[*][*] Leaves soft and herbaceous, filiform-linear; petals retuse or notched.
4. A. pátula, Michx. Diffusely branched from the slender root; stems filiform (6–10´ long); branches of the cyme diverging; peduncles long; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, 3–5-nerved. (A. Pitcheri, Nutt.)—S. W. Va. to Ky., Ill., Kan., and southward.
5. A. Grœnlándica, Spreng. (Mountain S.) Densely tufted from slender roots, smooth; flowering stems filiform, erect (2–4´ high), few-flowered; sepals oblong, obtuse, nerveless.—Summit of the Shawangunk, Catskill, and Adirondack Mountains, N. Y., of the higher mountains of New Eng., and northward; alpine or subalpine. At Bath, Maine, on river-banks near the sea, and near Middletown, Ct. June–Aug.—Leaves and peduncles 3–6´´ long; flowers large in proportion. (Addendum)—Arenaria Grœnlandica. Found on Mt. Desert Island, Maine (Rand).
§ 3. MŒHRÍNGIA. Parts of the flower sometimes in fours; pod as in § 1, but the young ovary 3-celled; seeds rather few, smooth, with a thickish appendage (strophiole) at the hilum; perennials, with flaccid broadish leaves.
6. A. lateriflòra, L. Sparingly branched, erect, minutely pubescent; leaves oval or oblong, obtuse (½–1´ long); peduncles 2- (rarely 3–4) flowered, soon becoming lateral; sepals oblong, obtuse.—Gravelly shores, etc., New Eng. to Penn., Mo., Minn., and northward. May, June. (Eu.)
§ 4. AMMADÈNIA. Styles, cells of the ovary, and valves of the fleshy pod 3, rarely 4 or 5; seeds few, smooth, short-beaked at the naked hilum; disk under the ovary more prominent than usual, glandular, 10-lobed; flowers almost sessile in the axils, sometimes diœcious or polygamous; root perennial.
7. A. peploìdes, L. Stems (simple or forking from long rootstocks, 6–10´ high) and ovate partly-clasping leaves (8–10´´ long) very fleshy. (Honkenya peploides, Ehrh.)—Sands of the sea-shore, N. J. to Maine and northward. June. (Eu.)
7. STELLÀRIA, L. Chickweed. Starwort.
Sepals 4–5. Petals 4–5, deeply 2-cleft, sometimes none. Stamens 8, 10, or fewer. Styles 3, rarely 4 or 5, opposite as many sepals. Pod ovoid, 1-celled, opening by twice as many valves as there are styles, several–many-seeded. Seeds naked.—Flowers (white) solitary or cymose, terminal, or appearing lateral by the prolongation of the stem from the upper axils. (Name from stella, a star, in allusion to the star-shaped flowers.)
[*] Stems spreading, flaccid, marked longitudinally with one or two pubescent lines; leaves ovate or oblong, ½–2½´ long.