EOSE CAMPION. 



Lychnis coronaria. 



PLANT may be common and 

 yet have an uncommon appear- 

 ance, as may be seen in the 

 example before us. The rose 

 campion, which is now classed 

 as a lychnis, but may with pro- 

 priety be catalogued under its 

 other name, Agrostemma coro- 

 naria, is as common as any 

 good garden plant known. But 

 it is peculiarly distinct, and may 

 be recognised at any reasonable 

 distance by its hoary leafage, its 

 forked style of growth, the 

 arrangement of the leaves in 

 pairs, and the splendour of its 

 solitary flowers. The rich pur- 

 plish-crimson of these can never 

 be imitated by the art of man, and when we see the best 

 possible picture of them we must ask with Thomson, 

 "Who can paint like nature?" and take the negative reply 

 he gives. We may see in stained glass, when the sun shines 

 through- and floods the pane with fiery hues, a near approach 

 to the transparent and delicate but intense richness of this 

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