148 CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 
First cultivated in gardens because of its fragrance and beauty, 
but now a widespread pest. Stem one to three feet tall, erect, 
rather stout, branching, covered with glandular, viscid hairs. 
Basal and lower leaves three to five inches long, spatulate, narrow- 
ing to margined petioles; upper leaves sessile, often uniting 
around the stem; ovate to lance-shaped, 
acute. Flowers in spreading cymes, few 
but large, often more than an inch across, 
very fragrant, creamy white, with five 
deeply cleft petals opening at twilight to 
close again at sunrise ; stamens ten; styles 
three; calyx-tube more than a half-inch 
long, becoming much inflated and show- 
ing beautiful ten-lined markings in two 
shades of green. Capsule ovoid, six- 
toothed at the opening, and containing 
many grayish brown seeds roughened 
with rows of fine tubercles; these seeds 
are very difficult of removal from those 
of clover and alfalfa. (Fig. 99.) ‘ 
Means of control 
Sow clean seed. In fields to be har- 
; vested for seed the weed should be hand- 
- = aan. A apa pulled at the opening of its earliest 
fia. 2 5 flowers. Where practicable, cut young 
plants from their roots with spud or hoe, 
well below the crown. Rankly infested fields should be broken up 
and put under cultivation for a season. 
BLADDER CAMPION 
Silene latifolia, Britten and Rendle 
(Siléne inflata, Sm.) 
Other English names: White Bottle, Cow-bell, Bubble Poppy, 
Spattling, Behen. 5 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 
Time of bloom: Late May to August. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
