C 93 3 h e
C E R A S T I U M arvenfe.
Field Chickweed.
D E C A N D R I A Pentagynia.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. five-leaved. Petals cloven. Capjule
one-celled, burfting at the top.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves linear-lanceolate, obtufe, ciliated
at the bafe. Corolla longer than the calyx.
S y n . Ceraftium arvenfe. Linn. Sp. P L 628. Hudf. FI.
An. 20 1. With. Bot. A rr. 4 78 . Relb. Cant. 179.
Caryophyllus arvenfis hirfutus, flore majore. R a il
Syn. 348.
i
F r e q u e n t l y found in a gravelly foil in many parts of
England, more rarely in Scotland, on dry banks and wafte
ground.
The root is perennial and creeping. Stems very numerous,
procumbent at the bafe, and forming thick tufts, riling to
about four or five inches in height, alternately branched,
round, leafy, each terminated by two or three large, white, not
inelegant flowers, with heart-lhaped veined petals. The whole
plant is often very hairy, always more or lefs fo, even in Linnaeus’s
own Scanian fpecimens, though he defcribes the leaves
as fmooth. The germen is globular; capfule cylindrical, flender,
fhorter than the calyx, fplitting into five narrow valves, pellucid
and almoft membranous,------It produces a profufion of flowers
from May to September.
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