GAMOPETAL/ 159 
where with Saxifrages and other alpine plants they 
help to add lustre to that wonderful alpine vegeta- 
tion which forms such an interesting feature of the 
plant life of high altitudes. 
They are herbaceous plants with radical leaves as 
a rule, and the rosette habit. And the stem is 
usually a flowering scape. 
They are divided into two groups according as the 
flowers are regular and the calyx not spiny, as in all 
but Coris, or medially zygomorphic and with a spiny 
calyx. The first includes plants with the limb of 
the corolla never bent back on the tube, such as 
Primrose, Androsace, Soldanella and Water Violet, 
in which the ovary is superior, and Brookweed, in 
which it is half inferior, Yellow Loosestrife, Steiro- 
nema, Trientalis, Glaux, Pimpernel, Centunculus, 
and Cyclamen and Dodecatheon in which the limb 
of the corolla is bent back. __ 
Amongst this group are many of our most highly 
prized garden flowers. Such are the Primula, of 
which numerous varieties, including the Auricula, 
are known, Androsace, Soldanella, and the lovely 
Cyclamen. 
The majority of the Primulacez have rhizomes or 
tubers, and all are herbaceous perennials. The 
leaves, mainly radical, are opposite or alternate, 
without any stipules. 
The flowers are borne on terminal scapes when 
many-flowered ; the calyx is tubular 4 to 7-fid, persis- 
tent, and except in Samolus, inferior. The corolla is 
