104 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
The general character of the flowers of this family 
may be readily understood by calling to mind or 
examining a (single) Pink or Sweet William from the 
garden, but we would rather our readers referred to 
the wild plants from hedge or wood, and we may 
get a specimen of Red Campion from the moist banks 
of a decp, sheltered lane almost any day in the year. 
If we pull this flower to pieces, we can scarcely fail to 
be reminded in some way of the flowers of the Cross- 
wort family. The calyx is stiff and upright, and 
the petals, though broad and spreading at the top 
of the calyx, are exceedingly slender within. But 
there is a marked difference—the five sepals have got 
their edges joined together, so that the calyx has 
become a downy, reddish tube, with five triangular 
teeth at its upper end to show that it really consists 
of the five united sepals. The five petals are separate, 
rosy-pink in colour, and the limb or broad portion is 
deeply cleft into two lobes. At the base of each 
limb there are two little scales of a paler tint stand- 
ing up, so that the ten form a kind of coronet at the 
top of the corolla-tube. There are ten erect stamens, 
and as a rule the flower that contains these has no 
pistil; whilst the flower bearing the perfect pistil and 
five styles contains no stamens. Further, as a rule, a 
plant will produce complete male or complete female 
flowers only. This separation of the sexes by being 
borne upon different plants does. not characterise the 
family, but is peculiar to this species—a condition 
known as dicecism. Cross-fertilisation is, of course, 
unavoidable. The seed-vessel is somewhat egg- 
shaped, with a tendency to be globular, and opens at 
the top by splitting into ten teeth. 
