This section is from the book "An Illustrated Flora Of The Northern United States, Canada And The British Possessions Vol2", by Nathaniel Lord Britton, Addison Brown. Also available from Amazon: An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 Volume Set..
Fig. 1815
Silene dichotoma Ehrh. Beitr. 7: 143. 1792.
Silene racemosa Otth in DC. Prodr. 1: 384. 1824.
Annual, erect, branching, pubescent, 1°-2° high. Lower and basal leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, 2'-3' long, acuminate or acute, tapering into a villous petiole; upper leaves sessile, lanceolate or linear; flowers white, sessile or very short-pedicelled, distant in forking i-sided spikes; calyx cylindric, 6"-8" long, hirsute, much enlarged by the ripening pod, its teeth ovate-lanceolate, acute; petals white, bifid, with a short obtuse crown.
In fields and waste places, Maine to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas. Also in California. Adventive from southern Europe. Summer.
Fig. 1816
Silene Menziesii Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 90. pl. 30. 1830.
Perennial, slender, ascending or decumbent, leafy, widely branching, minutely and densely glandular-pubescent, 6'-18' high. Leaves sessile, or the lowest narrowed into a petiole, oval, ovate-lanceolate or slightly oblanceolate, acute or acuminate at each end, minutely ciliate on the margins, 1'-21/2' long; flowers axillary and terminal, numerous, slender-peduncled, white, 4"-5" long; petals 2-cleft, crown-less, longer than the 5-toothed calyx; capsule about the length of the calyx; seeds black, minutely tu-berculate.
In damp soil, Assiniboia to western Nebraska, Missouri, British Columbia, California and New Mexico. June-Aug.
 
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