61 MR. BENTHAM ON CARYOPILYLLE.E, 
and veinless between them, whilst in Saponaria it is tubular or 
pyramidal or slightly contracted at the top, and, in most cases, 
even the midrib of each sepalis scarcely conspicuous. In Gypso- 
phila, moreover, the capsule opens much more deeply into 4 valves 
than in Saponaria, which has usually only 4 short teeth. 
Among the small genera proposed by various authors which we 
do not consider sufficiently distinct to adopt, Banffya, Baumg., 
and Dichoglottis, Fisch. and Mey., are chiefly distinguished by in- 
floreseence ; Heterochroa, Bunge (Acosmia, Benth. in Wall. Cat.), 
by the more deeply cleft calyx ; and Ankyropetalum, Fenzl, by the 
rigid habit and small narrow calyx, which bring it very near to 
the small-flowered Saponarias. Vaccaria, Medik., a single wide- 
spread cornfield weed, appears to have been better placed by Lin- 
nus in Saponaria, than by more modern botanists in Gypsophila. 
The two large genera Silene and Lychnis are distinguished from 
all the preceding ones, except the single species of Drypis, by the 
styles, which are universally (except perhaps in very rare anoma- 
lous flowers) more than two, and by the calyx, which, in all but the 
very few conical Silenes, has ten more or less prominent nerves, 
the two lateral ones of adjoining sepals being constantly blended 
into one. But the limits between the two genera are less natural 
and less accurately defined. The Linnean character of 3 styles in 
Silene, and 5 or rarely 4 in Lychnis, although not quite constant, 
is perhaps even now the best that has been proposed, and the very 
few species where these numbers are slightly variable must be 
referred to that genus with which the great majority of their 
flowers agree. 
With regard to their subdivision, many natural groups have 
been formed, which, especially in the case of Lychnis, have been 
frequently raised to the rank of genera. But the most marked 
are generally single species ; and others, if tolerably defined in one 
genus, have their corresponding forms in the other, passing gra- 
dually into different groups. We therefore cannot at present see 
any course more in conformity to our general principle than to 
qualify the greater number of them as more or less artificial sec- 
tions only of two artificial but large genera. I shall proceed to 
enumerate the most important. 
Cucubalus, intended by Linneus to include a number of Silenes 
with very inflated calyces, but since restricted to the S. baccifer, 
in which the fruit, although not exactly a berry, has the appear- 
ance of one, and does not open in valves, may still be conveniently 
retained as a genus; for that very decided and exceptional character 
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