Dicotyledones. 37 



CARYOPHYLLACEiE. Pink Family. 



Annual or perennial herbaceous plants with opposite, entire leaves, 

 and usually swollen nodes. Flowers perfect or rarely dioecious. Sepals 

 4 or 5, separate or united below into a tube. Petals of the same num- 

 ber as the sepals, or wanting. Stamens twice as many as the sepals or 

 fewer. Ovary i -celled or sometimes 3-5-celled, containing few to many 

 ovules on a central placenta ; styles 2-5, rarely united. Fruit a dehiscent 

 capsule, or an achene or utricle. 



I. SILENE. CatcMy or Campion. 



(Gr., sjalon, saliva, from viscid exudation of some species.) 



Sepals united below into a more or less tubular campanulate or in- 

 flated tube, and 5-toothed or cleft above. Petals 5, narrow and clawed. 

 Stamens i o. Styles usually 3 . Ovary i -celled or incompletely 2-4-celled. 

 Pod dehiscing by 6 or 3 apical teeth. Seeds spiny or tubercled. 



i. Silene Virginica, L. Fire Pink. A slender, perennial, erect herb, with 

 flowers in terminal cymes, crimson, from i to i\ inches broad; petals spreading. 

 Calyx campanulate, nearly i inch long, enlarging in fruit. Lower leaves spatulate 

 to oblanceolate, upper leaves lanceolate, opposite. Open woods. 



II. CERASTIUM. Chickweed. 

 (Gr., keras, a horn.) 



Sepals distinct or united only at the base, 5, seldom 4. Petals of 

 the same number as the sepals, rarely absent, emarginate or bifid at 

 the summit. Stamens 10, seldom less. Capsule cylindrical, and dehis- 

 cing by 8-10 teeth. Pubescent annual or perennial herbs, bearing 

 dichotomous cymes of white flowers. 



1. Cerastium viscosum, L. (L., viscosus, full of bird lime.) Mouse-ear 

 Chickweed. Viscid-pubescent, erect, or spreading stems. Upper leaves ovate 

 or obovate, lower spatulate. Petals shorter than the sepals. Flowers glomerate 

 with pedicels not longer than the sepals. Annuals. In grassy places. 



2. Cerastium brachypodum, Robinson. [(3tx.,brachys,^o':i,\ pous,podas,iQiQ\?i 

 Short-stalked Chickweed. Viscid-pubescent annuals, 3 to 10 inches tall. 

 Lower leaves oblanceolate or spatulate, upper linear to lanceolate. Petals longer 

 than the sepals. Pedicels shorter or but little longer than the calyx. In dry soil. 



3. Cerastium arvense, L. (L., arvum, a plowed field.) Field Chickweed. 

 Tufted, erect, or ascending perennials; lower leaves linear-oblong, upper linear 

 to lanceolate.. Petals obcordate, longer than the sepals. Flowers cymose, from 

 I to I of an inch broad. Styles 5. In dry or rocky places. 



