CARYOPHYLLACEiE. 41 



Plate 115. 



SILENE, L. 



Calyx ebracteolatiis 5-dentatus. Petala 5 (sestivatione 

 contorta) cum staminibus 10 carpophori apici hypogyne in- 

 serta, Styli 3. Capsula basi sa^pius 3-locularis, apice in 

 denies diiplo stylorum numero dehiscens. 



SiLENE, Linn. Gen. 772. Otth in DC. Prodr. 1. p. 367. Fenzl in Endl. 

 Gen. 5248 (cum Silenanth. § Saponarise) & in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 

 1. p. 303. 



Catch-fly. Campion. 



Calyx tubular, cylindrical, clavate, or nearly campanulate, 

 5-toothed, persistent ; the teeth or short lobes imbricated in 

 aestivation. Petals 5, with long and linear claws, inserted 

 on the summit of the short or usually elongated stipe (car- 

 pophore) on which the ovary is raised; the dilated lamina 

 entire or cleft, naked, or crowned at the base with a two- 

 cleft appendage, convolute in asstivation. Stamens 10, in- 

 serted with the petals, those opposite them with the filaments 

 more or less evidently adnate to the base of their claws : 

 anthers introrse, versatile, two-celled, the cells opening lon- 

 gitudinally. Ovary three-celled (rarely four -five-celled) 

 at the base, very rarely one-celled throughout : styles 3 

 (rarely 4 or 5), filiform, stigmatose down the inner face. 

 Ovules numerous, borne on a central columnar placenta, 

 horizontal, amphitropous. 



Capsule inclosed in the calyx or exserted, rarely strictly 

 one-celled, usually imperfectly divided at the base into as 

 many cells as there are styles, dehiscent at the apex by 

 twice that number of teeth. vSeeds numerous, rcniform ; 

 the crustaceous testa smooth, granulated, or muricate. ExM- 

 BRYO coiled more than half-way around, or completely sur- 

 rounding, the farinaceous albumeiL 

 1 



