CLASS X. ORDER III.] SILENE. 629 



Habitat. — Rocks and old walls, especially of limestone or chalk. 

 About Nottingham, and several other parts of that county ; Dove Dale, 

 and about Matlock, Derbyshire; Knaresborough, Yorkshire ; Cliflfs at 

 Dover ; Ormeshead, Carnarvonshire. — Mr. Wilson. North Queens- 

 ferry, and near Arbroath, Scotland. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



9. ♦S'. Ita'lica, De Cand. (Fig. 715.) Italian Catchjly. Pubescent 

 stem, very leafy at the base, much branched, above viscid ; panicle of 

 long opposite branches, with erect flowers ; calyx long, clavate ; 

 petals deeply cleft into broad segments, naked ; the lower leaves on 

 footstalks, ovate, spatulate, the upper linear lanceolate, sessile. 



Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 206. — Lindley, Synopsis, Suppl. p. 

 320. — S. paradoxa,Sxmih. — Flora Brit. p. 467. (not Linn.) — S. nutans. 

 /3. paradoxa. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 297 — S. patens, Peete. — 

 English Botany Suppl. t. 2748. — Cucubalus viscosus^ Hudson, — C 

 Italicus^ Linn. 



Root long, tapering, branched, and somewhat fleshy. Stem pro- 

 cumbent at the base, crowded with leaves, and numerous barren 

 spreading leafy branches, the flowering stem erect, from one to two 

 feet high, round, hairy, and mostly much branched. Leaves at the 

 base and lower part of the stem, ovate, spatulate, acutely pointed, and 

 tapering at the base into a long slender channeled more or less winged 

 footstalk, single ribbed, those on the stem linear lanceolate, sessile, 

 entire, or slightly waved on the margin with a stout mid-rib, and two 

 or four slender lateral ones, all of a cheerful green, rather paler on the 

 under side, and clothed with thick short soft hairs. Jnjiorescence a 

 terminal panicle, of from three to four opposite pairs of long slender 

 spreading viscid and downy branches, mostly twice forked \\ilh a 

 solitary flower on a longish peduncle from the axis. Bracteas linear, 

 or awl-shaped, the calyx long, nearly cylindrical in the bud, becoming 

 club-shaped, striated with ten slender ribs, pale, thin and membranous 

 between, and more or less thickly clothed with short pubescence, the 

 limb of five short spreading teeth. Petals much longer than the calyx, 

 the claw long, slender, the limb white, often purplish on the outside, 

 deeply cleft into two rather broad segments, and at its base is an 

 obsolete scale. Stamens with long slender linear segments. Anthers 

 oblong, often purplish. Sti/les long, slender, with linear downy 

 stigmas. Capsule ovate, somewhat conical, elevated on a long stout 

 peduncle, but enclosed in the persistent caljx. Seeds numerous, 

 brown, kidney-shaped, with lines of elevated points. 



Habitat. — Cliff's of Dover. — Mr. Forster and Mr. Peete. Worksop 

 Park, Nottinghamshire ; very rare.— i?. B. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This species, though allied to S. nutans, is readily distinguished by- 

 its long club-shaped calyx, its broad lobed petals without scales, its 

 much larger spreading branched panicle with erect flowers, and the 



4 N 



