"Is an annual plant which grows naturally in Asia and America, but has
been long cultivated for ornament in the English gardens, and is
generally known by the title of Convolvulus major. Of this there are
three or four lasting varieties; the most common hath a purple flower,
but there is one with a white, another with a red, and one with a
whitish-blue flower, which hath white seeds. All these varieties I have
cultivated many years, without observing them to change. If the seeds of
these sorts are sown in the spring, upon a warm border where the plants
are designed to remain, they will require no other culture but to keep
them clear from weeds, and place some tall stakes down by them, for
their stalks to twine about, otherwise they will spread on the ground
and make a bad appearance. These plants, if they are properly supported,
will rise ten or twelve feet high in warm Summers: they flower in June,
July, and August, and will continue till the frost kills them. Their
seeds ripen in Autumn." _Miller's Gard. Dict. ed. 4to. 1771._




[114]

SILENE PENDULA. PENDULOUS CATCHFLY.

_Class and Order._

DECANDRIA TRIGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

Calyx ventricosus. Petala 5, unguiculata coronata ad faucem, Capsula