6o 
STELLA RI A 
Mr I. H. Burkill ( Journ . Linn. Soc. xxxi, 219 et seq.) examined 5684 plants of this species, mostly growing near Cam- 
bridge, and counted the number of their stamens as follows: — o stamens, 3 plants; r, 6; 2, 113; 3, 2370; 4, 1293; 
5, 1167; 6, 171; 7, 69; 8, 30; 9, 12; and 10, 7. 
Waste places and cultivated land ; throughout the British Isles ; ascending to 530 m. in 
Perthshire. 
Cosmopolitan in its occurrence ; but probably not indigenous in America and the southern 
hemisphere. 
5. STELLARIA APETALA. Plate 57 
Stellaria apetala Ucria PI. ad Linn. Op. Add. no. 11, in Roemer Arch, fiir die Bot. i, i, 68 (1796); 
Alsine pallida Dumortier FI. Belg. 109(1827); Pird 
in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. ii, 43 (1863); Babington in 
Journ. Bot. ii, 202 (1864); Stellaria apetala Boreau 
in Bull. Soc. Indust. Angers xviii (1847) ex Giirke 
loc. cit. ; 5 . boraeana Jordan Pugillus 33 (1852); 
Boreau FI. Centr. France dd. 3, ii, 104 (1857); 
S. media var. boraeana Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 94 (1864); 
5 . media race apetala Rouy et Foucaud FI. France 
iii, 230 (1896); S. pallida Giirke PI. Eur. ii, 204 
(1899); 5 . media subsp. pallida Ascherson und 
Graebner FI. Nordost. Flachl. 310 (1898). 
Exsiccata ; — van Heurck et Martinis, viii, 353; 
Schultz ( H.N. ), 755 ; Todaro, 591, as S. apetala. 
Closely allied to S. media , but differing 
in the following characters. An ephemeral 
plant, disappearing in early July and not 
reappearing until the following February. 
Internodes short. Petioles of the lower leaves 
about as long as the laminae. Laminae 
broadly oval, more or less attenuate at the 
base, acute, small, about 5 mm. long and 
4 broad. Inflorescence few-flowered or soli- 
tary. Pedicels about as long as the capsules. Flowers cleistogamous ; March to May. Sepals 
3 — -4 mm. long, with a narrow scarious margin, glandular-hairy. Petals absent. Stamens 2 — 3. 
Anthers violet. Stigmas very short. Capsule elliptical, a little longer than the calyx. Seeds about 
half as large as in S. media, faintly punctulate. 
(a) S. apetala var. major comb. nov. ; S. media race apetala var. major Rouy et Foucaud FI. France 
iii, 230 (1896). 
Shoot lax, straggling, pale green. Branches and internodes long. 
This is the usual form met with on sand-dunes. It is very common, for example, in Jersey. 
{b) S. apetala var. minor comb. nov. ; S. media race apetala var. minor Rouy et Foucaud FI. France 
loc. cit. 
leones : — Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 57. (a) Whole plant. ( b ) Flower (enlarged). ( c ) Ripening fruit 
(enlarged). Suffolk (C. E. M.). 
Plants growing in low, dense, prostrate, and often circular clumps containing numerous indi- 
viduals. Shoot compact, dark green. Branches and internodes short. 
This is the common form of the species in inland localities, as, for example, on the sandy soils of the breck country in 
Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, where it is a very characteristic plant. 
Locally abundant on dry sandy soils, as on the East Anglian heaths and in the neighbouring 
fallow fields, and on sand dunes ; Channel Isles, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Cornwall, Sussex, Surrey, 
Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, Flintshire, and doubtless elsewhere. 
Southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia, southern 
Europe ; Asia Minor. 
Series ii. Holosteae 
Holosteae Fenzl in Endlicher Gen. PI. 969 (1840) inch Larbreae. 
