2748
SILENE patens.
Spreading Catch-fly.
DEC AND R IA Trigi/nia.
Gen. Char. Cal. swelling, of one leaf. Petals 5,
with claws. Caps, superior three-celled, bursting
at the summit. Seeds many.
Spec. Char. Petals deeply obcordate, naked, with
broad, wedge-shaped segments. Calyx clavate.
Stamens scarcely exserted. Panicle drooping,
clammy.
Syn. Cucubalus viscosus. Huds. 163. ed. 2. 186.
excluding the synonyms.
T h i s plant I found at Dover in 1825; and as its characters
remain unchanged by cultivation, few will question the
propriety of separating it from Silene nutans, with which
it appears to have been hitherto confounded. Both species
occur at that place; for the S. nutans, which is very accurately
described by Ray, is mentioned by him as growing
at Dover, and my late worthy friend Mr. T. F. Forster
collected it there some years ago. It seems also probable
that the present species has given rise to the idea of the
S. paradoxa being an English plant. The absence of the
coronary appendages from the petals, with their broad,
wedge-shaped, less deeply parted segments, and the much
longer calyx, essentially distinguish it from the S. nutans,
and in my opinion justly entitle it to a place in English
Botany, The colour of the flowers resembles that of 5. li