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. This plant is found to succeed best in a rich, loamy, soil; and certain districts have been found to be more favourable to its growth than others. A white and a pale red variety of it in its single state were known to CLUSIUS, and similar varieties of the double kind are said to exist; it is of little moment whether they do or not, every variation in this plant from a bright scarlet is in every sense of the word a degeneracy. [Illustration: No 258] [258] CORONILLA VARIA. PURPLE CORONILLA. _Class and Order._ DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. _Generic Character._ _Cal._ 2-labiatus: 2/3: dentibus superioribus connatis. _Vexillum_ vix alis longius. _Legumen_ isthmis interceptum. _Specific Character and Synonyms._ CORONILLA _varia_ herbacea, leguminibus erectis teretibus torosis numerosis, foliolis plurimis glabris. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 670._ _Ait. Kew. v. 3. p. 59._ SECURIDACA dumetorum major, flore vario, siliquis articulatis. _Bauh. Pin. p. 349._ SECURIDACA II. altera species. _Clus. Hist. 2. ccxxxvij._ The greater joynted Hatchet Vetch. _Park. Theat. p. 1088._ CLUSIUS, in his work above referred to, informs us that he found this plant growing wild in various parts of Germany, in meadows, fields, and by road sides; that it flowered in June, sometimes the whole summer through, and ripened its seeds in July and August; the blossoms he found subject to much variation of colour, being either deep purple, whitish, or even wholly white: CASP. BAUHINE notices another variety, in which the alae are white and the rostrum purple; this variety, which we have had the honour to receive from the Earl of EGREMONT is the most desirable one to cultivate in gardens, as it is more ornamental than the one wholly purple, most commonly met with in the nurseries, and corresponds also better with its name of _varia_; it is to be noted however that this variety of colour exists only in the young blossoms.