SAPONARIA. CAKYOPHYLLACE.E. 75 



SILENE. 



S. VACCARIA L. Sp. 409, Stem solitary from an annual root, erect, Ir4 

 feet high, widely branching above: leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, ses- 

 sile and somewhat connate at base; flowers in a broad corymb; calyx 

 ovoid, with 5 sharp herbaceous angles, the intervening parts white and 

 scarious : petals rose-color, without appendages. Common in cultivated 

 grounds. Introduced from Europe. 



S. OFFICIXALE L. Sp. 408. Stems numerous from a perennial root, 1-2 

 feet high, stout: leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, narrowed at the base, 2-3 

 inches long, 3-ribbed: flowers clustered at the ends of the short branches, 

 often double; calyx tubular, terete, with numerous faint nerves; petals 

 white or pink, appendaged at the junction of the claws and obovate retuse 

 blade. Roadsides and R. R. embankments. Introduced from Europe. 



2 SILENE L. Gen. n. 567. 



Annual or perennial herbs with mostly linear entire opposite 

 leaves and white or red flowers in paniculate racemes : (rarely 

 solitary or cymose). Calyx tubular more or less inflated, cylin- 

 dro-clavate to cainpanulate, 5-toothed, 10-nerved. Petals 5, with 

 slender claws, which are usually crowned with scales at their junc- 

 tion with the mostly 2 to many-cleft blade. Stamens 10. Style 

 3. Ovary stipitate. Capsule dehiscent by 6, rarely 3 short teeth. 

 Seeds opaque, tuberculate or echinate, attached by the margin : 

 embryo peripherical. 



$ Annuals, mostly introduced. 

 *- Inflorescence simply racemose or subspicate ; pedicels solitary. 



S. GALLICA L. Sp. 417. Stems hirsute with white jointed hairs : leaves 

 spatulate, mucronate, hirsute-pubescent on both sides 8-18 lines long: ra- 

 cemes terminal one-sided, 2-4 inches long : flowers more or less pedicel- 

 late: calyx 10-nerved, villous-hirsute, slender, subcylindric in anthesis, 

 becoming in fruit broadly ovoid with contracted orifice and short narrow 

 spreading teeth: petals usually little exceeding the calyx; the blade ob- 

 oyate, somewhat bifid, toothed or entire. Along the coast from Brit. Co- 

 lumbia to Lower California. 



VAR. QDINQUEVULNERA, Koch. Syn. Fl. Germ. et. Helv. 100. Petals 

 more showy, subentire, deep crimson with a white or pink border. 

 With the typical form. 



-*- -<- Inflorescence cymose or paniculate, not distinctly racemose. 

 M- Smooth or nearly so, a part of the upper internodes glutinous . 



S. antirrhina L. Sp. 419. Stems slender, 6-36 high: leaves oblong-lan- 

 ceolate or linear, commonly acute: flowers small in a compound cyme, on 

 long filiform pedicels: calyx oblong-cylindric, smooth, in fruit ovoid with 

 short teeth; petals obcordate, about equalling the calyx-teeth expanding only 

 at night or in cloudy weather; scales minute: ovary scarcely stipecl. On dry 

 hillsides, California to Brit. Columbia and across the continent. 



* * Very low and densely matted subcaulescent perennials. 



S. acanlis L. Sp. ed. 2, 603. Closely cespitose, an inch or two high : 

 leaves linear, crowded on the branching caudex : flowers small, 2-3 lines in 

 diameter, subsessile or raised on naked curved peduncles : calyx narrowly 

 campanulate glabrous, the teeth short and rounded : petals purplish or 

 white, minutely appendaged, obcordate, exserted: flowers dioecious by 

 abortion. Arctic America to the Cascade and Rocky Mountains. 



* * * Caulescent perennials. 



