/Y*l [ 9 J ï 1
STELLARIA ceraftoides*
Alpine Stitchwort.
DECANDR1A Trigynid:
Gén. Char. Cal. 5-leaved, fpreading. Petals 5,
deeply cloven. Cap/ fuperior, of 1 cell, with 6
teeth at the orifice. Seeds numerous^
S p e c ; C h a r . Leaves elliptic-oblong, bluntith. Stems
generally two-flowered, marked with a hairy longitudinal
line. Calyx-leaves with a fingle nerve,
downy.
Syn. Stellaria cerafioides. Linn. Sp. P I. 604. Sm.
F I. B rit. 4 7 7 . P I. Ic. t. 1 5 . Dick/. T r . o f Linn.
Soc. v . 2. 290. H . Sicc.fa/c. 2. ï i . With. 4 2 1 .
Hull. 97* F I. Dan. t. 92.
A m uncoloufed plate of this plant was given in the llrft
fafciculusof my Plantarum leones in 1789, becaufe I had then
no idea of its being any where figured, and few botanifts appeared
to know it. Linnaeus himfelf after publifhing an
excellent defeription in FI. Suec.n. 394, confounded many other
things with it. Mr. Dickfon firft made it known as a Britifh
native. Our wild fpecimens were gathered on Ben Nevis,' and
mountains to the north of Invercauld, by Mr. J. Mackay.
The root is perennial and creeping, and the flowers come out
in June. Stems diffufe, branched at the bottom, leafy, marked
with a flender alternate hairy line (firft dete&ed by Mr.Sowerby)
as in the Common Chickweed t. 337, which confirms the
generic affinity of the two plants. The flower-ftalks however,
which grow about 2 together at the extremity of the ftem, are
downy in every part. Leaves oppofite, lanceolate or fomewhat
fpatulate, blunt, entire, fmooth, often leaning to one fide.
Flowers ere<St, white. Calyx-leaves obtufe, fingle-ribbed,
downy and vifeid at the bafe, membranous in the margin.
Petals about twice as long as the calyx, cloven half-way down,
narrow. Styles fometimes 4 or 5 ; teeth of the capfule double
their number. Seeds rough, pale brown,