276 FLORA HISTORICA. 



quently lost to the link of Nature's perfect chain ; 

 for although the Pimpernel is too lowly to excite 

 the oreat interest of man, its seed is the food of 

 insects, who liave their office to perform towards 

 the completion of the general harmony of the globe. 

 The smaller kind of birds seek this seed with great 

 avidity, and as it is a plant which follows cultiva- 

 tion, it may considerably save much of the seed of 

 the husbandman from the ravages of the feathered 

 tribe. 



Like the Poppy, the Pimpernel is generally 

 found in ploughed grounds and in gardens, parti- 

 cularly where the air is pure, and the soil light or 

 sandy. 



The Common Pimpernel, AnagalUs Arvensis, 

 continues to give out a succession of blossoms from 

 the month of June to the end of September, and 

 is, although a native weed, deserving of a situation 

 on the parterre, its flowers being of a fine yellow 

 scarlet, having a purple circle at the eye, which adds 

 considerably to the beauty of this miniature flower. 



The Blue-flowered Pimpernel, AnagalUs Coe- 

 rulea, is far less common in this country than the 

 Scarlet. It grows abundantly in Switzerland, Ger- 

 many, and Sweden, and has been found in this 

 country in the neighbourhood of Mitcham, in 

 Surrey, near Histon, in Cambridgeshire, and Bre- 

 don-hill, in Worcestershire. It is more frequent 



