Arenaria.] XII CARYOPHYLLACEZ. 67 
VI. ARENARIA. SANDWORT. 
Small, branched annuals, or tufted or prostrate perennials, glabrous, 
_or rarely shortly hairy, with white flowers. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire, 
rarely wanting. Stamens 10, or rarely fewer. Styles 3, very rarely 4. 
Capsule opening in as many or twice as many valves. 
A very numerous genus in the northern hemisphere without the tropics, 
with a few species also in the southern hemisphere ; distinguished from 
Sagina by the number of styles, from Cerastiwm and Stellaria by the entire 
petals. The British species are usually distributed into four sections, 
often considered as independent genera, viz., Alsine, with the valves of 
the capsule as many as the styles, and many seeds, including A. verna, A. 
uliginosa,'and A. tenuifolia; Honckenya, with the capsular valves as many 
as the styles, and few large seeds, for A. peploides ; Arenaria, with the 
capsular valves twice as many, and no appendage to the seeds, including 
A, ciliata and A. serpyllifolia and Mehringia, with the capsule of Arenaria, 
but with shining seeds, having a little appendage to their hilum. 
Leaves linear or subulate. 
Tufted perennials. 
Petals minute or0 ; : : 4 1. A. Cherleri. 
Petals equalling or exceeding the sepals. 
Pedicels 2 to 4 lines long ; : F 2. A. verna. 
Pedicels 6 or 12 lines long or more wht Be 3. A. uliginosa. 
Annual. Petals about half as long as the sepals 4. A. tenutfolia. 
Leaves ovate. ’ 
Leaves thick and fleshy. Capsules large, globular, 5-valved 5. A. peploides. 
Leaves small or thin. Capsule 10-valved, small. 
Leaves scarcely 2 lines long. Sepals with 3 nerves. 
Annual, much branched, and downy. Petals shorter or 
scarcely longer.than the calyx : 
( : : : . 6. A. serpyllifolia. 
Alpine, procumbent, perennial. Petals much longer than 
the calyx . : ‘ : ; : : ‘ . . ¢. A. ciliata. 
Leaves mostly half an inch, thin,.and 3-nerved. Sepals 1- 
nerved . , ‘ ‘ ; . §& A. trinervis. 
1, A. Cherleri, Benth. (fig. 150). Cyphel.—Stock very densely 
matted, often several inches diameter, with long roots, the very short 
branches completely covered with closely packed linear leaves, rather 
stiff, and 2 or 3 lines long. Pedicels slender, from the summit of the 
tufts, with a single erect flower. Sepals about a line long, with 3 
prominent veins. Stamens shorter than the calyx. Capsule slightly 
protruding, opening to the base in 3 valves, and containing but few 
seeds. Cherleria sedoides, Linn. 
An alpine plant, not uncommon at considerable elevations in the 
Pyrenees and Alps, extending to Greece and Transylvania, and reappear- 
ing in the Scotch Highlands, especially in the Breadalbane range, and in 
Sutherland, but neither an Arctic nor a Scandinavian plant. Fl. swmmer. 
2. A. verna, Linn. (fig. 151). Vernal S.—Stock perennial, short, 
becoming densely tufted and thickly covered with old leaves; the flower- 
ing stems erect or decumbent, 2 to 4 inches high, and branched. Leaves 
subulate, rather stiff, the upper ones short and broader. Flowers in 
rather loose forked cymes, the pedicels usually slightly downy, and 
seldom above 3 or 4 lines long. Sepals 15 to near 2 lines long, pointed, 
with 3 very prominent nerves. Petals obovate, spreading beyond the 
points of the sepals. Capsule 3-valved, Alsine verna, Wahlb. 
In stony or mountain pastures, almost all over the continent of Europe 
