262 TETRANDRIA. TETRAGYNIA. Moenchia. 
Leaves hairy. Hairs not terminated by minute globules as in Spergula 
laricina, which it otherwise much resembles. It is a still smaller and 
more slender plant than the preceding, and always is hairy, whilst the 
other is never so. It is annual, and the other perennial. Curt. ( Seeds 
encircled with a black line. FI. Brit. E.) Hairs on the stems more or 
less deciduous; those on the leaves permanent. 
Annual Small-flowered Pearl-wort. (Welsh: Corwlyddyn anaf- 
Jlodeuog. E.) On walls, gravel-walks, and other very dry places, not 
uncommon. A. May—June. 
S. cerastoi'des. Stem spreading, forked: leaves battledore, or 
inversely egg-shaped; pointed, reflexed; as are the fruit-stalks 
after flowering. 
Hicks. H. S. — Curt. — E. Bot. 166. 
A span high. Stems several, cylindrical. Branches diverging. Leaves 
opposite, in pairs, upper ones sessile. Flowers from the forks of the 
stems and branches. Fruit-stalk an inch long, pubescent. Calyx four¬ 
leaved. Blossom four petals, white, cloven at the end, but half the 
length of the calyx. Stamens four. Germen egg-shaped,, as long as the 
stamens. Styles four, very short, upright. Summits reflexed, woolly. 
Capsule cylindrical, opening at the top, with eight teeth. Its habit that 
of a Cerastium. 
Mouse-ear Pearl-wort. Discovered by Mr. Dickson on the sandy 
shores of Inch Keith, Inch Coombe, and on the beach near Preston Pans. 
(Sea shore near South Shields and Sunderland, and Whitburn Sands ; 
Links at Hartley Pans, and Holy Island, Northumberland. Mr. Winch. 
Between Crafthole and Looe, Devon. Rev. J. P. Jones. Sand hills, 
near Swansea. Mr. J. Woods, jun. On Yarmouth Denes. Mr. D. Turner, 
About Yoxford, Suffolk. Rev. G. Crabbe. Bot. Guide. Just above the 
beach on the small common near the deer park at Penmon, Anglesey. 
Welsh Bot. E.) A. June—July. Linn. tr. ii. 343. 
Several recent Botanists have removed this plant to the genus Cerastium , 
calling it C.tetrandrum, after Curtis; a genus with which its general habit 
certainly much accords, though it appears that all wild specimens exhibit 
blossoms four-cleft, and with only four stamens; so that the discrepancies 
are not thus to be reconciled. E.) 
(MOEN'CHIA.^ Calyx four-leaved: Petals four: Caps, one- 
celled, one-valved, with eight teeth. E.) 
(M. erec'ta. 
Hicks. H. S.-—E. Bot. 609— Curt. — Ray 15. 4. p. 348— Vaill. 3. 2— Pet. 
59. 9. 
Whole herb glaucous, very smooth. Stems several, erect, three or four 
inches high, cylindrical, leafy. Leaves opposite, sessile, linear-lanceolate, 
entire, single-ribbed. Floivers erect, solitary, on long terminal stalks, 
conspicuous for the shining white of their petals , and the edges of their 
calyx-leaves. Caps, of a light shining brown. Sm. 
* (After Conrad Moench, Professor of Botany at Hesse Cassel, and author of “ Flora 
Hassiaca.” E.) 
