138 



CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 



capsule is one-celled, shaped like a tiny flask, opening at the top 

 by six outward-curving teeth. Seeds many, very small, com- 

 pressed, rough. (Fig. 89.) 



Means of control 



Ground preferred by Sandwort is not fit to grow much else, 

 until it has been enriched and supplied with humus, which will 

 enable it to retain moisture ; better plants will then soon take the 

 place of the weed. 



GRASS-LEAVED STITCHWORT 



Stellaria graminea, L. 

 (Alsine graminea, Britton) 



Other English names : Lesser Stitchwort, Grassy 



Starwort. 

 Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds 



and by rootstocks. 

 Time of bloom : May to July. 

 Seed-time: June to August. 

 Range: Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario, 



southward to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

 Habitat: Fields, meadows, and roadsides. 



Graceful plants, which are usually found 

 growing in small patches, as the rootstocks 

 send up flowering stalks at intervals of a few 

 inches. Stems two inches to two feet high, 

 slender, weak, four-angled, and roughened on 

 the angles, simple below the flower-cluster. 

 Leaves opposite, narrowly lance-shaped, broad- 

 est just above the base, the lower ones smaller 

 than those near the top. Flowers in loose, 

 terminal, many-branching cymes, on very 

 slender, spreading pedicels ; sepals narrow and 

 pointed, slightly shorter than the five white 

 petals, which are so deeply cleft as to look 

 like ten, the blossoms being nearly a half- 

 inch broad; stamens usually ten, sometimes 

 fewer ; styles usually three, occasionally four 

 or five. Capsules oblong-ovoid, exceeding the 



w 



FIG. 90. Grass- 

 leaved Stitchwort 

 (Stellaria graminea'). 

 X*. 



