70 CAEYOPHYLLACE^. [Stellaria. 



ciliated, panicle much branched, petals bipartite scarcely longer 

 than the 3-nerved sepals." — Br. Fl. p. 69. E. B. t. 803. 



(3., Gaud. Fl. Helv. iii. p. 185. Petals much longer than the calyx ; leaves 

 Djoie or less glaucous. 



In dry gravelly, sandy or heathy pastures, hedgerows and bushy places ; very 

 common. Fl. May — August. H-- 



Capsule ovoid-oblong, smooth, shining and membranous, as long as or rather' 

 longer than the calyx, 6-angled at the summit. Seeds few, about 8 or 9, pale 

 rusty red, roundish and subreniform, compressed. 



The petals are not rarely double the length of the calyx, as I find them in seve- 

 ral parts of the island, in which state the plant is likely to be gathered for S. 

 glauca, as indeed happened to myself, and against which mistake Gaudin warns 

 his countrymen, S. glauca being extremely rare in Switzerland. 



4. S. uliginosa, Murr. Bog Stitchwort. " Leaves ovato-lanceo- 

 late entire with a callous tip, flowers in dichotomous panicles, 

 j)etals bipartite shorter than the sepals which are combined at the 

 base."— 5r. Fl. p. 69. E. B. t. 1074. S. graminea |3., L. Lar- 

 brea, St. Hll. 



In clear shallow ditches, rivulets and boggy or springy places ; frequent. Fl. 

 May — July. Fr.Ju\j. 0. 



F!. Mtd. — In a patch of copsewood a little South of Upton House. Veiy com- 

 mon in moory meadows about Bridge Court, and in the willow-beds by Bagwich 

 in profusion. Rookley moors, and common in the valley of the Medina generally. 

 Boggy parts of Apse heath. Sandown level. Shanklin chine. Abundant on wet 

 slipped banks in Whitecliif bay. In a very wet part of Marshcombe Copse, near 

 Yaverland farm. In a wet hollow on the skirts of Wootton common, in plenty. 

 Parsonage Lynch, Newchurch. 



W. Med. — Under a wet hedgebank between Gurnet Bay and the Debbourne 

 turnpike, in very great plenty. Wet places about Shorwell, at Wolverton, Brix- 

 ton, &c., frequent. 



Herb perfectly glabrous, except at the base of the leaves and occasionally on 

 the edge of the sepals. Root a tuft of pale, weak, slender fibres. Stems nume- 

 rous, variable in length, from about 6 to 12 or 18 inches, widely spreading, 

 decumbent and ascending at the extremities in the smaller plants, suberect or 

 reclining, weak, brittle and succulent, with a central medullary fibre, acutely 

 quadrangular, smooth and glabrous, rooting at the lower articulations, branched 

 alternately. Leaves numerous, opposite, sometimes 3 or 4 together at the forks of 

 the branches, somewhat erect, sessile, scarcely an inch in length at most, pale with 

 a glaucous cast, and as it were mottled with a network of anastomosing veins of 

 a deeper green ; lower leaves mostly oblongo-elliptical, bluntish, those near the 

 summit oblong or elliptic-lanceolate and more acute, all with a brownish callous 

 tip, connate and slightly ciliated at base, paler beneath, with a sharp prominent 

 midrib, their margins often reflexed. Flowers very small, few together, in axil- 

 lary, seldom terminal irregularly forked panicles, sometimes solitary. Peduncles 

 mostly longer than the leaves, often 2 or 3 together, one of them simple or bear- 

 ing only a single flower at its apex; pedicels very unequal. Bracts at the base 

 of the peduncles and partial flower-stalks, opposite, lanceolate, scariose and acute, 

 with a central green nerve. Calyx about 3 lines in diameter ; sepals lanceolate, very 

 acute, with 3 strong deep green ribs and while scariose entire margins, flat and 

 widely spreading in flower, now and then, it is said, ciliated, smooth in my speci- 

 mens, united below into an angular inverted cone or tube surrounding the germen 

 and looking like an enlargement of the pedicel. Petals white, delicate and pellu- 

 cid, veinless, inserted on a green glandular ring close behind the stamens, much 

 shorter the calyx (now and then wanting, Bertol), obcordate, cleft nearly to the 

 base into two spathulate, diverging, entire segments which are obtuse or slightly 

 pointed. Stamens 10, those alternating with the petals inserted on short, yellow- 



