BERRY-BEARING CHICKWEED: A genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the decandra clasps of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 22d order, Caryophyllae. The calyx is inflated; the petals five, unguiculated without a nectariferous corona at the throat; the capsule is trilocular. There are 13 species, the most remarkable of which are,

1. The boken, Swedish lychnis, or gumspungar, is a native of several parts of Europe. The empalement of its flower is curiously wrought like a network, and is of a purplish colour. The leaves have somewhat of the flavour of pease, and proved of great use to the inhabitants of Minorca in 1685, when a swarm of locusts had destroyed the harvest. The Gothlanders apply the leaves to erysipelas eruptions. Horses, cows, sheep, and goats, eat this plant.

2. The noctiflora, or night-flowering lychnis, grows naturally in Spain and Italy. It is a perennial plant, rising with an upright branching stalk, a foot and an half high, garnished with very narrow leaves placed opposite. The upper part of the stalk branches very much; the flowers stand upon long naked footstalks, each supporting three or four flowers which have long tubes with striped empalmements: the petals are large, deeply divided at top, and of a pale-blueish colour. The flowers are closed all the day; but when the sun leaves them, they expand, and then emit a very agreeable scent. It may be propagated by seeds sown in the spring on a bed of light earth; and when the plants are fit to remove, they should be planted in a nursery-bed at about four inches distance, where they may remain till autumn. They may then be planted in the borders where they are to remain, and will flower the following year.

3. The otites, or catch fly, is a native of Britain, and other European countries. It hath a thick, flethy, perennial root, which strikes deep into the ground, from whence rises a jointed stalk three or four feet high. At the joints there exudes a viscid clammy juice, that sticks to the fingers when handled; and the small insects which settle upon those parts of the stalks are thereby so fastened that they cannot get off. The flowers are small, and of a greenish colour. The plant is propagated by seeds.