THE WHITE 

 CAMPION. 



Lychnis vespertina. Nat. Ord., 

 Canjophyllacea. 



UR present subject, graceful 

 as it is in itself, has an ad- 

 ional charm arising from 

 the circumstances under which 

 we ordinarily find it. "While 

 most plants expand their 

 blossoms very freely in the 

 life-giving rays of the morn- 

 ing sun ; while others, as the 

 little pimpernel, will not ex- 

 pand at all if its genial in- 

 ( nuence be withdrawn some few, like 

 the evening primrose and the white 

 campion, reserve their full sweetness 

 for the closing hours of day, expand 

 their blossoms to the chill dews of 

 the night, and mingle their sweetness 

 with the rich odours that float on the evening air in the 

 woodland copse or the flower-sprinkled hedgerow. The 

 pure white of its blossoms, and their large size, tend to 

 attract attention; and in the gathering darkness its 

 stellate flowers stand out from the gloom and indistinct 

 forms of the hedge-bank like the starry host of heaven 



