Common Chickweed.Stellaria media.
Blossoming around dwellings in spring, summer, and autumn.
Its weak-fibred stem, lopping over the ground, is green, and smooth, with a barely visible little line of hairs down one side.
The small oval leaves have entire edges, and a smooth surface; they grow in pairs and are of a full green color.
The 5 white petals of the small flower are so deeply notched as to look like 10 very narrow ones; they are shorter than the 5 green calyx divisions; the flowers grow singly on short foot-stems, from the leaf-angles.
The Chickweed is a common plant of the dooryard, but without the usual obnoxious habits of a “weed,—” it is unobtrusive in demeanor, and, the roots having but a slight hold on the ground, is easily removed where undesired. It is a natural weather-glass, and can be trusted not to open its starry eye when rain threatens. The “Hen’s Inheritance” is an English folk-name for this plant.