Night-Flowering Campion.Silene noctiflora.Gentlemen’s Hats (N. H.).
Found along roadside thickets in July and August.
The sparingly leafy stalk branches in an angular fashion, and grows from 1 to 3 feet high; although stout, the branches are slender; it is round, hairy, and sticky to the touch; light green.
The large leaves are sometimes 3 inches long; near the foot they are oval in shape with a wavy edge, above they are long and narrow; the margins are entire, the surface hairy and gummy to the touch; green. They completely clasp the stalk and are united in pairs, the pairs being set at right angles to each other.
The 5 petals of the flower are deeply cleft; where they spread from the deep tube-shaped calyx, each is provided with a pair of little notched tags, which form a pretty crown about the throat of the flower; the texture of the corolla is thin and fine, and the color is pale pink, or white just tinted with rose; the pale, yellow-green calyx is 5-parted and elegantly ornamented with 10 branching ribs, or veins, of a darker color; it is sticky and hairy. The flowers are set on short stems in the angles of the leaves, in pairs usually, while a single blossom sits on a short stem, in the fork of the branches.
After blossoming the seed-box changes its shape to round, and becomes large, the calyx-tips folding together over its top, and the green pattern of the ribs showing more plainly. There is a faint sweet perfume about the flowers which may be only discovered at twilight or in a gray morning, for this is a night-blooming plant.