LYCH'NIS ALPI'NA. 
ALPINE LYCHNIS. 
Class. Order. 
DECANDR1A. PENTAG YNI A. 
Natural Order. 
SILENACEAL 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Inhabits 
Scotland. 
6 inches. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
Mountains. 
No. 1096. 
The name Lychnis, it is said, hy old botanists, 
was founded on the Greek lychnos, signifying a 
lamp, and was used as the name of a plant from 
which the ancients made lamp wicks. The same 
verbal derivation has been adopted by other bota- 
nists, who have thought the name alluded to the 
resemblance of the inflated semi-transparent calyx 
of a Lychnis, to a lamp or lantern. 
This pretty alpine plant has been found in no 
part of Great Britain, excepting Scotland. Mr. 
Babington, mentions it as growing on mountains 
of Glen Isla, Forfarshire, at 3,200 feet above the 
level of the sea. Mr. G. Don, also has given it a 
habitat near the summits of the Clova mountains, 
Angusshire ; where scenes prevail to which Burns 
may have applied his words : — 
“Wildly here without control, 
Nature reigns and rules the whole.” 
Lychnis alpina is quite hardy, and grows freely, 
planted in loam and peat, on artificial rock-work. 
Here it will flower, and produce seeds, as on its 
native mountains; and from its seeds increase may 
be readily obtained. 
