1881 .] 
AMERICAS AGRICULTURIST. 
407 
The Scarlet Lychnis, or Maltese-Cross. 
Cultivators of flowers are aware that, 
while we bring to their notice all the new 
things that seem worthy of it, we are not 
willing that the old flowers of real merit 
shall be pushed aside by new comers, how¬ 
ever brilliant, and be forgotten. One of the 
writer’s earliest recollections of plants in the 
flower garden, is a clump of Scarlet Lychnis. 
Now, after a half century, did he wish a 
common ; some scarlets, by an admixture of 
yellows, are orange-scarlet; others, having a 
tinge of blue, are between crimson and scar¬ 
let, but the flowers of this Lychnis come as 
near being of the typical scarlet color, as 
those of any plant that we know of. It 
blooms in July, and lasts well. There is a 
double variety that is still more effective in 
producing a mass of color, than the single, 
and continues longer in bloom ; there is also 
a single white, and a double white variety, 
lobes and but two stamens. In many of the 
species, the corolla falls away with great 
readiness, and this seeming hurry to go, is 
said to be the reason why “Speedwell” was 
applied to some of the native British species. 
Among the hardy Veronicas there are between 
twenty and thirty species in cultivation in 
gardens, presenting considerable variety in 
habit. The flowers are for the most part 
small, in dense spikes, and usually blue, 
though sometimes white and rose-colored. 
the scarlet LTCHNis, or Maltese cross— (Lychnis Chalcedonica). 
the Japanese veronica, or speedwell—( Veronica longifolia.) 
plant for the same use, to produce the same 
effect, it would be difficult to find any plant 
of later introduction better suited to the pur¬ 
pose. The Scarlet Lychnis, (Lychnis Chalce¬ 
donica), from Russia, has been in British 
gardens for nearly 300 years, which is strong 
proof that it possesses merit. The name, 
Lychnis, is derived from the Greek word for 
“ lamp ” ; some related species have their 
leaves clothed with a great abundance of 
woolly hairs, which were by the ancient 
Greeks removed and formed into lamp-wicks, 
long before cotton was known, and could be 
used for the purpose. This plant forms 
clumps of numerous strong stems, two feet 
or more high, which are clothed with rather 
coarse foliage, and the top of each stem and 
branch is terminated by flowers in a dense 
cluster, which is somewhat rounded on its 
surface. The small flowers, examined indi¬ 
vidually, with their small, notched petals, 
present something like the outline of a 
“Maltese Cross,” which is a common name 
sometimes given to the plant. The color of 
the flowers is a pure scarlet, a color not very 
but the white is not very pure, and the flow¬ 
ers have not the delicacy of texture that we 
look for in white flowers •, hence the white 
varieties have not become popular. The plant 
is of easy cultivation ; the single kind may 
be raised from seed, which is produced abun¬ 
dantly. The double must be multiplied by di¬ 
vision of the roots, or by cuttings of the flow¬ 
er-stems, taken before they become too old. 
Speedwells or Veronicas—The Japanese. 
The genus Veronica, a name of doubtful 
origin, but supposed to be from Saint Veron¬ 
ica, includes over 150 species, distributed 
mainly throughout the temperate portions of 
the globe. As often occurs in such large 
genera, the species present a great variety in 
their manner of growth and general appear¬ 
ance. Some of our most common and insig¬ 
nificant weeds, and some of our choice green¬ 
house shrubs, are Veronicas, and there are 
several others that grow only in the water. 
The flowers are noticeable for having a wheel- 
1 shaped corolla, with mostly four (rarely 5) 
On the Centennial grounds, in one corner of 
the bed filled by the late Robert Buist, was a 
plant, scarcely two feet high, producing an 
abundance of bright-blue flower-spikes. It is 
not so rare to see blue flowers, but this blue 
was of a tint so bright and cheery, and so in¬ 
tense that probably no single plant in all that 
vast collection, attracted more attention than 
this. Every one who cared for flowers at all, 
was sure to stop and take a second look at 
this, on account of the purity and depth of 
the color. In this plant we recognized a Ve¬ 
ronica that we had cultivated for some years 
without a name, and upon inquiry of Mr. 
Buist, found that he obtained his plant, as 
we did ours, from Mr. Thomas Hogg, a gen. 
tleman who has done so much to enrich Amer¬ 
ican gardens with Japanese plants, and has 
had all too little credit for it. In our endeav¬ 
ours to fit this beautiful Veronica with a spe¬ 
cific name, the nearest approach that could 
be made, even with the aid of Dr. Gray’s im¬ 
mense herbarium, was Veronica longifolia. 
Later the plant has made its way to European 
gardens, and both “The Garden”(England), 
