104 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



glandular, with lanceolate teeth. Petals bifid, pinkish white above, 

 crimson underneath. Capsule pubescent and equalling the glabrous 

 carpophore in length. 



Stony places on siliceous rocks ; very local. July, August. 



Distribution. — In Switzerland only on some of the Southern Alps 

 in Valais, on the Itahan frontier ; Alps of Savoy and Dauphind (as 

 at La Grave), Italy, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, etc. 



This little known plant is worth introducing into gardens and 

 may be treated much as S. rupesiris is. 



Cerastium L. 



Small herbs, usually hairy or downy and often viscid, branching 

 at the base, with white flowers in terminal forked cymes, or rarely 

 solitary ; the upper bracts often, like the sepals, scarious at the 

 edges. Sepals 5, rarely 4. Petals 5, rarely 4, usually 2-cleft, some- 

 times minute or wanting. Stamens 10 or occasionally 5 or fewer. 

 Styles 5, rarely 4 or 3. Capsule opening at the top in twice as many 

 short teeth as there are styles. 



A rather large genus, spread over the globe, but most numerous 

 in the temperate regions, especially of the northern hemisphere. 



Cerastium arvense L. Mouse-ear Chickweed. 



Stem perennial and much branched at the base, and frequently 

 prostrate and creeping, ascending to about 6 inches high. Leaves 

 crowded in lower parts, narrow, linear-lanceolate, glabrescent. 

 Flowers large and white, in loose cymes on rather long pedicels. 

 Petals twice the length of the sepals, cleft to the middle. Capsule 

 oblique, usually longer than the calyx. A variable plant. 



Dry, hilly fields, pastures, and banks, extending from the low- 

 lands of England to 8700 feet in the Alps, and often mistaken there 

 for C. alpinum. May to July. 



Distribution. — Europe, Russian Asia, N. America, Andes of S. 

 America, Morocco. 



There are several Alpine varieties, the commonest of which is 

 strictum Haenke (alpicolum Fenzl.), which is smaller, very thick-set, 

 and with narrower leaves and smaller flowers. We have gathered 

 it at 9000 feet on the Aiguille du GoMon in Dauphin6 and on the 

 Col de la Leisse in Savoy at the same elevation. 



Cerastium grandiflorum W. and K. 



A useful and well-known rock-plant, covered with greenish grey 

 'tomentum. Leaves linear, fleshy, often with curled hairs at the 

 base. Flowers large, handsome, sometimes covering the whole 

 plant with white. Teeth of capsule revolute. 



Rocky pastures in Upper Styria and elsewhere in the Eastern 

 Alps ; rare. July, August. 



Grows easily and freely from cuttings or by division, but is 



