TRE CARNATION-FINK 
249 
order to which they belong (Caryophyllese). This order 
is, however, very interesting to English botanists, because 
many of their wild favourites are found in it, and gladden 
the country scenes in which they delight to linger. The 
corn-cockle, whose lilac petals, rising among the tall corn, 
have procured for it the name of Agrostemma, or crown 
of the field, is a common flower. The various sorts of 
campion and catchfly (Silene), which are remarkable for 
their inflated calyxes; and the white and rose-coloured 
lychnises, some of the handsomest kind of which are 
found by streams. The cottony down on these plants is 
often employed for wicks of lamps. The flowers are 
showy, and common during summer in all parts of Eng- 
land; and many species are planted in gardens. 
All the tribe of chickweeds belong to this order. Some 
of them, especially those known commonly by the name 
of stitchwort, with their white, pearly blossoms, are very 
pretty in spring-time, under hedges and in woods. They 
have long slender leaves, like those of corn, and white 
flowers, not quite so large as those of a primrose, shaped 
like a star, though not of the same kind as the aster, 
or daisy, but having five petals. Their starry shape sug- 
gested their Latin name of stellaria.” Then there is 
the little chickweed, with its small white stars (Stellaria 
media), a plant which grows chiefly on cultivated places, 
and which is so commonly carried home by persons who 
keep those innocent little prisoners, tame goldfinches. It 
affords a supply of food to thousands of our wild summer 
birds, and is extremely profuse, coming up at all seasons 
of the year, for their meals. It is also eaten in some 
villages, boiled as a table vegetable, and is very whole- 
some. 
A handsome wild plant of this order is the soapwort 
(Saponaria officinalis). This can hardly be called a com- 
mon plant, because in many countries it is scarcely to be 
met with, though in Kent it is by no means rare. It has 
a full cluster of rose-coloured blossoms, rather larger, 
and more loosely grouped, than those of a sweet-william, 
which flower, in its leaves, it much resembles — these being 
opposite to each other, and partly clasping or surrounding 
the stalk at their bases. The juice of the soapwort is one 
of those vegetable substances which, by making a lather 
