Zù 8 [ 2 2 5 4 ]
L Y C H N I S alpina.
Red Alpine Campion.
DECANDRIA Pentagynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. o f 1 leaf, oblong. Petals 5, with
claws; their limb mostly divided. Caps, superior,
opening with 5 teeth, o f 1 or 5 cells.
S p ec. C ha r . Smooth. Petals cloven. Flowers corymbose.
Leaves linear-lanceolate.
. S yn. Lychnis alpina. L in n . Sp. PI. 6 2 6 . Srn. Tr.
o f Lin n . Soc. v. 10. 3 4 2 . FI. Dan. t. 65. Willcl.
Sp. PI. v. 2. 8 0 9 . Curt. M a g . t. 3 9 4 .
Silene Lapponica alpina, facie viscarias. L in n . F I.
Lapp. n. 185.
-A s this pretty Lychnis is a native of the Lapland as well as
the Swiss alps, it is rather a wonder that it has not long ago
been found in our island. Mr. G. Don however first made
this interesting discovery, on rocks near the summit of Clova
mountains in Angusshire, in 1795. The plant is there very
scarce, being only found, any where, on the most elevated
spots. It is perennial, flowering in June or July. We have
preferred drawing Mr. Don’s original specimen, though dry,
to any garden one; but we have compared it with such, and
with other dried specimens from Switzerland.
This species most resembles L. Viscaria, t. 788, from which
Linnaeus, while travelling in Lapland, was at some pains to
distinguish it. The present is much smaller, and not viscid,
besides the essential difference of its half-divided petals. The
styles are certainly five, and the petals each crowned with a
cloven tooth, notwithstanding the various and contradictory
accounts in the works of Linnaeus, Haller, and others, the
history of which, much too long for this place, is given in
the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, above quoted.—The
Botanical Magazine and Hort. Kew. copy Sijst. Vtg. ed. 14,
apparently without their authors being aware of the above
confusion, nor does the description or figure in the former
throw any light upon the subject.