52 
CERASTIUM 
(b) C. viscosum var. confertum Druce in Moss Camb. Brit. FI. iii, 52; C. glomeratum Thuillier FI. Env. 
Paris ed. 2, 226 (1799); C. glomeratum var. corollinum subvar. confertum Rouy et Foucaud loc. cit. 
Exsiccata : — Herb. Druce, 104, 516. 
Inflorescence very dense. Pedicels very short. 
This is the usual form of the species: its leaves are sometimes very broad. 
A curious, monstrous form of this species, with the sepals, petals, and carpels changed to leaves, and with hairy 
filaments and unchanged anthers, was described by Babington (in Gard. Chron. 557 (1844)). The plant occurred at Tintern, 
Monmouthshire ; specimens are preserved in Herb. Univ. Cantab. 
Locally common throughout the British Isles, especially in lowland districts ; damp waste places, 
grassy heaths and cliffs, walls, waysides, drives in woods, and arable land ; showing a preference 
for light and not very calcareous soils ; ascending to over 650 m. in Scotland and to over 500 m. 
in Ireland. 
Faeroes, Iceland, Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe 
(ascending to 1400m. in the Tyrol), Russia, southern Europe; northern Africa; Asia; America 
(not indigenous). 
6. CERASTIUM TETRANDRUM. Plate 49 
Cerastium tetrandrum Curtis FI. Lond. i, 93 (between 1791 and 1796) 1 ; Smith FI. Brit. 498 (1800)!; 
Babington in Mag. Zool. and Bot. ii, 201 (1838) inch C. pedunculatum , t. 6, p. 200, et incl. C. atrovirens, t. 9, 
p. 317; Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 78 (1864); Sagina cerastio'ides Dickson in Trans. Linn. Soc. ii, 343 (1794)!; Smith 
Eng. Bot. no. 166 (1794); C. pumilum var. tetrandrum Grenier Monogr. Cerast. 33 (1841) ; C. pumilum Schultz 
Arch. FI. 23 (1842); Grenier et Godron FI. France i, 269 (1848); non Curtis; C. pumilum race tetrandrum 
Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 217 (1896). 
leones : — Curtis FI. Lond. i, 93 ; Smith Eng. Bot. t. 166, as Sagina cerastio'ides ; FI. Dan. t. 2117 ; Reichenbach 
Icon, v, t. 227, fig. 4954, as Esmarchia cerastio'ides , et t. 228, fig. 4969 (left-hand figure) as C. atrovirens. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 4.9. (a, b, c) Whole plants. ( d ) Upper bract (enlarged), (e) Sepal (enlarged). 
(/) Petal (enlarged), (g) Flower (enlarged), (h) Fruit (enlarged) (E. W. H.). (i) Whole plant, (j) Upper 
bract (enlarged). ( k ) Sepal (enlarged). (/) Fruits (one enlarged). ( m ) Capsule (enlarged). Jersey (E. W. H.). 
(; n ) Whole plant. (0) Sepals (enlarged), (p) Flower (enlarged). ( q ) Capsule (enlarged). Somerset (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata: — Dickson, x, 4, as Sagina cerastioides ; Don, 60; Fries, xv, 44; Schultz ( H.N . ), vii, 620; (FI. 
Gall, et Germ.), 624 ; Pel. Maill. 407, 407 a. 
Annual, allied to C. viscosum but more of an ephemeral plant. Shoot very viscid with glandular 
hairs, usually branched at the base, lateral branches procumbent or ascending, 2 — 22 cm. Leaves 
of the rosette less numerous and less compact than in C. pumilum , soon withering ; laminae sub- 
spathulate ; upper ones oblong to elliptical, obtuse or rather acute, recurved at the tips. Inflorescence 
rather lax. Bracts all leaf-like, without any scarious margin, shorter than the pedicels. Pedicels 
1 "5 — 4 times as long as the calyx, usually erect, not bent at or near the top. Flowers usually 
tetramerous, less often pentamerous, about 7 — 9mm. in diameter; April to July. Sepals acute, 
margins scarious. Petals not contiguous, oblong, rather deeply notched at the apex ; lobes oblong, 
nearly parallel, about as long as the sepals. Stamens 4 — 5. Capsule slightly curved, usually about 
1 ’5 times as long as the calyx. Seeds brown, about o'6 mm. long, punctulate. 
The earliest British record is by Dickson (loc. cit.)-, but there are specimens in herb. Dillenius at Oxford labelled “an 
viscosa found by Dr Manninghan on ye coast of Sussex est praecox” which are the earliest I have seen. 
(a) forma luxurians Druce in Moss Camb. Brit. FI. iii, 52. 
Shoot diffuse, large, 25 cm.; internodes 4^5 cm. Lower leaves broadly ovate, large, 2^5 cm. long 
and 1 ’o broad. Sepals with narrow scarious margins. Capsule short, straight. 
Coasts of Cornwall and Glamorganshire, and doubtless elsewhere. 
1 The exact date of the publication of C. tetrandrum and C. pumilum is not known, but was probably about 1794. 
The plates of the six fascicles of Curtis’s FI. Lond. were issued in most cases in numbers and were undated. On the com- 
pletion of each fascicle, an index was supplied in which the plants were numbered for guidance in binding. Hitherto 
I have been unable to meet with a copy with the fascicles bound up in the order of their publication. As no clue 
to the date of publication is given on the plates, it is only from other sources that their approximate dates can be 
obtained (see fourn. Bot. xix, 310 (1881); xxxiii, 112 (1895)). From the reference to C. pumilum in Withering’s Arr. 
ed. 3, 435 (1796), Curtis’s plate of the plant probably appeared before that time. 
