148 CAKYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 



First cultivated in gardens because of its fragrance and beauty, 

 but now a widespread pest. Stem one to three feet tall, erect, 

 rather stout, branching, covered with glandular, viscid hairs. 

 Basal and lower leaves three to five inches long, spatulate, narrow- 

 ing to margined petioles ; upper leaves sessile, often uniting 

 around the stem; ovate to lance-shaped, 

 acute. Flowers in spreading cymes, few 

 but large, often more than an inch across, 

 very fragrant, creamy white, with five 

 deeply cleft petals opening at twilight to 

 close again at sunrise ; stamens ten ; styles 

 three; calyx-tube more than a half -inch 

 long, becoming much inflated and show- 

 ing beautiful ten-lined markings in two 

 shades of green. Capsule ovoid, six- 

 toothed at the opening, and containing 

 many grayish brown seeds roughened 

 with rows of fine tubercles ; these seeds 

 are very difficult of removal from those 

 of clover and alfalfa. (Fig. 99.) 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. In fields to be har- 

 vested for seed the weed should be hand- 

 FIG. 99. Night-flower- pu ll e d at the opening of its earliest 

 ing Catchfly (Silene nocti- * ,, 



flora), x i. flowers. where practicable, cut young 



plants from their roots with spud or hoe, 



well below the crown. Rankly infested fields should be broken up 

 and put under cultivation for a season. 



BLADDER CAMPION 



Silene latifdlia, Britten and Rendle 

 (Silene infl&ta, Sm.) 



Other English names: White Bottle, Cow-bell, Bubble Poppy, 



Spattling, Behen. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 

 Time of bloom : Late May to August. 

 Seed-time: July to October. 



