44 FLOKA OF TASMANIA. \Caryophyllece . 
\\ foot long, loosely dichotomously branched, flaccid, shining, pilose with flaccid « hite hairs, which are more or less 
evidently disposed in opposite rows, which alternate on the successive internodes. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 
more or less petioled, \-\\ inch long, ciliated at the base, when dry covered with minute white points. Pedicels 
horizontal, more or less deflexed in fruit, 1-3 inches long, sobtary, axillary, one-flowered. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, 
acuminate. Petals white, bipartite (sometimes absent in European individuals). Capsules very variable in size. — 
This plant has been used as a pot-herb in England, and is the common Chickweed, a favourite food of birds. It is 
distributed over the whole globe, rapidly following man, and though undoubtedly wild in Tasmania, I wonder that 
the introduced state has not been sent home : the latter generally becomes, through cultivation, shorter, more pilose, 
with much larger, broader leaves, and comparatively smaller flowers. 
3. Stellaria glauca (With. Bot. Arrang. i. 420) ; gracilis, debilis, caule glaberrimo, foliis remotis 
lineari-subulato-lanceolatis glaberrimis v. margine incrassato minutissime scaberulis, pedicellis solitariis 
axillaribus foliis multoties longioribus, petalis bipartitis sepala ovato-lanceolata acuminata glabra 3-nervia 
aequantibus v. superantibus. — Engl. Bot. t. 825 ; DC. Prodr. i. 397. S. palustris, Retz. Prodr. ed. 2. n. 
548. S. graminea, var. glauca, Linn. Sp. PL S. angustifolia, EooJc. Bot. Journ. i. 250. (Gunn, 238.) 
Var. ? /3. caspitosa ; caulibus brevioribus csespitosis, foliis brevioribus, sepalis ovatis acutis obtusisve. 
— S. csespitosa, Hook. fl. Bond. Journ. Bot. ii. 411. (Gunn, 652, 652?) 
Hab. Formosa, in marshes, Lawrence, Gunn. — Yar. ft. Marshes, Oatlands, Epping Forest, and Cir- 
cular Head, Gunn.—(Fl. Dec.) 
Distrib. New South Wales, temperate and colder Europe, and Northern Asia; probably also in North 
America, though under slightly different forms, and with, consequently, different names. 
Mr. Gunn's specimens appear to be absolutely identical with Engbsh ones ; the leaves are however narrower 
than in some English and continental forms of the species. In the description of S. angustifolia, the leaves are 
described as serrulate in the original specimens, a character I do not find to be constant nor apparent in specimens 
sent since by Gunn ; there are however sometimes a very few scaberulous points on their thickened margins, and I 
find the same in British specimens of S. glauca. The flowers vary extremely in size in the British plant, from -i-f 
inch, and in the relative size of sepals and petals.— Stems slender, 6 inches to 1 foot long, glabrous, shining, with 
scattered pairs of subulate-lanceolate leaves 1-1^ inch long. Flowers \-± inch across, on long, slender, spreading 
pedicels. Sepals five, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with three nerves, and white, glabrous, scarious margins. Petals 
generally longer than the sepals. 
The var. I have referred here with some hesitation. There are no European or North Asiatic specimens of 
*. glauca like it in Herb. Hook., but it precisely accords with some states of 8. longipes, Goldie, which is probably 
a North American form of S. glauca. S. longipes is described (Torrey and Gray, FL N. Am. i. 184) as extremely 
variable, and very abundant in an immense number of localities and over a wide range of country. Some of these 
varieties have blunt, and others acute sepals ; some short stems, and others long. If we are to consider the typical 
state to be that first described as S. longipes, it is remarkable for its long peduncles and short stems; but these cha- 
racters are only applicable to that one state, which is certainly not f.ie usual one, if the extensive suite 
from many locabties in the Hookerian Herbarium can be considered as affording any evidence of the 
of the species. 
1. Stellaria pungens (Brongn. in Duperrey, Voy. Bot. t. 78) ; csespitosa, suberecta v. decumbens, 
ramis elongatis angulatis tenuiter alatis scaberulis pilosis tomentosisve, foliis squarrosis patenti-recurvis late 
subulatis acuminato-pungentibus glaberrimis nitidis, pedunculis 1-floris terminalibus lateralibusque bre- 
vibus elongatisque sepalis lanceolato-subulatis pungentibus multicostatis, petalis profunde bifidis sepalis 
iequilongis, stylis capillaribus. — Bot. Journ. ii. 411. S. squarrosa, Rook, in Bot. Journ. i. 250. 
{Gunn, 96.) 
Ha.b. Common in rich and poor, moist and dry soils. — (El. Nov.) (v. v.) 
