• LYC
fcombri. Salvian has given a figure of it, but it. is an imperfect one ; for he has omitted the firft fin of the back. See the articles Sphyrjena and Sudis.
LYC/EA, AyK«i«, in antiquity, an Arcadian feftival refem- bling the Roman lupercalta, in which the conqueror was rewarded with a fuit of brazen armour. Potter, Archseol. Graec. lib. 2. c. 20. Tom. I. p- 412. See the article Lu- percalia, Cycl.
LYCHNIS, catch fly, in botany, the name of a very large genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the caryophylleous kind, being compofed of feveral petals, difpofed in an orbicular form,%ind arifing out of a tubular cup ; and being ufually bifid, and fur- rounded with a fort of circle of two or three fmall leaves. The piftil arifes from the cup, and finally becomes a fruit, which terminates in a conic point, and is enveloped in the cup. This opens at the end when ripe, and is feen to contain fometimes roundifh, fometimes angular, and fome- times kidney-fhaped feeds, affixed to a placenta. See Tab. 1 . of Botany, Clafs 8.
The fpecies of lychnis, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The great hairy fcarlet lychnis, called the Con- stantinople lychnis. 2. The great hairy lychnis with flefh coloured flowers. 3. The great hairy lychnis with faffron coloured flowers. 4. The great hairy lychnis with white flowers. 5. The great hairy lychnis with variegated flowers.
6. The great hairy lychnis with red lead coloured flowers.
7. The fmooth foft leaved purplifli red flowered lychnis.
8. The lefler fcarlet flowered Conflantinople lychnis. 9. The pale red flowered garden campion. 10. The deep red flowered garden campion. 1 1, The crimfon flowered garden campion. 12. The white flowered garden campion. 13. The garden campion with flowers red within, and white without.
14. The garden campion with flefli coloured fpotted flowers.
15. The garden campion with flefli coloured flowers, not fpotted. 16. The double garden ca??ipion. 17. The Hel- vetian mountain lychnis with flowers in umbells. 18, The common white flowered fingle wild lychnis. 19. The double flowered white lychnis. 20. The wild white lychnis with long and fmooth leaves, 21. The white wild fea campion with flefhy leaves. 22. The green flowered pro- liferous wild lychnis. 23. The green flowered ocymaftrum leaved wild lychnis. 24. The fingle wild purple marfli lychnis. 25. The wild double red flowered lychnis. 26. The early procumbent purple lychnis with roundifh leaves. 27. The larger corn cockle. 28. The corn cockle with yellow flowers, commonly called yellow nigella. 29. The red per- foliate leaved corn lychnis. 30. The perfoliate leaved corn lychnis with flefli coloured flowers. 31. The perfoliate leaved corn lychnis with white flowers. 32. The common ■wild white lychnis^ called white ben. 33. The double flowered white ben. 34. The wild ben with greenifh purple flowers. 35. The narrower and more pointed leaved wild ben. 36. THe fmooth leaved purple flowered wild lychnis, or fpatling poppy. 37. The alpine ben with roundifli leaves and purple flowers. 38. The creeping fea lychnis. 39. The fhrubby myrtle leaved lychnis, refembling the white ben. 40. The double flowered fhrubby white lychnis. 41. The night flowering campion. 42. The fweet fecnted narrow leaved night flowering campion. 43. The white ^flowered broad leaved vifcous mountain lychnis. 44. The lychnis called the little white ocymcides. 45. The fmooth broad leaved purple vifcous lychnis. 46. The double flow- ered grafly leaved lychnis. 47. The white flowered, broad leaved fmooth vifcous lychnis. 48. The vifcous lychnis with flowers, purple on the outfide, and white within. 49. The vifcous lychnis with flowers, purple on the outfide, and white within, with fmooth flalks and cups, and with the flowers difpofed in umbells. 50. The dufty leaved lychnis with narrow petals, purple on the outfide, and white within. 51. The clammy lychnis with flightly hoary leaves. $2. The vifcous hairy lychnis with flefh coloured flowers. 53. The vifcous lychnis with larger mofly barren flowers. 54. The vifcous lychnis with fmaller mofly fruit- ful flowers. 55. The lefler mofly leaved lychnis. 56. The auricula-like lychnis. 57. The larger woolly wild lychnis. 58. The fmaller woolly wild lychnis. 59. The lychnis, com- monly called foap wort. 60. The double flowered foap wort. 61 . The meadow lychnis with jagged flowers. 62. The pale red jagged flowered meadow lychnis. 63. The jagged meadow lychnis with white flowers. 64. The jagged flowered meadow lychnis with large double purple flowers. 65. The jagged flowered meadow lychnis with large double white flowers. 66. The jagged flowered meadow lychnis with fmall double flowers. 67. The wild broad leaved lychnis with turgid and ftriated flower cups. 68. The narrow leaved wild lychnis with ftriated turgid cups. 69. The procumbent Sicilian lychnis with extremely large turgid and ftriated flower cups. 70. The wild lychnis with many leaves growing from every joint. 71. The red flowered narrow f leaved vifcous wild lychnis. 72. The white flowered narrow leaved vifcous wild lychnis. 73. The broader leaved vifcous red flowered wild lychnis. 74. The narrow leaved hairy cretic lychnis, 75. The knot-grals
