Stellaria.] caryophyllaoe^. 69 



hairs on one side, petals 2-partite, stamens 5— IQ." — Br Fl n 

 68. E. B. t. 537. Alsine, L. ' ^' 



0. Leaves fleshy. 



y. apetala. Much smaller, calyx very hairy, seeds smoother, thinner and paler 

 J>. alsmoides ? Schkich., Br. Fl. 5lh ed. p. 37. 



In waste and cultivated ground, fields, gardens, woods, and on hedgebanks 

 everywhere, one of the commonest of weeds. FL the whole year, but most copi- 

 ously in the spring ami summer months. ©. 



0. On waste ground by the sea, Sandown. 



y. On sandy ground, Hyde Dover. Abundant on St. Helen's spit. On walls 

 near Niton. 



A most variable plant, affording ample scope to the founders of new species for 

 the exercise of ingenuity in detecting subtle and evanescent marks of distinction. 



The var. y. exactly coincides with Mr. Drummond's description in the ' British 

 Flora, and would seem from the citations of Gaudin and others to be the S. alsi- 

 noides of Schleicher. The flowers are quite destitute of petals and triandrous in 

 my specimens, the calyx, which appears always to be closed, is beset with copious, 

 long, white, soft hairs. Seeds very pale buff-yellow. 



The common Chickweed is one of those cosmopolite plants that accommodate 

 themselves to almost any soil or climate. It is widely dispersed over the tempe- 

 rate zone of the northern and many parts of the southern hemisphere. I found it 

 in every part of the United States as abundantly as in Europe, though perhaps 

 more restricted there to cultivated and inhabited spots, it being supposed to have 

 accompanied the white race in their migration westward. 



Perhaps the plant called S. ffrandiflora by Mr. J. Woods in his ' Tour in Brit- 

 tany' (Hooker's Comp. to the Bot. Mag. vol. ii. p. 264), and found I understand 

 in Sussex, is the S. neijlecta of Weihe, Fl. Dan. 438, vide Reichenb. Fl. Germ, 

 excurs. No. 4905. 



2. S. holostea* L. Greater Stitchwort. "Stem nearly erect 

 with 4 rough sharp angles, leaves lanceolate much acuminated 

 minutely ciliated sessile, petals cloven to the middle twice as long 

 as the nerveless calyx." — Br. Fl. p. 68. E. B. t. 511. 



(3. Petals scarcely equalling the calyx, deeply divided almcst to the base into 3 

 segments, of which the middle one is linear-lanceolate, the 2 exterior ones with a 

 tooth on the inner side. 



In grassy woods, thickets, groves, along hedges and on shady banks, abun- 

 dantly. Fl. April — June. 2^. 



(:!. In Quarr copse. 



Capsules depressed, membranous and globose, pellucid and tipped with the 

 styles ; the summits of the 6 valves are reflexed in the ripe cap.sule, appearing as 

 so many teeth, but the valves themselves separate nearly to the base.f Seeds seve- 

 ral, roundish kidney-shaped, compressed, covered with mamillary points in close 

 parallel rows, some of them usually abortive. 



Of the curious variety 0. I found a good many specimens, and at first imagined 

 the laciniated appearance of the petals to have resulted from mutilation by insects, 

 until the regularity of the monstrosity in all which I traced in the bud proved it 

 to be the work of Nature herself. In this state the flowers bore some resemblance 

 to S. uliginosa. A very similar form of the petals, if not the very same, is recorded 

 in the ' Phytologist' for July, 1842, as found near Pont-y-Pool. 



3. S. graminea, L. Lesser Stitchwort. " Stem angled nearly 

 erect smooth, leaves linear - lanceolate acute entire glabrous 



* The specific name ought rather perhaps to have been Holosteum. 

 t In Silene the dehiscence is strictly confined to the top of the capsule, which 

 else appears of one piece. 



