EUROPEAN VARIETIES 
OF 
SERENE INFELATS 
Frederic N. WELLIAMS. 
Critical examination of a large number of examples of Silene inflata 
from every part of Europe shows that the multiplication of described 
forms has been both unnecessary and excessive, and out of all proportion 
to the variation of characters within the limits of the species. Varielies 
have been défined by characters which not only vary during the sea- 
sonal growth of the plant, but also vary in different parts of the same 
individual. Several descriptions of proposed varieties are no more than 
verbal transcripts of the salient characters of the common form, the only 
discrepancies being the varietal name and the opinion of the observer. 
After tabulating the differential specific characters which definitely dis- 
tinguish Silene inflata on the one hand from S. glareosa Jordan, and on 
the other hand from S. commutata Gussone, it will be evident that the 
variable characters within the limits of the species will permit the 
grouping of only a few forms that can be sufficiently marked off from 
one another. 
In England the white-bottle is gynomonacious, andromoncecious, male, 
female, and androgynous, and the bisexual flowers are proterandrous, 
and the flowering period is from June to August. In the Channel Islands 
and in Central Italy the flowering period is from May to July, in Spain 
from April to August, in Greece from April to July. In Arctic Norway, 
according to Norman, it flowers from 7 July to 8 August. In tufts of 
plants in the Paris Gardens, Gay observed that the first flower opened on 
24 May (1850), and all the flowers of the tuft had opened by 5 June. 
S. glareosa differs from S. inflata in the following collective characters : 
— Basi fruliculosa, rhizomate in ramos multos torluosos diviso, turiones 
foliosos caulesque multos humiles edente, caulibus cæspitosis robustio- 
ribus laxe adscendentibus. Folia semper parva angusta lanceolato-linearia. 
Bracteæ scariosæ. Calycis dentes obtusi. Petala coronala, corona breviter 
biloba, limbo ad basin usque bipartito, etiam ungue sub corona late 
alato sed inferne subilo attenuato. Capsula subglobosa. Semina tubercu- 
lato-muricata, tuberculis brevibus obtusis, dorso convexa, faciebus pla- 
niuscula, magis rolundala, plerumque paullum pauciora. Tempore 
florendi serior. 
S. commutata is also distinguished from S. inflata as follows : — Caules 
fragiles, semper adscendentes foliosi. Folia carnosula, semper lata, omnia 
