on account of the spreading nature of its roots, which run underground like couch. Its flowers are like those of the wild species, of a pale rose-colour. Our wild Soapwort blossoms in August and September, and sometimes bears double flowers. It grows on a stem a foot or a foot and a half in height, and the smooth leaves are of a dark glossy green. Its bitter juices were formerly considered a good remedy for bruises, and it was called Bruisewort; The French call it La Savonnière, and the Germans Das Seifenkraut. Its name of Sheepweed (Zeepkruid) points to its uses in Holland; and the Italians term it Saponaria, and the Spaniards Sabonera. The Saponaria Vaccaria, a species found wild in Germany, is the celebrated Cow-herb, which is so valued by the continental herdsmen as food for their cows.

1. S. acaúlis (Moss Campion, or Stemless Campion).—Stem much branched, tufted; leaves narrow, fringed at the base; flower-stalk single-flowered; petals crowned, and notched. Plant perennial. We have several wild flowers which are called stemless, as the stemless Thistle and Campion; but this is not because the stem is entirely absent, but because it is very short. In this instance the flower-stalks are two or three inches high, and this pretty Alpine Campion forms a dense matted turf, with its beautiful bright purple flowers peeping up among the foliage like stars. It is never seen on lowland ground, but is found only at the summits of our loftiest British mountains. It is one of the loveliest ornaments, during June and July, of the rocky parts of Snowdon, and on the Helvellyn side of Grisedale Tarn, in Cumberland, where—

"Up among the mountains,

In soft and mossy cell,

By the silent springs and fountains

The lovely wild-flowers dwell.”

It is abundant on all the Scottish mountains; its branching stems bear a profusion of flowers, which vary sometimes to white, and are prized as alpine flowers must be, not only for their own loveliness, but from their association with the wildest and grandest scenery which earth can exhibit. Dr. J. H. Balfour, in his notice of a botanical excursion made in the Highlands of Scotland, gives us a graphic picture of the plants which adorn the alpine tracts. "The Alpine Veronica," he says, "there displays its lovely blue corolla on the verge of dissolving snows; the Forget-me-not of the mountain summit, whose tints far excel those of its namesake of the brooks; the Woodsia, with its tufted frond, adorning the clefts of the rocks; the sunny Gentian, concealing its eye of blue in the ledges of the steep crags; the Alpine Astragalus, enlivening the turf with its purple clusters; the Lychnis, choosing the stony and dry knoll for the evolution of its pink petals; the Sonchus Mulgedium, raising its stately stalk and azure head in spots which try the enthusiasm of the adventurous collector; the pale-flowered Mountain Sorrel, confining itself to a single British cliff; the Azalea, forming a carpet of the richest crimson; the Saxifrages, with their yellow, or white, or pink blossoms, clothing the sides of the streams; the Saussurea and Erigeron, crowning the rocks with their purple and pink heads; the Purple Cinquefoil, blending its yellow flowers with the white of the Alpine Cerastiums, and the bright blue of the stony Veronica; the stemless Silene giving a pink and velvety covering to the decomposing granite; the yellow Hawkweeds, whose varied transition forms have furnished such a fertile source of dispute among botanists; the slender and delicate grasses; the Chickweeds, the

sedges, and the rushes, which spring up on the moist alpine summits; the graceful ferns, the tiny mosses with their urn-like thecæ; the crustaceous dry lichens, with their spore-bearing apothecia: all these add such a charm to Highland botany, as to throw into comparative shade all the vegetation of the plains."

