PRIMROSE TRIBE 73 



about half the size of the last species, stouter, shorter, and with smaller 

 flowers, which are of a deep bluish-purple, with yellow centre. It is frequent 

 in pastures on the noi'th coast of Sutherland, at Caithness, and on the sandy 

 shores of the Orkney Islands, flowering from Juno to September. 



3. Sow-bread (Oijdamen). 



Sow-bread {C. liedcrcefulium). — Leaves heart-shaped, angular, finely 

 toothed, their ril3s and footstalks somewhat rough ; tube of the corolla 

 globose ; mouth with five teeth ; perennial. This plant, though not indigenous 

 to our soil, occurs in several places in profusion, as near Sandhurst and 

 Groudhurst, in Kent. In July, its white or pink flowers, with their lobes 

 turned backward, are nodding on long stalks ; and even as late as September 

 they are yet open on warm, wooded spots. The plant has a dark brown, 

 tuberous, highly acrid root-stock ; its leaves are, as their name would imply, 

 shaped something like those of the iVy, and the flowers have a delicate 

 perfume. As the fruit ripens, the flower-stalks twist spirally into numerous 

 coils, inclosing the capsule in the centre, and this they gradually bury in the 

 earth. The Sow-bread is a pretty flower, and would doubtless be often 

 cultivated, were it not that more beautiful species are brought from other 

 countries, some of which have long been reared in our gardens. 



The Cyclamen genus is one of southern and eastern lands. All the 

 species have large acrid tubers ; and the acrid principle is said by Professor 

 Burnett to be peculiar to these plants : it has been called Arthanitine. The 

 fondness of swine for the roots originated the English as well as some of the 

 continental names of the plant. Swine-bread is an old name for it ; and the 

 French call it Pain de Porceau, or, as it is provincially termed. Pain de pur. 

 Our old medical writers called the plants Tuher terrce or Terrce rapum. In 

 Italy it is called Ground-bread {Pane terreno), as well as Pane porcino ; and in 

 that country, as in Sicily, where it is abundant, it is the chief food of laro-e 

 herds of swine, and has been much used medicinally. The Germans call it 

 Erdscheihe ; the Dutch, Varkenshrood ; and the Swedes, Svinbrlid. 



4. Sea Milkwort (Glai'u). 



Sea Milkwort, or Black Saltwort (G. «wr//M?w).— Stem generally' 

 procumbent ; leaA'es opposite, egg-shaped, smooth, entire ; flowers axillary 

 sessile ; perennial. This is a little succulent plant, from three to six inches 

 high, growing in masses among the grass of the salt-marsh, on the mud of 

 the seashore, or among the rocks just a1)ove high water, often in o-reat 

 abundance, its thick, tough rootstock wedged and flattened between the 

 layers of rock. If kept moist, it will also grow very well inland in o-arden 

 pots, and looks very pretty on rock- work. It bears, from May to Au^-ust 

 little flesh-tinted flowers, dotted with crimson ; and its thick smooth leaves 

 are of a greyish-green hue. The blossoms are destitute of a corolla, but the 

 calyx is coloured instead. The stamen-filaments are coloured a deep crimson 

 and they lengthen after the flower opens. This plant is sometimes called 

 Newton's Knot-grass. The French call it Glauce; the Germans, Milchkraut ; 

 the Dutch, Melkruid ; and the Danes, Melkiirt. 



III. — 10 



