of the Genus Ceimstium. 201 



Flora German, exsiccata,) I am led to consider it as a distinct spe- 

 cies. It differs from that plant, at the first glancCj by its much more 

 branching habits and its want of the long shaggy pubescence with 

 which that species is covered in all parts. C. hrachypelalum also 

 has its bractese totally destitute of a membranous margin, and the 

 capsules nodding in a remarkable manner, the peduncle itself re- 

 maining straight and erect, but curved at a right angle, just below the 

 calyx. This plant is well represented by Reichenbach in his Plantce 

 Crit. Fig. 388. Our plant may be distinguished from C. semidecan- 

 drum by its habit, its slightly membranous bracteee, that plant hav- 

 ing them membranous for half their length, and by its capsule being 

 always erect, not at first pendulous, and then (when the seed is per- 

 fected) erect. 



5. C. tetrandrum, Curt. — Leaves elliptical, petals rather shorter 

 than the calyx, sepals lanceolate acute, their apex glabrous and at- 

 tenuated with a central almost excurrent herbaceous line : the two 

 margins broadly membranous, capsules straight, a little longer than 

 the calyx. 



C. tetrandum, Cnrt. Lond. Sm, Fl. Brit. 498. Fng. FL ii. 332. 



Hooker, '2\Q. Mack. 4B. 

 C. semidecandrum, Beniham in Lindl. Syn. 51. 

 Sagina cerastoides, Sm. in Finn, Trans, ii. 343. Eng. Bot. 166. 



DC. Prod, 1. 389. Hooker, 216. 

 Moenchia cerastoides, G. Don. Syst. of Bot. i. 420. 

 Esmarchia cerastoides, Reich, fl. excurs. 4954. 

 ? Cerastium pumilum, Koch, Sin. 122 J (not Curtis.) 

 Root slender. Stems procumbent, spreading, their extremities 

 ascending, covered with short hair. Leaves elliptical, the lower 

 ones elliptic-oblong, the lowest narrowing into a petiole. Flowers 

 on stalks, which are rather longer than the calyx, but not invari- 

 ably so, as large as those of C. vulgatum. Sepals 4, lanceolate, at- 

 tenuated, acute, broad below, the apex glabrous with the mid-rib 

 continuing to its extreme point in the form of an herbaceous line, 

 bounded on both sides by a broad membranous margin. (Fig. c.) 

 Petals 4, white, shorter than the calyx. " Capsule a little longer 

 than the calyx, straight, with 8 long linear teeth. Seeds roughish 

 on the outer edge." 



There appears to be some confusion in Sir W. Hooker's Brit. 

 Flora, which, 1 think, has not improbably arisen from his having 

 received my C. brachypetalum as C. tetrandrum. I have also re- 

 cently received from Yarmouth, through the kindness of my friend 

 Mr Ball of Christ's College, a tetrandrous form of C. semidecandrum. 



