Arenaria Gothica, Fr

The habitat of this plant is bare calcareous places. The habit is prostrate. The stems are much-branched, spreading, slightly hairy. The leaves are ovate, lance-shaped, narrow-pointed, with a slight fringe of hairs below. The flowers are white, 1-3, terminal. The sepals are ovate to lance-shaped, smooth, keeled or obscurely ribbed, not so long as the capsule. The petals are longer than the calyx, with very short hairs, oblong. The capsule is ovoid, narrowed at the top, and opens by the turned-back teeth. The seeds are dark-brown, tubercled. The plant is 1-4 in. high, flowering from May to September, and is a herbaceous perennial.

Annual Pearlwort (Sagina Apetala, Ard.)

The habitat of this plant is dry banks, wall-tops, bare places. The plant has the rosette habit. It is wiry, slender. The branches are ascending. The stem is prostrate or ascending. The primary and lateral shoots are all flowering. The radical leaves form a rosette, and are fringed with hairs below, blunt-pointed, linear. The upper part of the stem, ultimate flower-stalks, and calyx may be glandular, hairy. The flowers are green, on slender stalks. The petals are very small, inversely wedge-shaped, blunt, or absent (hence apetala). The sepals are hooded, spreading at length in a Maltese Cross, blunt, longer than the capsule. The flower-stalks are erect. The central stems lengthen, flower, and with the branches are erect, and do not root. The capsule is conical to ovoid, more or less shield-shaped below, stalked. The plant is 1-10 in. in height, flowering from May to September, and is a herbaceous annual.

Alpine Pearlwort (Sagina Nivalis, Fr.)

This species grows in rocky places on Scotch mountains. The habit is tufted. The stems are dense, smooth. The flowers are white, on erect stalks. The plant is 1-1 1/2 in. high, flowers in July and August, and is a herbaceous perennial.

Sagina Reuteri, Boiss

The habitat of this plant is gravel walks, bare places. The habit is prostrate. The stem is much-branched. The flowers are white. The sepals are usually appressed, the tips blunt. The flower-stalks are short, densely glandular. The plant is 1-3 in. high, flowering from May to August, and is a herbaceous annual.

Mountain Pearlwort (Sagina Linneei, Presl = 5. Saginoides, Dalla Torre)

The habitat of this plant is Highland alps, Scotch mountains. The habit is prostrate. The stems are numerous, slightly rooting, the central short and barren, hairless, with many branches. The leaves are linear, blunt, pointed, hairless. The petals are shorter than the sepals, which are closely pressed, narrow, hairless. The parts of the flower are in fives. The flower-stalks are long, hairless, the tips bent down after flowering, then erect. The styles are not bent back. The capsule is longer than the calyx, the valves narrowed upwards. The plant flowers from June to August, and is a herbaceous perennial.

Boyd's Pearlwort (Sagina Boydii, F. B. White)

This very rare species grows on Scottish mountains. The habit is densely tufted. The leaves are dark-green, shiny, fleshy, overlapping, bent back. There are no petals. The parts of the flower are in 5's. The plant is 1-2 in. high. It flowers in June, and is a herbaceous perennial.

Sagina Scolica, Druce

The habit is creeping. The plant grows on Scottish mountains (hence scolica). The leaves are blunt, shortly pointed. The flower-stalks are long, smooth. The sepals are 5, elliptic, blunt. The petals are 5, as long as, or nearly as long as, the sepals.