LYCHNIS. 
©f the fame form as the lower, but decreasing in their Size 
upwards-; under each pair of leaves, for an inch in length, 
there fweats out of the ftalk a glutinous liquor, which is 
almoll as clammy as birdlime, fo that ants and other in¬ 
fers which happen to light upon thefe places, or attempt 
to creep up to the flowers, are faftened to the ftalk, whence 
this plant has the title of catchjly. The ftalk is terminated 
by a clulter of purple flowers, and from the two upper 
joints come out on each fide of the ftalk a clufter of the 
fame flowers ; fo that the whole forms a fort of loofe fpike : 
thefe appear in the beginning of May, and the Angle 
flowers are fucceeded by roundifh feed-veffels,. which are 
full of fmall angular feeds ripening in July. - The flowers 
terminate in clofe whorls, .all together forming a fpike ; 
others come out from the axis on long peduncles. Very 
fmall lanceolate red bradtes feparate the flowers ; which 
are feven lines or fomewhat more in diameter; calyx pur¬ 
ple, fwelling, vifcid, with ten red ftreaks ; petals entire, 
fometimes (lightly waved about the edge and emarginate 
at the top, bright red-purple, with white claws, almolt 
half an inch long, and three lines wide, having two ap- 
pendicles at the throat. It varies with white flowers j 
and is fold in foreign countries for Centaurium minus. 
Native of moft parts of Europe, in dry and mountainous 
pa ft tires, efpecially among bufhes. In Britain it is rare. 
Xflwyd and Tancred Robinfon found it in Wales; 
Thomas Willifell upon the rocks in Edinburgh Park ; 
and Mr. Crow near Croydon in Surry. It flowers in May 
and June. 
7. Lychnis alpina, or alpine lychnis; petals bifid; 
flowers four-ltyled. Root perennial. Root leaves in a 
tuft, linear, (lightly keeled, acute, fmooth, thickifti, 
fomewhat channelled, fubciliate at the bafe. Stem a fin¬ 
ger, half a foot, or a fpan, in height. Ample, round, up¬ 
right, having four or five joints flatted a little at top. 
Stem-leaves narrow, pointed, upright, fomewhat rugged ; 
the uppermoft membranaceous. Flowers collected into a 
thyrfe.-or corymb, on three-flowered very fliort peduncles ; 
braffes between the flowers fubdiaphanous ; calyx pale, 
with blunt concave claws. Petals purple, cloven half 
way, (harp, without any crown ; antherse red. Germ 
roundifh. Styles four or five. It refembles the preceding 
fpecies very much, but is not vifcous, and is only half the 
fize ; the petals are not entire, but cloven. The piftils, 
which are often fix and even more, are (horter than the 
petals before the flowers open ; but during the time of 
flowering lengthen gradually, till they become longer than 
the petals. See the annexed Plate, fig. 1. Native of the 
Alps in Europe, and Siberia. It flowers in April and May ; 
Mr. Miller fays the beginning of June; and that the feeds 
ripen in Auguft. 
8. Lychnis lteta,fmall Portugal lychnis, or campion : pe¬ 
tals bifid ; flowers folitary; leaves linear-lanceolate,fmooth; 
calyxes ten-keeled. This is an annual plant, native of 
Portugal. Introduced in 1778, by Edward Gray, M.D. 
It flowers in July. 
9. Lychnis Sibirica, or Siberian lychnis : petals bifid ; 
ft e m dichotomous; leaves fomewhat rough-haired. Root 
perennial, from w'hich arife many narrow leaves fitting 
clofe to the ground. Stalks a foot high, dividing into 
branches by pairs. Flowers from the divilions of the 
branches, and at the top of the (talks ; petals white. Na¬ 
tive of Siberia. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1759. 
10. Lychnis diurna, rofe-fiowered lychnis, or wild red 
campion : flowers dioecous ; caplules one-celled, roundifh. 
Root perennial, the thicknefs of the little finger; white, 
of a (lightly acrid and bitter talte, furnifhed with numer¬ 
ous fibres. Stalks feveral, upright, from one to three feet 
hi<di, round, hirfute, jointed, purple; the joints (welled ; 
the uppermoft branches forked. Native of many parts of 
Europe, in moilt lhady ditches, by the Tides of hedges, 
and fometimes in woods ; flowering in May and June. 
