riNK FAMILY. 167 



5. STELLAR I A L. Chickwekd. 

 Low herbs, loving moist ground or shaded habitat, with exstipu- 

 late leaves. Flowers white, small, axillary and solitary, or terminal 

 and oymose. Sepals 5. Petals 5, parted almost to the base into 

 narrow segments. Stamens 3 to 10. Styles 3 or 4. Capsule ovoid 

 or oblong, relatively shorter than in Cerastium, dehiscent below the 

 middle into as many or twice as many valves as there are styles. 

 (From the Latin Stella, a star, on account of the star-shaped flowers.) 



Annual. 



Stems weak, procumbent; bracts foliaceoua 1. S. med-ia. 



Stems filiform, erect; bracts scaiious .... 2. S. nittms. 



Perennial; bracts foUaceous 3. S.Uttoralis. 



1. S. media Cyrill. Common Chickwbbd. Slightly succulent, 

 with weak procumbent stems, rooting at the lower nodes; lower leaves 

 ovate, acute, rather abruptly contracted into slender petioles, the 

 upper narrower, sessile; floral bracts foliaoeous; pedicels slender, 

 deflexed in fruit; petals shorter than the pubescent sepals; stamens 3, 

 5 or 10; styles 3. 



A common weed along fence lines and ditches and shaded half- 

 waste places generally. Feb. -May. Stems with a pubescent line, 

 and petioles of lower leaves hairy. 



2. S. nitens Nutt. Erect, with very slender stems, branching 

 above, 3 to 7 in. high, glabrous or slightly hairy below; leaves linear, 

 acute, sessile, 2 to 7 lines long, or the lowest ovate, 1 to 3 lines long, 

 abruptly contracted into slender petioles nearly twice as long; inflo- 

 rescence strict, the pedicels erect, f in. long or less or some of the 

 flowers quite sessile; bracts scarious; sepals scarious-margined,, 

 subulate-lanceolate, 2 lines long; petals j as long as the sepals, some- 

 times none; capsule oblong, nearly as long as the calyx. 



Grassy hillsides and plains, a somewhat obscure plant, occurring 

 from Solano Co. southward to Southern California. Apr.-May. 



3. S. littoralis Torr. Pubescent, ascending, stoutish, the stems 1 

 to 2 ft. long; leaves ovate, acute, rounded at the sessile base, ^ to f or 

 1 to IJ in. long; flowers in a terminal compound cyme; sepals lanceo- 

 late, acute, 2 lines long, slightly shorter than the petals; capsule 

 included within the calyx. _ 



Boggy or marshy spots, seacoast only: Point Lobos; Point Keyes, 

 Davy; Dillon's Beach. June. 



6. ARENARIA L. Sandwort. 

 Low branching annuals or tufted or prostrate perennials with mostly 

 lanceolate or subulate sessile often rigid leaves, without stipules. 

 Flowers white. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire. Stamens 10. Styles 

 3. Capsule globose or short oblong, dehiscent into as many entire or 

 2-cleft valves as there are styles. (From the Latin arena, sand, in 

 which many species grow.) 



Low annuals. , ^ , „ , . , 



Leaves lanceolate, rather broad at the very base, 2 lines long . , . . . . . 

 ' . 1. A. CaJiformea. 



