CARYOPHYLLACE^— RANUNCULACE^ 323 



5. STELLARIA. Chickweed. 



Small, weak herbs with sepals 4-5, petals of equal number and deeply 

 cleft or sometimes wanting: stamens 10 or less: styles usually 3: pod 

 opening by twice as many valves as there are styles. 



S. media, Smith. Common chickweed. Fig. 457. Little prostrate 

 annual, making a mat in cultivated grounds, with ovate or oblong leaves 

 mostly on hairy petioles: flowers solitary, minute, white, the 2-parted petals 

 shorter than the calyx, the peduncle elongating in fruit. 

 Europe: very common. Blooms in cold weather. 



G. CERASTIUM, Mouse-eak Cnit.KVk'EED. 



Differs from Stellaria chiefly in having 5 styles and 

 pod splitting into twice as many valves. The two fol- 

 lowing gray herbs grow in lawns. From Europe. 



C.viscdsum, Linn. Annual, about 6 in. high: leaves \^:i_0^ 

 ovate to spatulate: flowers small, in close clusters, the ""T" "^ "" 

 petals shorter than the calyx, and the pedicels not longer CO 

 than the acute sepals. 457. Stellaria media. 



C. vulgd,tum, Linn. Perennial and larger, clammy-hairy: leaves oblong: 

 pedicels longer than the obtuse sepals, the flowers larger. 



XV. RANUNCULACE^. Crowfoot, or Buttercup, Family. 



Mostly herbs, with various habits and foliage: parts of the flower 

 typically all present, free and distinct, but there are some apetalous 

 and dicEcious species: stamens many: pistils many or few, in the 

 former case becoming akenes and in the latter usually becoming folli- 

 cles. Upwards of 30 genera and 1,000 to 1,200 species. Characteristic 

 plants are buttercup, anemone, meadow-rue, marsh-marigold or 

 cowslip, adonis, clematis, larkspur, aconite, columbine, baneberry, 

 peony. Known from Rosacete by the hypogynous flowers. 



A. Herbs: not climbing. 



B. Fruits akenes, several or many from each flower, 

 c. True petals none, but the sepals petal-like (and 

 involucre often simulating a calyx). 

 D. Penduneles 1-flowered, or fls. in umbels. 



E. Involucre of 2 or more Ivs. some distance 



below the flower 1. Anemone 



EE. Involucre of 3 sepal-like leaves close to the 



flower 2. Bepatica 



EEE. Involucre of 3 compound Ivs., sessile at 

 base of umbel: pistils fewer than in 

 Anemone 3. Anemonella 



