238 Pink to Red Flowers 



usually about ten inches tall. The tiny leaves are all set in 

 a tuft close to the ground, and are rarely mealy underneath ; 

 while the flowers are pale mauvish-pink in colour. Both 

 these Primroses grow in very wet places. The generic 

 name, Primula, refers to their early season of blossoming, 

 for, as the poet says : 



" Primroses, the spring may love them, 

 Summer knows but Httle of them." 



SHOOTING STAR 



Dodecathcon pauciftonun. Primrose Family 



Stems: scape glabrous. Leaves: lanceolate, entire. Flowers: seg- 

 ments of the corolla rich purple-pink, the undivided part yellow, with 

 a scalloped ring of deep purple midway between the base of the seg- 

 ments and the stamen-tube; stamen-tube yellow; anthers purple. 



From two to eight of these quaint purple-pink flowers, 

 each one on its own individual tiny stem, grow at the ends 

 of the stout main stalks of the plant. Several of these 

 stalks grow up from every root. With their reflexed 

 petals resembling those of the Cyclamen (which also be- 

 longs to the Primrose Family), and their queer little 

 pointed noses, the Shooting Stars are rather remarkable- 

 looking flowers. They remind one of some bright- winged 

 butterfly poised on the apex of a scape. The leaves all 

 grow in a cluster at the foot of the plant and are long- 

 shaped and tapering towards the base. Very occasionally 

 the flowers are white. The scientific name is derived from 

 the Greek dodeka, " twelve," and theos, '' god," thus signi- 

 fying '' twelve gods." . Its application is not very clear, 

 though Linnaeus imagined he saw in its umbels of bright 

 crowned flowers a little congress of divinities, and hence 

 named it for an Olympian gathering of the gods, 



