Stems: viscid-pubescent, simple or branching. Leaves: obovate, obtuse, narrowed into a broad petiole; upper leaves sessile, ovate, acute. Flowers: few, white, in a loose dichotomous panicle; calyx long, tubular, veined, its teeth linear. Not indigenous.There is little need to describe this plant in detail, since its name alone is sufficient to indicate its chief characteristics. Closed tightly against all invasion during the daytime, and only opening wide its white starry blossoms to the wooing of the soft night wind, this Catchfly sends forth sweetest perfume and lures the crepuscular flies to their doom by first attracting with its scent and its snowiness, and then entrap-ing with its stickiness those poor deluded insects that hover over its beauty, enchanted until enchained. Thus does the Catchfly protect its nectar from pilfering insects and preserve it for the butterflies, who, while they sip the sweets, carry the pollen from flower to flower and thereby fertilize the plants.