20 SILENE VIRGINICA. VIRGINIAN CATCHFLY. 



to our present species, which is free from the Neronian pro- 

 pensities of some of its relatives. 



In the study of the artistic handiwork of Nature, the Vir- 

 ginian Catchfly affords us a good lesson. The poet Thompson 



asks : — 



" But who can paint 

 Like Nature } Can imagination boast, 

 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ? 

 Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, 

 And lose them in each other, as appears 

 In ever)^ bud that blows ? " 



In this case, however, we may perhaps be pardoned for criti- 

 cisino- Nature. Our artist has faithfully copied her, but if he 

 had followed his imagination instead, the heavy mass of leaves 

 would no doubt have been crowned by a much greater profusion 

 of scarlet petals. The comparative paucity of color in our 

 plant is increased still further by the thick and heavy calyx, and 

 above all by the shape of the lobes of the corolla, which are 

 finely cut into slender threads, thus not only breaking up the 

 masses of color which the flowers would otherwise form, but 

 also increasing the general heaviness of the plant by contrast 

 with their extreme tenuity. If, however, we may dare to criti- 

 cise the artistic skill of Nature as regards the composition of the 

 whole plant, we can at least offer her our congratulations on her 

 success in the formation of each single flower, as shown in the 

 ground plan. Fig. 3. Here there is truly a beautiful harmony 

 of proportions in the stellate form ; and the little fringy margins, 

 which produce so unsatisfactory an effect when we look at the 

 inflorescence in its totality, are just what is required here to 

 give perfection to the w^hole. The side view of the flower 

 (Fig. 4) is also a very pretty model of artistic beauty. 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. Lower portio!i of a flower-stem, with fibres and clastcrcd 

 root-leaves. — 2. Upper portion of flowcr-stcm, with complete inflorescence. — 3. I'^iIL 

 face view of a flower. — 4. Side view of a flower. — 5. Longitudinal section of calyx 

 and ovary, showing the gynophore or stalk on which the pistil is raised, and the arrange- 

 ment of the ovaries on the central placenta. 



