DECANDRIA— PENTAGYNIA. Cerastium. 333 



specimen, is very correct and characteristic. Of the distinctions 

 between this species and the last there is no question ; nor can 

 any good botanist who has really compared them together, all 

 theory apart, have a doubt remaining. There is more uncer- 

 tainty about our tetrandrum and the Spanish pentandrum, which 

 it most resembles in size, habit, colour, and calyx ; but C. pentan- 

 drum has 5 -cleft flowers with small, acute, scarcely cloven , pe^aZs, 

 and a remarkably broad membranous margin to the cahjx. The 

 Jlower-stalks moreover, even when in fruit, do not exceed the 

 calyx in length. It is true that the flowers of C. tetrandrum by 

 culture now and then become 5 -cleft and pentandrous ; but its 

 taper-pointed calyx is alone sufficient to keep it distinct from 

 the semidecandrum. 



5. C. arvense. Field Chick-weed. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, bluntisli; fringed at the base. 

 Petals twice the length of the calyx ; capsule shorter. 



C. arvense. Lmn. Sp. PL 628. Willd. v. 2. 813. H, Br. 499. 



Engl.Bot.v.2.t.93. Curt.Lond.fasc. 6.t.29. Hook. Scot.] 43. 



Fl. Dan. t. 626. 

 IVIyosotis n. 889. Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 389. 

 M. arvensis, polygoni folio. Tourn. Inst. 245. Faill. Par. 141. 



t.30.f.5. 

 M. arvensis subhirsuta, flore majore. Tourn. Inst. 245. Vaill. 



Par. 141. <. 30./. 4. 

 Caryophyllus arvensis hirsutus, flore majore. Bauh. Pin. 2\0. 



Rail Syn. 348. 

 C. Holostius. Ger. Em. 595./. Lob. Ic.446.f. 

 Auricula muris pulchro flore albo. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 360./. 



In fields, and on banks and hillocks, on a gravelly or chalky soil. 



Perennial. May — August. 



Root creeping. Stems numerous, slightly branched, leafy, round, 

 covered with fine deflexed haire ; recumbent and matted at the 

 base ; then ascending ; from 4 inches to a foot in length. 

 Leaves lanceolate, about an inch long, various in breadth, 

 bluntly pointed, for the most part densely hairy ; sometimes 

 smooth, but always fringed about the lower part. Panicles ter- 

 minal, of a few large brilliant-white flowers, whose petals are 

 inversely heart-shaped, and veiny, twice as long as the hairy 

 membranous-bordered calyx. Germen globose. Caps, cylindri- 

 cal, slender, shorter than the calyx, with 10 oblong teeth, some- 

 times splitting down into 5 or 10 narrow valves. 



6. C. alpinum. Alpine Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Leaves elliptical, naked, or clothed with long hairs. Pa- 

 nicle forked, bracteated, of few flowers. Capsule oblong, 

 recurved. 



