80 CARYOPHYLLACEZ, AGROSTEMMA. 
CERASTIUM. 
Washington to California. 
4 AGROSTEMMA L. Gen. n. 379. 
Erect annuals or. biennials with linear leaves and showy, usu- 
ally red, flowers. Calyx ovoid; with 10 strong ribs, its lobes con- 
spicuously prolonged into foliaceous appendages. Petals 5, 
unappendaged. Stamens 10. Styles 5, opposite the petals. 
Capsule 1-celled. Seeds laterally attached: embryo curved. 
A. Grrnago L. Sp. 435. Lychnis Githago Scop. Hirsute annual: stems 
1-6 feet high, dichotomously branched: leaves linear: flowers on long ped- 
uncles: calyx cylindrical campanulate, with very long teeth, coriaceous: 
petals large, purple, the blade obcordate; scales none, capsule sessile. 
Cultivated fields. 
Tribe-II. Alsinew DC. Sepals free or slightly united at the 
very buse. Petals more or less contracted at base, but not unguicu- 
late, unappendaged, inserted on the outside of the hypogynous or 
more or less perigynous disk. Flowers mostly small; styles distinct 
to the base. Ovary sessile. 
* Stipules none: petals entire or 2-lobed. 
5 CERASTIUM L. Gen. n. 585. 
Low herbs with white flowers in terminal bracteate dichoto- 
mous cymes. Sepals 5, nut carinate. Petals 5, emarginate o- 
bifid. Stamens 10. Styles 5, rarely 3 or 4. Capsule cylindrir 
or cylindric-conic, often incurved, 1-celled, many-seeded, dehis- 
cent by twice as many teeth as styles. Seeds subreniform-glo- 
bose, usually granulate. 
* Viscid pubescent annuals. 
C. petal! gir scare Muhl. Cat. 46 C. nutans Raf. Prec. Dec. 36. 
Erect, usually branching from the base, 4-10 inches high: leaves narrowly 
oblong or linear-lanceolate, acute, clasping ‘-1'4 inches long: cymes 
often many-flowered; pedicels often nodding or detlexed in fruit; calyx 
1144-2 lines long, the petals ios owed longer : capers 4-6 lines long curved, 
Sandy river bottoms, eastern Oregon to the Atlantic. 
C. viscosum L. Sp. 437. Suberect, 3-12 inches high, dichotomously 
branched above, leaves ovate or obovate or oblong-ovate 6-12 lines long: 
flowers in close clusters on very short pedicels: sepals 4, lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, with narrow scarious margins 11-2 lines long: petals notched with 
rounded lobes, about equalling the sepals: capsule narrow, at length much 
exserted. Throughout temperate North America in cultivated fields, etc. 
* * Perennials. 
C. vuieatum L. Sp. ed. 2,627. Prostrate and rooting at the nodes or sub- 
erect, 4-12 inches high ; pubescent with spreading hairs: leaves spatulate or 
oblanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 6-15 lines long: flowers in clusters at: 
the ends of the branches, on slender pedicels 1-2 lines long: sepals lanceo- 
late acute with scarious tips, 2-8 lines long: petals oblong 2-toothed, about: 
equalling the sepals. Common everywhere, introduced from Europe. 
C. pilosum Ledeb. Mem. Acad. Petr. v, 539 (?). Erect, rather stout, 
more or less densely pilose, glandular-pubescent above, leaves oblong-lan- 
ceolate 6-12 lines long, 1-6 lines broad, acute, almost sheathing at base: 
flowers large, few: . calyx 3-4 lines long, the petals half longer: capsule 6— 
10 lines long, the slender teeth at length circinate. Alaska.and.Siberia.to: 
a 
