50 ALSINACEAE. VOL. II. 



9. Cerastium cerastioides (L.) Britton. Starvvort Chickweed. Fig. 1771. 



Stellaria cerastioides L. Sp. PI. 422. 1753. 



Cerastium trigynum Vill. Hist. PI. Dauph. 3: 645. 1789. 



C. cerastioides Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 150. 1894. 



Perennial, glabrous except a line of minute hairs 

 along one side of the stem and branches, rarely 

 pubescent throughout. Flowering branches ascend- 

 ing, 3'-6' long; leaves linear-oblong, 4"-8" long, 

 about i" wide, obtuse, the lower often smaller and 

 slightly narrowed at the base ; flowers solitary or 

 few, 5"-6" broad, long-pedicelled; petals 2-lobed, 

 mostly twice as long as the obtuse or acutish scarious- 

 margined sepals; capsule nearly straight, twice the 

 length of the calyx ; styles 3, rarely 4 or 5 ; sepals 

 and petals 5 or 4. 



Gaspe, Quebec, and in arctic America. Also in arctic 

 and alpine Europe and Asia. Summer. 



3. HOLOSTEUM [Dill.] L. Sp. PL 88. 1753. 



Annual erect herbs, often viscid-pubescent above, with cymose-umbellate, white flowers 

 on long terminal peduncles. Sepals 5. Petals 5, emarginate or eroded. Stamens 3-5, 

 hypogynous. Styles 3. Ovary i-celled, many-ovuled. Capsule ovoid-cylindrical, dehiscent 

 by 6 short valves or teeth. Seeds compressed, attached by the inner face, rough. [Greek, 

 signifying all bone, an antiphrase, the herbs being tender.] 



About 3 species, natives of Europe and temperate Asia, the following typical. 



i. Holosteum umbellatum L. Jagged Chickweed. Fig. 1772. 



Holosteum umbellatum L. Sp. PI. 88. 1753. 



Glabrous or slightly downy below, viscid and 

 glandular-pubescent above, simple, tufted, 5'-i2' 

 high. Basal leaves spreading, oblanceolate or ob- 

 long; stem-leaves oblong, acute or obtuse, sessile, 

 i'-i' long; umbel terminal, 3-8-flowered; pedicels 

 very slender, about i' long, erect or ascending in 

 flower, subsequently reflexed and again erect when 

 the fruit is mature; flowers white, 2"-$" broad; 

 sepals obtuse, about 2" long, scarious-margined, 

 somewhat shorter than the eroded petals; capsule 

 ovoid, nearly twice the length of the sepals, its teeth 

 recurved. 



Very abundant in the vicinity of Lancaster, Pa. ; Dela- 

 ware ; Georgia. Naturalized from Europe. Native also 

 of northern Asia. April-May. 



Moenchia erecta (L.) Gaertn., a low annual, native of 

 Europe, with entire petals, an 8-toothed ovoid pod, the 

 styles opposite the sepals, collected many years ago about 

 Philadelphia and Baltimore, has not been found there 

 recently, and is not illustrated in this edition. 



