138 CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 
capsule is one-celled, shaped like a tiny flask, opening at the top 
by six outward-curving teeth. Seeds many, very small, com- 
pressed, rough. (Fig. 89.) 
Means of control 
Ground preferred by Sandwort is not fit to grow much else, 
until it has been enriched and supplied with humus, which will 
enable it to retain moisture; better plants will then soon take the 
place of the weed. 
GRASS-LEAVED STITCHWORT 
Stellaria graminea, L. 
(Alsine graminea, Britton) 
Other English names: Lesser Stitchwort, Grassy 
Starwort. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds 
and by rootstocks. 
Time of bloom: May to July. 
Seed-time: June to August. 
Range: Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario, 
southward to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, and roadsides. 
V Graceful plants, which are usually found 
\ growing in small patches, as the rootstocks 
send up flowering stalks at intervals of a few 
inches. Stems two inches to two feet high, 
Yl slender, weak, four-angled, and roughened on 
‘ the. angles, simple below the flower-cluster. 
Leaves opposite, narrowly lance-shaped, broad- 
\ est just above the base, the lower ones smaller 
; V than those near the top. Flowers in loose, 
terminal, many-branching cymes, on very 
slender, spreading pedicels; sepals narrow and 
pointed, slightly shorter than the five white 
1 petals, which are so deeply cleft as to look 
like ten, the blossoms being nearly a half- 
oe 4 fae rei cabead inch broad; stamens usually ten, sometimes 
(Stellaria graminea). fewer; styles usually three, occasionally four 
x}. or five. Capsules oblong-ovoid, exceeding the 
