340 



Stellaria graminea. Abundant over the county and island. Var. 

 /3. intermedia, Gaud. Fl. Helv. iii. p. 185. Petals much longer than 

 the calyx ; leaves more or less glaucous. Near Westridge, Isle of 

 Wight. 



holostea. Profusely bedecks our hedgerows with its pure, 



starry blossoms in spring and early summer. Yar. (3. laciniata. 

 Petals scarcely equalling the calyx in length, deeply divided almost 

 to the base into three segments, of which the middle one is linear- 

 lanceolate, the two exterior with a tooth on the inner side. Quarr 

 Copse, Binstead, Isle of Wight, May, 1838. Of this singular variety 

 I found a good many specimens, and at first imagined the laciniated 

 appearance of the petals to have resulted from mutilation by insects, 

 till the regularity of the monstrosity in all, which I traced in the bud, 

 proved to be the work of Nature. In this state the flowers bore some 

 resemblance to those of S. uliginosa. A form very similar, if not the 

 same, is recorded in the ' Phy tologist ' (Phytol. i. 264) for July, 1842, 

 as found near Pont-y-Pool, by Mr. J. Bladon. 



Cerastium glomeratum and C. triviale. Very common in pas- 

 tures, by road-sides, and in waste places over the county and island. 



semidecandrum. On waste, sandy ground, wall-tops, &c, 



very common in spring and early summer in the Isle of Wight, as on 

 Ryde Dover, &c. A most variable and perplexing plant, on the dif- 

 ferent forms of which botanists have wasted much time and ingenuity 

 in endeavouring to find permanent marks of distinction where none 

 exist. We need but compare the descriptions and figures of those 

 who have laboured the most to elucidate our common Cerastia, to 

 be convinced that not one has seized upon any absolutely fixed 

 mark of distinction betwixt C. triviale, semidecandrum, tetrandrum 

 and pumilum, the very multiplicity of their synonyms, and the elabo- 

 rate commentary of Fries (Nov. Fl. Suec), who has still further aug- 

 mented the difficulty attending their study by increasing the species 

 and changing and mixing the names first imposed, prove how little 

 writers have advanced in assigning to each its precise limits. Mr. 

 H. C. Watson's pleasant but somewhat caustic remarks in ' Cybele 

 Britannica ' on the above species, wish two others of more recent cre- 

 ation, are exactly in accordance with my own views of their validity, 

 which have not been hastily assumed, as a few years since I devoted 

 much time and pains to the study of the British species and varieties 

 of this genus inhabiting the south of England. The result of my in- 

 quiry, embodied in notes and descriptions too multitudinous for in- 

 sertion here, even in a condensed form, was only increased perplexity, 



