BLADDER CAMPION; or, CATCHELY. 



Bilene injiata. 



Cl<iS8 Decandria. Order Trigynia. Nat. Ord. Caryophylle^. 

 Chickweed Tribe. 



Our engraving offers the representation of 

 a flower wliicli is very familiar to most English 

 readers, and yet there are some districts, as 

 the neighbourhood of Tonbridge Wells, where 

 the plant, so common elsewhere, is regarded as 

 a rarity. It grows in meadows, but is more 

 frequent by road-sides, flowering from June 

 to August. It is very variable both in the size 

 and number of its white flowers, and the shape 

 of its leaves, which have, however, always 

 a sea-green bloom upon their surface ; while 

 the flower-cup, veined as if with a network, 

 and inflated like a bladder, distinguishes it from 

 the other species. The young shoots have the 

 odom' and flavour of green peas, and are 

 sometimes boiled as asparagus ; though the 

 writer of these pages has found them too bitter 

 to prove agreeable. They are, however, per- 

 fectly wholesome, and the bitterness might 

 be removed by blanching. Bryant, in his 

 Flora Bietetica, says that their culture would 

 wefl reward the gardener's trouble. This flower 



