Silené

Silené, a genus of plants of the natural order Caryophyllaceæ, having the calyx, corolla, and stamens of Lychnis (q.v.), three styles and a three-celled capsule opening at the top in six teeth or valves. The species are numerous, mostly natives of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, annual and perennial plants; nine or ten of them natives of Britain, and others frequent in flower-gardens. One of the most common British species is the Bladder Campion (S. inflata), a perennial, which grows in cornfields and dry pastures, and near the seashore, has a branched stem fully a foot high, ovate-lanceolate bluish-green leaves, panicles of white flowers, and an inflated calyx, with a beautiful network of veins. The young shoots are sometimes used like asparagus, and have a peculiar but agreeable flavour, somewhat resembling that of peas. They are best when most blanched. The cultivation of this plant was long ago strongly recommended, but it has not obtained a place among garden plants. The Moss Campion (S. acaulis) is a pretty little plant, with beautiful purple flowers growing in patches so as to form a kind of turf, one of the finest ornaments of the higher mountains of Scotland, and found also in Cumberland and Wales. Many species, some of them British, are popularly called Catchfly, from their viscosity, as S. anglica, a species found in sandy and gravelly fields in many parts of Britain. For the Red Campion, White Campion, and German Catchfly, see LYCHNIS.