CARYOPHVLLACE.^. 75 



plant grows about i foot high, in easy graceful habit, the stems 

 being clothed at the joints and the top with dense panicles of 

 the characteristically ragged flowers, the petals being deeply 

 cut and jagged. Native of Europe generally. 



L. fulgens {the spkndid Lychnis). — This fine species grows 

 about 1 8 inches or 2 feet high, with erect hairy stems and 

 leaves, and large brilliant scarlet flowers, two or three together. 

 They appear throughout the summer. Suited for mixed borders, 

 and in moist light soil it is a brilliant plant. Native of Siberia. 



L. Lagascse. — This is a beautiful species from the Pyrenees. 

 It is a dwarf-tufted plant with short branching stems and 

 beautiful bright rose or pink flowers with a white eye. It is a 

 recent introduction to cultivation, and one of the finest of the 

 group. It should be grown in very sandy loam in a well-ex- 

 posed position, but moist on rockwork. Flowers in summer. 



L. pyrenaica, syn. Agrostemma pyrenaica {Pyrencan L.) — A 

 tufted diffuse plant with decumbent stems and tough leathery 

 leaves. The flowers are produced in forked bundles, having 

 one flower in each fork on a long stalk ; they are rose-coloured, 

 and appear in early summer, lasting for a couple of months. 

 Height about 9 inches. Native of moist rocks on the Pyrenees. 



L. Viscaria {Clanuny Lychnis). — Although a very pretty 

 plant in the natural condition of single flowers, this is much 

 more ornamental in the double-flowered variety, and more 

 valuable on account of the greater duration of the flowers. It 

 is an erect-growing plant i foot or 1 8 inches high, with narrow 

 lanceolate leaves in dense tufts, but few and shorter on the 

 stems, which are clammy above. The flowers, rosy-red, are 

 borne in almost stalkless clusters at the joints, on the stems, 

 and at the top. There is a double-white variety, but rather 

 rare as yet; both are beautiful plants for the mixed border, and 

 succeed in almost any kind of garden soil. Native of Britain 

 in a few localities, and generally of central Europe. Flowers 

 from early till late summer. 



Saponaria {Soapiuort). — This genus comprises, besides a few 

 annuals, four or five perennial species, most of which are in 

 cultivation. None of them may vie with the annual S. calabrica 

 in massive showiness and continuity of bloom, but they are 

 very beautiful, and worthy of culture in any select collection. 

 Exception may be taken to this last remark on account of 6". 

 officinalis, which is rather encroaching in its habits by reason 

 of its underground stems, which make incursions in all direc- 

 tions if means are not taken to keep them vv'ithin limits by the 

 aid of a pot plunged in the border, or some such contrivance. 

 The Soapworts are easily increased by cuttings in the growing 