** Stem elongated; flowers panicled; calyx inflated, bladder-like.

2. S. infláta (Bladder Campion).—Stem erect; leaves oblong, tapering; flowers panicled, numerous; calyx inflated, bladder-like; petals deeply cloven, rarely crowned. Plant perennial. This species of Silene is not difficult of distinction, being at once recognised by its thin globular flower-cup, delicately marked with a network of purplish brown or darker green veins. The calyx, as well as the foliage, has a pale sea-green bloom on the surface; and the plant bears its white flowers in June and July. As early as April the young shoots of the Bladder Campion are to be found under the hedge; and many of us have eaten their pale, delicate, green young leaves, and thought how much their flavour and odour resembled those of the green peas of the table. Professor Burnett remarks, that they make a very agreeable vegetable, if gathered when about two inches long; but we have found that even when boiled they retain a slight degree of bitterness, which prevents their being pleasant. As that botanist has remarked, however, this is a plant deserving cultivation, as it might be substituted for green peas or asparagus, having something of the flavour of both. This flower is very common in corn-fields, pastures, and hedges, in most parts of the kingdom, but is not universally so; for the author of these pages was once promised by a botanist, near Tunbridge Wells, the sight of a rare plant, and was somewhat amused after a long walk to find that this botanic curiosity was a fine specimen of Bladder Campion, which her companion greatly exulted in having discovered in one or two places in that neighbourhood, but which she had been accustomed to regard as scarcely more rare than a primrose. The foliage is usually smooth, but a downy variety is occasionally found. Baxter remarks, that two minute funguses, Ecidium Behenis and Uredo Behenis, are parasitical on the leaves and stems of the Bladder Campion. "I found them both," says this accurate writer, "on this species of Silene, near the road leading from Bullington Green to Cheyney Lane, near Oxford, in August, 1827. I do not know," he adds, "that either of them had been found before in England."

3. S. marítima (Sea Campion, or Catchfly).-Stems many from the same root, spreading, either single or few flowered; leaves oblong and pointed, and sometimes narrowing towards the base, finely toothed at the edges; petals crowned and slightly cleft. Plant perennial. Those who are used to gather the Bladder Campion from the lane or field, are sometimes surprised to see it growing on the sandy sea-shore, where they could expect to find little but Sandworts and sea-side grasses. Excepting that its flowers are larger, and its stems much shorter, the shore species resembles the common Bladder Campion, having those same bladdery cups which children often snap suddenly on the back of the hand, with a sharp noise. This plant is not uncommon on the sandy or stony shore, flowering there all the summer: it is also found by alpine rills. The Rev. C. A. Johns states, that he has found in Devonshire a variety with double flowers. *** Stems elongated, flowers in whorls.

4. S. Otites (Spanish Catchfly).-Stems erect, somewhat branched, with few leaves; petals narrow and neither cleft nor crowned; stamens and pistils on different plants; leaves narrowing at the base. Plant perennial. This is a rare, or at least a local plant, easily known by its whorls of small flowers with their narrow petals of yellowish-white colour, which expand in July. It occurs in

sandy fields in some of the eastern counties of England. The stems are about a foot high, and very clammy at the middle.

**** Stems elongated; flowers in leafy clusters, alternate.

5. S. Anglica (English Catchfly). All parts of the plant hairy and clammy; petals small, crowned, slightly cleft or entire; flowers lateral, alternate, erect, lower ones bending downwards when in fruit; leaves narrow, tapering. Plant annual. This species too is somewhat local, though in many parts of England it occurs in plenty, attaining greater or less luxuriance according to the soil. Its stem is from six to twelve inches high, and it is so clammy as to be often quite disfigured by the insects adhering to it, their little wings held tightly by the viscid substance which allured them thither. The flowers, which may be found all through the summer, are usually pinkish-white, and very small; but several varieties of the plant are known, in one of which the flowers are solitary in the axils of the upper leaves. This has usually a red spot on each of its petals. It has been found wild near Wrotham, in Kent, and some other places; and it was formerly much planted in gardens, under the name of Silene quinque-vulnera. It grows low, and is very prolific, so that it is well adapted for sowing in pots; but it is less generally cultivated than it once was. The Dutch call this, or some other species of Catchfly, Veldkaars.