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leaved mountain lychnis, called by many ocymoides monfa- num. 76. The dwarf grafly leaved mountain lychnis, or lychnis flowered alpine mofs. 77. The dwarf grafly leaved mountain lychnis with fnow white flowers. 78; The pro- cumbent fea lychnis with very narrow and long leaves; 79. The long and hairy leaved lychnis with five petals, not bifid, in each fiower. 80. The little hairy night flowering lychnis. 81. The daify leaved mountain lychnis with very fmall pale red flowers; 82. The finalleft mofly flowered mountain lychnis'. 83. The fmooth leaved lychnis with very_ hard flower cups. 84. The wild hairy perennial lychnis with leaves like the EngHfh fcurvy grafs^ and very large flowers like the foap wort. 85. The little hairy an- nual lychnis with a fmall flefli coloured flower. 86. The round fruited lychnis with flefli coloured flowers^ flanding on long weak foot-ftalks. 87. The red flowered fmooth annual lychnis with oblong pyramidal capfules. 88. The wild white lychnis with a bending fpike of flowers. 89. The little hairy lychnis with variegated flowers. 90. The fading flowered wild lychnis. 91. The night flowering lychnis with very fmall flowers. 92. The little lychnis with red flowers and long narrow cups. 93. The little lychnis, called by many the faxifrage of the antients. 94. The little dwarf alpine ftone lychnis. 95. The tall lychnis with numerous fmall flowers, and toad flax leaves. 96. The flax leaved many flowered alpine lychnis with very large roots. 97. The fmallefr. annual lychnis with flefh coloured flowersj marked with purple lines. 98. The daily leaved annual Portugal lychnis with purple flowers. 99. The daify leaved annual Portugal lychnis with flefh coloured flowers. ioo.The lavender leaved lychnis. 101. The flefhy leaved dufty fea lychnis. 102. The willow leaved annual Spanifh fea lychnis.
103. The many flowered kali leaved Spanifh lychnis,
104. The leaft Pyrenean umbelliferous lychnis. 105. The naked ftalked holofteum leaved umbelliferous ftone lychnis. 106. The Spanifh lychnis with red valerian leaves and purple flowers. 107. The narrow leaved fea lychnis. 108. The Portugal marfli lychnis with ftriated cups. 109. The ftinking vifcous Portugal mountain lychnis. no. The ca- pillaceous leaved Spanifh lychnis, in. The dwarf juniper leaved rock lychnis. 112. The little narrow leaved ftone horned lyclmis. 113. The fatty leaved fea lychnis. 1 14. The upright fpeedwell leaved lychnis.
The lychnifes differ from the caryophylli, or pinks, in that their flower cup is fimple, not fquammofe at the bottom, as in the pink, and in the corona, which occupies the mid- dle of the flower, and have angular kidney fhaped feeds. Tourn. Inft. p. 334, feq.
There are feveral fpecies of this plant, which, for the beauty of their flowers, are cultivated in our gardens ; they are very hardy plants, and are eafily propagated either by part- ing the roots, or by feed.
The roots fhould be parted in the latter end of Auguft, or beginning of September, and planted in a light dry foil. If they are to be raifed from feed, they fhould be fowri in March upon a bed of light frefh earth, and in May the young plants fhould be removed into another bed of the like earth, at about fix inches diflance from each other, and watered and fhaded till they have taken root ; after which they will require no farther care, but to be kept clear from weeds j and at the end of the September following they may be removed, for the laft time, into the borders where they are to ftand, and they will flower in the June and July following; when, if they are fufFered to ripen their feeds, they will fow themfelves, and come up without any further trouble. Afilkr's Gardners Dic- tionary. LYCHNITES tnarmor, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a name given by many to the Parian marble, of which the fineft ftatues among the antients were formed; Varro imagines that it had this name from >^yj>^, a lamp, becaufe, as he fuppofes, it was cut by candle-light in the quarries ; but it feems much more probable, that it had it from the verb fax^vHv, to fhine, or be bright, from its re- markable fplendor; LYCIUM, in the materia medica, the name of a fruit called by the French baye a" Avignon, the Avignon berry, and by many authors the pyxacantha. The fhrub which produces it, is the lyciam five pyracantha of Gerrard. The fruit is about the fize of a grain of wheat, and is not round, but of an an- gular form when dried, fometimes of three, fometimes of four angles, and fometimes dented in at one end like a heart. It is of a yellowifh green colour, and of a bitter and aftringent tafte. It fhould be chofen frefh dried, and large. There was formerly a rob, or infpiffated juice made from thefe berries, much in ufe in medicine j but this was generally adulterated with a rob made of the berries of the woodbind, privet, floe, or other fhrub, and is how quite out of ufe. The dyers in France and Holland ufe it for a yellow ; and the Dutch have another ufe for it, which is, that they boil it in alum water, and mixing it with' whiting, form it into tvrifted flicks, which they fell to the painters in water colours, under the name of jlU as grain, Lemcry, Did:, de Drog.
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