Cerastium. | Xil. CARYOPHYLLACEA. 71 
minute, or even none. Stamens often reduced to 5 or fewer. Capsuie, 
when dry, cylindrical, often curved, and projecting beyond the calyx. 
In cultivated and waste places, pastures, and woods, wet or dry, over 
nearly the whole of the civilized world. Most abundant in Britain. 7. 
the whole season. Its protean forms have much puzzled the botanists of 
many countries to distinguish them into from 2 or 3 to 20 or 80 supposed 
species. ‘The most conspicuous observable in Britain are— 
a. O. glomeratum, Thuill. Tall and luxuriant, the leaves broad, almost 
orbicular, the flowers in a compact head, the pedicels shorter than the calyx, 
the stamens usually 10. In rich soils, in moist, shady situations, but 
often later in the season assuming the inflorescence of the narrower-leaved 
varieties. | 
b. C. viscosum, Linn. (C. triviale, Link.). Much branched at the base, 
but usually rather tall. Leaves oblong or narrow. Stamens usually 10. 
The commonest form in rather moist and rich meadows and pastures. 
Pedicels often elongated in this and the two following varieties. 
c. C. semidecandrum, Linn. (C. pumilum, Curtis). Stems short and 
often slender, more branched and more erect as the situation is drier, 
Leaves rather small, thicker near the sea, more viscid in hot situations. 
Stamens usually about 5, but often more. Capsules usually long. Very 
common in dry, poor, open situations. 
d. OC. tetrandrum, Curtis. Like the last, but more branched, and the 
parts of the flower usually reduced to fours. Pedicels often long. Less 
common than the last two, and generally near the sea. 
[The above classification of the British forms of the common Mouse-ear 
Chickweed does not quite accord with that of any other author ; it was, 
however, founded on a very long and careful observation of living plants 
over a great area of the British Isles. ] 
2. C.arvense, Linn. (fig. 160). Meld Cerast.—Stem perennial, and 
much branched at the base, often very intricate and prostrate; the flower- 
ing branches ascending to about 6 inches, or more when very luxuriant. 
Leaves crowded in the lower part, narrow, lanceolate-linear, more glabrous 
and less viscid than in C. vulgatum. Flowers large and white, in loose 
cymes, on rather long pedicels. Sepals near 3 lines long. Petals twice 
that length, cleft to near the middle. Capsule oblique, usually longer 
- than the calyx. 
In dry, hilly fields, pastures, and banks, throughout Europe and Russian 
Asia, except the extreme north, in North America, and down the Andes of 
South America. In numerous localities in Britain, but not at all common. 
Fl. spring and early summer. 
3. C. alpinum, Linn. (fig. 161). Alpine Cerast.—Stems shortly 
perennial, much branched, prostrate and rooting at the base; the flowering 
branches ascending to a few inches, with one or two large flowers on long 
peduncles; the whole plant nearly glabrous, or more frequently covered 
with long woolly hairs, and occasionally viscid. Leaves ovate, elliptical, or 
oblong, always broader for their length than in C. arvense. Petals rather 
longer than in that species. Capsule not much longer than the calyx, 
straight or nearly so. A oes 
In alpine, moist pastures, and wet, rocky situations, in all the great 
mountain-ranges of Europe and Russian Asia, and all round the Arctic 
Circle. Pretty abundant in the Highlands of Scotland, less so in northern 
