MULLEIN PINK 



5/em.— Two to three feet high, jointed and forked, covered with 

 white woolly hairs. 



Leaves.— Opposite, oblong or oblong-spatulate tapering to a more or 

 less clasping base. 



Flowers. — Rose-crimson or white, borne singly on the ends of the 

 branches. 



Caiyx.— Cylindrical, five-ribbed, five-toothed; teeth short and slender. 



Petals. — Five, long-clawed, crimson, velvety, each bearing two small 

 appendages at the base of the border. 



Stamens. — Not more than ten; anthers coming 

 up to the opening of the throat. 



Ovary. — One-celled; styles five, sometimes four. 



Pod. — Opening at the top, many-seeded. 



The Mullein Pink in bloom is an effect in 

 gray and crimson. The gray, produced by 

 an immense number of soft, white, woolly 

 hairs clinging to stems and leaf surfaces, has 

 a beautiful greenish undertone, and above 

 the gray foliage, crowning and completing 

 it, are the flowers of vivid crimson, making a 

 glowing mass of color unsurpassed in richness 

 of tint by any occupant of the garden. There 

 are three forms of this plant in cultivation: 

 the single red, the single white, and the 

 double red. Gerard records that they were 

 growing "plentifully in most gardens." He 

 speaks of the soft leaves as being "fit to make 



ji 1 ,, J r ij.T_i*ii Mullein Pink. Lychnis 



candle weekes, and refers to the brightness cormdria 



of the flowers as suggesting the names by 

 which it appears they were then known, as the "gardner's de- 

 light" or "gardner's eie." The plant was known also as the 

 Rose of May arid the Rose of Heaven. These titles seem to us 

 rather extravagant, but the superb color of the flowers warrants 

 a good deal of enthusiasm, and those early gardeners knew noth- 

 ing of our modem wonders. 



The spread of the flower frequently reaches an inch and a half 

 and in the velvet-crimson of its petals are darker lines leading to 



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