45 SILENE STELLATA. STARRY CAMPION, OR CATCHFLY. 



tion was drawn, the verticillate leaves occur only on a few of 

 the upper nodes of the stem. Above these the leaves are again 

 opposite, a fact which is alluded to in the description given by 

 Dr. Chapman. These variations in the same plant are particu- 

 larly interesting to students, as they show that the laws which 

 produce none but opposite pairs of leaves on one plant, and 

 cause verticils to ofrow on another, are in the main identical. 

 It is such facts as these that have paved the way for what is 

 now known as the doctrine of evolution. 



Cucubalus, under which name, as before stated, our species 

 used to be known, is from two words, signifying a very bad sort 

 of a weed. But why this name should particularly be applied to 

 the original species is not very clear. At any rate, our plant is 

 not " a very bad sort of a weed." It is generally confined to 

 half-shaded woodlands, and no evidence is on record that it ever 

 makes itself obnoxious to the cultivator. 



The word Silcnc, as most of our readers are aware, is derived 

 from the Greek sialon, saliva, or spittle ; and the general belief 

 is that some of the species, which have a saliva-like exudation, 

 suggested the appellation. Contrary to this, a noted French 

 writer opines that the name of the plant is connected with the 

 Greek satyr Silenus, the foster-father of the god Bacchus, whose 

 name, however, is said to have the same derivation as Silene. 

 But however this may be, certain it is that the English name 

 Catchfly was given to the genus Sileiic on account of the sticky 

 nature of the species which compose it ; and the fact that some of 

 these plants make use of their viscid exudation to catch flies and 

 other insects, long ago suggested to observant students the ques- 

 tion whether some advantage might not be derived by them from 

 this arrangement. Dr. Erasmus Darwin, in his curious work, 

 " The Botanic Garden," published in the latter part of the last 

 century, alludes to this question as follows : " The viscid ma- 

 terial which surrounds the stalks under the flowers of this 

 Catchfly, is a curious contrivance to prevent insects from plun- 

 dering the honey or devouring the seed." He also speaks of 



