Silene

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of polypetalous plants, of the order Caryophyllaceæ, type of tribe Sileneæ. It is characterized by flowers usually with a ten-nerved five-toothed club-shaped ovoid or inflated calyx, five spreading petals upon erect and slender claws commonly with two small scales, ten stamens, and a stalked ovary with one cell, a free central placenta, and usually three styles, the capsule opening at the top by six or by three short valves to discharge the numerous opaque and roughened seeds. About 480 species have been described, but only about 250 are now thought to be distinct. They are annual or perennial herbs of great variety of habit, tall and erect, tufted or procumbent, or partial climbers, with narrow entire opposite leaves, and pink, scarlet, white, or variously colored flowers, commonly in cymes or in one-sided spikes disposed in a terminal panicle. They are abundant in Asia north of the tropics, and in southern Europe and northern Africa, and there are about 12 species in South Africa. Besides 5 or 6 introduced species in the Atlantic border, the United States contains about 32 species, chiefly in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific region, about half of which are nearly or quite confined to California. Most of the species are known as catch-fly. Many are cultivated for their flowers, especially S. viscosa and S. Schafta, with S. Armeria. the sweetwilliam or Lobel's catch-fly, native of the south of Europe. S. Pennsylvanica, a glutinous early-flowering species, is the wild pink of the eastern United States (see cut under anthophore). (For S. Virginica, see fire-pink, under pink.) Many species with an inflated bladdery calyx are known in general as campion, among which S. Otites, abundant in sands of eastern Europe and known as Spanish campion, is used as an astringent. (For S. acaulis, also known in England as c ushion-pink, see moss-campion.) S. Cucubalus (S. inflata), the bladder-campion, is a wide-spread species of Europe, central and northern Asia, now introduced in the Atlantic United States. It is also called behen and spatling poppy; also, from the shape of its calyx, in America cowbell, in England knapbottle and whitebottle, S. maritima of the English coast (perhaps a variety of the last) has been called witches'thimble.

Wiktionary

1. n. A taxonomic genus within the family Caryophyllaceae — the campions.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A genus of caryophyllaceous plants, usually covered with a viscid secretion by which insects are caught; catchfly.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any plant of the genus Silene