THE RAGGED ROBIN— continued. 
the outer whorl mature before those of the inner. The capsule is broadly ovoid 
and dehisces by five short teeth, and it has no traces of any internal partitions. 
The most striking feature of the species, however, is, of course, the laciniate 
petals, deeply divided as they are into four strap-shaped segments. The Family 
Caryophyllace<e is certainly exceptional in this respect. The petals, so generally 
rounded in other groups, or slightly emarginate or notched, as in the Roses, or 
indexed at their apices, as in Umbellifene , are in this Family commonly either 
fringed with teeth, as in many Pinks, or more or less deeply bi-lobed, as in the 
Stitchworts. Even this manifold and deeply-cut division that we have in the 
Ragged Robin occurs also in several exotic species of Dianthus , such as D. arenarius 
and D. superbus. It is undoubtedly a conspicuous, though uncommon, character ; 
and, on wet, low-lying clay lands, fens, marshes, or the spongy, rush-grown margins 
of streams, no plant is more readily seen than the Ragged Robin. 
This conspicuousness has earned for it a variety of popular names, such as 
Meadow Pink, Marsh Gilliflower, Wild Williams, and Cock’s-comb ; but it is to 
its season of flowering, when the cuckoo is in full song, that it owes its scientific 
specific name and various English equivalents for it, such as Cuckoo-flower and 
Cuckoo Gilliflower. Flos-cuculi itself dates from the History of Plants ” of 
Hieronymus Tragus, alias Jerome Bock. About the eleventh of June, once the 
summer Solstice, when the hay is ready to cut, as the rhyme has it : — 
“When St. Barnaby bright smiles night and day, 
Poor ragged Robin blooms in the hay.*’ 
A white-flowered variety occasionally occurs, and one with double flowers is known 
in gardens, where it has borne the names Bachelor’s-buttons, Fair Maid of France, 
and Pleasant-in-sight. 
The two other common British species of the genus are L. dioica Linne, the 
Red Campion, with sub-dioecious, pungently-scented red blossoms, opening by day 
and pollinated by bees ; and L. alba Miller, with white blossoms, fragrant from 
about six o’clock in the evening to nine next morning, having a slightly longer tube 
to its flower and pollinated by moths. The former is mainly characteristic of moist 
copses, especially on loam or sand, whilst the latter seems to prefer a calcareous soil 
and such open sunny situations as cornfields. The Red Campion has short 
triangular calyx-teeth and a globular capsule with ten recurved teeth, while the 
White or Evening Campion has long narrow calyx-teeth and a conical capsule with 
straight teeth ; but a white-flowered variety of the red species and pink or 
red-flowered varieties of the white one occur, and apparently also hybrids 
between the two. 
