DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. S29 



Ocymoides album multis. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 342. f. 



y. Flowers flesh-colouredj often with stam. and pist. together. 



a. In moist shady places, and under hedges, frequent. 



/3. In hedges and cultivated fields, no less common. 



y. In hedges and fields, but rarely. 



Perennial, a. May, June. /3, y, June — Sept. 



Root tapering, rather fleshy. Herb green, clothed with projecting 

 soft hairs, a little viscid. Stem upright, weak, round, leafy, 18 

 to 24 inches high; in /3 and y 2^ or 3 feet. Leaves ovate, 

 acute, soft, rather wavy j the lower ones stalked; upper nar- 

 rower and often lanceolate. Panicle terminal, leafy, many- 

 flowered, partly forked. Cal. tubular, dark red, or purplish, with 

 10 ribs, and frequently, in the fertile plants, intermediate veins. 

 Pet. each with a broad claw, dilated upwards, crowned with 2 

 acute marginal teeth, and 2, more blunt, combined, central ones. 

 Stam. capillary. Germ, sessile, ovate, in the flowers of a sepa- 

 rate ])lant. Stijles 5, with long, twisted, Aov^ny stigmas. Caps. 

 ovate, of 1 cell. 



The corolla in a is of a fine rose-colour ; in /S white, sweet-scented 

 in an evening ; in y blush-coloured, but turns white on the same 

 plant when transplanted. The stam. and pist. are not always 

 united in this blush-coloured variety, nor separated in the white 

 one. No solid permanent sign of specific distinction has oc- 

 curred to me, between a and /3, though I have much wished to 

 find one. The red variety especially is often cultivated in a 

 double state, and called Bachelor's Buttons. Its flowers are 

 rarely found united. 



243. CERASTIUM. Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Linn.Gen.232. Juss.301. Fl.Br.496. LamJ.392. Gartn.t. \30. 

 Myosotis. Tourn. t. 126. Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 388. 



Nat. Ord. see 7i. 241. 



Cal, inferior, of 5 ovate-lanceolate, acute, spreading, perma-. 

 nent leaves, membranous at the edges. Pet. 5, divided, 

 obtuse, spreading, about the length of the calyx, with 

 broad, very short, claws. Filam. thread-shaped, 1 0, 5, 

 or 4, shorter than the corolla; alternate ones shortest, 

 Aiith. roundish, 2-lobed. Germ, ovate, superio]-, sessile. 

 Styles 5, rarely but 4, short. Stigiii. bluntish, downy. 

 Caps, membranous, cylindrical or ovate, of 1 cell, open- 

 ing vvith twice as many upright teeth as there are sti/les. 

 Seeds numerous, roundish, rough. 



Herbs, annual or perennial ; hairy, smooth, or cottony. 

 Leaves ovate or elliptical, rarely lanceolate, always entire, 



