SILENE 
79 
Annual. Shoot minutely pubescent, branches dichotomous. Lower leaves spathulate, upper ones 
lanceolate. Upper leaves lanceolate-acuminate. Peduncles short. Flowers erect. Calyx elongate. 
Petals normally white, with the coronal scales laciniate. Gynophore very short. Capsules oblong. 
Seeds tuberculate. 
A weed of waste ground, sainfoin and clover fields, “increasing in frequency” (Druce FI. Berksh. 85 (1897); 
local and not indigenous, from Jersey northwards to Anglesey and Suffolk. 
Adventitious in Denmark, Germany, Holland, France, and Switzerland. Indigenous in Austria-Hungary, 
Russia (central and southern), and south-eastern Europe; Algeria; south-western Asia; North America (not in- 
digenous). 
7. SILENE NUTANS. Nodding Catchfly. Plates 76, 77 
Lychnis sylvestris alba nona clusii Johnson in Gerard’s Herball ed. 2, 470 (1633); Ray Syn. ed. 3, 340 
(1724); Deering Cat. Stirp. 137 (1738). 
Silene nutans L. Sp. PI. 417 (1753)!; 
Smith Eng. Bot. no. 465 (1798)!; FI. Brit. 466 
( 1 800) ; incl. 5 . paradoxa , p. 467 ; Sy me Eng. Bot. ii, 
64 (1864); Rouy FI. France iii, 143 (1896). 
Perennial. Shoot usually pubescent-glan- 
dular ; barren shoots short ; fertile shoots 
eventually erect, 2 — 5 dm. high. Stem nodding 
before the flowers are fully expanded ; branches 
more or less divaricate, up to about 5 cm. long. 
Lower leaves more or less spathulate ; laminae 
gradually or abruptly attenuate into a long 
petiole, elliptical (most of the British examples) 
to suborbicular (in var. spathulifolia Burnat l.c.). 
Stem-leaves nearly or quite sessile, narrowly 
spathulate or elliptical or ovate-lanceolate, acute. 
Peduncles nodding in flower. Pedicels shorter 
than the calyx, up to about 1 cm. long. Bracts 
smaller than the leaves. Flowers open and 
fragrant in the evening, closed and inodorous 
during the day-time, dimorphous, up to 2 '5 or 
even 3 - o cm. in diameter ; June to early August. 
Calyx glandular, usually more or less purplish, 
subumbilicate, much longer than the teeth, about 
2 cm. long, teeth very short (2 mm.). Petals 
white to yellowish white or pale reddish ; limb 
nearly as long as the claw, deeply bifid, lobes 
somewhat spreading, coronal scales short and 
acute, claw not auricled. Stamens 10; filaments 
long (2*0 — 2^5 cm.), protruding, white; anthers 
greenish. Gynophore about twice as long as 
the ovary and about a third as long as the 
capsule. Ovary about 5 mm. long. Capsule 
ovate-conical. 
(a) S. nutans var. vulgaris nobis ; 5 . nutans 
L. herb, et Sp. PI. et auct. (inch Herbich toe. cit.) y 
in sensu stricto; S. dubia Salmon in Journ. Bot. xliii, 
127 (1905) non Herbich. 
leones: — Reichenbach Icon, vi, t. 295, fig. 5108. 
Camb. Brit. Ft. iii. Plate j 6 . (a) Lower leaves, 
(enlarged). ( e ) Fruiting branch. Jersey (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 729 ; Bourgeau ( Pyr . Espi), 
as 5 . nutans var. ft ; v. Heurck et Martinis, vi, 252; 
Wirtgen, vi, 97, as S. nutans var. hirsuta. 
Map 33. Silene nutans occurs in the counties which are shaded, 
and more or less doubtful records occur regarding the counties 
marked with a “?” 
(b) Flowering branch. ( c ) Petals (enlarged), (d) Capsules 
223, as S', nutans var. viridella\ Don, no; Fries, iv, 50, 
Vendely, 316; Welwitsch {Ft. Lusit.), 886, as S. lotigicilia ; 
