DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Arenaria. 309 



5. A. verna. Vernal Sandwort. 



Leaves awl-shaped, bluntish. Stem panicled. Calyx- 

 leaves with three remote equal ribs; longer than the 

 petals. 



A. verna. Unn. Mani. 72. Willd. Sp. PL v. 2. 724. Fl. Br. 482. 

 Engl. Bot.v. 8. ^ 5 12. Dicks. Dr. PL 6. Hort. Sicc.fasc. 13. 1 7. 

 Hoolc. Scot 138. Light/. 231 . Jacq. Austr. L 404. 



A. saxatilis. Huds. ed. 1. 168. Penn. Tour in Wales, t. 2./. 1. 



A. juniperina. With. 424. 



A. laricifolia. Ibid. 424. Light/. 232. 



A. csespitosa. Ehrh. Herb. 55. 



Alsine n. 867. HaU. Hist. v. 1 . 383. 



A. pusilla, pulchro flora, folio tenuissimo nostras. Raii Syn. 350. 



A. caryophylloides tenuifolia, flora albo punctato. Pluk. Al- 

 mag. 22. PhyL L 7./. 3. 



A. alpina glabra^ tenuissimis foliis, floribus albis. Herm. Parad. 

 12./. 



A. saxatilis at multiflora, capillacao folio. VailL Par. 7. t. 2./. 3. 



Mount Chickwaed. PeU H. BriL L 59./. 4. 



In mountainous pastures in the north, among fragments of quartz 

 and spar. 



About lead mines in Derbyshire ; as wall as in Yorkshire, West- 

 moreland, and Wales. On Arthur's Seat, and many other hills 

 near Edinburgh. 



Perennial. May — August. 



Root long, cylindrical, strong and rather woody, branching under 

 ground. Stems very numerous, ascending, 3 or 4 inches high, 

 round or somewhat angular, leafy, slightly downy and viscid j 

 panicled at the summit, rarely single-flowered ; forming dense 

 tufts, crowned with innumerable white starry ^ou)ers, whose red 

 anthers Plukenet mistook for spots. The leaves are smooth, 

 3-ribbed beneath, with blunt points ; the upper ones shortest 

 and broadest. Bracteas small and short, with 3 ribs. Flower- 

 stalks often downy. Calyx-leaves ovate, acute, hairy, mem- 

 branous at the edges ; furnished at the back with 3 equal, di- 

 stant, not crowded, ribs. Pet. obovate. Caps, cylmdrical, of 3 

 valves, longer than the calyx. Seeds compressed, rough. 



Some rather larger or smaller specimens, not to be called varieties, 

 have been occasionally mistaken for A. saxatilis, juniperina, or 

 larici/olia of Linnseus ; all very difterent from this and from 

 each other, and hitherto not found wild in Britain. 



6. A fastigiata: Level-topped Sandwort. 



Leaves awl-shaped. Stem erect, straight, densely corym- 

 bose. Petals very short. Lateral ribs of the calyx di- 

 lated. 



