500 CARVOPHYLLACEAE 



15. VACCARIA Medic. 



Glabrous glaucous annual with sessile leaves and showy red flowers in a 

 broad loose flat-topped corymb. Calyx synsepalous, ovate, with 5 prominent 

 angles. Petals 5, clawed, not appendaged. Stamens 10. Styles 2. Ovary 1- 

 celled but with rudimentary partitions at base. Capsule ovate, dehiscent at 

 apex by 4 short teeth. — Species 3, Europe, Asia. (Latin vacca, cow, some spe- 

 cies iTsedfor fodder.) 



1. V. vulgaris Host. Cow-iierb. Strictly erect, diehotomously branching 

 above, 2 to 3 feet high ; leaves ovate or the upper lanceolate, 3 to 4 inches long 

 with cordate-clasping base; flowers 7 to 9 lines long; petals red, the blade 

 obeordate and claw linear. 



Grain-field weed naturalized from Europe. Occurring rather widely in Cali- 

 fornia but apparently not yet common. 



Loes. — Dulzura, I. Bagcnhxiclv, circa 1898; Berkeley, Chrsnut in 1S9S; Sonoma (ace. E. 

 Kuhii in 1914); College City, Colusa Co., Alice King' in 1906; Plumas Co., Flatt in 1891; 

 Lundv, Mono Co., Maud Minthorn. 



Re'fs.— Vaccaria vulgakis Host, Fl. Austr. 1: 518 (1827); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 164 

 (1901). Sai>onaria vaccaria L. Sp. PI. 409 (1753), type European. 



16. SAPONARIA L. So.vpwort. 



Ours a stout perennial. Flowers white, in corymbed clusters. Calyx cylin- 

 drie. Petals with a crest of 2 subulate teeth. (Otherwise similar to Vaccaria. 

 — Species about 20, northern hemisphere of the Old World. (Latin sapo, soap, 

 the mucilaginous .iuiee with saponaceous qualities.) 



1. S. officinalis L. Bouncing Bet. Erect, 2 to 3 feet high, glabrous; 

 leaves ovate, acute, 3 to 4 inches long; blade of petals cuneate-obovate, notched 

 at apex, 6 to 7 lines long. 



Garden plant, native of Europe, spontaneous on sandbars of the Sacramento 

 River below Delta, Jepson 6183. 



Kefs. — Saponaria officixalis L. Sp. PI. 408 (1753), type European; Miiller, Fl. Dan. 4: 

 543 (1S27). 



17. VELEZIA Loefl. 



Annuals with tough dichotomous stems and sparse foliage. Flowers pink, 

 solitary in the axils of the subulate leaves, or in clusters of 2 or 3, divaricately 

 divergent from the stem, borne on short peduncles or sessile. Cal.vx slender, 

 elongated-cylindric, 15-ribbed. sharply 5-toothed. Petals small, with minute 

 filiform crests, the blade in ours notched. Stamens 5. Styles 2. Capsule 

 slender, terete, 4-valved at the summit. — Species 4, Mediterranean region. 

 (Cristobal Velez, friend of Loefling.) 



1. V. rigida L. Stems slender, trailing. 4 to 8 inches long, in age readily 

 breaking up at the joints; herbage glandular-puberulent ; leaves subulate, 

 2 to 6 lines long; blade of petals 1 line long; capsule sheathed by the 

 calyx. 6 to 7 lines long; seeds laterall.v meniscoid. 



Introduced from the Mediterranean region and locally established. 



Loes. — La Grange, Sierra Nevada foothills, Jepson in 1S96; Hupa Vallev, Humboldt Co., 

 Jepson 2120 in 1902. 



Eef. — Velezia riuida L. Sp. PI. 332 (1753), type from s. Europe. 



18. SILENE L. Catch-fly. Campion. 

 Annual or perennial herbs, more or less viscid and mostly large-flowered. 

 Calyx tubular or inflated, 5-toothed. Petals 5, with long claws; .iunction of 

 the claw and blade commonly furnished with 2 scales ; blades spreading, entire, 

 or more commonly cleft or laeiniate. Stamens 10. Styles 3, rarely 4. Capsule 

 opening by 3 or 6 teeth at apex. — Species 300, all continents except South 

 America and Australia. (Greek sialon, saliva, the stems and other parts viscid.) 



