MR. F. N. WILLIAMS ON THE GENUS SILENE, 7 
subdivisions—those in which the capsule is truly unilocular, 
and those in which the capsule has remains of dissepiments at 
the base. The latter will include most of the species hitherto 
included in Silene, and exclude such species as NS. noctiflora and 
virginica, Linn., for which (with some species of Lychnis) the 
genus Melandrywm * was founded by Réhling in 1812. The 
former will include Lychnis, in a very limited sense, and 
Agrostemma, and also the Linnean genus Coronaria, which was 
proposed in the first and second editions of ‘ Genera Plantarum,’+ 
but fused with Agrostemma in Species Plantarum. In following 
up the secondary subdivisions of these two main groups, we will 
notice first the affinities of the Lychnis group, and then the 
affinities of the Silene group. 
In Agrostemma Githago t the carpids are alternate with the 
teeth of the calyx, in Lychunis chalcedonica they are opposite to 
them ; this is a more natural distinguishing character between 
the two genera than the segmentation of the petal. Moreover, 
in the former species, there is an indication of segmentation in 
the emarginate petals. In LZ. chalcedonica again, which may be 
considered a typical species of the genus, the dehiscent capsule 
is 5-dentate (isomerous with the styles); in Réhling’s genus 
Melandryum, which includes LZ. dioica, Linn., and L. diclinis, 
Lag., as well as those species of Silene in which the capsule is 
unilocular, the teeth of the dehiscent capsule are twice as many 
as the styles (dimerous). The genus Heliosperma,§ which 
branches off, as it were, from Melandryum (both having common 
characters which separate them from Lychnis proper), was 
founded by Reichenbach in 1841 on Silene quadrifida, Linn., to 
include those species of Silene in which the capsule is unilocular 
and dehisces by twice as many teeth as there are styles, and in 
which the seeds are crested on the dorsal surface. A. Braun 
further circumscribed the limits of Lychnis by including in his 
genus Petrocoptis|| two Pyrenean species, L.nwmmularia, Lapeyr., 
and Silenopsis Lagasce, Willk., which have imbricated petals, 
* The name of this genus is frequently spelled Melandrium; but the 
name is borrowed from Pliny, who spells it as Melandryum in his Natural 
History. 
t Ed. 1, p. 135, n. 380; ed. 2, p. 200, n. 450. 
t Cosson regards this as a quasi-cultivated form, of which the type is 
the Anatolian 4. gracile, Boiss. There are no other species known. 
§ Reichb., Repert. Herb., p. 206. 
| Flora (1843), p. 370. 
