108 CARYOPHYLLE^ 



* * Stem elongated; flowers panided ; calyx inflated, bladder-like. 



2. Bladder Campion (S. infldta). — Stem erect; leaves oblong, tapering; 

 flowers panicled, numerous ; calyx inflated, bladder-like ; petals deeply cloven, 

 rarely crowned. Plant perennial. This species of Silene is not difficult of 

 distinction, being at once recognised by its thin globular flower-cup, delicately 

 marked with a network of purplish-brown or darker green veins. The calyx, 

 as well as the foliage, has a pale sea-green bloom on the surface ; and the 

 plant bears its white flowers in June and July. As early as April the young 

 shoots of the Bladder Campion are to be found under the hedge ; and many 

 of us have eaten their pale, delicate, green young leaves, and thought how 

 much their flavour and odour resembled those of the green peas of the table. 

 Professor Burnett remarks, that they make a very agreeable vegetable, if 

 gathered when about two inches long ; but we have found that even when 

 boiled they retain a slight degree of bitterness, which prevents their being 

 pleasant. As that botanist has remarked, however, this is a plant deserving 

 cultivation, as it might be substituted for green peas or asparagus, having 

 something of the flavour of both. This flower is very common in corn-fields, 

 pastures, and hedges, in most parts of the kingdom, but is not universally 

 so; for the author of these pages was once promised by a botanist, near 

 Tunbridge Wells, the sight of a rare plant, and was somewhat amused after 

 a long walk to find that this botanic curiosity was a fine specimen of Bladder 

 Campion, which her companion greatly exulted in having discovered in one 

 or two places in that neighbourhood, but which she had been accustomed to 

 regard as scarcely more rare than a primrose. The foliage is usually smooth, 

 but a downy variety is occasionally found. Baxter remarks, that two minute 

 funguses, jEcidium behenis and Uredo beheiiis, are parasitical on the leaves and 

 stems of the Bladder Campion. " I found them both," says this accurate 

 writer, "on this species of Silene, near the road leading from Bullington 

 Green to Cheyney Lane, near Oxford, in August, 1827. I do not know," he 

 adds, " that either of them had been found before in England." 



3. Sea Campion, or Catchfly {S. maritima). — Stems many from the 

 same root, spreading, either single or few flowered ; leaves oblong and 

 pointed, and sometimes narrowing towards the base, finely toothed at the 

 edges ; petals crowned and deeply cleft. Plant perennial. Those who are 

 used to gather the Bladder Campion from the lane or field, are sometimes 

 surprised to see it growing on the sandy sea-shore, where they could expect 

 to find little but sandworts and sea-side grasses. Excepting that its flowers 

 are larger, and its stems much shorter, the shore species closely resembles 

 the common Bladder Campion, having those same bladdery cups which 

 children often snap suddenly on the back of the hand, with a sharp noise. 

 This plant is not uncommon on the sandy or stony shore, but much more 

 frequent up the cliffs, flowering there all the summer : it is also found by 

 alpine rills. The Rev. C. A. Johns states, that he has found in Devonshire 

 a variety with double flowers. 



* * * Stems elongated, flmvers in whorU. 



4. Spanish Catchfly {S. otites). — Stems erect, somewhat branched, with 

 few leaves ; petals narrow and neither cleft nor crowned ; stamens and pistils 



