44 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Petals as many as the sepals, inserted on a hypogynous ring (or 

 more rarely perigynous), imbricated, occasionally abortive or absent. 

 Stamens 10 or 5 (more rarely 8 or 4 or fewer), hypogynous or more 

 or less perigynous ; anthers 2-celled. Torus usually small, but in 

 some Silenes and Lychnides lengthened into a gynophore, so that 

 the petals, stamens, and ovary are stalked within the calyx ; while 

 in some Alsineae and Polycarpeaj it is frequently expanded into an 

 annular disk slightly adhering to the calyx. Ovary free, 1-celled, 

 sometimes imperfectly 2- to 5-cellcd at the base. Styles 2 to 5, 

 free or more or less united, stigmatifcrous within at the upper 

 part, or rarely from the base. Placentae at the base of the 

 ovary or on a central columella. Ovules indefinite, amphitropous. 

 Capsule dry, very rarely a berry, opening by as many valves or 

 teeth as there are styles (or twice as many), rarely indehiscent or 

 splitting transversely. Seeds generally numerous, with a hard or 

 membranous testa. Albumen farinaceous. Embi-yo more or less 

 curved, excentrical or peripherical ; cotyledons narrow ; radicle 

 generally pointing to the hilum. 



Sub-Order I.— SILENES. 



Sepals united into a tube, which is 4- or 5-toothed or -lobed at 

 the apex. Petals, stamens, and ovary usually stipitate within the 

 calyx tube. Stipules none. 



GENUS I.—D I A N T H U S. Linn. 



Elowers surrounded by involucral scales enveloping the base of 

 the calyx. Calyx sub-cylindrical, or rarely bluntly pentagonal, 

 5-tootlied at the apex, without nerves indicating the line of demar- 

 cation between the sepals, which have generally numerous close 

 equal parallel nerves ; more rarely 3 down the centre of each sepal. 

 Petals 5, the spreading laminae generally abruptly attenuated into 

 long slender claws, which are generally furnished with longitudinal 

 bands, and all parallel to each other ; more rarely the laminae gradu- 

 ally narrowed into the diverging claws ; the margins of the lamina) 

 generally more or less toothed or jagged, without scales where they 

 meet the claws. Stamens 10. Torus more or less elongated into 

 a very short stalk-like gynophore between the calyx and the other 

 parts of the flower. Styles 2. Capsule elongate- or cylindrical- 

 ovoid, opening at the apex by 4 teeth, without imperfect partitions. 

 Seeds black, shagrcened, peltate, orbicular, apiculatc, convex above, 



