CAEYOPHYLLACEJE. 
14 
petioled ovate leaves ; few small white flowers in lax terminal cymes ; 
3 styles ; and an ovoid membranous capsule, splitting to the base into 
6 valves. 
There is in the Kew herbarium, from the Bentham collection, an indifferent speci- 
men of a Stellaria marked “ S. gracilis, Fenzl ; Mauritius, Cambessedes, which is pro- 
bably identical with the Ceylon S. drymarioides , Thwaites ; Hook. fil. Flor. Brit. Ind. i, 
229. It is a weak straggling annual, with the habit of large forms of S. media, 
fragile ascending slender stems with a few pairs of short-petioled glabrous ovate 
membranous leaves ^—1 inch long, few flowers in a lax long-peduncled dichotomous 
cyme, pedicels ■£— i in. long, pilose, deflexed in fruit, oblong-lanceolate persistent 
membranous sepals under i inch long, and included bifid petals and stamens. 
1. CEBASTITJM, Linn. 
Sepals free. Petals 5, bifid, in the Mauritian plant absent. Stamens 
usually 10, hypogynous. Ovary 1-celled, many ovuled ; styles 5. Cap- 
sule cylindrical, rather curved, exceeding the calyx, dehiscing at the 
apex, with 10 minute equal teeth. — Pilose annual or perennial herbs, 
with small white flowers in copious strictly dichotomous terminal 
cymes. Distrib, Cosmopolitan; mainly in temperate regions. Species 
40-50. 
1. C. glomeratum, Thuill. var. mauritiahtjm, Baker. Annual, 
densely tufted. Stems weak, with dense short spreading hairs. Leaves 
small, oblong, obtuse. Cymes not so dense as in the common typical 
European form, which suggested the name glomeratum ; bracts herba- 
ceous ; pedicels shorter than the calyx. Sepals viscose, half as long 
as the slightly curved capsule, green with a narrow membranous 
border. Petals 0 in the specimens seen. C. mauritianum, Bouton MSS. 
C. tomentosum, Bojer, Sort. Maur. 24, non Linn. 
Mauritius, frequent in the higher parts of the island. Totally different from the 
European C. tomentosum , which has a matted white pubescence, and large white 
flowers. Cosmopolitan. Oreille de Souris. 
2. DRYMAEIA, Willd. 
Sepals 5, free. Petals minute, white, bifid. Stamens usually 5, dis- 
tinctly perigynous. Ovary 1-celled, with few ovules ; styles 3. Capsule 
oblong, splitting to the base into 3 lanceolate valves. — Dichotomously 
branched, stipulate annuals, with copious minute flowers, in terminal 
cymes. Disteib. Species 16, all but two American. 
1. D. cordata, Willd. ; DC. Prod. i. 395. A glabrous annual weed, 
with much-branched diflu se slender stems. Stipules of several minute 
bristles. Leaves ovate or round, small, short-stalked, obtuse or cus- 
pidate. Cymes lax, few-flowered. Sepals i in. long, lanceolate, very 
acute, green with a narrow white border, exceeding the petals and 
stamens, as long as the capsule. Holosteum cordatum, Linn. 
Mauritius, in waste places. Everywhere within the tropics. 
Order XI. HYPERICACEiE. 
Elowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals and petals each 5, distinct. 
