6. S. boreàlis, Bigel. (Northern S.) Stems erect or spreading, flaccid, many times forked, at length resolved into a leafy cyme; leaves varying from broadly lanceolate to ovate-oblong; petals 2–5, shorter than the calyx, or oftener none; sepals acute; styles usually 4; seeds smooth.—Shaded or wet places, R. I. to Minn., and northward. June–Aug.—Var. alpéstris has the later flowers more cymose, and their bracts small and partly scarious, also the seeds obscurely reticulated or roughish.—Lake Superior, Dr. Robbins. (Eu.) (Addendum)—Stellaria borealis. In the mountains of northern N. J.
7. S. humifùsa, Rottb. Spreading or creeping; stems or branches (2´ high) 1–3-flowered; leaves fleshy, ovate or oblong (2–3´´ long); petals a little longer than the calyx; seeds smooth.—Northern border of Maine on the St. John's (G. L. Goodale), and high northward. June. (Eu.) (Addendum) S. humifusa. This species has also been found on Cranberry Island, near Mt. Desert, Maine, by J. H. Redfield.
8. HOLÓSTEUM, L. Jagged Chickweed.
Sepals 5. Petals 5, usually jagged or denticulate at the point. Stamens 3–5, rarely 10. Styles mostly 3. Pod ovoid, 1-celled, many-seeded, opening at the top by 6 teeth. Seeds rough, flattened on the back, attached by the inner face.—Annuals or biennials, with several (white) flowers in an umbel, borne on a long terminal peduncle. (Name composed of ὅλος, all, and ὀστέον, bone, by antiphrasis, these plants being soft and tender.)
H. umbellàtum, L. Leaves oblong; peduncle and upper part of the stem glandular-pubescent; pedicels reflexed after flowering.—Hills around Lancaster, Penn., Prof. Porter, and Morris Co., N. J., C. F. Austin. (Nat. from Eu.)
9. CERÁSTIUM, L. Mouse-ear Chickweed.
Sepals 5, rarely 4. Petals as many, 2-lobed or cleft, rarely entire. Stamens twice as many, or fewer. Styles equal in number to the sepals and opposite them. Pod 1-celled, usually elongated, membranaceous, opening at the apex by twice as many teeth as there were styles, many-seeded. Seeds rough.—Flowers white, in terminal cymes. Our species have the petals 2-cleft or obcordate, the parts of the flower always in fives, and the exserted pods more or less curved. (Name from κέρας, a horn, alluding to the shape of the pod in many species.)
C. viscòsum, L. (Mouse-ear Chickweed.) Annual, hairy and rather clammy, nearly erect (4–9´ high); leaves ovate or obovate to oblong-spatulate; bracts herbaceous; flowers small in close clusters at first, pedicels even in fruit not longer than the acute sepals; petals shorter than the calyx. (C. vulgatum, L. Herb., and Man. The names of this and the next were transposed in the Linnæan herbarium, which has caused much confusion. They are here applied as originally by Linnæus, and by many recent botanists. Others substitute for this the later name, C. glomeràtum, Thuill.)—Grassy places, eastward and southward; not common. May–July.—Stamens often 5. (Nat. from Eu.)
C. vulgàtum, L. (Larger M.) Perennial; stems clammy-hairy, spreading (6–15´ long); leaves oblong; upper bracts scarious-margined; flowers larger (sepals 2–3´´ long), at first clustered, the fruiting pedicels longer, the earlier ones mostly much longer than the obtuse sepals; petals equalling the calyx. (C. viscosum, L. Herb., and Man. C. triviàle, Link.)—Fields and copses; common, perhaps indigenous. May–July. (Nat. from Eu.)
1. C. nùtans, Raf. Annual, very clammy-pubescent; stems erect, slender, grooved, diffusely branched (6–20´ high); cyme loose and open, many-flowered; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, the lowest spatulate; peduncles mostly elongated; petals longer than the calyx; pods nodding on the stalks, curved upward, thrice the length of the calyx.—Moist places, Vt. to Minn., and southward. May–July.