342 Dr. Smith's Account of several riaiifs, 



8. Lyciixis alpina, 



glabra, petalis bifidis, floribus corynibosis, foliis lineari-lanceolalis. 



L. alpiiia. Linn. Sp. PI. 626. Fl. Dan. t. Co. Wllld. Sp. FL 

 V. 2. 809. 



Silene lapponica alpina, facie viscariae. Linn. Fl. Lapp. n. 185. 



On rocks near the suniiiiit q^ Clova in Angusshirc, but xery 

 rare ; first observed by ]\[r. Don in 179>5- 



This is a very pretty species, found in Switzerland, as well as 

 on the Lapland mountains, so that we cannot wonder at its being 

 a native of Scotland also, though never noticed before. It re- 

 sembles Lychnis Viscaria, but is smaller and not viscid. 



Some strange confusion has crept into the descriptions of this 

 plant. Linnajr.s in his Flora Lapponica makes it a Silene, saying the 

 styles are three. In the Species Flantarum it is properly referred 

 to Lychnis, without mention of any anomaly in the number of the 

 styles, which therefore must be understood to be five; but in the 

 Si/sfcma Vegetubilium they are said to be four, and the petals are 

 there described as destitute of a crown. Now in the original 

 manuscript of Linnaius's Lapland Tour, where he first describes 

 the plant in question, the styles are asserted to be five, and the 

 petals to have a crown, formed of two teeth upon each petal, their 

 border moreover being cloven half way down. Haller, in Act. 

 Helvet. V. 6. 13. «. 46, says the petals are " plaited at their origin, 

 with tumours but without auricles," and that "the styles are five." 

 These two last accounts, taken from nature, may safely be relied 

 on, and they agree with Avhat I am able to discover in dried spe- 

 cimens, where I find the petals as distinctly crowned as in any 

 Lychnis or Silene whatever. AVilldenow is reprehensible for 

 copying the erroneous specific character from the Systema Vege- 

 tabiimm as if it were taken not from Linnteus but from Oeder 



ia 



