WILD FLOWERS white and greenish 



everyone who owns a pet canary has fed it sprigs of 

 the buds and flowers of the Chickweed. It is one of 

 the very commonest of our dooryard neighbours. Tiny 

 and insignificant to be sure, but this Speedwell is 

 always at home, twelve months of the year. Its slender, 

 leafy, branching stem spreads over the ground in tufts. 

 It is green and smooth, excepting a line of very fine 

 hairs along one side. The small, oval, pointed leaves 

 have a smooth surface and an entire margin. They 

 grow in pairs and the lower ones are short stemmed. 

 Five very deeply notched white petals appear at first 

 sight to be a double quantity of very narrow ones. The 

 five parts of the green calyx are much larger and extend 

 considerably beyond the petals. The stamens are very 

 fine but noticeable. The Chickweed's flowers do not 

 open fully on cloudy days. It is found almost every- 

 where throughout the northern hemisphere in meadows, 

 and woods, and waste places generally. 



FIELD CHICKWEED 



Cerastium arvense. Pink Family. 



A densely tufted perennial, more or less erect in 

 growth, and often covered with minute hairs. It is 

 sparingly branched and grows from four to ten inches 

 high. The starry white flowers are much larger than 

 those of the two preceding species, and have ten 

 yellowish stamens. They are loosely clustered, and 

 the five petals are nicked at the apex into two rounding 

 lobes. The calyx is less than half the length of the 

 petals. The leaves are small and grass-like and occur 



219 



