236 CARYOPIIYLLACE.E. Stellarla. 



S. crispa, Cham. & ScHLECHT. Usually glabrous : stems numerous, weak, decumbent : 

 loiives thin, ovate, commonly crisped on the edges ; the broad base rouuded, subpetiolate ; 

 the apex short-acuminate: pedicels solitary, axillary, 3 to 12 lines lonjj: sepals lanceolate, 

 acute, margined, 3-nerved, considerably exceeded by the acutish capsule : petals minute or 

 iioue. — Linuasa, i. 51 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 97 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 186, 67.T ; Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. viii. 378. 6". borealis, var. crispa, Fenzl in Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 675; Torr. Bot. 

 Wilkes Exped. 245. S. borealis, var. a/)etala, Kegel, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxv. 277, in 

 part. — Mountainous regions of N. California to Alaska. A pubescent but mostly sterile 

 and possibly distinct form from Lake Cushnian, Washington, Piper. 



S. calycantha, Bong. Ferennial, more or less finely pubescent : stems numerous, decum- 

 hfut, branching : leaves ovate-lanceolate, somewhat narrowed toward the more closely sessile 

 base, slightly fleshy or almost as thin as in the last, ciliolate at least near the base : flowers 

 small, nearly or quite apetalous, forming at length a more or less regular dichotomous 

 cvmose inflorescence : capsule broadly ovate and very obtuse or even subglobose. — Veg. 

 Hitch. 127 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 186; Macoun, Cat. Canad. PI. i. 74. Arenaria calycantha, 

 Ledeb. Me'm. Acad. St. Petersb. v. 534. — Mt. Shasta, California, Hook. & Gray, to Wasliing- 

 ton, Howell Bros., Siiksdorf, Brundegee, Allen; Brit. Columbia, Macoun, and S. Alaska, Mertens, 

 ace. to Bongard. (Siberia.) A species referred by Fenzl, 1. c. 382, and by various American 

 writers to S. borealis, but, as it seems, rightly restored to specific rank by Prof. Macoun. 

 A glabrous form, however, from Mt. Paddo, coll. SuLsdorf, scarcely differs from 5. borealis 

 except in its broader leaves and blunter pods, while a pubescent form from Skamania Co., 

 Wasliington, no. 2194 of the same collector, shows in its more racemiform inflorescence a 

 transition to 5. crispa. 



S. ruscifolia, Willd. Glabrous : leaves coriaceous, ovate, subcordate, acuminate, somewhat 

 rigid with pungent tip : flowers rather large, terminal, pedunculate : sepals acute. — Willd. ace. 

 to Schlecht. Berl. Gesell. Nat. Fr. Mag. vii. (1816), 194; Cham. & Schlecht. 1. c. 50; Kegel, 

 1. c. .300. (Siberia.) 



Var. arctica, Kegel, 1. c. 301. "Low stems, scarcely an iucli in length, sepals 

 obtuse. — On the Melville Islands." 



==== = Leaves broad, an inch or more in length. 



S. littoralis, Torr. Pubescent : stems decumbent, dichotomously branched, 8 inches in 

 hei"-ht : leaves ovate, rounded at the base, acute or acuminate, about an inch in length, with 

 definite intramarginal veins : flowers rather numerous in the forks of the branches ; pedun- 

 cles becoming horizontal or deflexed : sepals 2| lines long, acute : petals of nearly equal 

 length, cleft almost to the base: capsule somewhat shorter. — Pacif. R. Kep. iv. 69 ; Brew. 

 & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 68. Alsine littoralis, Greene, Man. Bay-Reg. 34. — California, coast of 

 Marin Co. ; Point Reyes, Bigelow, Blankinship ; Dillon's Beach, Complon ; bluffs near 

 Point Lobos, ace. to Mrs. Brandegee. In habit much resembling the Old World ^\ dicho- 

 toma, L., of which it may well prove a form. It differs, however, in its much more deeply 

 cleft petals. 



S. piibera, Michx. (Great Chickweed.) Perennial, decumbent, stout for the genus: 

 stems pubescent in lines: leaves elliptic-oblong, finely ciliate, acute or obtusish, 6 lines to 1^ 

 inches long, or on the late tall shoots 3 inches in length : calyx nearly or quite smooth ; sepals 

 3 to 4 J lines in length : stamens 10 : capsule globose, not exceeding the calyx ; teeth some- 

 times but not always circinate-revolute as in Cerastium § Strephodon. — Fl. i. 273 ; Darlingt. 

 Fl. Cest. 274 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 183. Alsine piibera, Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, iv. 107. — 

 Rocky woods, Pennsylvania to Georgia, westward to Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana; 

 fl. April, Mav. According to Mr. Thomas Meehan the flowers are proterogynous. Prof. 

 L. F. Ward notes that the large-leaved usually sterile shoots of late spring sometimes bear 

 a few flowers which are smaller in size and shorter-peduncled than the earlier ones. Miss 

 E. F. Andrews states that the petals are sometimes cleft half their length, in other cases 

 nearly to the base, which is confirmed by specimens. 

 * * Petals retuse or shortly bifid, divided only one fourth to one half the way to the base, 



commonly much exceeding the calyx : species approaching Arejwria. 

 -t— Tall or spreading species, adventive on the Atlantic Slope : leaves long, lanceolate to 

 lance-linear, attenuate. 



