626 SILENE. CCLASS X. ORDBE III. 



without a scale at the base. Stamens on slender filamentSy longer 

 than the calyx. Styles with downy stigmas^ varying in number from 

 three to five. Capsule elliptical, longer than the calyx, and enveloped 

 by it, opening at the apex with six lanceolate teeth. 



Habitat.— Sandy fields ; chiefly in Norfolk, Suff'olk, and Cam- 

 bridgeshire. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



Sect. 4. CoNOiMORPHA. Ottk. De Cand. Prod. p. 1, p. 371. 

 Stem elongated. Calyx conical f umhilicated at the base, the 

 limb with long teeth. 



5. S.coni'ca, Linn. (Fig. 711.) Striated Corn Catchjly. Downy, 

 leaves linear, soft ; panicle forked ; calyx when in fruit conical, 

 umbilicated at the base, ribbed, with thirty stria ; the limb of five 

 subulate teeth ; petals obcordate, crowned ; capsule oblong, ovate. 



English Botany, t. 922.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 294.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 206. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 45. 



Root small, long, tapering. Stem erect, from a few inches to two 

 feet high, round, clothed with pubescence, leafy, simple or branched. 

 Leaves opposite, linear, sessile, and united at the base into a short 

 sheath, very downy, with a stout mid-rib, and mostly one or two 

 lateral ones. Inflorescence a forked panicle, with a solitary flower from 

 the axis, sometimes the stem is terminated with a solitary flower. 

 Calyx when in flower narrow, swelling when in fruit into a conical 

 shape, and becoming depressed in an umbilicated manner, the limb 

 in five erect acute awl -shaped long teeth, striated, with thirty nearly 

 equal prominent downy ribs. Petals with a small inversely heart-shaped 

 small limb, of a purple colour, the claw tapering, wedge-shaped, 

 crowned with a small cleft scale. Stamens with slender filaments^ 

 shorter than the calyx. Styles with slender stigmas^ about as long as 

 the calyx. Capsule oblong, ovate, smooth, as long as the tube of the 

 calyx, and enveloped in it. Seeds numerous, kidney-shaped, dotted 

 with lines of elevated points. 



Habitat — Sandy fields; rare. Near Romney and Sandowu Castle, 

 Kent ; near Bury. — Mrs. M. A. Blake. 



Annual; flowering in July. 



The flower is small, but in the evening very fragrant, and is of a 

 purple colour. It is nearly allied to S. conoidea^ Linn.^ which is 

 distinguished by its linear lanceolate nearly smooth leaves, the petals 

 being entire or crenated, and t^e capsule globoso-depressed. Lindley 

 has given it as found in England, and upon the authority of Hudson 

 and Sir J. Smith ; but as there are some doubts as to its really being 

 indigenous, we have not given it a place in the list of our Flora, though 

 it may yet be found to have a just claim, not having been hitherto 

 generally distinguished from »S'. conica. 



Sect. 5. Staciiymorpha. Olth. Dc Cand. Prod, p. 1, p. 371. 



