Feedback request: Lychnis viscaria (6935)

[kkopp]

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Specimen #323271

Taxon:	Caryophyllaceae: Lychnis viscaria L. ("Sticky Catchfly")
Filed in taxon folder:	Caryophyllaceae: Lychnis viscaria L. ("Sticky Catchfly")
Collected by:	E Stringer
Collection date:	1839
Locality:	Great Britain, VC43 Radnorshire, Stanner Rocks, SO25
ex herb:	Richard Barker Ullman Mr Job Edward Lousley Winchester College Museum
Institution:	South London Botanical Institute (SLBI)
Image:
fruits/flowers:	mature flowers

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by kkopp on 15^th August 2011.

Checked by qgroom

Edit history

date	user	change
07/12/2011	qgroom	Deleted provenance: exherb E Stringer (Winchester College Museum)
07/12/2011	qgroom	Added provenance: exherb (Winchester College Museum)

Specimen #323272

Taxon:	Caryophyllaceae: Lychnis viscaria L. ("Sticky Catchfly")
Filed in taxon folder:	Caryophyllaceae: Lychnis viscaria L. ("Sticky Catchfly")
Collected by:	Mr Patrick Martin Hall
Collection date:	22/6/1935
Locality:	Great Britain, VC43 Radnorshire, Stanner Rocks, SO25
ex herb:	Mr Job Edward Lousley Mr Patrick Martin Hall
Institution:	South London Botanical Institute (SLBI)
fruits/flowers:	mature flowers
notes:	Refers to upper specimens.

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by kkopp on 15^th August 2011.

Checked by qgroom

Edit history

date	user	change
07/12/2011	qgroom	Deleted note: Refers to upper specimens.
07/12/2011	qgroom	Added notes
07/12/2011	qgroom	Deleted note: Refers to upper specimens.
07/12/2011	qgroom	Added note: Refers to upper specimens.

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User comments about this sheet

kkopp wrote

Refers to lower specimens.

[David Price]

Stanner Rocks are apparently (at least since 1825) known as "the Devil's Garden". Does anyone know why?

[kkopp]

From WANDERINGS AND EXCURSIONS IN SOUTH WALES, WITH THE SCENERY OF THE RIVER WYE by Thomas Roscoe, Mrs. Charles Merideth, p 67:

"Old Radnor," saith Leland, "was anncyently called Maiseveth, of the faire and pleasant meadowes that the ry ver of Wye maketh thearabout;" but it has long been a place of small importance, and is now chiefly noticeable for its fine old church, which occupies a commanding situation on a rock, and contains a skreen richly carved in wood, extending, contrary to the usual custom, across the nave and two side aisles, and some handsome monuments to the family of Lewis of Harpston, whose seat is in the vicinity. Mean as this place may now appear, it was once a Roman station, called by Marcus Antoninus the city Magnos, where the Pacensian legion lay in garrison, under the command of a lieutenant of Britain, in the time of Theodosius the younger. In more modern days it entertained to supper Charles the First, in his flight from the Parliamentary forces, after the disastrous battle of Naseby.

Not far from Old Radnor are the Stanner Rocks, a volcanic group, highly picturesque in form and magnitude, and bearing in their almost inaccessible clefts numbers of rare and beautiful wild flowers, in honour of which one part is vulgarly called the Devil's Garden. The stone being of a hard compact texture, and useful for road-making, these singular and interesting rocks are in a fair way for demolition, being quarried to a great extent. About three miles from the Stanner Rocks is Knill Court, a tasteful residence in one of the loveliest spots imaginable.

[kkopp]

Sorry, the captioned volume is from 1844...k

[David Price]

Yes, all references state "vulgarly called...." or "called by the common people...." who most likely would not have known a sticky catchfly from any other "weed". Did a protoconservationist coin "Devil's Garden" to scare the common people and deter them from visiting the site and damaging its rarities or was it a Gilpin-like purveyor of the Picturesque seeking to attract the Quality? My 1825 source (T J Ll Prichard) is clearly quoting an earlier authority - but whom?