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Lychnis (from the Greek word for lamp, in allusion to the flame-colored fls. of some species). Including Agrostemma and Viscaria. Caryophyllaceae. Interesting flower-garden herbs.
The technical generic characters are so variable as to allow the genus to be thrown into Silene or to be broken up into 7 or 8 distinct genera (for the latter, see Williams, Journ. Bot. 31:167; Journ. Linn. Soc. 32:11), according to the point of view of the particular author. They are mostly erect-growing, and the lvs. are opposite and entire. The caps, usually has but one locule or compartment, and the seeds are borne on a central or axile placenta (Fig. 2220). The styles are usually 5 or rarely 4, in this differing from Silene (in which the styles are 3), and the calyx-teeth are commonly 5. In some species, the styles are 3 and the caps, is more than 1-loculed at base, but in these cases the habit of the plant and minor technical characters enable one to refer them to Lychnis rather than to Silene. The stamens are 10; and the petals 5 and usually with a 2-cleft scale or a pair of teeth at the base of the blade. —As defined above, the genus contains 40-50 species, annuals, biennials, and perennials, of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. Agrostemma and Viscaria might be separated, although the distinctions are not very marked. Agrostemma has the 5 stamens opposite the petals and the petals are not appendaged; Lychnis would then be distinguished as having the stamens alternate with the petals, and the latter are often or usually appendaged so as to form a crown in the corolla. If Lychnis is restricted to those species in which the caps, is 1-celled to the base, then Viscaria may be distinguished for certain species that are several-celled at the base (see Viscaria). For horticultural purposes these distinctions are not important. Petrocoptis is here kept distinct. In the following synopsis of the garden kinds, little attempt is made to follow technical botanical divisions.
Some of the species of Lychnis are amongst the best known of old-fashioned flowers, as the mullein pink, Maltese cross and ragged robin. These are essentially flower-garden subjects, and of simple cultural requirements. Others, as L. alpina, are better known as border or rockwork plants (see also Petrocoptis). All species are easily grown from seeds, the biennials and perennials blooming the second year. The perennials are often propagated by division. All of them apparently thrive in the sun.
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