124 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



vitality of the chick weed that, except 

 in the severest seasons, it may be found 

 blooming all the year round. Its 

 blossoms are highly hygrometricalj 

 opening only when the sun is shining, 

 and remaining closed in damp, dark, 

 cloudy weather. 



The other species of Stellaria may 

 be recognised by their places of growth. 

 S. nenwrum, as its name implies, is a 

 woodland plant, growing usually in 

 patches in damp shady woods. Its 

 stems are excessively brittle, its leaves 

 large and heart-shaped, and its flowers 

 equalling Holostea in size. It has the 

 most limited range in Britain of any 

 of the Stellarias, but I have always 

 found it more abundant than S. glauca ) 

 which inhabits low grounds by marshes 

 and ditches. S. graminea frequents 

 dry grassy downs, moors and commons. 

 Its stems are remarkably long, slender 

 and straggling ; its leaves are small, 

 and it loves to scramble through a 

 whin or bramble-bush ; its flowers are 

 smaller than those of Holostea and it 

 does not blossom till midsummer. The 

 last one, S. uliginosa, as its name im- 

 ports, is a water-loving species; it 

 grows in marshes and by the banks of 

 streamlets; its petals are remarkably 

 narrow and cleft to the very base, giv- 

 ing them a curiously stellate appear- 

 ance. It has a very wide range, as- 

 cending over 3,000 feet in the High- 

 lands, and its bright green foliage 

 forms dense cushion -like masses by 



mountain streams and alpine rivulets. 



It is a singular fact that such an 

 extensive Natural Order as Caryophyl- 

 laceae, containing such a great variety 

 of species, and including such a large 

 number of individuals, should yet not 

 produce a single plant of economic 

 importance to man, although there are 

 several beautiful and favourite flowers, 

 as the pinks and carnations. And even 

 more remarkable still, the cloves of 

 commerce, which imparts its name to 

 the fragrant clove carnation (Dianthus 

 caryojohyllus) and through it to the 

 natural order, is the product of a tree 

 which has no affinity except in name 

 with this family, the aromatic spice 

 being the unexpanded flower-buds of 

 a tree (Caryophyllus aromaticus) be- 

 longing to the MyrtacecB and a native 

 of the tropics. The humble herbs of 

 CaryopJiyllacece, although cosmopolitan 

 in their range are most abundant in 

 cold and temperate climes, they are 

 said to constitute of the flowering 

 plants of France ; -oV of those of Ger- 

 many; and -jV of Lapland ; whilst of 

 our own indigenous flora they form 

 about -^V, as they muster 65 species 

 out of a total of 1,600. They may 

 easily be recognised by the separate 

 petals of the corolla, the opposite 

 leaves and the stem usually swollen at 

 the nodes. 



The generic name Stellaria is appro- 

 priately applied in allusion to its star- 

 | like flowers, although in the time of Ray 



