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, with less divided 

 petals ; but this last character is variable, and I believe there is 

 no permanent distinction between the two. 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 syhestris secunda, Cliis. Hist. v. 1 . 288, 

 is an excellent representation of the conoidea. The same cut 

 maybe seen in Ger. Em. 4/0. 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. 8 1 8. This cut gives 

 a far more correct idea of S. conica than what was intended for 

 that plant. Muscipula, sive Viscaria, Lob. Ic. 453. Advers. 190. 

 /. 1 , referred by Linnaeus, on Bauhin's authority, to his own 



S. Muscipula , is also very like conica. 



6. S. noct'iflora. Night-flowering Catcbfly. 



Stem forked. Petals cloven, each with a cloven abrupt 

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

 as long as the tube. 



S. noctiflora. Linn. Sp. PL 599. IVilld. v. 2. 70\. Fl. Br. 470. 



Engl. BoL V. 5. ^. 29 1 . Hook. Scot. 135. 

 Viscago n. 91 1. Hall. Hist. v. 1.396. 



Lychnis noctiflora. Bank. Pin. 205. RaiiSyn. 340. Schreb.Lips.3\. 

 L. frutescens noctiflora. 31oris. v. 2. 538. sect. 5. t.20.f. 12. 

 Ocimoides noctiflorum. Canier.Hort. 109. t 34. 

 Ocimastrum noctiflorum, flore albo. Best. Hart. Eyst. csstiv. ord. 7. 



t. 12./. 3. 



in fields on a sandy or gravelly soil. 



In Cambridgeshire. Ray, Relfian. Oxfordshire. Sibth. Very com- 

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

 in Suftblk, 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-ribbcd, 2 or 3 inches long ; the lower ones broader, and obo- 

 vatc. El. 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, ('(d. 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 tlie tube 

 when the flowir first o})ens. Prt. with a pale blush-coloured, 

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

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

 Caps, ovate, on a tliick stalk. 



