CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 139 
sepals, opening by twice as many valves as there are styles. 
Seeds many, minutely roughened. (Fig. 90.) 
Means of control 
Close and frequent cutting for the purpose of starving the root- 
stocks and preventing seed production. 
COMMON CHICKWEED 
Stellaria média, Cyrill. 
(Alsine média, L.) 
Other English names: Starwort, Starweed, Winterweed, Birdweed. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: Throughout the year. 
Seed-time: Throughout the four seasons. 
Range: Throughout the world. 
Habitat: Gardens, cultivated fields, lawns, meadows, waste places. 
In spite of its frail appearance, this plant is probably the hardiest 
and the most persistent weed on earth. Its range nears the Arctic 
Circle, and the writer picked green and 
thrifty stems, bearing buds, flowers, and 
seeds, within a yard of a melting snow- 
bank, during a “January thaw” of the 
present winter. The seed, though small, 
retains its vitality for many years. 
Stems tufted, slender, weak, many- 
branched, creeping or ascending, with a 
fringe of hairs down one side. Leaves 
usually not much more than a half-inch in 
length, ovate, smooth, entire, the lower » 
ones with hairy petioles, the upper ones 
sessile, so numerous that the plant often 
covers the ground like a green mat. Flowers 
in terminal, leafy cymes or solitary in the 
axils, on very slender pedicels; each of the 
five small, snowy petals is cleft down its 
center, forming a white star, which is set Swe eae ee 
within a larger green one, formed of media). x}. 
