GENUS i. 



PINK FAMILY. 



61 



Family 24. CARYOPHYLLACEAE Reichenb. Consp. 206. 1828. 



PINK FAMILY. 



Annual or perennial herbs, often swollen at the nodes, with opposite entire 

 exstipulate leaves, and perfect, polygamous, or rarely dioecious regular flowers, 

 the sap watery. Sepals 4 or 5, persistent, united into a tube or cup. Petals equal 

 in number to the sepals, or rarely none, often with a scale at the base of the blade. 

 Stamens twice as many as the sepals, clawed, perigynous ; anthers longitudinally 

 dehiscent. Ovary i, stipitate, mainly i-celled (rarely 3-5-celled) ; styles 2-5; 

 ovules and seeds several or many (in all our species), attached to a central column. 

 Fruit generally membranous, a capsule, dehiscent by valves or teeth. Seeds mainly 

 amphitropous ; embryo nearly straight, and peripheral to the endosperm ; cotyle- 

 dons mainly incumbent. 



About 20 genera and perhaps 600 species, widely distributed, most abundant in the northern 

 hemisphere. 



Calyx-ribs at least twice as many as the teeth, running both into the teeth and into the sinuses. 



Styles 5, alternate with the foliaceous calyx-teeth. i. Agrostemma. 

 Styles 3-5, when 5, opposite the short calyx-teeth. 



Styles 5, capsule several-celled at the base. 2. Viscaria. 



Styles 3, rarely 4. 3. Silene. 



Styles 5, capsule i-celled to the base. 4. Lychnis. 

 Calyx s-ribbed, s-nerved, or nerveless, or striate-nerved. 

 Calyx conspicuously scarious between its green nerves. 



Calyx not bracteolate at the base. 5. Gypsophila. 



Calyx bracteolate at the base. 6. Petrorhagia. 

 Calyx not at all scarious. 



Petals appendaged at the base of the blade. 7- Saponaria. 

 Petals not appendaged at the base of the blade. 



Calyx strongly s-angled, not bracteolate. 8. Vaccaria. 



Calyx terete or nearly so, subtended by bractlets. 9. Dianthus. 



i. AGROSTEMMA L. Sp. PI. 435- i?53- 



Annual or biennial pubescent often branching herbs, with linear or linear-lanceolate acute 

 or acuminate sessile leaves, and large purple, red or white erect flowers, solitary at the ends of 

 axillary peduncles. Calyx ovoid-oblong, not inflated, narrowed at the throat, lo-ribbed, 

 5-lobed, the lobes linear, elongated and foliaceous. Petals 5, shorter than the calyx-lobes, 

 their blades obovate or cuneate, emarginate, not appendaged ; stamens 10. Styles 5, alternate 

 with the calyx-lobes, opposite the petals. Capsule i-celled. Seeds numerous, black. [Greek, 

 a field-garland.] 



Two known species, natives of Europe and Asia, the following typical. 



i. Agrostemma Githago L. Corn Cockle. Corn 

 Rose. Corn Campion. Fig. 1799. 



Agrostemma Githago L. Sp. PI. 435. 1753- 



Lychnis Githago Scop. Fl. Carn. Ed. 2, i : 310. 1772. 



Erect, i-3 high, simple or with few erect branches, 

 densely pubescent throughout with whitish appressed 

 hairs. Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute or long-acumi- 

 nate, erect, 2'-^' long, 2"-3" wide, the lowest narrowed 

 at the base; flowers showy, i'-3' broad; peduncles stout, 

 3'-8' long, erect ; calyx ovoid, its lobes linear, foliaceous, 

 3 or 4 times the length of the tube and much exceeding 

 the petals, deciduous in fruit; petals usually slightly 

 emarginate, the blade obovate-cuneate. 



In grain fields and waste places, frequent or occasional 

 throughout our area. Adventive from Europe, occurring 

 also in northern Asia. Corn-, mullen- or old-maid's pink. 

 Crown-of-the-field. July-Sept. 



