CARYOPHYLLACE^. 29 



subtending leaf, but deciduous before the flower opens. 

 Outer sepals % inch inner (wings) li by % inch, acute, 

 and very slightly oblique. Lateral petals broadly 

 obovate or triangular, joined at the base, usually 

 spreading out horizontally, very conspicuous : keel shorter 

 or longer, with conspicuous fringe. Stamens eight : 

 filaments white, connected into a tube round the style 

 and split in the upper part ; anthers yellow, continuous 

 with the filament. Style longer, with conspicuously large 

 spoon-shaped and incurved violet end which arches 

 over the anthers. Capsule % by t/5 inch flat, surrounded 

 except at the middle of the top by a wing 1/20 inch 

 wide. Seeds two, black ; capped by a small white aril 

 which bears a tuft of hairs at the top and three flat 

 oblong white appendages, with rather broader fringed 

 ends, reaching two-thirds down the seed. t. 23. 



From the type species the plant which occurs here dififers in the stouter 

 midrib, more recurved margins, oblong leaves, and larger appendages. 

 Fysoniioi, 1794, 1857, 1924. i5tfwrwe? 34,2789. 



In the grass of the open downs, very common from 5,500 

 feet upwards, often trailing over the edges of cattle tracts : 

 flowering from after the early rains. Occasionally with white 

 flowers. 



Gen. Disi. Himalayas from Kashmir to the Khasi hills, and beyond to 

 Siberia, China and Japan. In Ceylon, on the highest mountains as a larger 

 form. Not on the Western Ghats to the north of the Nilgiris. 



Pollen is shed from the anthers and collects in the hallowed 

 side of the style, and is presented to insects which alight on the 

 flower and depress the keel. 



CARYOPHYLLACE/E. 



This is the family of our garden Pink, Carnation, 

 Gypsophila and Chickweed. Its members are all herbs, 

 with sessile simple leaves and conspicuously swollen 

 nodes. The flowers are usually terminal on the branches ; 

 sometimes in very regular cymes, as in the common pink 

 Catch-fly of our gardens (Silene armeria). The sepals 



