28 THE PRIMROSE. 



" Interesting as are the British species of this natural order, they are 

 fax inferior in beauty to tlieir relations who live on the mountains of 

 other countries; for the primrose tribe most frequently prefers 

 Alpine stations to all others. It is in the higher regions of the 

 mountains of Switzerland and Germany, or the Pyrenees, and upon 

 those stupendous ridges, from which the traveller beholds the vast 

 plains of India, stretching at his feet in a boundless panorama, that 

 the primrose tribe acquires its greatest beauty. Living unarmed 

 beneath a bed of snow during the cold weather, where it is protected 

 alike from light and from drying winds, as soon as the snow is 

 melted it springs forth bedecked with the gayest tints imaginable ; 

 yellow, white, pui-ple, violet, lilac, and sky-blue are the 

 usual colours of its flowers ; while its leaves, nursed by the food 

 descending from a thousand rills of purest water, and expanded 

 beneath an ever-genial and cloudless sky, acquire a green which no 

 gem can excel in depth or brightness. It is in those regions only 

 that the primrose tribe can be studied to the greatest advantage."* 



The ovary is a portion of the plant which is often named, and 

 necessary to be examined in systematic botany, a few words, there- 

 fore, may be said with benefit in the description of this organ. The 

 ovary is a hollow case, placed at the base of the pistil, or central 

 organ of the flower ; it incloses the ovules, and always contains one 

 or more cells or cavities. It is the part which ultimately becomes 

 the fruit ; and, consequently, whatever may be the situation of the 

 ovary, such must necessarily be that of the fruit ; allowance being 

 made for the changes that may occur during the progress of the 

 ovary to maturity. 



The ovary is said to be superior or inferior, as it may be related 

 to the calyx, that is, if the calyx of the flower is placed above the 

 ovary or seed-box, the ovary is termed inferior, as is the case in the 

 rose. If the calyx is below the ovary, the ovary is termed superior, 

 as in the tulip, mallow, and primrose. But, in reality, the inferior 

 ovary is only so in consequence of the tube of the calyx contracting 

 an adhesion with its sides ; and such being the case, the exactness 

 of the description of the constant place of the pistil and ovary, as 

 being the occupants of the centre of the flower, around which all the 



♦ Lindley'8 Botany. 



