116 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
open white or pink flowers, in most cases fertilised by 
insect aid with their own pollen; but the Three- 
nerved Sandwort (A. trinervia) matures its 
stigmas before its anthers shed the pollen, and the 
Sea Purslane (A. peploides) has the stamens and 
the pistils in separate flowers on the same _ plant. 
The Pearlworts (Sagina), Spurrey (Spergula), and 
Sandwort-Spurrey (Spergularia) are similarly small 
and self-fertile. There is a general Chickweedy 
character in the flowers of these genera, and lke 
Chickweed they are probably degenerate Pinks and 
Campions whose glory has departed since they flouted 
the butterflies and moths and bees. The bulk of the 
large-flowered members of the family may be said to 
be moth-fertilised, and this accounts for the prevailing 
white-tinted flowers. 
An interesting habit in many of the smaller 
members of the family consists in the at first erect 
flower - stalk (pedicel) drooping when fertilisation 
is effected, so that its faded appearance shall not 
take off the attractiveness of the flower-cluster, and 
its gradual erection again when the seeds are nearly 
ripe, by which time the other flowers in the group 
have set their seeds. This drooping of the fertilised 
flowers may be seen in the photographic plate of 
Stitchwort. 
Several species of Silene and Lychnis have the calyx 
and upper part of the flower-stems covered with 
sticky hairs, to which small flies, aphides, and other 
insects become glued, and so the plants have been 
termed Catchflies. It has been ascertained that, in 
some species at least, the hairs which secrete the viscid 
matter have also the power of absorbing and digest- 