6 A variety of this with double flowers is cultivated 
in wardens by the name of red bachelor's buttons. It is an 
.ornamental plant; and continues long in flower. 
u You. XIII. No. 946. 
g » 
it. Lychnis vefpertini, wlfite-flovvered lychnis, or wild 
white campion : flower dioecous; capftiles one-celled, 
conical. The white wild campion was regarded as a dif- 
tin£l fpecies from the preceding, or red, by all the old 
botanifts. Linnasus fuppofed them to be only varieties, 
and he has been followed by moil modern botanifts ; by 
feveral, however, with marks of doubt. The two plant's 
agree in moft points, they certainly correfpond in (true- 
ture; both have male and female flowers on feparate roots, 
and both are fometimes found with hermaphrodite flowers. 
There are many circumftances, however, in which they 
differ; whether fufficiently or not to conftitute different 
fpeciesjjlet others determine from more accurate exami¬ 
nation, or from culture. Mr. Miller, who regards them 
as diftimfl fpecies, informs 11s, that the (talks of this are 
branched out much more than in the red, the leaves are 
longer and more veined, the flowers (land fingly upon 
pretty long peduncles, and are not produced in chillers as 
in the red ; it is very hairy, the calyx is more fwollen, and 
it flowers a month after the red. Ray obferves, that in-- 
the red the (terns are weaker and more flaccid than in the 
white. Krocker reports, that in Silefia the plant with 
white flowers is entirely different from that which has 
red : the Item being higher, more dift’ufed, fuberedt; th# 
leaves longer, but narrower, lefs hirfute, with whitifti 
veins ; the joints of the ftalk bigger ; calyxes in the male 
cylindrical, in the female ventricofe, in both longer than 
in the red, whitifti, with ten green veins; the claws of 
the petals longer, the petals themfelves white, with white 
appendicles crearlets: antheras afti-coloured ; ftyles white; 
this is common in fields, &c. that only on mountains. 
The late lamented Dr. John Sibthorp is the firlt among 
the moderns who has given them as diftinft fpecies; hav¬ 
ing remarked, that in the red lychnis the capfules ar« 
roundifh, and that its fcentlefs flowers (land open through 
the day; whereas the white has conical capfules, and its 
odoriferous flowers open only towards evening. Hence his 
lpecific charadlers, and trivial names. The colour, with 
other circumftances relative to the two plants, led Mr. 
Curtis to fufpedl that they are not varieties but diftindt 
fpecies, and he remarks that cultivation and farther at¬ 
tention to them will probably enable him to (peak of this 
with more certainty. Mr. Robfon, having cultivated 
both, is fatisfled they are diitindl fpecies, though both 
liable to change the colour of their flowers to flefli colour. 
To all this we may add, that the red and the white affect 
different fituations, and are never found promifctioully. 
The white is frequent in fallow fields, fometimes fo plen¬ 
tifully as to make them appear at a diftance quite white ; 
but the red is never found there. The white feems to 
prefer dry foils, and the red moift ones. The former is 
very common in Sweden, not fo the latter. No one ever 
faw the red campion in the county of Cambridge, though 
the white is common there, and the red no Ids common 
in fome of the neighbouring counties. Mr. Lightfoot 
fays, the rocks in the ifland of Ailfa are covered with 
the red-flowered only. According to Krocker, the white 
is very common in Silefia on the borders of fields, but 
the red is found only in the mountainous parts. So alio 
fays Allione, that the red occurs in wet (hady places and 
fprings at the foot of the Alps; but that the white is 
every where common in the plains by hedges, ditches, and 
highways. And Pollich, that the white is every where 
on banks, among bulhes, by walls and among rubbiih ; 
the red in woods and hedges. And Viilars, that the red 
occurs on the alps and mountains by the lides of ftreams; 
differing from the white not only in colour and place, but 
in having the upper leaves coloured, and the calyx villofe 
without any diltindl veins. The white is found in (tony 
places, by way-fides,in low fituations ; its calyx is thicker, 
harder, almolt cartilaginous, covered with veins forming 
a kind of net. 
ia. Lychnis apetala: calyx inflated; corolla (hotter 
than the calyx; flowers hermaphrodite; one or two on 
the Item. Root fibrous. Stem fingle, upright, a fpaiv 
9.P high. 
