DECANDRIA. TRIGYlfrlA. 287 



Small plants with opposite and linear leaves; flowers 

 axillary and subcorymbosely terminal. Possesses the ha- 

 bit of Jlrefiaria. 



Species. 1. S. anwius. So abundantly naturalized in 

 sandy arable fields as to appear native. 



An European genus of 3 species. 



Order III.— TRIGYNIA. 



411. CUCUBALUS. L. (Campion.) 



Calix inflated or campanulate, 5-tootfee(], 

 Petals 5, unguiculate, naked, or partly crowned 

 at the orifice. Capsule 3- celled. 



Flowers axillary dichotomal or terminal, often subpa- 

 niculate. 



Species. 1. C. JBehen. Introduced? 2. *niveus. Up- 

 f per part of the stem, divaricate and dichotomous; leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, minutely and pulverulently 

 pubescent, uppermost ovate; calix obtu e, campanulate, 

 inflated, subpilose; petals small, reflected, bifid at the ex- 

 tremit}', claws exserted beyond the calix, nearly naked; 

 flowers solitary, dichotomal and terminal. Silene nivea. 

 INluhlenberg's Catalogue, v. s. For the dried specimen I 

 am indebted to the friendship of Z. Collins, Esq. to whom 

 it had been communicated. Hab. Upon an island of the 

 Susquehannah, near to Columbia. — Muhlenberg. Obs, 

 Stem nearly smooth and slender. Leaves opposite, about 

 2 inches long and half an inch wide, sessile. Flowers re- 

 mote, solitary, dichotomal and teminal, each arising from 

 the centre of a pair of leaves; peduncles about half aa 

 inch long. Calix somewhat pilose, reticulately veined, 

 border 5-cleft, segments obtuse, and membranaceously 

 •margined. Petals white, neurly naked at the orifice, ex- 

 serted, but narrow, limb reflected, scarcely half the length 

 of the calix. Seeds bright brown, subreniform, striate and 

 transversely rugose. Too nearly allied to C. Behen to 

 be admitted into the genus Silene. 3, stellatiis. Leaves 

 verticillate. 



The remainder of this genus of 10 species, is entirely 

 European, excepting C. sperg'uIifoUus, of Armenia. In 

 the Flora Britanica, and Hortus .iewensis, this genus is 

 limited to a smgle anomalous speciesj C. dacciferus and 

 the rest referred to Sile?ie- 



