DECANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Stellaria. 547 
From five to twelve inches high. Stems weak and brittle. Whole'' plant 
hairy. Leaves (large, pale green, tender, E.) underneath hairy, only on 
the veins and mid-rib. Fruit-stalks, the lateral ones solitary, the ter¬ 
minal ones forming a kind of leafy panicle, widely apart and rather 
turned down after flowering. Flowers white. Styles three, but in Ceras- 
tium aquaticum always five, so that, how much soever they may resemble 
each other in general habit, they cannot well be mistaken. 
(Wood Stitchwort. Broad-leaved Stitchwort. E.) Woods, 
moist hedges, and banks of rivers, in the northern counties. By Caster- 
ton Mill, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland. Smith. Near Kendal. 
Mr. Gough. Baydales, near Darlington. Mr. Robson. (Shady woods 
near Stockport, Cheshire. Mr. G. Holme. Cooms Wood, and Dunmal- 
let, Cumberland. Hutchinson. By Asp atria Mill, Cumberland. Rev. J. 
Dodd, in Bot. Guide. Beamish and Ravensworth Woods, Durham ; and 
Banks of the Tyne, between Lemmington and Newburn. Mr. Winch. 
Banks of the north and south Esk. Maughan. Grev. Edin. E.) P. June. 
S. holos'tea. Leaves spear-shaped, finely serrated: (petals inversely 
heart-shaped: calyx without ribs. E.) 
Licks. H. S. — (E. Bot. 511. E.)— Curt. — Kniph. 10— Wale. — -Mill. III. — 
Fuchs. 136— J. B. iii. 361. 2—Trag. 329— Lod. 563— Lob. Obs. 26. 2— 
Ger. Em. 47— Park. 1325— Pet. 58. 1— Ger. 43. 1. 
(Stems about two feet high, square, leafy, angles rough in the upper part. 
E.) Leaves strap-spear-shaped, (two or three inches long, glaucous. E.) 
in pairs, at the joints of the stem, sessile ; the edges rolled inwards, set 
with fine prickles ; mid-rib underneath beset with small prickles ; above 
smooth, with a hollow groove running lengthwise along the middle. 
Flowers white, large. (Petals cloven only half way down. E.) 
Greater Stitchwort. (Irish: Fluigh. Welsh: Tafocl yr edn mwyaf. 
E.) Hedges and thickets, common. P. April—May.* 
S. me'dia. (Leaves ovate: stems procumbent, with a hairy line on one 
side, alternate between each joint: stamens five to ten. E.) 
(E. Bot. 537. E.)— FI. Dan. 525. and 438— Curt. — Sheldr. 9— Wale. Dod. 
20. 2 —Lob. Obs. 245. 3 —Ger. Em. 611. 2— Park. 760— H. Ox. v. 23. 4 
— Blackw. 164— Fuchs. 21— J. B. iii. 6. 363— Trag. 385— Lonic. i. 167. 
1 and 2— Ger. 488. 2. and 489. 
(Stem thickest upwards, smooth, cylindrical, except a hairy ridge on one, 
rarely on two sides. Leaves pale green, on broad, channelled stalks 
below', sessile above. Peduncles single-flowered, hairy, horizontal, or 
slightly deflexed after flowering. Petals deeply bifid, small, white, shriv¬ 
elling. Siam, glandular at the base. Styles after flowering reflexed. E.) 
This very common plant, which grows almost in all situations, from damp 
and almost boggy woods to the dryest gravel walks in gardens, is conse¬ 
quently subject to great variations in its appearance. Those who have 
only seen it in its usual state as garden Chickweed, would hardly know it 
again in woods, where it sometimes exceeds half a yard in height, and has 
leaves near two inches long, and more than one broad ; resembling in its 
* (The flowers of this species are particularly attractive to a yellow underwinged moth 
which is often seen hovering over them. Dermestes fiavescens feeds on both petals and 
stamens ; and Mordellce will open the anthers with the securiform joints of their palpi to 
get at the pollen. Kirby and Spence. Ornamental in spring when intermixed with other- 
early flowers. E.) 
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