no FLOWERS OF THE CORNFIELDS 



crenate, stipules lyrate, pinnatifid, flowers purple, white, yellow, petals 

 shorter than the calyx, capsule globular. 



White Campion (Lychnis alba, Mill.) 



This plant has been met with in Neolithic beds at Fife. It is 

 found to-day in the Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, 

 Western Asia. It has been introduced in the United States. 



In Great Britain it is absent from \Vorcester, and in S. Wales 

 in Radnor. In N. Wales it occurs only in Carnarvon, Denbigh, 

 Flint, and Anglesea. It is absent from Mid Lanes, Isle of Man, 

 Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, and in F. Highlands in Mid Perth, in 

 W. Highlands in Main Argyle, Mid and North Ebudes, Caithness, 

 Orkneys and Shetlancls. 



The night-flowering or White Campion is undoubtedly a follower 

 of cultivation, for it is specially characteristic of the cornfield, where 

 it is abundant and well-established. Not infrequently it will be found 

 in place of its allied species, the Red Campion, lining the hedgerow 

 in a district where corn is, or has been, largely grown, but it is on 

 arable land that it is most conspicuous and at home. 



This is a tall, smooth or hairy, graceful, slender plant, with egg- 

 shaped, narrowly elliptical leaves, very similar in habit to the Red 

 Campion, usually growing in scattered groups in cornfields or hedge- 

 rows, not in massive clumps like the latter. It is slightly clammy. 



The flowers are white, and open completely at night, from six 

 o'clock till nine next morning, when they droop, except in dull weather, 

 when they are fragrant. The petals are divided halfway into two parts, 

 the lobes approaching and broad, crowned, and the calyx teeth are long 

 and linear, narrowly elliptical. The capsule is conical with 10 erect 

 straight teeth, and no divisions. The seeds are small and numerous. 



The plants are dioecious, stamens and pistils occurring on different 

 plants as a rule, or there may be three forms male, female, and 

 bisexual. 



White Campion grows 2 ft. high, and is in flower in June and 

 July. It is perennial and propagated by division. 



In fertile pistillate or female flowers the honey glands are placed 

 20-25 mm. from the entrance in the fleshy part of the ovary, in barren 

 staminate or male flowers at 15-18 mm. The upper part of the calyx 

 in both forms is narrower. It is necessary for the insect to force this 

 narrow passage with its head, and honey cannot be reached except 

 by insects with a proboscis 15-20 mm. long. The flowers open in the 



