58 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



tufts, often forming cushions. The stems are from 3 to 10 inches 

 high. The leaves are thicker, almost fleshy, much smaller, from 

 •| t o 1 inch long ; tlie upper ones arc generally more attenuated at 

 the base, and much closer together on. the barren shoots. Tlie 

 flowers sub-solitary (or witli hardly ever more than 3 in the 

 corymb), generally larger (about 1 inch across), and much hand- 

 somer, from the lobes of the petals being bi-oader, and leaving no 

 spaces betwixt themselves or the contiguous petals. The scales 

 seem to be always present in S. maritima, while in S. inflata they 

 arc almost invariably absent. The bracts in S. maritima are more 

 herbaceous (though this is not a constant character), the seeds are 

 smaller, and have the tubercles usually much less acute. The whole 

 plant is moi'c glaucous, and is quite glabrous, except that the leaves 

 are frequently ciliated. 



Sea Bladder Campion. 



French, Silene Maritime. 



Section II.— CONOIMORPHA. 



Inflorescence an irregular dichotomous cyme (primary axis 

 short). Calyx at first sub-cylindrical, then swollen below (but 

 not bladdery), ovate-conical, pointed, and fitting tightly to the 

 capsule at the top, sub-membranous, with 30 strong herbaceous 

 ribs and no anastomosing veins. Capsule with imperfect partitions. 



SPECIES III.— SILENE CO NIC A. Linn. 

 Plate CCI. 



"S. conoidea,"* Belch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VI. Caryo2)h. Tab. CCLXXV. 



Fig. 50GI. 



No perennial rootstock or barren shoots. Stems erect, dicho- 

 tomously branched. Lower leaves liuear-oblanceolate ; upper ones 

 linear-lanceolate, very acute. Plowers erect, numerous. Calyx 

 at first cylindrical-conical, afterwards ovate-conical, umbilicate at 

 the base, with 5 long triangular acuminate teeth at the apex. 

 Petals with the laminaj oblong-oblauceolate, 2-cleft, with oblong- 

 rounded lobes and a bipartite scale at the base. Gynophore 

 extremely short, not so long as broad. Capsule shorter than the 

 teeth of the calyx. 



On sandy fields and commons. Very local. Abundant on the 

 sandhills at Deal, and also at New llomney, Kent; at Bury, 



""' The names of "conoidia "and "coiiica" have been inadvertently transposed 

 on Iit'iolienbach's plates. 



