SILE'NE PEN'DULA. 
PENDULOUS CATCHFLY. 
Order. 
TRIG YN I A. 
Natural Order. 
CARYOPHYLLACEA. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Sicily. 
1 foot. 
May, July. 
Annual. 
in 1731. 
No. 1215. 
The names Silene and Catchfly are given to this 
genus from the peculiar viscid exudation found on 
most of the species. In some, the stems are wholly 
coated with this viscid matter, in others it chiefly 
occuis below the joints. This, in some cases, seems 
dependent on a glandular clothing ; but in others, 
the viscidity occurs where the stems are perfectly 
smooth, the exudation being wholly through the 
cuticle. 
The specific name pendula, has been chosen on 
account of the pendulous position which the seed- 
vessel assumes, after the flowering of the plant. 
This is occasioned, it has been remarked, by the 
weight of the seed. We would rather assign what 
we think a more weighty reason ; namely because 
He that bade it both flower and seed, willed it. 
Why, we would ask, does the American cowslip, 
(Dodecatheon Meadia) whose flowers are pendulous, 
begin, as the seed increases in weight, gradually to 
raise, instead of depress, its seed-vessels till they be- 
come erect? The answer will be readity found in 
the lequiiements of the plants. In the one the 
shape of the seed-vessel best performs its office of 
Class. 
DECANDRIA. 
