On the British Cerastia. 317 



ter's consumption, consisting of about 2000, from which we had the 

 pleasure of selecting specimens for our cabinets. 



Some of the arctic gulls (Lestris) passed over us, apparently on 

 their way further north. The Lestris Richardsonii was abundant, 

 one or two pairs breeding upon almost every island. Birds in the 

 different states of plumage being indiscriminately associated toge- 

 ther, the many nests which we found were in turns the property 

 either of two white-breasted birds, of two entirely of a uniform 

 dark colour, or of a pair consisting of one of each. 



III. — The British Cerastia : a Supplement to a former Essay. By 

 C.C.Babington, F.L.S.,&c Plate IX. Continued from p. 204. 



Cerastium Atrovirens. — Leaves broadly ovate, petals much 

 shorter than the calyx, sepals lanceolate-acute covered with glan- 

 dular hairs their apex and margins narrowly membranous, bractefe 

 herbaceous, capsule obovate or subcylindrical shorter than the 

 calyx, fruit-bearing peduncles two or three times as long as the 

 calyx and erect. 



The whole plant of a dark-green colour, and covered with short 

 very viscid pubescence. Root small, fibrous. Stems numerous, 

 ascending repeatedly forked, bearing a flower in each fork. Leaves 

 very broadly ovate, somewhat pointed, the lower ones narrowed in- 

 to a broad petiole, the others sessile. Flowers scattered, one in the 

 axil of each fork of the stem, all their parts arranged in fours. Pe- 

 duncles two or three times as long as the calyx, always straight and 

 erect. Bractese totally without any membranous margin. Sepals 

 lanceolate, acute, covered with short glandular hairs, with narrow 

 membranous margins and apex. Petals about half the length of 

 the calyx. Capsule almost always opening with eight teeth in con- 

 formity with the quaternary structure of the flower ; in one in- 

 stance I observed ten teeth remarkably short, never as long as the 

 calyx, and usually about half its length, obovate, or subcylindrical, 

 inflated below, and slightly curved towards the top, always erect, 

 and never forming an angle with its peduncle. Seeds rather large, 

 chestnut-brown, compressed and tuberculated. 



Gathered by Dr G. Johnston on old walls in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of Berwick-upon-Tweed, flowering in May and June. 



This plant is very nearly allied to C. telrandriim, from which it 

 differs by not having an herbaceous line extending to the apex of 

 the sepals, its very short capsules, erect, that is, not reflexed fruit, 

 and the total want of a membranous margin to the bractea?. It is 



