14:0 xvii. cakyophyllace^e (olive k). [Silene. 



herb of £-1 ft., giving off from the wiry, diffuse or prostrate stem ascend- 

 ing, simple, 1-flowered or slightly divided", pubescent branches. Lower leaves 

 csespitose, linear-spathulate, pointed, hispid-puberulous, ciliate below ; upper 

 pairs similar or much reduced, scarcely £ in. long. Flowers solitary or the 

 stem loosely forked, bearing 2 or 3. Calyx clavate, about \ in. long, glan- 

 dular-pilose, with dark nervures ; teeth triangular, rather obtuse. Petals 

 exserted ; claw equalling the calyx ; limb elongate-cuneate, 2-fid, with linear 

 obtuse lobes; appendix nearly obsolete. Carpophore shorter than the 

 capsule. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia, Sckimper ! 



3. UEBELINIA, Hochst. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL i. 148. 



Calyx campanulate, 10-nerved, 5-fid. Petals 5, shorter than the calyx, 

 entire or nearly so, without a transverse scale. Stamens 5. Styles very 

 short, 5. Capsule obovoid, dehiscing by 5 valves. — A more or less setulose- 

 scabrid dichotomous herb. Leaves plane. Flowers in the forks. 



A monotypic genus, peculiar to this Flora. 



1. U. abyssinica, Hochst. in Flora, 1841, 664. Decumbent or as- 

 cending, 2-3 in. to 1 foot or more in height, repeatedly forked ; the branches 

 setulose-hispid, at least in lines. Leaves obovate-obloug, obtuse, mucronate, 

 narrowed to the base, setulose-ciliate. Pedicels ^-1 in. or much shorter in 

 the smaller specimens, at length often deflexed. Calyx setulose. — U. spathu- 

 lepfolia, Hochst. in PI. Schitnp. Abyss. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper ! 



4. CERASTIUM, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL i. 148. 



Sepals free, 5 or 4. Petals as many, notched or 2-fid, exunguiculate, 

 sometimes minute. Stamens 10 or fewer. Styles usually 5 (4 or 3), oppo- 

 site to the sepals. Capsule tubular to ovoid-oblong, opening at the apex in 

 twice as many teeth as styles, usually exceeding the calyx. — Herbs often 

 hairy, with plane, rarely subulate leaves, and forking, dense or lax, terminal 

 cymes of white flowers. 



A considerable genus of temperate, alpine, and arctic regions, including one or two species 

 which are almost ubiquitous. . 



Hairy or pubescent. Capsule cylindrical, at length much exceeding 



calyx l.C. vulyatnm. 



Leaves thinly scabrid-hairy, very acute. Capsule oblong-ovoid, 



slightly exceeding calyx 2. C. africanutn. 



1. C. vulgatum, Linn. ; DC. Prod. i. 415. A glandular-pilose or softly 

 hirsute, diffuse or ascending annual. Leaves oval or varying from subovate to 

 oblong-lanceolate, sessile or narrowed into a rather broad petiole. Flowers on 

 pedicels about equalling the calyx, from the upper forks, spreading or at length 

 reflexed, crowded into a rather dense leafy cyme or in a loose dichotomou 3 

 panicle. Sepals with a membranous margin. Petals shorter than or bu 



