PORTULACES, AND THEIR ALLIES. 65 
is accompanied by considerable differenees in the general aspect 
as well of the flower as of the whole plant. 
Heliosperma, Reichb., proposed for a few small white-flowered 
Silenes with very muricate seeds, and Elisanthe, Fenzl, adopted 
by Willkomm for the species with laciniate petals, usually red, 
though both well marked in a very few cases, are too closely con- 
nected through others with the great mass of the genus to form 
more than seetions, and even as such are not so good as Conoi- 
morpha, for instance, and Behenanthe. 
Melandrium, Roehl., has about a dozen species of Lychnis, 
chiefly northern or alpine, with inflated calyxes, and the teeth or 
valves of the capsule splitting into two so as to become double in 
number to the styles. But the calyx in some species passes gra- 
dually into that of Lychnis proper, and the splitting of the capsule- 
teeth in others is exceedingly slight, and we cannot attach much 
importance to it in this any more than in other Caryophylleous 
genera. 
Viscaria, Roehl., was originally proposed for a few species in 
which the ovary is shortly divided at the base into 5 cells—a slight 
rudimentary indication of the typical formation of the gynecium, 
of little more importance here than in the few Silenes and Dian- 
thuses in which it occurs. Two of the four Viscarias have been 
again separated under the name of Zudianthe, as having the cap- 
sular teeth split. These formed part of Agrostemma, Linn., cha- 
racterized by the long narrow calyx-teeth. The latter name has 
now been restricted to a single species only differing from Lych- 
nis proper by those calyx-teeth and by the stiffness of the scales 
at the base of the petals; and another Agrostemma of Linnzus has 
been erected into the genus Githago, as having the styles alter- 
nating with, not opposite the sepals—a circumstance very difficult 
to ascertain with certainty in the gamosepalous genera, especially 
in the dried state, and which, if correct, may be due to a slight 
torsion of the torus. 
Petrocoptis, A. Braun, comprising two Pyrenean species, has a 
more definite character in the expansion of the funiculus into a 
small strophiola ; but the habit is not very marked, and there is no 
other character. The sstivation of the petals is indeed said not 
to be contorted as in other Caryophylles, but it certainly is so 
occasionally, and a few other species of Lychnis have been observed 
where the contorted arrangement is sometimes broken. I have 
also myself seen it so not unfrequently in Stellaria holostea, and it 
probably occurs in other instances. 
LINN. PROC.—BOTANY, VOL. VI. F 
