Cerastium. ] CAR YOPHYLLA CEAE. 61 



SAPONARIA VACCARIA, Linn. ; F. B. I. i. 217. Gypsophila 

 Vaccaria, Sin. ; W. & A. 42. 



An erect glabrous annual with rose-coloured erose petals and 



stem-clasping leaves. 



A weed of cultivation, occasional only. 



2. Silene, Linn. 



Herbs. Flo wens solitary or cymose, frequently secund. Calyx 

 tubular campanulate or inflated, 10- rarely many-nerved. Petals 

 5, with narrow claws ; limb entire bifid or laciniate, usually with 



2 basal scales. Stamens 10. Disk usually produced into a long 

 gynophore. Ovary incompletely 3-celled or rarely 1-celled ; styles 



3 or rarely 5 ; ovules many. Capsule 3-6-toothed or -valved. 

 Seeds reniform, usually tubercled ; embryo annular. 



SILKNE GALLICA, Willd. ; F. B. I. i. 218. 



A simple or branched, erect, hairy annual; flowers in long 

 secund racemes, the lower ones shortly pedicelled ; petals 

 small, white. 

 An introduced weed, Coimbatore, Madura and Nilgiris. 



3. Cerastium, Linn. 



Herbs, usually pubescent. Leaves usually small. Flowers 

 white, in terminal dichotonious cymes. Sepals 5 or rarely 4. 

 Petals as many, notched or 2-fid, rarely entire, sometimes 0. 

 Stamens 10, rarely fewer. Ovary 1-celled ; styles 3-5 ; ovules 

 many. Capsule cylindric, often curved near the top, dehiscing 

 by short teeth, double in number to the styles. Seeds com- 

 pressed, with an annular embryo. 



Leaves lanceolate, acute, over 1 in. long ; flowers shorter than the 

 pedicels, which are uniformly pubescent; tips of the capsule-teeth 



re volute 1 . indicium. 



Leaves small, ovate, obtuse ; flowers longer than their pedicels ; capsule- 

 teeth straight with revolute margins 2. glomeralurn. 



CERASTIUM INDICUM, Wight & Arn. 43 ; F. B. I. i. 227 ; Wt. 

 111. i. t. 26. 



Nilgiri, Anamalai and Pulney Hills, above 6,000 ft. 

 CERASTIUM GLOMERATUM, Thuill. C. vulgatum, W. & A. 43; 

 Wt. Ic. t. 948. C. vulgatum, Linn, (partly) ; F. B. I. i. 228. 



W. Ghats, from S. Canara and Mysore southwards, above 



6,000 ft. 



