INDIAN PINK.
Silene Californica, Durand. Pink Family.
Root.—Deep. Stems.—Several; procumbent or sub-erect; leafy. Leaves.—Ovate-elliptic or lanceolate; eighteen lines to four inches long. Flowers.—Brilliant scarlet; over an inch across. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Petals.—Five; long-clawed; the blades variously cleft, and with two erect toothlike appendages at the throat. Stamens.—Ten; exserted with the three filiform styles. Ovary.—One-celled. Hab.—Widely distributed.
The Indian pink is one of the most beautiful of our flowers, and it appeals to the æsthetic sense in a way few flowers do. Its brilliant scarlet blossoms brighten the soft browns of our roadsides in early summer, and gleam amid the green of thickets like bits of fire. Its corolla is elegantly slashed, and it is altogether a much finer flower than the southern form, S. laciniata. Its rather broad leaves are often quite viscid to the touch, in which respect it shares in the character from which the genus was named in allusion to Silenus, the companion of Bacchus, who is described as covered with foam.
S. laciniata, Cav., is a similar species found from Central California southward. It is usually a taller plant, with many stems and narrow leaves. It is also quite viscid, and many small insects, mostly ants, are almost always to be seen ensnared upon its stems. We are at a loss to account for this until we remember what Sir John Lubbock says in this connection. He suggests that ants are not very desirable visitors for promoting cross-fertilization among plants, as their progress is slow, and they cannot visit many plants far apart. On the other hand, winged insects, such as bees, butterflies, and moths, making long excursions through the air, are admirably adapted for bringing pollen from distant plants. Hence plants spread their attractions for such insects, while they often contrive all sorts of ingenious devices for keeping undesirable ones, like ants, away from their flowers.
[INDIAN PINK—Silene Californica.]
![[INDIAN PINK—Silene Californica.]](#3624944100741987669_f139.png.id-1300643123413117819.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
The Spanish-Californians call this plant "Yerba del Indio," and make it into a tea which they esteem as a remedy for all sorts of aches and pains, and use as a healing application to ulcers.
Another species—S. Hookeri, Nutt.—is easily known by its large pink flowers, often two and a half inches across, and delicately slashed. This is found in our western counties, growing upon wooded hillsides, where its charming flowers show to excellent advantage.