
PINK FAMILY. Caryophyliaceae. 
PINK FAMILY. Caryophyliaceae. 
A large family, widely distributed, most abundant in 
the northern hemisphere, including both the handsome 
Pinks and the insignificant Chickweeds. They are herbs, 
with regular, mostly perfect flowers, with four or five sepals; 
usually with four or five petals, sometimes with none; 
stamens as many, or twice as many, as the petals; ovary 
superior, one-celled; styles two to five in number; fruit a 
capsule, containing several or many, kidney-shaped seeds, 
opening by valves, or by teeth, at the top; leaves opposite, 
toothless; stems usually swollen at the joints. The name 
Pink comes from the petals of some kinds being cut inte 
points, or ‘‘ pinked.”’ 
There are numerous kinds of Arenaria, widely dis- 
tributed, difficult to distinguish, with small, white flowers 
with five petals, usually not notched, ten stamens and 
usually three styles; leaves usually long and narrow, often 
_stiff and growing in tufts; capsule roundish, splitting into 
usually three valves, each with two parts. These plants 
often grow in dry, sandy places, some at very high altitudes, 
some by the sea, hence the Latin name meaning “‘sandy,” 
and the common one, Sandwort. 
Rondiers Sand: This has pretty little white flowers, 
wort about half an inch across, and is variable. 
Arendria Féndlert Sometimes the stem is roughish, only 
legos * _ three or four inches tall, springing from a 
Summer : 
Utah, Ariz. ete. tuft of small leaves, stiff and almost 
prickly. Sometimes the stem is smooth, 
six or eight inches tall, and the leaves resemble rather fine, 
stiff grass. - This grows on dry hills and mountains, up to 
thirteen thousand feet, from Nebraska and Wyoming to 
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. 
There are many kinds of Silene, widely distributed, 
more or less sticky plants, hence the common name, 
Catchfly; flowers mostly rather large; calyx inflated or 
tubular, with five teeth; petals five, with long claws, which 
often have scales at the top, forming a “‘crown”’; stamens 
ten; styles usually three; capsule opening by three or six 
teeth at the tip; seeds numerous. 
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