r82 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
" The flowers ftand at the tops of the ilalks, 
and are very fmall, and white : they fcarce ever 
open. 
The feed vcflel is fmali, and opens in three 
parts, and contains three feeds. 
Tt is common in places where water is juft dried 
up ; and flowers in June. 
Ray calls it Jlfine parva palujtris tricoccos foliis 
fortulaca:.^ Merret, Alfme flcfailis comiivintiias. 
We, in En'gliih, Blinks. 
17. Round leaved creeping Chickwced. 
Alfine piifilla repcm foliis rotiadis. 
This is a Angular and very elegant fpecies. 
The root is long, flcnder, and white : it creeps 
up under the furface, and fends out tufts of 
fibres in dilferent places. 
The leaves rife in cUifters three or four toge- 
ther at fmall diftances, and they ftand fingly on 
long and very flcnder footftalks : from the fame 
fpot, where they rife, there grow alfo fmall, creep- 
ing ftalks, which run upon the ground, and fend 
up other clufters of leaves in different places. 
The leaves are fmall, round, and dented at the 
edges ; and they are of a pale green. 
The flowers are very fmall ; they ftand fingly 
on tender footftalks riling from the bofoms of 
the leaves ; and they are of a pale fiefhy colour. 
The fced-veflel is very fmall, and the feeds 
are minute and few. 
It is not uncommon on the fides of hills in our 
weftern counties, but is fo fmall that it is eafily 
overlooked. It flowers in July. 
Ray calls it Alfme fpuria ftifilk rcpeiil foliis 
faxifragiC aure^. 
Thefe fpecies of Chickweed are all fuppofed to 
poflefs the fame qualities with the common kind ; 
but they have not been much regarded. 
The cmmion chickweed has the credit of being 
cooling and diuretick ; but little notice is taken 
of it. Outwardly it is cooling, but neither way 
demands much notice. 
DIVISION II. 
FOREIGN SPECIES. 
I. Large-fruited rock Chickweed. 
Alfme petraa frullu majori. 
The root is flender, divided into many parts, 
and furnilhed with numerous, fibres. 
The flalks are flender, upright, and toward 
the tops divided into feveral branches. 
The leaves are fmall, oblong, narrow, and of 
a pale green : they are broadeft toward the 
middle, and terminate in a point. 
The Bowers are nu.mcrous and fmall : they are 
white, and ftand on fliort, flender footftalks. 
■The feed-velTcl is round and large; and the 
feeds are fmall, numerous and brown. 
It is frequent on the mountains in Germany j 
and flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Alfme minor liiii capitulis. 
Gelncr, Alfne pitrica. 
2. Great Chickweed with ferratcd leaves. 
Afme maxima foliis ferratis. 
The root is compofcd of numerous fibres. 
The ftalks are round, firm, ercft, a foot and 
half high, and of a pale green \ and they are not 
at all branched. 
The leaves ftand in pairs without footftalks : 
they are very large, and broadeft at the bafe, 
where they meet in fo clofe a manner that the 
ftalk appears to grow through them : they are 
fliarply ferrated at the edges, and pointed at thecnds. 
The flowers grow at the tops of the ftalks, 
and are large, and fnow white ; they confift each 
of five petals divided pretty deeply at the tips. 
The feed-veffel is large, and the feeds are nu- 
merous, rounded, and flatted. 
It is common among rocks in Italy; and 
flowers in Auguft. 
Men zelius calls it Alfme maxima folanifolia. 
G E N U S VI. 
MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED. 
C E R A S T lU M. 
THE flower is compofed of five petals, nip'd at the ends, and regularly difpofed : the feed-veflel 
is long, crooked, obtufe, and dented into five parts at the end : the cup is compofed of five 
leaves, and remains when the flower is fallen. 
Linna:us places this among the decandria penlagynia ; the threads in the flower being ten, and the 
ftyles from the rudiment of the capfule five. 
We arc unlucky in that we have no Englill, fingle name for this genus : we call it homed chickweed, 
from the ftiape of the feed-veflels ; and moufi-ear chickweed, from the form and hairynefs of the leaves 
m moft of the ipecies ; but thefe being all compound terms, it is better to ufe the Latin name 
cerajiium. 
Linnaeus is reduced to the neceflity of making an exception at the bottom of his charafter of this 
genus, as of the former, which overthrows the charafter of the greater arrangement of the clafs: he 
acknowledges there is a fpecies which have only five ftamina. 
. In this Linnasus is right, that this plant, which has only five threads, is a proper and certain 
fpecies of ceraflnim, though the reft of the plants of that name have ten : but this fliews the 
. uncertainty of the charaelers on which he eftablifties claflis ; for the great and fingle circumftance on 
which the prefent clan's is formed is the having ten threads. 
^' D I V I- 
