CARYOPHYLLACE^E 99 



Saponaria ocymoides L. (Plate XX.) 



Stem trailing. Plant hairy, glandular at the top. Leaves broadly 

 lanceolate or oblong, ciliated, with I nerve. Flowers bright rose, 

 sometimes paler, and rarely white, shortly petioled, in panicles. 

 Calyx cylindric, hairy, glandular, with 1520 nerves and obtuse 

 teeth, often very red. Capsule oval, 4 times the length of the 

 glabrous carpophore. 



Stony places and limestone rocks in full sun. May to July. 

 In the Alps it extends up to 7800 feet, but it is by no means a purely 

 Alpine plant, being, e.g. found over the greater portion of hilly 

 France. 



Distribution. Central and Southern Europe from the Iberian 

 peninsula to Bavaria and Carinthia ; Corsica, Sardinia. 



Of very easy culture in sunny positions in deep, loamy soil. 

 Being such a good trailer it is best to plant it so that it will fall over 

 or decorate a rock or bank. It prefers dry soils, and is often killed 

 in wet English winters. 



Saponaria officinalis L. Common Soapwort. 



This tall and rather handsome species, with large pink flowers, is 

 sometimes seen by streams in the foot-hills of Switzerland and 

 France. 



Saponaria Vaccaria L. is an annual found in waste places and in 

 crops. In 191 1 it was growing in a crop of flax above Argentiere, near 

 Chamonix, at a height of 4500 feet. 



LYCHNIS L. 



Calyx tubular or inflated, with 5 teeth. Petals 5, with erect claws 

 and a spreading lamina, entire or 2-cleft. Stamens 10. Styles 5, 

 or very rarely 4. Capsule i-celled, or divided at the base into 5 cells, 

 and opening in 5 or 10 teeth or short valves at the top. 



About 40 species, widely spread over the northern hemisphere 

 without the tropics. 



Lychnis alpina L. 



In Alpine Plants of Europe, p. 80, this plant, now usually called 

 Viscaria alpina Don, was erroneously stated to be unrecorded from 

 Switzerland. As a matter of fact it is occasionally found in Orisons 

 (Engadine, Poschiavo, etc.), the Bernese Oberland (Gemmi), and 

 the Valais, as at Zermatt and above Zinal (at 8500 feet in August, 

 1911). It does not appear to descend to the sub-alpine region of 

 Central Europe, but we have seen it in the Eastern Pyrenees in 

 abundance in some of the more open pine forests at about 5500 feet. 

 It extends upwards in that district to 7000 feet. 



Lychnis viscaria L. 



Stems 6 inches to a foot high, glabrous, very viscid in the upper 

 part. Leaves long and narrow, resembling those of the last species. 



