Lychnis.] caryophyllace^. 65 



I am disposed to coincide with many botanists who have recently embraced the 

 opinion of these two plants being really distinct, as Sibthorp imagined. The dif- 

 ference of form in the capsule, and in the localities they affect, both in Britain 

 and on the continent, strongly corroborate the idea. The predilection of L. diufna 

 is for cool, moist, shady, alpine situations, of L. vespertina for dry, open, cham- 

 paign and level districts, and the geographical range of each accords with their 

 local distribution. 



** Petals crownless, entire, shorter than the calyx-segments. 



4. L. Githago, Lam. Corn Cockle. " Calj'x much longer than 

 the corolla, petals entu-e destitute of a crown." — Agrostemma 

 Githago, L. Br. Fl. p. 61. E. B. t. 741. Githago segetum, 

 Desf. 



In cultivated fields, chiefly amongst corn ; much too common. FL June — 

 August, /^r. September. 0.(or3^.?) 



Root unnual ? whitish, tapering, hard, brittle and rigid, usually branched in a 

 horizontal direction. Stern solitary, quite erect, straight, firm and rigid, from 

 about 1 to 3 or even 5 feet in height, obscurely quadrangular or nearly round, 

 faintly 4-channelled, fistulose, harsh with minute points and asperities, and cloihed 

 with long, appressed, jointed pubescence ; in the smaller plants simple or nearly 

 so, in the larger branched, often from the very base, in a corvmbose paniculate 

 manner, the branches alternate, long, slender, erect, dichotomously forked. Leaves 

 opposite, erect, sessile and connate, sheathing, elongato-lanceolate, entire, acute, 

 somewhat folded and almost clasping in their under part, their tips brownish and 

 a little incurved, 3- or towards the base downwards 5-ribbed, the midrib very pro- 

 minent beneath, rough and hairy like the stem, but the hairs more sparse or scat- 

 tered, and near the base of the leaves on their upper side longer, silky and spread- 

 ing. Bracts none. Flowers large, solitary, terminal on the stem and branches, 

 erect, from 1^- to If inch in diameter, on terete peduncles that are often elongated 

 to a loot or more at the time of flowering. Calyx firm, leathery, its tubular por- 

 tion when in flower ovate-oblong, becoming as the geimen swells broader, and in 

 fruit subglobose, densely clothed, as is the inciassated top of the peduncle, with 

 white silky hairs, which are erect and longest on the 10 very thick prominent 

 green ribs or angles ; these latter are alternately continued at the summit into 5 

 linear acute segments, resembling the leaves but flatter and more silky, distantly 

 fringed at the margins, a little unequal, longer than the lube, erect after flowering. 

 Petals mostly much shorter than the calyx-segments, but sometimes as long or 

 even longer, cuneate-obcordate, the limh varying in intensity of colour fiom full 

 to dilute purplish rose-red or pink, and marked with 3 or 5 interrupted or dotted 

 purplish or greenish streaks along the course of as many veins, which are very 

 conspicuously prominent on the shining exterior of the petals, that are shallowly 

 and obtusely emarginate ; claics of the petals about as long as the tube of the 

 calyx, greenish, abrupt, fleshy, without a crown, but having a process running 

 from the base upwards for about half their length, with raised wing-like margins 

 that converge and disappear in the general tissue, forming below a groove for the 

 reception of the shorter filaments. Stamens very unequal, glabrous, inserted, as 

 well as the petals, on an annular base immediately under the germen, the five 

 opposite the petals usually much (about half) shorter than the rest, but sometimes 

 part of them are nearly as long; anthers slate-gray, oblong-sagittate. Styles 5, 

 erect, slender, shorter than the longer stamens, beset with bristly pellucid hairs 

 that are erect at the base, variously spreading on the upper pan, which is often 

 purplish and sometimes recurved. Germen ovoid-conical, 5-10 angled, glabrous. 

 Capsules erect, very large, about an inch long, ovate-conical, pale greenish or 

 brownish yellow, smooth and shining, obscurely 5-angular, 10-rihbed, opening at 

 the summit with 5 rigid teeth, and closely embraced by the much enlarged and 

 hardened calyx, whose segments are then connivent or erect, and much exceeding 

 the capsule. Seeds numerous, very large, brownish black, on long erect funiculi, 



K 



