Descriptive Flora 



77 



only in the sunlight, and resembling points of flame at the tips of 

 the short, leafy branches. Petals four to six, usually five. 

 Stamens fifteen to twenty-five. Fruit a one-celled pod hidden in 

 the tuft of hairs at the end of the stem and opening by a circular 

 lid, which drops off. Summer. In dry, rocky ground. Rare. 



CARYOPHYLLACEAE. Pink Family. 



ALSINACEAE. Chickweed Family. In Small's Flora. 



Arenaria bentJtamii Fenzl. Sandwort. 



Inconspicuous annual, 4 to 10" high, with almost thread-like 

 repeatedly forked branches, small opposite leaves, and very 

 small, inconspicuous white flowers, solitary on threadlike 

 axillary pedicels 1 to IV2" long. Leaves simple, opposite. Blades 

 ■/4 to Y2" l° n g> oblong or elliptic, narrowed at each end, sessile. 

 Sepals 5, very small. Petals 5, white, nearly as long as the sepals. 

 Capsule ovoid, about 1/12" long. In dry ground. February, 

 March and April. 



St ellaria media (L.) Smith. Chickweed. 

 (Alsine media L.) 



Sprawling plants with weak stems spreading at the base and 

 threading the grass and low weeds. Leaves opposite, entire. 

 Blades ovate to elliptical, narrowed at each end, less than one 

 inch long, with petioles that are usually longer than the blades. 

 Flowers minute, white, resembling little stars set in the leafy 

 ends of the stems or branches. Petals four or five, deeply two- 

 parted or cleft, shorter than the sepals. Stamens three. Stigma 

 3-lobed. Seed cases small, about 1/12" long, terminating slender 

 pedicels that are V2 to 1" long, solitary in the axil of one of 

 a pair of opposite leaves. Blossoms all year depending on the 

 moisture supply. The stems take root at the nodes and spread 

 rapidly, either threading the grass of laws or forming thick 

 mats in waste ground. Stellaria is the Latin name for Star- 

 like. 



