378 A USEFUL PLANT. 



singular expanded calices; and those handsome flowers, the 

 white and rosy lychnises, which love to air their charms by 

 the side of running waters. The cottony down upon these 

 plants was wont to be much used for the wicks of lamps. 



Then, too, the whole tribe of chickweeds are included in 

 the Caryophyllaceae. They are spring flowers, with pearly 

 white blossoms, five-petalled, like a five-rayed star, and long 

 slender drooping leaves. Their resemblance to a star has 

 suggested their scientific name, Stellaria ; and they are truly 

 the " stars of the earth," glistering among the thick herbage 

 with a modest beauty. The Stellaria media supplies our 

 song-birds with an abundant and a wholesome provision. 



A handsome wild plant of this order is the Soapwort 

 (Saponaria offitinalis). It is common in Kent, and some 

 of the neighbouring shires, but in many parts of England 

 is never seen. Its full cluster of rose-hued blossoms is rather 

 larger, and more loosely set together, than those of the sweet 

 williarn ; which, however, it much resembles in its leaves, 

 these being opposite to each other, and nearly sheathing or 

 surrounding the stalk at their bases. 



" The juice of the soapwort," says Miss Pratt, " is one of 

 those vegetable substances which, by making a lather with 

 water, will cleanse linen, and remove grease as effectually as 

 soap. It grows more generally in the neighbourhood of 

 villages than in any other situation, as if providence had 

 placed it there especially for the service of the cottager; 

 yet it is very little used, either from ignorance of its proper- 



