548 DECANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Stellaria 
habit Stellaria nemorum, or Cerastium aquaticum; distinguishable how¬ 
ever from the latter by the number of pistils, and from the former by the 
woolly or hairy ridge extending along the stem. 
The great uncertainty in the number of stamens (three, five, or ten, E.) 
occasions some difficulty to the young Botanist. In its truly wild state, 
in damp woods and hedge bottoms with a northern aspect, whatever be 
its size, it has almost always ten stamens. In dryer soils and more sunny 
exposures the stamens are usually five or three; and this is also generally 
the case in gardens, though sometimes flowers are found with only one 
or two. The calyx in all these different states is sometimes smooth, 
sometimes hairy. The other parts of fructification are very constant, 
and the capsule opening with six valves, compels us to consider it a 
species of Stellaria rather than an Alsine. 
Flowers upright, and open from about nine in the morning to noon; but 
rain sometimes prevents their expanding. After rain they become pen¬ 
dent, but in the course of a few days rise again. 
(Common Stitchwort or Chickweed. Welsh: Gwlydd y cywion; 
Tafod yr edn canolig. E.) Alsine media. Linn. A. media , pentastemon, 
ffive-stamened,) FI. Dan. 525; With. Ed. ii. 323. A. media decastemon, 
(ten-stamened,) FI. Dan. 438. With. 324. (Abundant every where, both 
in cultivated and waste ground, by road sides, &c. E.) 
A. March—Oct.* 
* This species affords a notable instance of what is called the Sleep of Plants; —for 
every night the leaves approach in pairs, so as to include within their upper surfaces 
the tender rudiments of the new shoots; and the uppermost pair but one, at the end of the 
stalk, are furnished with longer leaf-stalks than the others, so that they can close upon the 
terminal pair, and protect the end of the branch. Linn. (Numerous are the plants which, 
more or less, close their petals in rainy weather, or at night-fall, but the sensibilities of the 
present species are still more remarkable, though probably intended for the same purpose, 
that of securing from injury the delicate organs of fructification. 
“Averse from evening’s chilly breeze, 
How many close their silken leaves, 
To save the embryo flowers; 
As if, ambitious of a name, 
They sought to spread around their fame, 
And bade the infant buds proclaim 
The parent’s valued powers.” S. H. 
As by the term Vigiliee Plantarum, (the vigils of plants), Botanists comprehend the precise 
time of the day in which certain flowers expand or close ; so Linnaeus distinguishes by the 
general name of solar, (Flores Solares ), all those flowers which observe a determinate time 
in opening and shutting : and these are again divided into three several kinds, viz. Equi¬ 
noctial Flowers, ( Flores JEquinoctiales'), such as open and shut in all seasons at a certain 
hour : Tropical Flowers, (.Flores Tropici ), those whose hour is not fixed at all seasons, 
but accelerated or retarded with the increasing or diminishing length of the day: and Me- 
teorous Flowers, (Flores Meteorici), whose hour of expansion depends upon the dry or 
humid state of the air, and the greater or less pressure of the atmosphere. Upon these 
curious sensibilities has been constructed the Horologium Floree , described elsewhere. E.) 
The young shoots and leaves, when boiled, can hardly be distinguished from spring spinach, 
and are equally wholesome. Swine are extremely fond of this plant; cows and horses 
eat it; sheep are indifferent to it; goats refuse it. (Phaleena VUlica, and other caterpillars 
feed upon it. In gardens and other cultivated lands, it often proves a most troublesome 
underling weed, which should be eradicated by persevering attention. The vegetative pro¬ 
cess of the Chickweed is not interrupted even during the severity of winter. It produces 
ripe seeds within eight weeks from the period of their being sown, when the inverted cap¬ 
sules give their contents to the winds, or drop them immediately on the earth. It is a 
grateful food to small birds and young chickens, whose sustenance is secured by the exube- 
