CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 145 
fragrance, and open in the daytime; petals deeply notched, red, 
or often nearly white; calyx on staminate plants tubular but on 
fertile plants becoming nearly globular, the teeth short and 
acute. Capsules large, one-celled, many-seeded. (Fig. 96.) 
Means of control the same as for White Cockle. 
WHITE COCKLE 
Lychnis dlba, Mill 
(Lychnis vespertina, Sib.) 
Other English names: Evening Lychnis, White Campion. 
Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: Late June to September. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Eastern and middle United 
States and Canada. 
Habitat: Grain fields, meadows, and 
waste places. 
This plant develops a thick, fleshy 
root, from which it sends up several 
slender, branching stems, one to two feet 
in height, somewhat hairy and viscid. 
Leaves long ovate to lance-shaped, the 
lower ones tapering to margined petioles, 
the upper ones smaller, acute, and ses- 
sile. Flowers in loose panicles, usually 
dicecious, numerous, white or often 
tinged with pink, fragrant, each about 
an inch broad, opening in the evening 
and closing after sunrise the next day ; 
each of the five petals is deeply notched 
at the outer edge, and at the inner point 
is a pair of white, scale-like bracts, 
narrowing the throat of the flower which 
is fertilized by long-tongued, night-flying 
moths. Sterile flowers have usually ten 
stamens. Calyx of the fertile flowers 
much inflated, crimson-tinged along the 
hairy ribs. Styles five. Capsules one- 
L 
Fic. 97. — White Cockle 
(Lychnis alba). X }. 
