in Botany; a genus of the tetragynia order, belonging to the polyandria clas of plants. The calyx is quinquepartite, the petals five, the styles more frequently four. The fruit is a plum, with nucleuses, and four furrows netted.

CARYOPHYLLÆI, in Botany, the name of a very numerous family or order in Linnæus's Fragments of a Natural Method; containing, besides the clas of the same name in Tournefort, many other plants, which from their general appearance seem pretty nearly allied to it. The following are the genera, viz. Agrostemma, Cucubalus, Dianthus, Drypis, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Saponaria, Silene, Velazia, Alfine, Arenaria, Bufonia, Ceratium, Cherleria, Glinus, Holosteum, Loedlingia, Mochringia, Polycarpion, Sagina, Spergula, Stellaria, Minuartia, Mollugo, Ortegia, Pharmaceum, Queria. All the plants of this order are herbaceous, and mostly annual. Some of the creeping kinds do not rise an inch, and the tallest exceed not seven or eight feet. See Botany, Natural Orders.