DECANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Silene. 293 



In fields, pastures, and by way sides, common. 



/3 near Cromer, Norfolk. Mr. D. Turner. 



Perennial. July. 



Root whitish, greatly subdivided, and tufted, at the crown. Herb 

 glaucous, and generally very smooth; but in j3 the foliage, as 

 well as the leafy part of the stem, is clothed with short dense 

 hairs. Stem round, hollow, erect, branched, 2 or 3 feet high ; 

 naked and panicled at the top. Leaves sessile, single-ribbed, 

 ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, varying much in width, about 2 inches 

 long. Panicle terminal, repeatedly forked, spreading, many- 

 flowered, with very smooth round branches. Bracteas small, 

 membranous, lanceolate, acute, in pairs under each partial stalk. 

 Flowers drooping or pendulous, stalked, inodorous. Cal. ellip- 

 tical, very smooth, bladdery, pale, often purplish, with 20 green, 

 not prominent, ribs, connected by a net-work of similar trans- 

 verse veins. Pet. nearly twice the length of the calyx, white, 

 with a spreading limb, which is divided half way down, into 2 

 narrow-obovate segments, tumid, and sometimes doubly crested, 

 at their base, just above the dilated summit of each claw. Recept. 

 thick and angular, as long as the young, often purple, germen, 

 which it elevates with the petals and stamens. Anthers often 

 diseased, so as to produce a copious purple powder instead of 

 pollen. Caps, ovate, rigid, with 6 marginal recurved teeth. 



Dr. Withering says the boiled leaves taste like peas^ and proved of 

 great use in a famine at Minorca in 1685. 



4. S. mmitima. Sea Campion or Catchfly. 



Flowers slightly panicled, or solitary, terminal. Petals 

 cloven, each with a cloven acute scale. Calyx smooth, 

 inflated, reticulated. Stem recumbent. Leaves lanceo- 

 late. 



5. maritima. With. 414. Fl. Br. 468. Engl. Bat. v. 14. t. 957. 

 fVilld. Sp. PI. V. 2. 700. Hull 127. 



S. amcena. Huds. 188. Light/. 227. 



S. uniflora. Roth. Catal. v. 1. 52. 



S. inflata /3. Hook. Scot. 135. 



Cucubalus Behen jS. Linn. Sp. PL 591. Fl. Dan. t. 857.^ 



Lychnis maritima repens. Bauh. Pin. 205. Raii Syn. 337. 



L. marina anglicana. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 357./. Ger. Em. 469. f. 



Lob. Ic. 337./. Dalech. Hist. 1361./. 

 L. perennis angustifolia marina anglica procumbens. Moris, v. 2. 



535. sect. 5. t. 20. f. 2. 



tOn the sandy or stony sea coast, as well as in the beds of alpine 

 torrents. 

 Perennial. August, September. 

 This resembles the last in its glaucous colour, and general aspect, 

 but is certainly a distinct species, retaining all its characters 

 \ 



