158 THE PINK FAMILY. 



THE PINK FAHILY. 



Caryophyllacecs. 



A widely distributed group of amiual or perennial herbs with opposite 

 and etitire leaves and sterns most often swollen at the nodes. The flowers 

 usually are regular and perfect^ and bear as fruit capsules. 



Besides those of the pink family that are herein mentioned in detail, 

 there are through our range as examples of the order two well naturalised 

 plants which constantly confront the flower seeker. One is the homely 

 bouncing bet, or old maid's pink, Saponaria officinalis, which is indigenous 

 in Europe. Its large white and pink blossoms, occurring most often in a 

 double form, are seen about old farm houses and straggling through broken- 

 down fences. That its juices abound in saponin, a substance similar to soap 

 in having cleansing properties, seems to be well known to the country peo- 

 ple ; also that it was once exclusively a garden plant. One day a young lad 

 in the Alleghanies handed me one of the flowers with the quaint remark : 

 " that's a tame flower." 



The corn cockle, or corn rose, Agrostemma Githago, is another European 

 plant. It is a pretty thing especially when its large pinky red, or purplish 

 flowers blow through and lighten the fields of grain. The plant seeds itself 

 very freely and thus secures every year a wider distribution. Indeed it 

 gives trouble enough to the poor farmer as the intermingling of its black 

 seeds with grain destroys the whiteness of his flour. In. them moreover is 

 contained a poisonous element so strong that bread into which they have 

 found their way is known to be injurious. 



STARRY CAMPION. KING'S CURE ALL. 



Silene stellata. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pink. IVkite. Scentless. Arkansas and South June-September. 



Carolina northward. 



Flowers: showy; growing on long bracted pedicels and clustered loosely in 

 spreading panicles. ^Calyx : campanulate ; swollen ; with five sharp-pointed lobes. 

 Corolla: with five deeply fringed and delicate petals. Staniftis : itiw ; exserted. 

 Pistil; one; styles, three. Pods: globose-ovoid. Leaves: sessile; whorled in 

 fours, or opposite in pairs at the lower and upper part of the stem ; lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate; ciliate ; rather rough. Stem: two to three feet high; leafy; 

 pubescent. 



Perhaps there is no other tradition which so indiscriminately clings to 

 certain plants as that they are efficacious in curing snake-bites. Almost 

 any old inhabitant of a village, or mountainous district can tell some tale of 



