XTI. CARTOPHYLLACE.?:. 63 



2. SILENE, Linn. 



Annual or perennial herbs, frequently viscous in the upper parts. 

 Flowers solitary or cymose, often forming unilateral spikes or terminal 

 panicles. Calyx more or less inflated, ovoid, campanulate, clavate or 

 tubular, 5-toothed or 5-fid, generally 10- (more rarely 20- or 30-) 

 nerved, 5 of the nerves indicating the line of demarcation between the 

 sepals. Petals 5 ; claw narrow ; limb entire, 2-fid or rarely laciniate, 

 frequently with 2 scales at the base. Stamens 10. Torus elongated 

 into a more or less stalked gynophore. Ovary 1-celled or septate at the 

 very base ; ovules numerous ; styles usually 3 (rarely 5). Capsule 

 dehiscing at the apex by 6 (rarely 3) short valves. Seeds reniform, 

 laterally compressed, tubercled, with the hilum on the inner margin ; 

 erabrvo peripheric, forming a semicircle or a complete circle. — Distrib. 

 Europe, N". and S. Africa, N. America, extratropical Asia ; species about 

 250. 



1. Silene noctiflora, Linn. Sp. PI (1753) p. 419. Stem erect, 

 1-2 ft. high, viscous-pubescent in the upper part, usually dichotomously 

 branched. Leaves : the lower obovate-oblong ; the upper narrowly 

 lanceolate. Flowers § in. long, few, in a dichotomous cyme. Calyx 

 hairy and viscous, cylindric, inflated, truncate at the base ; teeth very 

 long, subulate, half as long as the tube, ciliate, the points diverging 

 before the flower opens ; nerves very broad, green on a whitish mem- 

 branous ground. Petals white, tinged with rose within and with yellow 

 on the outside. Styles 3. G-ynophore about i the length of the 

 capsule. Capsules |-1 in. long, ovoid-conical. Seeds globose-reniforra, 

 convex on the back, tubercled. Not in Fl. B. I. ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, v. 1, 

 p. 581 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1897) p. 121 ; Syme, Eug. 

 Bot. v. 2, p. 66, t. 209.— Flowers : Dec-Jan. 



A weed of cultivation whi^h (fide Woodrow. i.e.) is to be met with in cuUiTated 

 ground about Poona. — Distrib. Europe, Siberia, W. Asia. 



3. CERASTIUM, Linn. 



Herbs, usually pubescent or hirsute. LeaA-^es usually small, elliptic 

 or oblong, rarely subulate. Flowers white, in terminal dichotomous 

 cymes. Sepals 5 (rarely 4). Petals as many (rarely 0), bifid or 

 notched at the apex, seldom entire. Stamens 10, rarely 5 or fewer. 

 Ovary 1-celled ; ovules many ; styles 5, opposite the sepals (rarely 4 

 or 3). Capsule cylindric or conic-ovoid, often incurved, dehiscing at 

 the apex by twice as many teeth as there are styles ; teeth short, straight 

 or more rarely recurved. Seeds numerous, brown, globose reniform, 

 laterally compx'essed, granulate or tubercled. — Distrib. All temperate 

 regions ; species about 40. 



1. Cerastium glomeratum, Thmll Fhr. Par. ed. 2 (1824) p. 226. 

 Annual, 6-12 in. high, the whole plant clothed with glandular and 

 simple hairs. Leaves sessile or nearly so, j-l by ^-g in., mucronate ; 

 the lower leaves obovate-spathulate ; the upper elliptic-ovate, obtuse or 

 acute, becoming gradually smaller upwards. Flowers white, less than 

 •J in. across, in corymbose cymes, which are at first capitate afterwards 

 open and spreading : pedicels as long as the calyx, at length spreading ; 



