pera igs 
= a ee 
72 THE PINK FAMILY. [ Cerastium. 
England, ane rare in Wales; not recorded from Ireland. #7. summer. 
The nearly glabrous form, which is the C. alpinum of most Continental 
botanists, is not so common in Britain as the woolly one, the C. lanatum 
of some foreign botanists. These two were formerly distinguished by 
British botanists as C. alpinum and C. latifolium, but the latter name is 
now generally given to a variety with a shorter pubescence, and usually 
with a shorter and broader capsule and larger seeds, but these differences 
often appear quite inappreciable. The C. latifolium, Linn. of the Alps of 
central Europe is not a British plant. 
4, C.trigynum, Vill. (fig. 162). Starwort Cerast.—Stems shortly 
perennial, prostrate and intricately branched, but much more slender than 
in C. alpinum; the whole plant glabrous, with the exception of minute 
hairs down one side of the branches, or rarely generally hairy. Leaves 
narrow, and usually curved to one side. Flowering branches shortly 
ascending, with one or two large flowers, on rather long peduncles, like 
those of C. alpinum; but the styles are almost always reduced to 3, very 
seldom flowers may be found with 4 or even 5, the teeth of the capsule 
always double the number of the styles. 
In moist, alpine situations, in all the great mountain-ranges of Europe 
and Russian Asia to the Arctic Circle. Not unfrequent in the Breadalbane 
range in Scotland, and other mountains to the northward; recorded also 
from near Bantry, in Ireland, 7. summer. 
XI. STELLARIA. STARWORT. 
Annuals or perennials, generally more glabrous than Cerastium, the 
leaves usually pointed and often cordate, the sepals more pointed and less 
distinctly scarious at the edge. Sepals 5, Petals-5, deeply bifid. Stamens 
10, occasionally reduced to 5 or fewer. Styles 3, or rarely 5. Capsule 
opening to the middle, or lower down in as many or twice as many valves. 
A large genus, extending like Cerastium over nearly the whole geo- 
graphical range of the family, and generally a natural one, although some 
species, especially S. media and WS. uliginosa, have all the appearance of 
Arenaria trinervis, and can only be distinguished by a close inspection of 
the minute petals and capsules. Most species of Stellaria may be met 
with occasionally, though rarely, without any petals at all. 
Lower leaves stalked, ovate or heart-shaped. 
Petals much longer than the calyx. 
Five styles in most of the flowers . : : - f 4 . 1. 8. aquatica. 
Three styles . P ° > « 2 S. nemorum. 
Petals shorter or scarcely longer than the calyx. 
Lower leaves ovate, cordate, on long stalks. 3. S. media. 
All the leaves narrowed at the base, sessile or shor tly stalked . 4. S, uliginosa. 
All the leaves narrow-lanceolate or linear, and sessile or nearly so. 
Petals shorter or scarcely longer than the calyx. 
Plant annual. Leaves oblong or lanceolate, short . ° . 4. S, uliginosa. 
Stock perennial. Leaves narrow-lanceolate or linear s . 5. S&. graminea. 
Petals considerably longer than the calyx. 
Leaves very narrow. Sepals distinctly three-nerved : . 6. S. glauca. 
Leaves lanceolate or pst acme bier ve of the io ia 
scarcely perceptible . : . 7 S&S. Holostea. . 
1. S. aquatica, Scop. (fig. 168). Woser Stanteare —A perennial with 
much of the habit and the heart-shaped leaves of S. nemorum, but on a 
rather larger scale, usually more pubescent, and slightly viscid, the flowers 
