128 THE PINK FAMILY. 



leaves usuall} r pointed, and often cordate, the sepals more pointed and 

 less distinctly scarious at tke 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 the Cerasts, over nearly the whole geo- 

 graphical range of the family, and generally a natural one, although 

 some species, especially the Chit hweed and Bog Stamvorts, have all the 

 appearance of the three-nerved Sandwort, and can only be distinguished 

 by a close inspection of the minute petals and capsules. Most species 

 of Stariuort 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 1. Water S. 



Three styles 2. Wood S. 



Petals shorter, or scarcely longer than the calyx. 



Lower leaves ovate-cordate, on long stalks .... 3. ChicJcweed S. 

 All the leaves narrowed at the base, sessile or shortly 



stalked . . 4. Bog S. 



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. Bog S. 

 Stock perennial. Leaves narrow-lanceolate or linear . 5. Lesser S. 

 Petals considerably longer than the calyx. 



Leaves very narrow. Sepals distinctly three-nerved . 6. Glaucous S. 

 Leaves lanceolate or linear-lanceolate. Nerves of the 



Is scarcely perceptible 7. Greater S. 



1. Water Starwort. Stellaria aquatica, Scop. (Fig. 161.) 



(Cerastium, Eng. Bot. t. 538. Malachium, Brit. Fl.) 



A perennial with much of the habit and the heart-shaped leaves of 

 the wood S. 9 but on a rather larger scale, usually more pubescent, and 

 slightly viscid, the flowers smaller, and always known by all or 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 Startvorts. 

 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 



