LXIV. — THE SEA CAMPION. 
Silene a nice n a Hudson. 
T HE genus Silene is, as we have seen, so closely related to Lychnis that they 
cannot be separated by any constant characters. Silene , a name dating from 
Theophrastus in the fourth century b.c., is said to be derived from the Greek 
alaXovy sialon, saliva ; but has been variously explained as referring to the viscid 
hairs on some species, from which they get the name Catchfly, or to the so-called 
“ Frog’s-spit ” or “ Cuckoo’s-spit ” common on others. This latter frothy slime is, 
it need hardly be said, the work neither of frog nor of cuckoo, but of a small insect 
parasite known as the frog-hopper. It is, no doubt, the frequent presence on its 
shoots of this substance that has given to the Bladder Campion (Silene laiifolia 
Britten and Rendle) the names Frothy Poppy or Spading Poppy, from the Early 
English spatlian , to froth. 
The genus Silene is a large one, comprising several hundred species, mostly 
natives of Northern Temperate regions. Nearly 140 are European, the Medi- 
terranean area being peculiarly rich in species. They are herbaceous and either 
annual or perennial, among the latter being several of the stunted, large-flowered 
“ cushion-plants ” characteristic of alpine situations, such as the chomophyte or screes- 
plant Silene acau/is Linne, the Moss Campion of our British mountains. There are 
no bracts immediately below the flowers, as there are in Dianthus ; and the five- 
toothed, ten-ribbed calyx is more or less inflated , i.e. there is a space between the 
calyx-tube and the enclosed claws of the petals. Although this type of calyx may 
be occasionally pierced by some bee endeavouring to make a short cut to the flower’s 
store of honey, it appears that the main purpose of this inflation is to protect 
the honey from such ravages. The desirable insect-visitors that will effect cross- 
pollination, considering the long tube to the flower, are butterflies, moths, and 
long-tongued humble-bees, butterflies being the chief agents in the process for the 
alpine species and night-flying moths for those with white flowers. Although bees 
may bore through the calyx-tube, and may have a proboscis longer than the width 
of the space between calyx and petals, they will, in most cases at least, be unable to 
bore, across such an intervening space, through any such second thickness of tissue 
as the claws of the petals present. 
The five petals each have a long narrow claw and usually a ligule of two scales, 
while the blade may be either entire or divided. Of the ten stamens, the five 
forming the outer whorl are sometimes adherent to the short gynophore or elongation 
of the floral axis below the ovary, whilst the five of the inner row adhere to the 
claws of the petals. There are usually three, but occasionally four or five, carpels 
united into an ovary which has partition-walls across its lower half, with distinct 
styles and numerous ovules. The shortly-stalked capsule is usually six-toothed : 
the flattened seeds have a marginal hilum ; and the embryo is curved. 
