STELLARIA 
59 
glabrous or hairy. Petals as long as the sepals, lobes nearly parallel 
antipetalous. Anthers red. Stigmas a little 
longer than the ovary. Capsule a little longer 
than the calyx. Seeds larger, acutely or bluntly 
tuberculate or punctate. 
There are apparently two varieties of this in southern 
England ; but their characters do not seem to have been 
yet properly elucidated, perhaps owing to the difficulty that 
intermediates occur. Cf. Bot. Exch. Club Brit. Is., Rep. 
for i 88 j, p. 169; Journ. Bot. xl, 214 — 215 (1902); xlii, 
*5i—: r 53 (1904). 
.S'. latifolia DC. FI. France v ( ou vi) 614 (1815), 
which has been referred to this species, would seem by the 
description to be rather a glabrescent form of S. aquatica. 
Local, in hedgerows ; from the Channel 
Isles, Cornwall, and Kent, northwards to 
Caithness-shire ; common in western England, 
local in eastern England (e.g., Huntingdon- 
shire), rare or overlooked in Scotland, not 
recorded for Ireland. 
Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, 
France, central Europe, Russia, southern 
Europe; northern Africa; Asia Minor; North 
America (rare and not indigenous). 
4. STELLARIA MEDIA. Common 
Chickweed. Plate 56 
Alsine media Gerard Herball 489 (1597); A. 
vulgaris seu morsus gallinae Ray Syn. ed. 3, 347 
(1724). 
Stellaria media Villars Hist. PI. Dauph. 
iii, 615 (1789); Smith Eng. Bot. no. 473 (1800); 
Ft. Brit. 473 (1800) ! ; Boreau FI. Centr. France ed. 3, 
ii, 104 (1857); Alsine media L. Sp. PI. 272 (1753)!; 
Scopoli FI. Cam. ed. 2, i, 224 (1772); S', media 
var. genuina Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 94 ( 1 864) ; Rouy 
ec Foucaud FI. France iii, 228 (1896). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 537; Curtis FI. 
Lond. i, 54, as Alsine media ; Reichenbach Icon, v, 
t. 222, fig. 4904; FI. Dan. t. 525. 
Stamens 10, outer ones 
Map 25. S. neglecta has been recorded for the counties 
which are shaded 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 56. (a) Flowering 
branches, (b) Petals (one enlarged). ( c ) Ovaries (one 
enlarged), (d) Seeds (two enlarged). Huntingdonshire (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 2425; Fellman, 52; Schultz 443, as S. elisabethae ; Herb. FI. Ingric., i, 108. 
Annual. Stem much branched, quadrangular, decumbent, straggling, brittle, with vertical lines 
of hairs alternating at each internode. Petioles of the lower leaves often longer than the laminae. 
Laminae ovate, subattenuate at the base, entire, acute. Pedicels with a vertical line of hairs, several 
times as long as the calyx when mature, up to about i‘5 cm. long, reflexed in fruit and curved near 
the base. Flowers about 5 — 8 mm. in diameter; appearing all the year round unless the tempera- 
ture remains below about 2° C. Sepals hairy, ovate, with a very narrow white margin. Petals split 
almost to the base, lobes spreading at maturity, distinctly shorter than the sepals, sometimes 
absent — especially in the winter-form of the plant — when the flower is cleistogamous. Stamens o — 10, 
usually 3 ; when 5, alternipetalous, alternating with the disc-glands. Anthers brownish-red or violet- 
red. Disc yellow, glandular. Stigmas usually 3, about as long as the ovary, antisepalous. Capsule 
cylindrical, dehiscing by 5 bifid valves. Seeds reddish, compressed, punctate. 
8—2 
