500 CARYOPHYLLACEAE 



15. VACCARIA Medic. 



Glabrous glaucous annual with sessile leaves and showy red flowers in a 

 broad loose flat-topped corymb. Calyx synsepalous, ovate, with 5 prominent 

 angles. Petals 5, clawed, not appendaged. Stamens 10. Styles 2. Ovary 1- 

 celled but with rudimentary partitions at base. Capsule ovate, dehiscent at 

 apex by 4 short teeth. Species 3, Europe, Asia. (Latin vacca, cow, some sp 

 cies used for fodder.) 



1. V. vnlgaris Host. COW-HERB. Strictly erect, dichotomously branching 

 above, 2 to 3 feet high ; leaves ovate or the upper lanceolate, 3 to 4 inches long 

 with cordate-clasping base ; flowers 7 to 9 lines long ; petals red, the blade 

 obcordate and claw linear. 



Grain-field weed naturalized from Europe. Occurring rather widely in Cali- 

 fornia but apparently not yet common. 



Locs. Dulzura, I. HagenbucTc, circa 1898; Berkeley, Chesnut in 1898; Sonoma (ace. B. 

 Kuhn in 1914); College City, Colusa Co., Alice King in 1906; Plumas Co., Platt in 1891; 

 Lundy, Mono Co., Maud Minthorn. 



Eefs. VACCARIA VULGABIS Host, Fl. Austr. 1: 518 (1827); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 164 

 (1901). Saponaria vaccaria L. Sp. PI. 409 (1753), type European. 



. 16. SAPONARIA L. SOAPWORT. 



Ours a stout perennial. Flowers white, in corymbed clusters. Calyx cylin 

 dric. Petals with a crest of 2 subulate teeth. Otherwise similar to Vaccari 

 Species about 20, northern hemisphere of the Old World. (Latin sapo, soa 

 the mucilaginous juice with saponaceous qualities.) 



1. S. officinalis L. BOUNCING BET. Erect, 2 to 3 feet high, glabrous 

 leaves ovate, acute, 3 to 4 inches long ; blade of petals cuneate-obovate, notch 

 at apex, 6 to 7 lines long. 



Garden plant, native of Europe, spontaneous on sandbars of the Sacramen 

 River below Delta, Jepson 6183. 



Eefs. SAPONARIA OFFICINALIS L. Sp. PI. 408 (1753), type European; Miiller, Fl. Dan. 

 543 (1827). 



17. VELEZIA Loefl. 



Annuals with tough dichotomous stems and sparse foliage. Flowers pin 

 solitary in the axils of the subulate leaves, or in clusters of 2 or 3, divaricatel, 

 divergent from the stem, borne on short peduncles or sessile. Calyx slender, 

 elongated-cylindric, 15-ribbed, sharply 5-toothed. Petals small, with minute 

 filiform crests, the blade in ours notched. Stamens 5. Styles 2. Capsule 

 slender, terete, 4-valved at the summit. Species 4, Mediterranean region. 

 (Cristobal Velez, friend of Loefling.) 



1. V. rigida L. Stems slender, trailing, 4 to 8 inches long, in age readily 

 breaking up at the joints; herbage glandular-puberulent ; leaves subulate, 

 2 to 6 lines long; blade of petals 1 line long; capsule sheathed by the 

 calyx, 6 to 7 lines long; seeds laterally meniscoid. 



Introduced from the Mediterranean region and locally established. 



Locs. La Grange, Sierra Nevada foothills, Jepson in 1896; Hupa Valley, Humboldt Co., 

 Jepson 2120 in 1902. 



Bef. VELEZIA RIGIDA L. Sp. PI. 332 (1753), type from s. Europe. 



18. SILENE L. CATCH-FLY. CAMPION. 

 Annual or perennial herbs, more or less viscid and mostly large-flowered. 

 Calyx tubular or inflated, 5-toothed. Petals 5, with long claws; junction of 

 the claw and blade commonly furnished with 2 scales ; blades spreading, entire, 

 or more commonly cleft or laciniate. Stamens 10. Styles 3, rarely 4. Capsule 

 opening by 3 or 6 teeth at apex. Species 300, all continents except South 

 America and Australia. (Greek sialon, saliva, the stems and other parts viscid.) 



