William Curtis
The Botanical Magazine Vol. 08 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed
"Much I love
To see the fair one bind the straggling pink,
Cheer the sweet rose, the lupin, and the stock,
And lend a staff to the still gadding pea.
Ye fair, it well becomes you. Better thus
Cheat time away, than at the crowded rout,
Rustling in silk, in a small room, close-pent,
And heated e'en to fusion; made to breathe
A rank contagious air, and fret at whist,
Or sit aside to sneer and whisper scandal."
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Lathyrus Articulatus. Jointed-Podded Lathyrus
Class and OrderDiadelphia DecandriaGeneric CharacterStylus planus, supra villosus, superne latior. Cal. laciniæ superiores 2-breviores.
Specific Character and SynonymsLATHYRUS articulatus pedunculis subunifloris, cirrhis polyphyllis; foliolis alternis. Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 14.Murr. p. 662.Ait. Kew. v. 2. p. 41.
CLYMENUM hispanicum, flore vario, siliqua articulata. Tourn. Inst. 396.
LATHYRUS hispanicus, pedunculis bifloris, cirrhis polyphyllis foliolis alternis. Mill. Dict. ed. 6. 4to.
No257.
The Scarlet Lychnis appears to have been a great favourite with Parkinson, he calls it a glorious flower, and in a wooden print of him prefixed to his Paradisus Terrestris, we see him represented with a flower of this sort in his hand of the double kind.
It grows spontaneously in most parts of Russia, and is one of our most hardy perennials.
The extreme brilliancy of its flowers renders it a plant, in its single state highly ornamental; when double, its beauty is heightened, and the duration of it increased.
It flowers in June and July.
The single sort may be increased by parting its roots in autumn, but more abundantly by seeds, which should be sown in the spring; the double sort may also be increased by dividing its roots, but more plentifully by cuttings of the stalk, put in in June, before the flowers make their appearance; in striking of these, however, there requires some nicety.