tellarva. | XII, CARYOPHYLLACEE. 73 
smaller, and always known by allor most of the flowers having 5 styles, 
and the capsule opening in 5 valves, which are entire or shortly bifid, 
seldom deeply cleft as in the other Siellari@. Stems weak, often a foot or 
more in length. Lower leaves small, on long stalks, upper ones more 
sessile or stem-clasping, often 1 to 2 inches long, thin and flaccid, with a 
prominent midrib, and very pointed. Flowers in the forks of leafy cymes, 
the pedicels turned down after flowering. Sepals about 2 lines long at the 
time of flowering, enlarged when in fruit. Petals narrow, deeply cleft, 
about one half longer than the calyx. Melachium aquaticum, Fries. 
Cerastium aquaticum, Linn. 
In wet places, along ditches and streams, etc., very widely diffused over 
Europe, and Russian and central Asia, except the extreme north, and 
migrating with man to several other parts of the world. Not com- 
mon in Britain, and confined to the counties as far north as Yorkshire 
and Cheshire. #7. swmmer. The flowers have occasionally, but seldom, only 
3 styles. ; 
2. S.nemorum, Linn. (fig. 164). Wood Starwort.—Rootstalk creep- 
ing, of some years’ duration. Stems weak, emitting creeping branches 
from the base, the flowering branches ascending to 6 inches or a foot, with 
a few short spreading hairs. Leaves heart-shaped, pointed, of a thin 
texture, usually glabrous or slightly ciliated on the edges, the lower ones 
small, on long stalks, the upper 1 to 2 inches long, with much shorter 
stalks or nearly sessile. Flowers in elegant, loose, spreading cymes, on 
long, slender pedicels, with small bracts at their base. Sepals about 3 
lines, the petals nearly twice as long, narrow, and deeply cleft. Styles 3. 
Capsule straight, opening to near the base into 8 bifid or 6 entire valves. 
In moist woods, throughout northern Europe and the hilly districts of 
central, and some parts of southern Europe, and across Russian Asia to 
western North America. In Britain, chiefly in northern and western Eng- 
land and southern Scotland. Not recorded from Ireland, 7. summer. 
3. S. media, Linn. (fig. 165). Chickweed Starwort, Chickweed.—A 
weak, much branched annual, glabrous, with the exception of a line of hairs 
down one side of the stem, and a few long ones on the leafstalks. Leaves 
small, ovate and pointed, the lower ones stalked and often heart-shaped, 
_ the upper sessile and narrower. Flowers small, on rather long, slender 
pedicels, in irregularly forked leafy cymes. Petals shorter than the calyx, 
deeply cleft, with narrow, slightly diverging lobes, Stamens often reduced 
to 5. Styles 3. | 
In cultivated and waste places, roadsides, and edges of streams through- 
out Europe, and Russian and Central Asia, and carried out as a weed to 
the whole of the temperate and colder regions of the globe. Abundant in 
Britain. #7. the whole season. {There are two varieties ; S. media proper, 
with obtusely tubercled seeds; S. wmbrosa, Opitz, with these acutely 
tubercled. | 
4, S. uliginosa, Murr. (fig. 166). Bog Starwort.—A weak, slender, 
glabrous annual, in some measure intermediate between S. media and SV. 
graminea. Stems usually about 6 inches, rarely near a foot long, much 
shorter and tufted when on dry ground. Leaves much narrower than in 
S. media, but much shorter and broader than in 8S. graminea, oblong or 
lanceolate. Flowers small, in loose, slender, forked panicles, which, as in 
