PILEXE. AGROPTEMMA. 41 



summit of Cheviot, Dr. F. Douglas. — The young capsule and seeds 

 are dark violet, whereas the seeds of S. inflata are white. — Sheep are 

 remarkably fond of this plant. A few, on being introduced into one 

 of the Fame islands, where the Silene grew in large patches, greedily 

 dug up the roots for food, and soon nearly eradicated the plant. 

 P. J. Selby. 



3. S. noctijlora. — D. I have seen it in fields at West-Ord ; and 

 it is a common-enough weed in corn-fields between Red-Houses and 

 Thornton E. Mains. In Holy-Island in fields about the Farm-house. 

 July-Aug. — The outer edge of the petals is crenulate, and the infe- 

 rior surface yellowish. The seeds are pretty objects under a mag- 

 nifier. 



73. Lychnis FLos-cucuLi. 3K.ag;gct(-3^ol)in. — Frequent in bogs. 

 June-July. — A white variety is occasionally seen, but it is rare with us. 



TA. L. VESPERTiNA. Waste grounds and dry cultivated fields, 

 common, expanding the corolla in the evening and in dull moist 

 weather. A variety is sometimes seen having rose-coloured flowers. 

 July-Oct. 



Ih. L. DiuRNA. Common. In most of our deans and woods, 

 and not unfrequently at hedge-bottoms. It is remarkably abundant 

 on the sea-banks between the Coves and Marshall-meadows ; and 

 again on the banks near Lamberton-shields, and is a great ornament 

 to them in May and June. The fertile plants are, in general, much 

 more robust and clumsy than the barren ones ; and the petals of the 

 former have a large tooth at the sides which those of the latter com- 

 monly want, their margins being entire. The difference between the 

 plants is so considerable that they can readily be distinguished at a 

 distance. Sometimes a considerable patch of barren plants is met 

 with having very few or no fertile individuals intermixed. The 

 flowers are usually red, sometimes pale rose, and more rarely white ; 

 but even this variety was easily distinguishable from L. vespertina. 

 See Willd. Sp. Plant, ii. p. 810 ; Babington in Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. vi. p. 57. — Smith makes L. diurna and vespertina one species, 

 = his L. dioica. When doubled by the art of the gardener, the Red 

 Lychnis makes a good flower for the border in June. 



76. Agrostemma githago = Lychnis githago = Githago sege- 

 tum, Don Gard. Diet. i. p. 417. — Corn-Cockle : popple or 39aiuple. 

 — Corn-fields, a showy but noxious weed ; and hence its name is often 

 used figuratively in composition. " Some have made virginity the 

 corn, and marriage the cockle." Fuller, Ch. Hist. i. p. 294. 



" Good seed degenerates, and oft obeys 

 The soil's disease, and into Cockle strays." Donne. 



Donne, in this couplet, asserts a metamorphosis, the reality of which 



13. Saponaria officinalis. Has been found near (D.) Twizel-bridge 

 on the sides of the Tdl ; and at two separate places in a hedge by the post- 

 road near Millfield, but it has undoubtedlv been introduced. 



