12. Stellaria crassifolia. 



Its winter-buds are densely filled with 



starch. (From Tromsø). (E. W.) 



