86 
SAPONARIA 
Not indigenous ; rare in cultivated land and waste places, usually adventitious ; northwards to Carnarvonshire. 
Germany, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia, southern Europe; northern Africa; Asia; Australasia. 
Adventitious in western Europe (including Sweden, Denmark, and Holland) and in North America. 
Genus 18. ^Saponaria 
Saponaria L. [Gen. PI. 130 (1737);] Sp. PL. 408 (1753) et Gen. PL. ed. 5, 191 (1754); Al. Braun in 
Flora xxvi, 377 (1843); P ax Engler und Prantl Pfianzenfam. iii, pt. 1 b, 75 et 78 (1889); Rouy et Foucaud 
FI. France iii, 150 (1896). 
Herbs. Epicalyx absent. Calyx cylindrical, terete, with about 12 — 15 veins, umbilicate. 
Petals with claw and limb well-marked, limb spreading, coronal scales absent. Stamens 5 + 5. 
Capsule opening by 4 teeth, persistently biseptate towards the base. Embryo almost annular, hilum 
lateral. Seeds reniform. 
About 20 species ; central, southern, and eastern Europe ; northern Africa ; Asia. 
I. tSAPONARIA OFFICINALIS. Soapwort. Plate 83 
Saponaria Gerard Herball 360 (1597); Lychnis saponaria dicta Ray Syn. ed. 3, 339 (1724) inch L. saponaria 
dicta folio convoluto. 
1. Saponaria officinalis L. Sp. PI. 408 (1753)!; Smith FI. Brit. 459 (1800)!; Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 53 
(1864); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 151 (1896). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 1060; Curtis FI. Lond. i, 82; FI. Dan. t. 543; Reichenbach Icon, vi, t. 245, 
fig- 4995- 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 8 j. ( a ) Flowering shoot, (b) Petal. Isle of Wight (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 1829; Don, 183; Todaro, 266. 
Perennial. Rhizome rather thick, creeping. Shoot glabrous, rarely more or less hairy. Flowering 
stems erect, about 2 dm. high. Leaves somewhat soapy to the touch. Flowers often double, very 
rarely gamopetalous, odorous, about 3 cm. in diameter ; August and September. Gynophore short, 
thick. Calyx umbilicate at the base. Petals pale lilac to white, with claws longer than the calyx, 
emarginate, often double, sometimes joined. 
Possibly not indigenous anywhere in the British Islands. As a plant of suspicious garden origin, it occurs 
(frequently with double flowers) in nearly all the English counties, and several in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. 
Chiefly in hedgebanks ; but it also occurs on or near sand-dunes, as in Somerset, Norfolk, and Lancashire. It seems 
to prefer light, sandy soils. 
Scandinavia (not indigenous), Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, central Europe, Russia, southern 
Europe; Asia; North America (not indigenous). 
Genus 19. Tunica 
Tunica [Haller Enum. Stirp. Helv. i, 381 (1742) partim ; Adanson Fam. PI. ii, 255 (1763);] Scopoli 
FI. Cam. ed. 2, ii, 298 (1772) pro min. parte; Bentham and Hooker Gen. PI. i, 145 (1862); Pax in Engler und 
Prantl Pfianzenfam. iii, pt. 1 b, 74 et 76 (1889). 
Herbs. Epicalyx not closely appressed to the calyx, soon becoming scarious, almost or completely 
enveloping the calyx. Calyx turbinate, 5-angled, angles somewhat scarious, with 5 — 15 veins, 
5-toothed. Gynophore short. Petals with claw and limb gradually passing into each other, 
coronal scales absent. Stamens 5 + 5. Capsule without persistent septa. Embryo straight, hilum 
facial. 
About 20 species ; Europe, especially southern Europe. 
Sections of Tunica 
Section I. *Eu-Tunica (p. 87). Perennial. Petals with the claw gradually widening to the 
limb, not convergent at the throat. Epicalyx membranous strongly 1 -nerved, not completely 
enveloping the calyx. 
Section II. Kohlrauschia (p. 87). Monocarpic. Petals with the claw sharply marked off 
by the sudden contraction of the limb, convergent at the throat. Epicalyx membranous, completely 
enveloping the calyx. 
