C E R AST I U M A R V E X S E 



FIELD MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED. 



NATURAL ORDER, CARVori I VI.LACK.K. 



Cerastium ARVENSE, Linnaeus. — Pubescent, somewhat cxspitosc ; leaves linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, often longer than the internodes; cjthc on a long terminal peduncle, four-flowcrcd; 

 petals more than twice longer than the calyx; capsule scarcely exceeding the sepals. 

 Flowers white, rather large. (Wood's Class-Book of Botany. See also Gray's Manual of 

 the Botany of the Northern United States, Chapman's /''/ora of the Southern L'niteJ Stales, 

 and Brewer and Watson's Botany of California.) 



|VERY traveller knows how pleasant it is to meet a friend 



in a foreign country and far away from home. A similar 



sensation is experienced by the botanist when he meets with an 



old floral acquaintance in a strange land, or in some unexpected 



place. The flower acts like the well-known human face. Old 



associations are recalled, old scenes come back to the memory, 



and for the moment all else is forgotten in the recollection of 



"home, sweet home." The writer of this, in the summer of 



1871, had just such an experience with the subject of the present 



chapter. He had often admired the plant with its chaste flowers, 



as it adorned the wooded and rocky banks of the Schuylkill, and 



other places in the Atlantic States, where, in the lines of Hryant, 



these — 



" fair white blossoms of the wood 

 In groups beside the pathway stood," 



and the reader may therefore imagine the pleasure with whicii 

 the plant was hailed, when it was found one evening as the 

 writer and his little party were i)reparing to i)itch their tent for 

 the night on their camping-ground in Bergen Park, Colorado, 



