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70 THE PINK FAMILY. [ Holosteum. 
IX. HOLOSTEUM. HOLOSTEUM. 
Small annuals, Sepals 5. Petals 5, more or less toothed or jagged, bu 
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. 158). Umbellate Holostewm.—A 
slightly downy, more or less viscid annual, seldom above 6 inches high, 
divided at the base into several erect or ascending stems. Rudical 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 
Kurope and western Asia, extending more sparingly over central Europe to 
southern Sweden. In Britain, only on old walls or roofs in Norfolk and 
Suffolk. 
eee 
X. 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. Sepais 5, rarely 
4. Petals 5, rarely 4, usually 2-cleft, sometimes minute or wanting. 
Stamens 10, or occasionally reduced to 5 or fewer. Styles 5, rarely 4 or 
3. Capsule opening at the top in twice as many short teeth as there are 
styles. 
‘y considerable genus, widely diffused over the whole. range of the family, 
and rather a natural one, differing generally from Séellaria in its capsule, 
from the other British Alszne@ by the cleft petals. 
Annual or biennial. Petals shorter or scarcely longer than the 
calyx. : : : ; : ; ; : 3 - ° . 1. C. vulgatum. 
Perennials, Petals considerably longer than the calyx. — 
Styles always 5. 
Leaves narrow, pointed . : A m “ ; ‘ : . 2. C. arvense. 
Leaves oblong or ovate, and obtuse . : ° A ° . 3. C. alpinum. 
Styles mostly 3. Leaves narrow . of) ON : oh Bae . 4 C. trigynum. 
An Eastern species, with cottony leaves, C. tomentosum, is not unfre- 
quently cultivated in our cottage gardens. 
1, C. vulgatum, Linn. (fig.159). Common Cerast, Mouse-ear Chick- 
weed.—A coarsely downy, usually more or less viscid annual, branching at 
the base, sometimes dwarf, erect, and much branched ; at others, loosely as- 
cending 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 23 lines long, 
green, and downy, but with more or less conspicuous scarious margins. 
Petals seldom exceeding the calyx, and often much shorter, sometimes very 
