GREATER STITCHWORT 141 



It is a humus-loving plant requiring a peaty loam or humus soil, 

 usually growing in or near woods, or sheltered tracts where vegetable 

 matter collects. 



The micro fungi Puccinia arenaricz and Ustilago violated are para- 

 sitic on it. 



The leaves are galled by Brachycolus stellarice. Melampsorella 

 Caryophyllacearum (Witches' Broom of Silver Fir) also attacks Great 

 Stitchwort. The beetle Cassida obsoleta, the moths Marsh Pug 



GREATER STITCHWORT (Stellaria ffolos/ca, L.) 



Photo. B Hanley 



Eupithecia pygmczata, Gelechia tricolorella, G. maculea, Coleophora 

 solitariella visit it, and the Hemipteron Siphonophora pisi. 



Holosteum, Dioscorides, is from the Greek holos, all; osteon, bone; 

 and is used by antiphrasis to express the very opposite. Stellaria is 

 from the Latin for star. 



The plant is called Adder's-meat, Adder's Spit, Agworm-flower, 

 Allbone, Bachelor's Buttons, Easter Bell, Billy White's Buttons, Bird's- 

 eye, Bird's-tongue, Brandy-snaps, Break-bones, Cuckoo-flower, Cuckoo- 

 meat, Cuckoo's Victuals, Dead Man's Bones, Devil's Corn, Devil's 

 Eyes, Easter Flower, Scurvy, Snake and Star Grass, Headache, 

 Lady's Lint, Lady's White Petticoat, May Flower, May-grass, Milk- 



