SUene. CARYOPHYLLACEJE. 213 



rather coarse species belonging to different sections of the genus are spontaneous 

 in America. 



§ 1. Vaccaria, Dodon. (as gen.). Annual: flowers in a broad loose flat- 

 topped corymb : calyx ovate, 5-angled. — Pempt. 104 ; DC. 1. c. 



S. VaccAria, L. Glabrous and somewhat glaucous : leaves ovate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile 

 and somewhat connate : calyx with 5 sharp herbaceous angles, the intervening parts being 

 white and scarious : corolla rose-colored, destitute of appendages. — Spec. i. 409 ; Sims. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 2290 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 195 ; also variously referred by authors to Gi/pso- 

 phila, Lychnis, or more often regarded as an independent genus, Vaccaria ( V. vulgaris. Host, 

 Fl. Aust. i. 518). — Railway ballast and cultivated ground, frequent and sometimes trouble- 

 some in wheatfields westward, where it bears the name of "cockle"; fi. July, August. 

 (Introd. from Eu.) 



§ 2. BoOTiA, Neck, (as gen.). Perennials: flowers fasciculate-paniculate: 

 calyx cylindrical, not angled. — Delic. Gallo-Belg. i. 193 ; DC. 1. c. 



S. OFFICINALIS, L. 1. c. 408. (SoAPWOKT, BouNciNG Bet. ) Perennial, smooth, 1^ to 2 feet 

 high : leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, 3-ribbed, 2 to 3 inches long, narrowed at the base ; in- 

 ilorescence terminal, somewhat pyramidal, the flowers clustered at the ends of short branches : 

 calyx tubular, terete : petals appendaged at the junction of the claw and the obovate retuse 

 blade, white or pink, often double. — Eng. Bot. t. 1060; Pursh, Fl. i. 314 ; Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 195. — Roadsides and waste ground, common ; fl. July to the end of October. (Nat. 

 from Eu.) Tricarpellary flowers are not infrequent. 



6. SIL^NE, L. Catchfly, Campion. (Name from SciAt^vo?, in refer- 

 ence to the viscid excretion of many species, the Greek god having been described 

 as covered with foam; also derived directly from aiaXov, saliva.) — Syst. Nat 

 ed. 1, & Gen. no. 372 ; Otth in DC. Prodr. i. 367 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 189 

 Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 303; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. vi. t. 269-301 

 Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 147; Rohrb. Mouogr. der Gatt. Silene; Wats. Proc 

 Am. Acad. x. 340, & Bibl. Index, 106; Robinson, Proc. Am. Acad, xxviii." 130, 

 — A large genus of attractive plants inhabiting chiefly the northern temperate 

 parts of the Old World, but also well represented in North America, especially 

 in the Pacific region. Although the members of this genus present considerable 

 diversity of habit and floral characters, yet the greater part of the species do not 

 fall into well marked groups, and the elaborate subdivision of the genus suggested 

 by Rohrbach cannot be satisfactorily carried out among our American plants. 

 Many species, together with several nearly related members of Lychnis, have 

 been by many foreign writers transferred to Melandrium, Rohl. (Deutsch. Fl. 

 ed. 2, ii. 274 ; Melandryum, Reichenb. Fl. Germ. Ex.824). While a natural group 

 is thus formed, it is so poorly circumscribed by technical characters as to be 

 almost useless in classification. The partial septation of the capsule, usually 

 adduced as the strongest character for the division of Silene and Melandrium, is 

 wholly untrustworthy in American species. Thus S. Virgijiica, generally re- 

 ferred by continental authors to Melandrium, often shows the partial septation of 

 a Silene, while S. multinervia, a good Silene by habit and affinity to others of 

 the § Conoimorpha, has often no trace of septation. The number of carpels, the 

 sole technical distinction between this and the next genus, is in some cases unfor- 

 tunately variable. Specimens with 4 or 5 carpels have been noted especially in 



