PLATE 12. 

 NIGHT-FLOWERING CATCHFLY, Silene nodiflora, L. 



Other English name : Sticky Cockle. 



Other Latin name : Melandrium noctiflorum, Fries. 



(Noxious: Dom.) 



Annual and winter annual. Introduced. Erect, 1 to 3 feet high, some- 

 what branching; whole plant covered with soft spreading glandular hairs. 

 Lower leaves obovate, narrowed at the base; stem leaves lanceolate. Flow- 

 ers few, erect, in, a branching cyme, nearly an inch across, pinkish inside, 

 yellowish white outside, opening at night ; petals deeply divided ; styles 3 ; 

 capsule elongate ovoid, with 6 apical teeth; calyx at first cylindrical, after- 

 wards broadly ovoid, with 5 long teeth at the apex, and marked with 10 

 prominent green nerves. Seeds [Plate 53, fig. 10 natural size and en- 

 larged 6 times] in size and ornamentation much as in Bladder Campion, 

 grayish brown, with a tiny black tip to each tubercle. 



Time of Flowering : June to autumn ; seed ripening in July and till 

 frost. 



Propagation : By seeds only. 



Occurrence : Throughout the Dominion. Yery abundant in the East, 

 particularly in thin clover fields and in gardens; rather rare in the West, 

 where it is a comparatively recent introduction. 



Injury: A. rank grower and a heavy seeder. The greatest injury is 

 perhaps due to the frequency of the seeds in clover and grass seed, and the 

 great difficulty in separating them. 



Remedy : This weed is easily destroyed by ordinary methods, and, like 

 all weeds, yields to a regular short rotation of crops. In clover grown for 

 seed it should be hand-pulled as soon as the flowers show. Every care should 

 be taken to sow high class clover seed free of the seeds of this Cockle. 



