CARYOPnYLLACE^. 63 



cushions or flakes. Leaves from 7 to ^ inch long, varying in 

 breadth, sliglitly fleshy, more or less channeled above and keeled 

 beneath, ciliated at the edges. Peduncles short at fii'st, but length- 

 ening as the fruit matures, varying from 1 inch long to so short 

 that the flowers appear to be sessile. Calyx sub-membranous, 

 generally tinged with red, very faintly nerved; the teeth with 

 scarious margins. Flowers ^ inch long and f inch across, deep rosc- 

 coloui-, but sometimes nearly white. Capsule cylindric-conical, 

 generally exceeding the calyx, and frequently much exserted 

 (resembling that of a Cerastium), usually conspicuously longer 

 than tlie pubescent gynophore, opening at the apex by 5 narrowly- 

 triangular erect teeth. Imperfect dissepiments very narrow. Seeds 

 pale yellowish-brown, kidney-shaped, not furrowed on the back. 

 Whole plant bright yellowish-green, glabrous, except the margins 

 of the leaves ; flowers generally, but not always, dioecious. 



Silene excapa (AUioni) can scarcely be separated, even as a 

 variety ; all the characters which are said to distinguish it being so 

 liable to be crossed, that it is impossible to attach the slightest 

 value to them. 



Moss Campion. 



French, Silene d, L'ouHe Tiije. 



Section V.— OTITES. 



Inflorescence paniculate, with the primary axis much elongated, 

 or producing lateral cymes as well as a terminal one. Calyx not 

 bladdery, oblong-ovoid, bell-shaped, cylindrical-clavate or ovoid- 

 funnelshaped, 10-nerved, quite filled or ruptured by the mature 

 capsule. Capsule with imperfect partitions. 



SPECIES VII.— SILENE OTITES. Sm. 



Plate CCVI. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Ilelv. Vol. VI. Caryopli. Tab. CCLXXXIX. Fig. 5004. 

 ■Cucubalus Otites, Linn. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 8-5. 



Eootstock perennial, thick, woody, much branched, producing 

 very short barren shoots bearing tufts of radical leaves, and long 

 erect flowering stems. Lower leaves spathulate-oblanceolate, atten- 

 uated into a footstalk ; uppermost stem leaves sessile, lanceolate- 

 linear. Flowers very numerous, erect, imperfectly dioecious, in 

 a contracted panicle with short sub-verticellate branches. Calyx 

 tubular-ovoid, attenuated at the base (where it is not umbilicate), 

 with 5 short obtuse teeth at the apex, quite glabrous. Petals with 

 (he laminae scarcely spreading, strap-shaped, entire, without scales 



