74 
MELANDRYUM 
xxvi, 122 (1843)!; Rohrbach in Linnaea xxxvi, 242 (1869); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 98 (1896); Silene 
noctiflora L. Sp. PI. 419 (1753)! ; Smith Eng. Bot. no. 291 (1795) ! ; FI. Brit. 470 (1800); Syme E.B. ii, 66 (1864). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 291, as Silene noctiflora ; FI. Dan. t. 2470, as S', noctiflora ; Reichenbach Icon. 
vi, t. 276, fig. 5063, as S. noctiflora. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 70. ( a ) Flowering shoot. ( b ) Leaf. ( c ) Capsules. Huntingdonshire (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata: — Billot, 1436, as Silene 7ioctiflora\ Don, 12, as S. noctiflora ; Fries, ix, 37; Reichenbach, 1994, 
as S. noctiflora-, Thielens et Devos, ii, 106, as S. noctiflora ; Herb. FI. lngric. vi, 96, as S. noctiflora. 
Annual. Shoot more or less covered with shaggy greyish multicellular hairs which are specially 
abundant on the calyx and leaf-veins, the upper part characterised by shorter glandular down causing 
the marked viscidity of the plant. Stem erect, terete, usually simple. Petioles present in the lower 
and middle leaves. Laminae slightly connate, entire, not undulate, dull green ; lower ones obovate 
or oblong-spathulate ; middle ones narrowed at the base ; upper ones sessile, lanceolate-acute, broad- 
based. Inflorescence dichasial, terminal. Flowers monoclinous ; July to September. Calyx clavate, 
with long subulate teeth which before flowering are longer than the tube ; with 5 stronger and 
5 weaker prominent anastomosing green veins, the parts without veins whitish ; distended and often 
burst by the growing capsules. Petals white on the inner side, pale flesh-coloured or rosy, some- 
times pale yellow underneath ; rolling inwards during the day, expanding in the evening ; the limbs 
bipartite, the lobes of the limbs oblong ; coronal ligules 2 ; claw narrow, auricled, slightly exserted. 
Gynophore short. Capsule large, narrowly ovate, conical, 6 — 8 times as long as the gynophore ; 
teeth 6, recurved on dehiscence. Seeds about 1*2 mm. long, grey-brown, slightly furrowed on the 
bark, flattened on the sides, surface granulate. 
A weed of arable land ; locally abundant in south-eastern England, becoming rarer northwards 
(to Perthshire and Forfarshire) and westwards ; Wales — Denbighshire and Flintshire ; Ireland — 
“chiefly in sandy fields on the east coast” (Praeger Irish Top. Bot. p. 53); preferring light soils. 
Europe (except Arctic and sub-Arctic) ; Asia; North America (not indigenous). 
Genus 1 5. Silene 
Silene L. {Gen. PI. 132 (1737);] Sp. PI. 416 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 293 (1754) emend. ; S. F. Gray Nat. 
Arr. Brit. Plants ii, 64 6 (1821). [ Viscago Dillenius Hort. Eltham. 416 (1732).] 
Perennial or annual herbs. Petals with a cuneiform claw and a spreading limb. Stamens 10. 
Stigmas 3. Capsule dehiscing by twice as many valves or teeth as there are stigmas, carpellary septa 
more or less persistent in the lower part and the capsule thus apparently multilocular below. Seeds 
reniform or globular. Embryo almost annular or semicircular. Cotyledons incumbent. 
This genus, as we (following S. F. Gray) understand it, differs from Melandryum chiefly in the persistent, carpellary 
septa, and from Cucubalus in the non-baggy calyx. 
Grenier and Godron united Melandryum, Silene (S. F. Gray), and Cucubalus (S. F. Gray) into a single genus, their 
Silene, and were followed by Syme. We are in full agreement with Mr F. N. Williams ( loc . cit.) and with our contributor, 
Mr Compton, in subdividing Lychnis, as formerly understood in this country, according to continental authorities. 
About 300 species ; cosmopolitan. 
Sections of Silene 
Section I. Conoimorpha (see below). Annual. Calyx ovate in flower, more or less swollen 
below in fruit, with 20 — 60 veins, not anastomosing. 
Section II. Eu-Silene (p. 76). Perennial or annual. Calyx ovate or narrowly elliptical when 
in flower, not much swollen in fruit, with 10 — 20 unequal veins, veins anastomosing at the summit. 
Section I. CONOIMORPHA 
Conoimorpha Otth in DC. Prodr. i, 371 (1824); Grenier et Godron FI. France i, 204 (1847); Syme E?ig. 
Bot. ii, 58 (1864); Conosilene Rohrbach Monogr. 67 et 89 (1868); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, no (1896); 
Williams in Journ. Bot. xxxii, 13 (1894). 
For characters, see above. 
British species of Conoimorpha 
1. tS. conoidea (p. 75). Bracts larger than in S. conica, connate. Flowers about 1-5 cm. in 
diameter. Capsule ventricose at the base, suddenly narrowed above, with teeth half as long as the 
rest of the capsule. 
2. S. conica (p. 75). Bracts smaller, not connate. Flowers about 0-5 to i’2 cm. in diameter. 
Cabsule ovoid-conical, with teeth a quarter as long as the rest of the capsule. 
