Saponaria. | XII. CARYOPHYLLACEZ. 61 
II. SAPONARIA. SAPONARIA. 
Calyx, corolla, and stamens of Lychnis. Styles 2. Capsule opening at 
the top in 4 teeth or short valves. 
This genus, artificially distinguished by the number of styles, comprises 
several European and west Asiatic species, among which the S. ocymoides 
and calabrica are frequently cultivated in our flower-gardens, and SV. 
Vaccaria, a common cornfield weed in continental Europe and central 
Asia, remarkable for its angular calyx and small pink flowers, appears 
occasionally in our own cornfields, especially in the southern counties 
of England. 
1. S. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 133). Soapwort.—A glabrous or puberulous 
perennial, with several stout, leafy, erect stems, from 1 to 2 feet high. 
Leaves ovate or elliptical, 2 to 3 inches long, strongly marked with 3 
or 5 ribs, and narrowed at the base into a very short, broad stalk. 
Flowers large and handsome, of a pale pink, or nearly white, in dense 
corymbs or heads at the summit of the stems, surrounded by small 
lanceolate floral leaves or bracts. Calyx tubular, about 9 or 10 lines 
long. Petals obcordate. 
On banks, roadsides, and waste places, throughout central and 
southern Europe and western Asia. Abundant in some parts of 
England, Ireland, and southern Scotland, about villages and habita- 
tions, probably introduced from cultivation, but. perhaps really native 
on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. fl. summer. 
III. SILENE. SILENE. 
Calyx, corolla, and stamens of Lychnis. Styles 3. Capsules opening 
at the top in 6 teeth or short valves. 
A very numerous genus, widely spread over Europe, Russian and 
central Asia, and North America, with afew South African species. It 
is very artificially distinguished from Saponaria and Lychnis by the 
number of styles, and the popular names of Catchfly and Campion each 
include species of both Silene and Lychnis. It has been proposed to 
abandon the character derived from the styles, and to distinguish these 
two genera by the number of the teeth or valves of the capsule, the 
same as that of the styles in Lychnis, twice as many in Stlene, thus 
transferring Lychnis vespertina and S. diurna to Silene, but this would 
scarcely render the genera less artificial. 
Calyx glabrous. Leaves glabrous or slightly downy. 
Moss-like alpine plant, with very short tufted stems . : . 1S. acaulis. 
Stem elongated. 
Calyx much inflated after flowering, ovoid or globular. . 2. 8. Cucubalus. 
Calyx short, not inflated. Flowers numerous, small Pee Daeg OL CEE Se 
Calyx and foliage downy or hairy. 
Perennials. 
Calyx short. Flowers small, numerous, in opposite bunches or 
whorls. 3. S. Otites. 
Calyx tubular. Flowers rather ‘large, nodding, on opposite 
peduncles, forming loose panicles ‘. 4. S. nutans. 
Annuals. Calyx contracted at the top, with narrow teeth. 
Flowers axillary, forming unilateral spikes. Calyx 10-ribbed 5. S. gallica. 
Flowers in terminal dichotomous Se, or Fapirees 
Calyx conical, 25- to 30-ribbed . : : . 6. S. conica. 
Calyx long and tubular, 10-ribbed_ . é 7. S. noctiflora. 
Two south European species, S. ctalica and: the Lobel's Catchfly (8S. 
