70 _ THE PINK FAMILY. 
VIII. HOLOSTEUM. HOLOSTEUM. 
Small annuals. Sepals 5. Petals 5, more or less toothed or ‘aeeen. 
but not cleft. Stamens usually 5. Styles 3. Capsule opening in 6 
short valves or teeth. 
Besides our species, there are but one or two from the Levant, all 
differing from Cerastium in the less divided petals, and generally fewer 
' stamens and styles. 
1. H. umbellatum, Linn. (fig. 159). Umbellate H.—A slightly downy, 
more or less viscid annual, seldom above 6 inches high, divided at the 
base into several erect or ascending stems. Radical leaves spreading, 
oblong or elliptical ; those of the stem sessile, varying from ovate to 
linear, often half an inch long or more. The upper part of the stem 
forms an almost leafless peduncle, bearing an umbel of 3 to 8 flowers, 
on long pedicels, erect at the time of flowering, then turned down, and 
erect again when the capsule is ripe. Sepals near 2 lines long, white 
and scarious at the edges. Petals white, rather longer. 
On sandy and stony wastes, fields, and roadsides, very common in 
southern Europe and western Asia, less so over central Europe, but reach- 
ing southern Sweden. In Britain, only on old walls or roofs in Norfolk 
and Suffolk. 
IX. CERASTIUM. CERAST. 
Annual or perennial herbs, usually downy or hairy, and branching at 
the base, with white flowers in terminal forked cymes, or rarely solitary ; 
the upper bracts often, like the sepals, scarious on the edges. Sepals 
5, rarely 4. Petals 5, rarely 4, usually 2-cleft, sometimes minute or 
wanting. Stamens 10, or occasionally 5 or fewer. Styles 5, rarely 4 
or 3. Capsule opening at the top in twice as many short teeth as there 
are styles. 
A considerable genus, widely diffused over the whole range of the 
family, and rather a natural one, differing generally from Stellaréa in its 
capsule, from the other British Alsinew by the cleft petals. 
Annual or biennial. Petals shorter or scarcely longer than the 
calyx : : 1. C. vulgatum. 
Perennials. Petals consider ably longer than the calyx. 
Styles always 5. 
Leaves narrow, pointed . ; : : ; : . 2. C. arvense. 
Leaves oblong or ovate, and obtuse ; : : ; : . 3. C. alpinum. 
Styles mostly 3, Leaves narrow : : : 4. C. trigynum. 
An Eastern species, with Ae leaves, C. tomentosum, is not un- 
frequently cultivated in our cottage gardens. 
1, C. vulgatum, Linn. (fig. 160). Mouse-ear Chickweed.—A coarsely 
downy, usually more or less viscid annual, branching at the base, some- 
times dwarf, erect, and much branched ; at others, loosely ascending to 
a foot or even two, occasionally forming, at the end of the season, 
dense, matted tufts, which may live through the winter, and give it the 
appearance of a perennial. Radical leaves small and stalked ; stem- 
leaves sessile, from broadly ovate to narrow-oblong. Sepals 2 to 24 
lines long, green, and downy, but with more or less conspicuous scari- 
ous margins. Petals seldom exceeding the calyx, and often much 
shorter, sometimes very minute, or even none. Stamens often reduced 
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