SILENE. 



chaux noticed it in Canada. The root is perennial, long, 

 whitifh, branching at the fummit. Stems ered, a foot and 

 a half or two feet high, branched, round, glaucous. Leaves 

 ovato-lanceolate, acute, glaucous, ufually very fmooth, but 

 occafionally roughifh and fringed ; the radical ones nu- 

 merous, crowded, fpatulate. Panicle forked, bearing nu- 

 merous white drooping foivers. Calyx almoit globofe, 

 membranous, white, elegantly reticulated >vith green or 

 purplifh veins and ribs. Limb of each petal almoll as long 

 as its claw, cut half way down into two fpreading, oblong, 

 fomewhat rounded fegments, generally deltitute of a crelt, 

 but we have lometimes deteCled the rudiments of one. An- 

 thers green, occafionally liable to a difeafe, by which they 

 become enlarged, teeming with ufelefs purple duft, which 

 ilains the petals. The natives of Zante, who call tliis plant 

 xaxa^i, eat the boiled leaves, which are faid to partake of 

 the flavour of green peas. 



S. marifima. Sea Campion or Catchflv. With. 414. 

 Fl. Brit. n. 6. Engl. Bot. t. 957. Willd. n. 29. Ait. 

 n. 23. (S. amoena ; Hndf. Angl. 188. Ligtitf. Scot. 227. 

 Cucubalus Beheu /S ; Linn. Sp. PI. 591. Fl. Dan. t. 857. 

 Lychnis marina anglicana ; Bauh. Hilt. v. 3. p. 2. 357. 

 Ger. Em. 469. Lob. Ic. 337. ) — Flowers nearly folitary, 

 terminal. Petals cloven about half way down ; the feg- 

 ments of their crell entire. Calyx fmooth, reticulated with 

 veins. Stem decumbent. — Native of the fandy or rocky 

 fea-fhores of Norway, Britain, Gothland, &c. as well as of 

 the llony beds of mountain torn-nts in AVales, flowering in 

 Auguft and September. The apj/earance of the leaves and 

 jloivers, at firft light, is fo like 5'. injlata, that molt bo- 

 tanifts, for a long time, confidcred the plant as a mere variety 

 of that fpecies. They are indeed fo nearly akin, as to be 

 infeparal)le with refpeft to genus, though injlata is mollly 

 without a crown to \.\\q Jlonuor, and this is always furnilhed 

 with one. The root of 6'. maritima is creeping, and the 

 fiems often quite proltrate, hardly a fpan high, bearing one 

 Jloiver, for the molt part, rarely two or three, fcarcely con- 

 itituting a panicle. The leaves are narrmver, linear-lanceo- 

 late, or nightly fpatulate, very fmooth and glaucous, 

 minutely toothed at the edges. Calyx much like the laft. 

 Capfule fhorter, almoll globular. Styles occafionally varying 

 to four or five. 



5. fmhriata. Fringed Campion or Catchfly. Sims in 

 Curt. Mag. t. 908. Ait. n. 46. — Flowers panicled, 

 drooping. Petals divided, many-cleft ; the fegments of 

 their creft cloven. Calyx veined, downy. Stem ere£t. — 

 Native of mount Caucifus, from whence it was fent to fir 

 Jofeph Banks and Mr. Loddiges. A hardy perennial, 

 readily increafed by feeds, and flowering all fummer long. 



The whole plant refembles a large roughifli variety of .J. 

 injlata-, but the deeply fringed />f/a/f, and their evident crejl, 

 at once diltinguifh it. 



6. fabaria. Thick-leaved Campion or Catchfly. Prodr. 

 Fl. Grsec. n. 987. Fl. Grace. I. 415, impiibliflied. Ait. 

 II. 2. (Cucubalus fabariu"! ; Linn. Sp. PI. 591. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. 2. 685. Been album, feu Polemonium faxatile, 

 fabariae folio, ficuliim ; Bocc. Miif 133. t. 92.) — Flowers 

 cliiltertd, crovvded, drooping. Petals in two deep, rather 

 narrow, lobes; the fegments of their crelt notched. Leaves 

 obovate, with a fmall ponit. — Native of rocky places near 

 the fea, in Sicily, Afia Minor, Mount Athos, and the idc 

 of Samos. Root perennial. Plant very glaucous and 

 fmooth, twice as tall as the injlata, with much thicker and 

 broader leaves. The jlem is once or twice forked, each of 

 its long upright tranches bearing feveral remote, Ihort, 

 tufted clujlers of drooping white jloivers, with a reticulated, 

 purplilh, tumid, angular caly.r ; and jlalls, with pointed 



IraBeas, all of the fame hue. The limb of each petal is half 

 the length of its claw, m two narrow-obovate, fpreading 

 lobes ; the creft deeply divided, with fliarply crenate feg- 

 ments. Germen red in the lower half, green above. Cap- 

 fule nearly globofe. The prefent fpecies is obvioufly, ac- 

 cording to the Linnaean charafter itfelf, a Silene, and too 

 clofely related to the three preceding, and the following, 

 to be feparable from any of them, even in a feftion of a 

 genus. 



