No. 14.] FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS. 177 



Cerastium semidecahdrum L. (five-stamened). 

 Spring Mouse-ear. Small Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Local. East Lyme, plentiful in dry fields and pastures 

 near the Niantic River (Graves). May — June. Naturalized 

 from Europe. 



Cerastium nutans Raf. (nodding). 



Cerastium longipedunculatum of Britton's Manual. 

 Nodding Chickweed. Powder-horn. 



Rare or local. Moist hillside woods and drier more or less 

 open places: Norwich (Mrs. E. E. Rogers), East Lyme 

 (Miss A. M. Ryon), West Hartford (H. S. Clark), Farm- 

 ington and Newington (Bissell), Hamden (O. D. Allen), 

 Orange and Oxford (Harger), Huntington, Trumbull, Mil- 

 ford and Stratford (Eames), Wilton (Miss A. E. Carpenter). 

 Also at East Hartford, as a weed in greenhouse soil (A. W. 

 Driggs) . May - — June. 



The form with apetalous flowers often occurs. 



AGROSTEMMA L. Corn Cockle. 

 Agrostemma Githago L. (like Gith, the Fennel-flower). 

 Lychnis Githago Scop. 

 Cockle. Corn Cockle. Rose Pink or Campion. 



Rare or local. Grain fields, cultivated ground and waste 

 places. June — July. Adventive from Europe. 



In the West, where it is often abundant, its seeds injure 

 the appearance and quality of grain. Its seeds are poisonous 

 to poultry and stock, and flour containing a considerable pro- 

 portion of them has been made into bread and eaten with 

 fatal results. Thorough baking, however, destroys the poison. 

 Chronic poisoning due to the regular consumption of small 

 quantities, and finally resulting fatally, has been observed in 

 animals. The presence of Corn Cockle seeds in flour is 

 easily detected, unless it has been well bolted, by the black, 

 roughened scales of the seed coat. 



LYCHNIS L. Campion. 

 Lychnis Coronaria (L.) Desr. (pertaining to a crown). 

 Mullein Pink or Lychnis. Rose Campion. Dusty Miller. 

 Rare. Roadsides and waste places as an escape from cul- 



