P^LOWERS OF THE FIELD 85 



tradition alleged to have been planted by the botanist 

 himself. And beneath its lichen-covered branches 

 there was growing among the potatoes a most rare 

 and interesting " weed." It was the lovely blue 

 pimpernel {Anagallis ccurulea, Sch.). Seldom, indeed, 

 is this dainty little annual met with, but once seen its 

 beauty will never be forgotten. Old Gerarde and the 

 early botanists regarded it as a distinct species, and 

 called it " the blew-flowred or female pimpernell," in 

 distinction to " the male or scarlet pimpernell," or poor 

 man's weather-glass. Once or twice only had the 

 writer seen this delicate and lovely variety of the scarlet 

 Anagallis ; and there, in one of the most interesting 

 of British localities, in the garden of the "house on 

 Dewlands" — the home of the celebrated John Ray, 

 where he wrote his Synopsis of British Plants, the 

 first true English Flora — beneath the venerable pear- 

 tree which his own hands had planted, there opened 

 to the sunlight the exquisite blue petals o^ Anagallis 

 ccBrulea. The fragile little annual was carefully 

 secured, and afterwards no less carefully preserved, 

 and is now among the most valued specimens in the 

 dark oaken cabinet which holds the writer's collection 

 of flowers of the field. 



