OF AIM'S AND SCIENCES. 129 



herbs of graceful habit, mostly Datives of Southern Europe and West- 

 ern Asia. Several species are cultivated for ornament ; the following 

 are sparingly naturalized. — Gen. ed. -1, n. 498; DC. Prodr. i. 35] 

 in part; Reichb. 1. c. vi. t. 230-242; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 1 16 

 Williams, Journ. of Bot. xviii. 321. 



G-. MDRALIS, L. Low, annual, with the habit of Armaria 

 leaves small, linear, acute: flowers scattered in the forks of the 

 branches : pedicels filiform, two or three times as long as the calyx : pet 



als pink with darker veins, emarginate, 2-3 line-, in length. Amcen. 



Acad. iii. 24 ; Spec. ed. 3, 583; Fl. Dan. viii. t. 1268.— Ballast and 

 roadsides, New Jersey, Brown; Montague, Mass., Churchill; Weth- 

 ersfield, Conn., Wright; London, Canada, Dearness. Introduced (N. 

 and Mid. Iuirope and Siberia). 



G-. paniculata, L. 1. c. Perennial, glabrous and somewhat glau- 

 cous, 2 feet or more in height: leaves lanceolate, acute, 1-1 J inches 

 in length : flowers very numerous in a compound panicle Begraents 

 of the calyx with conspicuous white scarious margins: petals scarcely 

 exceeding the sepals: capsule uearly spherical. — Reichb. 1. c. vi. 

 t. 242. — Doubtfully established, Emerson, Manitoba, Fowler. (Ad- 

 ventive from Europe.) 



4. SAPONARIA, L. Soapwort. (From sapo, soap ; 8. offi- 

 cinalis having been used as a substitute for soap, the juice being capable 

 of forming a lather.) — A genus of the Old World including plants of 

 diverse habit. Two rather coarse species belonging to different sec- 

 tions of the genus are spontaneous in America. — Gen. n. 365 . DC. 

 Prodr. i. 365 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 146. 



5. Vaccaria, L. A smooth annual with ovate or oblong-lanceo- 

 late, sessile and somewhat connate leaves : flowers in a broad flat 

 corymb: calyx ovoid, with 5 sharp herbaceous angles, the interven- 

 ing parts being white and scarious: corolla rose-colored, destitute of 

 appendages.— Spec. 409; Bot. Mag. t. 2290; Torr. & Gray, fl. i. 

 195 ; also variously referred by authors to Gypsophila, Lychnis, or 

 more often regarded as an independent genns, Vaccaria. — Railway 

 ballast and cultivated ground, frequent and sometimes troublesome in 

 wheatfields westward, where it bears the name of "cockle." -Inly 

 August. (Introduced from Europe.) 



S. OFFICINALIS, L. (SOAPWORT, BOUNCING I'.l I. ) IVnimial, 



smooth, H-2 feet high: leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, S-ribbed, 

 inches long, narrowed at the base; inflorescence terminal, somewhat 

 pyramidal, the flowers clustered at the ends of short branches : i 

 tubular, terete: petals appendaged at the junction of the claw and the 



VOL. XXVIII (V S XX I 9 