***** Stems panicled, leafy; calyx not bladder-like.

6. S. nútans (Nottingham Catchfly).—Flowers all drooping one way; branches opposite, 3-forked; calyx much swollen, and marked with dark-brown lines; petals deeply cloven, crowned; stem-leaves lance-shaped, those of the root tapering at the base. Plant perennial. Those who have never scented the evening air made fragrant by a number of these flowers, can hardly imagine how powerful an odour they exhale. It has somewhat of that perfume, so like that of prussic acid, which exists in several of our flowers, as the Meadow-sweet and Blackthorn; but it is far more powerful than the scent of either of these blossoms; and when borne to us, as it sometimes is, on the sea-breeze, it is truly delicious. This plant flowers during June or July, on some limestone and chalk rocks of our seashores, as well as on those of inland districts, but is not common. On portions of the sides of those towering and majestic cliffs which border the shore for several miles along the east of Dover, as well as at some parts of the cliffs standing to the west of the town, thousands of the pretty white starry blossoms of the Catchfly may be seen in the evening, growing on stems about a foot high. Nor do these flowers wait, as some night flowers do, for darkness ere they expand; for the author has seen them in their full glory by eight o'clock, before the soft twilight had thrown its subdued shadow over the summit of the cliffs. Many a lovely flower grows on those cliffs; for although on sailing past them at a distance their white surfaces seem only streaked with stripes of verdure, yet on walking by them we find that their crags and clefts shelter the flowers so well, and the sun shines on them so fully, that plants peculiar to the chalk could hardly find a better place of growth. Many a wanderer goes thither in the earlier part of the day, and brings home nosegays of Horned-poppy, and Viper's-bugloss, and Sea-lavender, and pink Centaury. Many such a one sees the Catchfly, and passes it by, deeming it a plant which has lost its bloom, and is all unfit to mingle with gayer, fresher flowers; he can at that time detect neither beauty nor odour. These are truly

"The flowers that shun the blaze of noon,
To blow beneath the midnight moon;
The garish world they will not bless,
But only live in loneliness."

This plant received the name of Nottingham Catchfly, because it is common in the neighbourhood of that town. It is found also on the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and on the mountain-limestone rocks of Orme's Head, as well as on the rocks about Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, Dovedale, and other places, growing in more or less abundance. Its profusion on the cliffs of Dover gained for it in former days the name of Dover Catchfly. It is the Siléne paradoxa of our older botanists. It retains its peculiarity of opening only in the evening, even after it is gathered; and its scent is then almost too powerful to be borne in a room. It may be raised from seed in a garden, if the soil is chalky; but the odour there is not so powerful as when in its wild state, and in such cases as are known to the author, the plant soon degenerated.

7. S. Itálica (Italian Catchfly).—Stems erect, downy, bearing several flowers; branches opposite, with blunt teeth; petals deeply cleft, not crowned; root-leaves on long stalks, tapering at the base; stem-leaves without stalks, long and narrow. Plant perennial. The white flowers of this rare plant expand in July and August, and much resemble those of the Nottingham Catchfly; but this species may be distinguished by its longer and blunter calyx. The plant is downy, and the panicles are somewhat clammy. It is probably not a truly wild flower, but has been found on Dover cliffs and in the neighbourhood of Dartford.

8. S. cónica (Striated Corn Catchfly).-Stem erect, forked; leaves narrow, downy; petals crowned; calyx of the fruit conical. Plant annual. This is a rare species of Catchfly, with small flowers of a purplish-red colour, several of which grow on short stalks on a stem from six to twelve inches high, flowering from May to July. The calyx of the fruit, which is conical in form, is said by the Rev. C. A. Johns to have thirty furrows, while that of the Silene noctiflóra is ten-ribbed. Minute as distinctions of this kind are, they are quite constant, exciting the admiration of every thoughtful observer, and affording an evidence of the continual care of God over all His creation. And as we trace these proofs of design, we are reminded of the words of the poet :

"And who had given the luscious scent Which from its ambush stole, Spreading luxurious influence,

Like music, o'er the soul?

"We who had seen the stars career
Still in their nightly dance,
Should we look on these gems of earth,
And say they came by chance?
"No, in the lily's grandeur,

And in the rose's hue;

In the bright dahlia's gorgeousness,
In the violet's eye of blue;

"In the pencilling of the passion-flower,
In its deep mysterious sign,—
All hearts would feel, all lips confess,
Their Maker is divine."

The Corn Catchfly grows on sandy fields, and has been found near Bury and Thetford, in Suffolk; at Dirleton, in Haddingtonshire; and near Sandown Castle, Kent. The latter place is interesting to the botanist at the season of its growth, because on this castle may be found the Clove-pink; and on the beach beside it, in some seasons, the Sea-pea (Láthyrus maritimus), with its rich clusters of flowers, trails among the shingle.

9. S. Armeria (Common or Lobel's Catchfly).-Stem erect and viscid; petals notched, and crowned with awl-shaped scales; calyx club-shaped, and smooth; leaves broadly lance-shaped; panicles of flowers level topped. Plant annual.