DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Silene. S91 



either hairy or smooth. Stem leafy, branched, or forked, 

 round, jointed, mostly erect ; rarely simple and single- 

 flowered. Leaves opposite, midivided, entire, with short 

 combined footstalks. Stipulas none. Fl. terminal or 

 lateral, mostly erect, red, blush-coloured, or white ; some- 

 times fragrant at night. Linnaeus founded his genus 

 Cuciibalus on the absence of scales at the base of the limb, 

 which nevertheless are present in C. baccifer, and which 

 not only would often separate species most nearly akin, 

 but are inconstant in the same species. It is very re- 

 markable that this great botanist should have attributed 

 B teeth, or valves, to the capsule; whereas they are always 

 6, being naturally double the number of the styles. Yet 

 several autliors have followed him. 



* Stem racemose, occasionally some-dohat forked. 



1. S. anglica. English Catchfly. 



Hairy and viscid. Petals slightly cloven. Flowers lateral, 

 alternate, erect. Lower capsules spreading or reflexed. 



S. anglica. Linn. Sp. PI. 594. Willd.v.2.G9\. FLBr.465. Engl. 

 Bot. V. 17. t. 1 178. Curt. Lond.fasc. 4. t. 30. Dicks. H. Sice. 

 fasc. 13. 18. 



V'iscago cerastei foliis, vasculis pendulis^ anglica. Dill.EUh.4\7. 

 t. 309. f. 398. 



Lychnis sylvestris, flore albo minimo. Raii Sy7i. 339. 



L. sylvestris hirsuta annua, flore minora albo. raill. Par. 121. 



L. arvensis anglica. Lob. Illustr. 97. 



In cultivated fields, on a gravelly or sandy soil. 



About Combe in ^Surrey. Huds. Curt. In Cambridgeshire. Ray, 

 Relhan. Between Dundee and St. Andrews ; and near Perth. 

 Mr. Mackay. In Hertfordshire. Mr. T. F. Forster. At Laken- 

 ham and Costesy, near Norwich. 



Annual. June, July. 



Root fibrous, rather small. Herb of a darkish green, shortly and 

 densely hairy, slightly glutinous, very various in luxuriance. 

 Stem branched, spreading, or recumbent, unequally hairy, tumid 

 above each joint. Leaves lanceolate, or obovate, single-ribbed, 

 acute, entire, 1-^ or 2 inches long, slightly succulent. Fl. soli- 

 tary, from the bosoms of the upper leaves, on short stalks, erect. 

 Cal. cylindrical, afterwards ovate, vdth 5 hairy viscid green ribs, 

 the intermediate spaces pale and membranous. Pet. small, 

 white, or faintly tinged with red, cloven, but not deeply; each 

 with a white cloven scale at the summit of the claw. Capsule 

 tawny, smooth, rigid, invested with the permanent calyx, and 

 nearly as long. Several of the lowermost stand on longer 

 Ktalks, more or less spreading, or bent downwards. 



u 2 