S. Behen. Oriental Bladder Campion or Catchfly. 

 Linn. Sp. PI. 599. Willd. n. 25. Ait. n. 36. Fl. Grsc. 

 t. 416, unpubhlhed. ( Vifcago veficaria cretica, parvo flore 

 purpurafcente ; Dill. Elth. 427. t. 317.) — Flowers in a 

 corymbofe panicle, nearly upright. Petals deeply divided, 

 rounded ; the fegments of their creit notched. Calyx reti- 

 culated. Leaves obovato-lanccolate. — Native of Crete, 

 Alia Minor, and Greece. — The root of this is annual. 

 Herb lels glaucous than the lalt, and more approaching iu 

 habit to our common 6\ injlata ; but the floivers are fmaller, 

 and effentially different. The limb of each petal is but a 

 quarter the length of its claw, pale pink, in two elliptical, 

 or almoft orbicular, lobes, with a white creft, of two, quite 

 feparate, notched fegment;. Germen elevated on a llalk of 

 its own length, along with tlie^f/u/r and _^am£nj', within the 

 calyx, as is more or Lfs the cafe with moll of this genus. 



S. cxjia. Sea-green Campion or Catchfly. Sm. Prodr. 

 Fl. Gr»c. n. 989. Fl. Grsc. t. 417, unpubliflied. (Lychnis 

 cretica montis Idx, folio (ubrotundo ca:fio ; Tourn. Cor. 

 24, by the character.) — Flowers in a corymbofe panicle, 

 ereft. Petals in two deep hnear divifions ; the fegments of 

 their crelt entire. Leaves roundifh-obovate. — Native of 

 mount Parnaflus, and if we are right iu Tournefort's fyno- 

 nym, of mount Ida. This del'.cate fmooth fpecies has a 

 very deep perennial root, crowned with a denfe tuft of nu- 

 merous, branching, leafy, round, jointed_y?fm/, nearly a fpan 

 high, each terminating in one or two naked flowering 

 branches, about a finger's length, bearing a forked ^jmV/f, 

 of from four to eight pale, but elegant, jlciuers. The 

 leaves are full an inch long, and half as broad, of a deep 

 glaucous green, tapering down into (hort broad jootjlalls, 

 which clalp the item. Brafleas under the partial _y/o':tifr- 

 jlalks fmall, ovate, acute. Calyx obovate, half an inch 

 long, tipped with pink, and variegated with green and white, 

 but hardly reticulated. Petals narrow, cream-coloured ; 

 green underneath ; their lobes almoll dole, or parallel, 

 above half the length of the claw. Styles and jiamens rofe- 

 coloured, with greenilh anthers. 



S. Uvigata. Smooth.cu])ped Catchfly. Sm. Prodr. 

 Fl. Gric. 11. 990. Fl. Gnc. t. 418, unpubliflied. — Panicle 

 fpreading. Petals cloven half way down, narrow, without 

 a crell. Leaves roundilh-elliptical. Calyx very Imootli 

 and evi-ii, without veins. — Found by Dr. Sibthorp in hilly 

 |)arts of the ifle of Cyprus. The root is annual. Slemi 

 leveral, from three to eight inches high, leafy below, fmooth 

 like every other part ot the ])laiit. Leaves of a deep glau- 

 cous hue ; the radical ones obovate, llalked ; the rcll ovate, 

 lefs obtufe, and nearly leflile. Panicles forked ; the partial 

 Ualki much longer than the <:(;/)■.»■, which is ovale, reddilh, 

 peculiarly even and pohllu-d. Petals fmall ; their limb pink, 

 in two oblong, oblule lobes, fepar.ited but hnll way down, 

 and deltitute of any crell. ,S/y/a vtry downy, rather lliort. 



S. rupejlris. White Rock Catehtly. Linn. Sp. PI. 0o2. 

 Willd. n. 52. Alt. n. 54. Fl. Dan. t. 4. (Auricula 

 muris alpina gl.ibra ; Bauh. Hill. v. 3. 360.) — I'.iniclc 

 fpreading. PetaK wedge-lhaped, cmarginaie, with a cloven 

 crell. Leaves ovato lanceolate. Calyx fmooth, cyhndrical, 

 with ten ribe Native of dry meiintainous fituatioui in Nor- 



WJV, 



