DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Silene. 295 



wards in an angular tooth at each side. Caps, ovate, rigid, not 

 quite so long as the calyx. 



5. conoidea has broader and smoother leaves, and the seeds are 

 twice as large as those of S. conica and wrinkled in a different 

 manner. The petals also are less divided ; but this last character 

 is variable. Old authors have confounded their figures. That 

 of Lobel and Gerarde, indicated above, is very faulty, yet cannot 

 be taken for any thing else than our S. conica. Lychnis sylves- 

 tris secunda, Clus. Hist. v. 1. 288, is an excellent representation 

 of the conoidea. The same cut may be seen in Ger. Em. 470. 

 n. 7 ; and it stands in Lob. Ic. 339, as L. sylvestris tertia of 

 Clusius ; an evident mistake, which was previously committed 

 in Dalechamp's Hist.SlS. This cut gives a far more correct 

 idea of S. -conica than what was intended for that plant. Mits- 

 cipula, sive Fisraria, Lob. Ic. 453. Advers. 190./. 1, referred by 

 Linnaeus, on Bauhin's authority, to his own ^\ Miiscipula, is 

 also very like conica. 



6. S. noctiflora. Night-flowering Catchfly. 



Stem forked. Petals cloven, each with a cloven abrupt 

 scale. Calyx with ten hairy ribs; its teeth hnear, almost 

 as long as the tube. 



S. noctiflora. Linn. Sp. PI. .599. Willd. v. 2. 701. Fl. Br. 470. 

 Engl. Bot. V. 5. it. 291. Hook. Scot. 135. 



Viscago n. 9 11 . Hall. Hist. v. 1 . 396. 



Lychnis noctiflora. Bauh. Pin. 205. Raii Syn. 340. Schreb. Lips. 31. 



L. frutescens noctiflora. Moris, v. 2. 538. sec^5. t. 20. f. 12. 



Ocimoides noctiflorum. Camer. Hort. 109. ^.34. 



Ocimastrum noctiflorum, flore albo. Best. Hort. Eyst. cestiv. ord. 7. 

 M2./. 3. 



In fields on a sandy or gravelly soil. 



In Cambridgeshire. Ray, Relhan. Oxfordshire. Sibih. Very com- 

 mon about Wetherby, Yorkshire. Sir T. Frankland. Not rare 

 in Suffolk, or Norfolk, especially on the west side of Norwich. 



Annual. July. 



Root small, tapering. Herbage dark green, soft and downy, rather 

 viscid. Stem erect, round, repeatedly forked, spreading, from 

 one to two feet high. Leaves lanceolate, acute, imperfectly 

 3-ribbed, 2 or 3 inches long ; the lower ones broader, and obo- 

 vate. Fl. solitary in each fork of the stem, stalked, erect, ex- 

 panding about sun-set, and closing early in the morning, very 

 sweet-scented during the night. Cal. large, elliptic-oblong, pale, 

 with 10 green hairy ribs, connected by small veins ; the teeth 

 narrow, erect, green and hairy, almost half as long as the tube 

 when the flower first opens. Pet. with a pale blush-coloured, 

 deeply divided limb, involute during the day-time, as well as in 

 the bud, and having a short, blunt, cloven scale, or crown. 

 Caps, ovate, on a thick stalk. 



