CLOVE PINK TRIBE 121 



to be unnoticed, and too beautiful in their pearly petals and golden anthei's 

 to escape our admiration. No spring flower seems to our eyes more lovely 

 than this ; and it is a common flower too, growing among the grass of the 

 hedge-bank, on ^a stem a foot high, and clad with delicate green leaves, and 

 seeming all the whiter from its contrast with the deep-blue hyacinth. Yet 

 strange it is that few save botanists know its name, nor have many poets 

 sung its praises, though none in forming a wild nosegay would fail to 

 gather it. 



It has not, however, been left quite unsung, for Calder Campbell has 

 named it among the flowers of spring : — 



' ' The buds are green on the linden-tree, 

 And flowers are bursting on the lea ; 

 There is the daisy, so prim and white, 

 With its golden eye and its fringes briglit ; 

 And here is the golden buttercup, 

 Like a miser's cliest \vith the gold heap'd up ; 

 And the Stitchwort, with its pearly stai-, 

 Seen on the hedgebank from afar." 



This Stitchwort is about a foot or a foot and a half high, its stem and 

 foliage somewhat glaucous, and very rigid and brittle. Indeed, so brittle is 

 it, that it is impossible to pull up the plant by the root ; and we can i-emem- 

 ber in childhood i-egarding it as a wonderful plant, growing without any root, 

 as it breaks off just above the earth, and we could never by our simple imple- 

 ments bring a fibre to view. The French call it Langiie d'oiseaa; the G-ermans, 

 Das Aucjeidrod-gras ; and it is the Oogentroost-gras of the Dutch. Our fathers 

 called it All-bones, probably with a jocose reference to its brittleness. It has 

 a great number of capsules, which separate by valves, and scatter its profusion 

 of seeds. These seed-vessels droop when the flower is over. 



3. Lesser Stitchwort {S. graminca). — Stem nearly erect, angular, 

 smooth ; leaves very narrow, acute, smooth, fringed ; flowers in forked 

 panicles ; corolla scarcely longer than the calyx ; sepals 3-nerved. Plant 

 perennial. This species, which is in blossom during June and July, is neither 

 so frequent nor so ornamental as our spring favourite, though it is not 

 uncommon on dry pastures, heaths, and sunny banks. The stem is more 

 slender than that of the preceding, and about a foot in height ; but the much 

 smaller white blossoms, with petals cleft so deeply as to make it more star- 

 like, and less cup-like in form, at once distinguish it : the nerves of the calyx, 

 too, are of a specific character. The anthers are red. A variety of this plant 

 is sometimes described as a distinct species, and called the Many-stalked 

 Stitchwort, S. scapigera. It is distinguished by its long footstalks, and has 

 been recorded from the north of Dunkeld, and about Loch Nevis ; l>ut it is 

 really a cultivated form. 



4. Glaucous Marsh Stitchwort (aS'. glauca). — Stem angular, nearly 

 erect, without hairs, and glaucous ; leaves narrow, tapering, entire, and 

 glaucous ; flowers solitary, on long footstalks. Plant perennial. This species 

 is readily known by its very narrow and glaucous leaves, and by the circum 

 stance of its flowers growing singly, instead of several being placed together. 

 Its blossoms are to be seen from May to July, and are, next to those of the 

 Satin-flower, the largest of the genus. It, however, in its general aspect, 



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