2 2 WHITE TO GREEN 



WHITE CAMPION 



Silene Macoiinii. Pink Family 



Stems: slender, from a branching rootstock, minutely pubescent. 

 Leaves: linear-oblanceolate. Flowers: few, on pedicels; calyx inflated, 

 with short obtuse teeth ; petals little exserted, with a broadly-auricled 

 claw, and large, thin quadrate appendages, the flabellate bifid blade with 

 a linear tooth on each side. 



Like many of the Campions, this one is very sticky, and is 

 characterized, in common with other members of the Pink 

 Family, by its slender stems being jointed and the leaves set 

 in pairs at the joints. It gives out a faint sweet odour, and is 

 usually found growing among the stones on steep hillsides. 



NIGHT-FLOWERING CATCHFLY 



Silene noctijiora. Pink Family 



Stems : viscid-pubescent, simple or branching. Leaves: obovate, obtuse, 

 narrowed into a broad petiole; upper leaves sessile, ovate, acute. 

 Flowers : few, white, in a loose dichotomous panicle ; calyx long, tubular, 

 veined, its teeth linear. Not indigenous. 



There is little need to describe this plant in detail, since its 

 name alone is sufficient to indicate its chief characteristics. 

 Closed tightly against all invasion during the daytime, and 

 only opening wide its white starry blossoms to the wooing of 

 the soft night wind, this Catchfly sends forth sweetest per- 

 fume and lures the crepuscular flies to their doom by first 

 attracting with its scent and its snowiness, and then entrap- 

 ing with its stickiness those poor deluded insects that hover 

 over its beauty, enchanted until enchained. Thus does the 

 Catchfly protect its nectar from pilfering insects and pre- 

 serve it for the butterflies, who, while they sip the sweets, 

 carry the pollen from flower to flower and thereby fertilize 

 the plants. 



