130 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



with stipules in some cases. The nodes of the stem 

 are frequently swollen. 



The inflorescence is frequently a dichasial cyme, 

 or a cincinnus, and centrifugal. The flowers are 

 regular and hermaphrodite, but the floral members 

 are not always equal in number. A few types are 

 apetalous ; usually the parts are in fives, or in threes, 

 or twos or fours, united. The stamens are twice as 

 many. There is occasionally an elongation of the 

 'axis or androphore, between the calyx and corolla, 

 which bears the ovary, stamens, and corolla. In 

 some species of Campion the petals have a ligule. 



Honey is secreted at the base of the stamens, the 

 flower is wide open in the Alsinoidese, tubular in the 

 Silenoideas, so that in the former the floral mechanism 

 is adapted to short, in the latter to long-tongued 

 insects. And Butterflies and Moths visit the latter, 

 some flowers being nocturnal, scented at night, and 

 red or white, or attractive to butterflies. As a rule, 

 the anthers ripen first. The capsule opens by teeth, 

 and is typically a " censer fruit," the seeds being 

 wind-dispersed. 



Ragged Robin {Lychnis Flos-Cttculi), 



Not only is this a familiar flower, but it is also one 

 of our most beautiful plants, a mass of the pink 

 blooms forming a lovely picture in the moist hollows 

 in which it loves to grow. 



Found in all parts of the British Isles, Ragged 



