CAETOPHXLLACE^. 125 



southern Europe and western Asia, extending more sparingly over central 

 Europe to southern Sweden. In Britain, only in Norfolk and Suffolk. 



X. CERAST. CEEASTIUM. 



Annual or perennial herbs, usually downy or hairy, and branching at the 

 base, with white flowers in terminal forked cymes, or rarely solitary ; the 

 upper bracts often, hke the sepals, scarious on the edges. Sepals 5, rarely 4. 

 Petals 5, rarely 4, usually 2-cleft, sometimes minute or wanting. Stamens 

 10, or occasionally reduced to 5 or fewer. Styles 5, rarely 4 or 3. Capsule 

 opening at the top in twice as many short teeth as there are styles. 



A considerable genus, widely diffused over the whole range of the family, 

 and rather a natural one, differing generally from Starwort in its capsule, 

 from the other British Ahinece by the cleft petals. 



Annual or biennial. Petals shorter, or scarcely longer than the calyx . 1. Common C. 

 Perennials. Petals considerably longer than the calyx. 

 Styles always 5. 



Leaves narrow, pointed 2. Field C. 



Leaves oblong or ovate, and obtuse 3. Alpine C. 



Styles mostly 3. Leaves narrow 4. Starwort C. 



An eastern species, with cottony leaves, C tomentosvm, is not unfre- 

 quently cultivated in our cottage gardens. 



1. Common Cerast. Cerastimn 7nlgatuia, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 789. Mouse-ear ChicTcioeed.) 



A coarsely downy, usually more or less viscid annual, branching at the 

 base, sometimes dwarf, erect, and much branched ; at others, loosely as- 

 cending to a foot or even two, occasionally forming, at the end of the season, 

 dense, matted tufts, which may hve through the winter, and give it the ap- 

 pearance of a perennial. Radical leaves small and stalked ; stem-leaves 

 sessile, from broadly ovate to narrow-oblong. Sepals 2 to 2| lines long, 

 green, and dowTiy, but with more or less conspicuous scarious margins. 

 Petals seldom exceeding the calyx, and often much shorter, sometimes very 

 minute, or even none. Stamens often reduced to 5 or fewer. Capsule, 

 when ripe, cylindrical, often curved, and projecting beyond the calyx. 



In cultivated and waste places, pastures, and woods, wet or diy, over 

 nearly the whole of the civilized world. Most abundant in Britain. PL 

 the whole season. Its protean forms have much puzzled the botanists of 

 many countries to distinguish them into from 2 or 3 to 20 or 30 supposed 

 species. The most conspicuous observable in Britain are — 



a. Clustered C. {C. glomeratwm). Tail and luxuriant, the leaves broad, 

 almost orbicular, the flowers in a compact head, the pedicels shorter than 

 the calyx, the stamens usually 10. In rich soils, in moist, shady situations, 

 but often later in the season assuming the inflorescence of the narrower- 

 leaved varieties. 



b. Narrow-leaved C. (C. viscosum, Eng. Bot. t. 790). Much branched 

 at the base, but usually rather taU. Leaves oblong or narrow. Stamens 

 usually 10. The commonest form in rather moist and rich meadows and 

 pastures. Pedicels often elongated in this and the 2 following varieties. 



c. Lesser C. {C. semidecandrum, Eng. Bot. t. 1630. C. pumiluin,'Bab. 

 Man.). Stems short and often slender, more branched and more erect as 



V.Z 



