130 



THE PINK FAMILY. 



3. Chickweed Starwort. Stellaria media, Liim. (Fig. 1G3.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 537. Chickweed.) 



A weak, much branched annual, gla- 

 brous, 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. Sta- 

 mens often reduced to 5. Styles 3. 



In cultivated and waste places, road- 

 sides, and edges of streams, throughout 

 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. 



Fl. the whole season. 



4. Bog Starwort. Stellaria uliginosa, Murr. (Fig. 164.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1074.) 



A weak, slender, glabrous annual, in 

 some measure intermediate between the 

 Chickweed S. and the lesser S. Stems 

 usually about 6 inches, rarely nearly a 

 foot long, much shorter and tufted when 

 on dry ground. Leaves much narrower 

 than in the Chickweed S., but much 

 shorter and broader than in the lesser S., 

 oblong or lanceolate. Flowers small, in 

 loose, slender, forked panicles, which, as 

 in the lesser S., soon become lateral. 

 Sepals about 1\ lines long. Petals 

 shorter, with very narrow spreading 

 lobes. Styles 3. 



In marshes and wet ditches, widely 

 spread over Europe, Russian Asia, and 

 northern America, but not an Arctic 

 plant, although in southern Europe ge- 

 nerally confined to mountains. Almost 

 Fl. spring and summer. 



Fig. 164. 

 universal in Britain. 



