- 
20 
SILÉNE Schafta. 
The Schafta. 
= — nm 
DECANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. CARYOPHYLLACEE. (CLovE-woRTs, Vegetable Kingdom, 
p. 496.) 
SILENE, L.— Supra, vol. 3. t. 247. 
S. Schafta ; radice lignosà multicauli, caulibus ascendentibus simplicissimis, 
pedunculis 1-2-floris, foliis obovatis acutis, floribus erectis, calyce lon- 
gissimo clavato dentibus ovatis obtusiusculis, petalis cuneatis denticulatis 
fauce squamatis, capsulá glabra stipiti suo subsequali, seminibus squa- 
mulis lanceolatis echinatis. 
S. Schafta, S. G. Gmelin. Hohenacker in Bulletin de la Société Imperiale 
des Naturalistes de Moscow, xii. 397. Walpers Repertorium, 1. 276. 
Lindley in Journal of the Horticultural Society, vol. 1. p. 69. with a 
figure. 
It is seldom that so charming a recruit as this can be 
added to our hardy herbaceous species, for without any ex- 
ception it is one of the prettiest of all border and rock plants. 
In the Journal of the Horticultural Society, where a wood- 
cut shews its natural manner of growth, it is thus spoken of: 
“This proves to be a beautiful little herbaceous plant, 
producing a great number of spreading slender downy stems, 
which form compact tufts, and are terminated near the ex- 
tremity by 4 or 5 bright purple flowers more than an inch 
long. Of these flowers, that at the extremity of the shoot 
opens first, and those below it one after the other in succes- 
sion, so that the branches are by degrees covered all over 
with blossoms. Its stems do not rise above six inches high, 
and render it well suited for bedding out, or for cultivating 
among collections of alpines, or for rock-work, over which it 
will bend gracefully. 
“It is a hardy perennial, which grows freely in any light 
rich soil. It is increased by seeds, which are produced 
freely, and flowers from the end of June to October: the 
