PRIMULACE.^. 245 



the flowers, which are divided into fours instead of fives. The 

 stamens, petals, and sepals are each four or divided into four, 

 whereas in the other forms they are five or divided into five. 

 Native of the Rocky Mountains. Flowers early summer. 



D. Meadia {Common D.) is the best- known species. The 

 leaves are all radical, stalkless, oblong lanceolate, thin and soft 

 in texture, and pale green, obscurely toothed, dying off shortly 

 after flowering. The flower-stems are i foot or more high, 

 bearing a considerable umbel of elegant drooping flowers of 

 interesting shape. The flowers are rosy purple, and divided 

 into five broad much-reflexed segments. Flowers in April, May, 

 and June, and in the north often blooming well through July. 

 There are several varieties of this species of greater or less dis- 

 tinctness, which are often vended as species. The best of them 

 are, D. M. elegans^ syn. giganteum, remarkable for greater luxuri- 

 ance in all its parts, and rather more delicate colouring ; D. M. 

 alburn^ with white flowers suftused with rose ; and D. M. lilac- 

 iniim, with rosy-lilac flowers. 



Hottonia. — So far as is at present kno\Mi, this pretty and in- 

 teresting genus of aquatic plants comprises only two species — 

 the one a native of North America, and unknown to cultivators 

 in this country ; the other inhabits ponds and sluggish streams 

 in England and Ireland and other parts of central and northern 

 Europe. IT. palustris (Water Violet) is the European species. 

 It is valuable for introducing into ponds and streams where 

 aquatic vegetation is desirable, being interesting and orna- 

 mental for a long period during summer. The leaves and 

 barren branches are all submerged; the former are deeply cut into 

 fine thread-like segments, giving a feathery appearance to the 

 submerged growth, and suggesting strikingly the other common 

 name (Featherfoil) by which it is known in some parts of the 

 country. The flower-stems are leafless, and rise erect above 

 the water, bearing several whorls of rather large flowers, deeply 

 divided into five broad lobes. The flowers are variously 

 coloured in different individuals — pale purple is the most com- 

 mon colour, but blue and white and pink are also to be met 

 with, and they appear in June, July, and August, and often 

 also in September. It is easily propagated by division, and 

 also by seeds. If the latter method is adopted — and it is the 

 simplest, if they have to be transported a distance — they should 

 be so\vn immediately they are ripe in the quarters they are to 

 occupy permanently, the only care requisite being the preven- 

 tion of the washing of the bottom by floods if the pond or 

 stream in which they are sown be liable to such disturbance, 

 and the destruction that would be caused by waterfowls, till 



