N. ORD.-CARYOPHYLLACE-. 34 
Tribe.—SILENEA. 
GENUS —LYCHNIS,* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.—DECANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. 
AGROSTEMMA GITHAGO. 
CORN COCKLE. 
SYN.—LYCHNIS GITHAGO, LAM.; AGROSTEMMA GITHAGO,+ LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—CORN COCKLE, COCKLE OR COCKEL, ROSE CAMPION; 
(FR.) LA NIELLE DES BLES, LIIVRAIE; (GER.) GEMEINE RADE, 
KORN RADE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE RIPE SEEDS OF LYCHNIS GITHAGO, LAM. 
Description.—This softly pubescent annual, a pernicious emigrant, grows toa 
height of from 1 to 3 feet. Svem erect, dichotomous; /eaves linear-lanceolate, acute, 
covered with a whitish cottony down; s#pules none; pubescence consisting of long 
appressed cilia. /zflorescence solitary, axillary and terminal, long-peduncled flowers. 
Calyx cylindrical-campanulate, pubescent, and naked as regards bracts; /odes 5, 
linear-lanceolate, foliaceous, deciduous. e¢als obovate, emarginate, crownless, 
slender-clawed, shorter than the lobes of the calyx. Stamens 10. Ovary stipe- 
less; styles 5, or rarely 4. Fruita 1-celled coriacious capsule, opening by 8 or 10 
teeth; seeds numerous, velvety black, reniform, muricately roughened in longitu- 
dinal concentric curved lines from the hilum. 
Caryophyllacesws.—Svems usually enlarged at the nodes; /eaves opposite, 
entire, often united at the base, the upper sometimes alternate. Flowers sym- 
metrical, 4- to 5-merous ; sepals 4 to 5, distinct or cohering, persistent, continuous 
with the peduncle; fefa/s 4 to 5 or none, hypogynous or perigynous, the latter 
clawless, the former unguiculate, inserted upon the peduncle of the ovary, they are 
sometimes deeply notched, sometimes simply emarginate, and in a few species 
split through their whole length. S/amens not more than twice the number of the 
petals, in many species equal in number with the sepals and opposite them; //a- 
ments subulate, sometimes monadelphous at the base, inserted with the petals upon 
the peduncle of the ovary; axthers versatile or innate, introrse, 2-celled, opening 
longitudinally. Ovary generally gynophorous, composed of from 2 to 5 confluent 
carpels; styles 2 to 5, rarely one by cohesion, filiform, stigmatic down the inner 
* Aféxvos, lychnos, a lamp; from the use of the cottony substance on the leaves of some spices in lieu of wicks, 
+ Ce pipe the name of certain black aromatic grains, which were employed by the Romans in cookery. These 
grains are the seeds of the European fennel flower (/Vige//a sativa, Linn.); and bear little resemblance to those of the 
cockle except in size and color, 
