Primrose and Pimpernel 219 
when it puts forth its first flowers the leaves are not 
one-fourth of their proper size. With the alternat- 
ing smiles and tears of April the leaves enlarge, the 
flowers increase in size and number, and their stalks 
lengthen so that they arch over and look as though 
they had been lavishly strewn along the copse. 
A slight consideration of the flower would convince 
any of my readers who have followed me through 
the foregoing chapters that it has been adapted 
Long-styled Short-styled 
Primroses 
specially for the visits of insects with long tongues. 
The sepals have had their edges joined so that they 
form a green tube; but to show that this was origin- 
ally composed of five pieces, the mouth of it ends in 
five long teeth. The five pale-yellow petals have 
been similarly united into a slender funnel-shaped 
tube ending in five broad lobes, each with a central 
marginal notch. If you will look over the bunch of 
flowers you have just gathered, you will notice that 
the mouth of the corolla-tube presents two different 
aspects in different specimens: one being almost 
