ALSINE, dick•weed, in botany, a ge nus of the Pentandria Tiigynia class and order, and the natural order of Cary°. phyllei : its characters are, that the calyx is a fivc-leaved perianthium, leaflets con cave, oblong and acuminate : the corolla has five equal petals, longer than the calyx ; the stamina consist of capillary filaments, the anthers roundish ; the pis till um has a subovate germ, styles filiform, and stigmas obtuse the pericarpium is an ovate. one-celled, three-valved, cap. sule, covered with the calyx ; the seeds arc very many and roundish. There are five species, of which the following is the principal. A. media, common chick weed, with petals bipartite, and leaves ovate cordate. The number of stamens in the flower of the common chick-weed is uncertain, from three to ten. This spe cies in different soils and situations as sumes different appearances; but it is distinguished from the cerastiums, which it most resembles, by the number of pis tils, and by having the petals shorterthan the leaves of the calyx, and from all the plants related to it, and particularly the stellaria nemornm, by having the stalk alternately hairy on one side only. Dr. 'Withering refers it to the stellaria, with which genus it agrees in various respects, and especially in the capsules opening with six valves. He observes, that it grows almost in all situations, from damp and almost boggy woods, to the driest gravel walks in gardens ; but in these various states its appearances are very different, so that those who have only ta ken notice of it as garden chick-weed would hardly know it in woods, where it sometimes exceeds half a yard in height, and has .leaves near two inches long, and more than one inch broad. In
its truly wild state, he says, in damp woods, and hedge bottoms, with a north. ern aspect, it has almost always ten sta mens; but in drier soils and more sunny exposures, the stamens are usually five or three. When the flowers first open, the peduncles are upright; as the flowers go off, they hang down; and when the seeds ripen, they again become upright. Dr. Withering observes, that die flowers are upright, and open from nine in the morn ing till noon; but if it rains, they do not open. After rain they become but in the course of a few days rise again. In gardens ordunghills, chick-weed sheds abundance of seeds, which are round, compressed, yellow, and rough, with lit tie tubercles ; and thlis becomes a trou blesome weed ; but if it be not suffered to seed, it may be destroyed, as it is annual, Without much trouble. This species is a remarkable instance of th e sleep of plants; for every night the leaves approach in pairs, including with their upper surfaces the tender rudiments of the new shoots ; and the uppermost pair but one, at the end of the stalk, is furnished with longer leaf-stalks than the others, so that they can close upon the terminating pair, and protect the end of the branch. The young shoots and leaves, when boiled, can scarcely be distinguished from spring spinach, and are equally wholesome. Swine are very fond of it ; cows and hor ses eat it ; sheep are indifferent to it; and goats refuse it. This plant is found wild in most parts of the world. it is annual, and flowers almost through the whole year.