700 



as I have gathered it at Cobham in Kent, but this character is incon- 

 stant, the leaves in the specimens near Rycle being as broadly ovate 

 as in the usual or normal state of the plant. Mr. Leigh ton has re- 

 marked the same of this variety in Shropshire. In the white or pale 

 rose variety (S. the corolla is also smaller than usual, or about the same 

 size as in y. ; in other respects the plant does not differ from the com- 

 mon red form. The absolute specific identity of the three forms of 

 A. arvensis here mentioned has been established beyond all contro- 

 versy by the experiments of Professor Henslovv (see Loudon's Maga- 

 zine of Nat. Hist. iii. p. 537). 1 have myself seen the cultivated 

 Anagallis in the garden of the Rev. Wm. Sherson, at Yaverland, bear- 

 ing flowers of a bright blue on the same stem with those of the flesh- 

 coloured variety, of which there was an entire bed. The change from 

 pure red to simple blue (both primitive colours) is, I believe, very 

 uncommon in Nature's chromatic sportiveness, and it is perhaps to the 

 flowers of the pimpernel that we should look for the best chance of 

 getting a correct idea of that anomalous colour, sky-blue scarlet, of 

 which most persons must have heard, but which very few indeed 

 can have seen. The flowers of this plant often undergo at the close 

 of autumn, or in wet seasons, from the deficiency of light and heat, a 

 remarkable transformation, the corolla becoming cleft to the very base 

 or pentapetalous, the segments rounded, much shorter than the calyx 

 and wholly green or partially coloured, and the stamens smooth. 

 Sometimes the calyx is converted into a leafy whorl, the capsule be- 

 comes five-angled or is itself turned into a bundle of leaves. All 

 these changes I remarked in the wet autumn of 1841, on specimens 

 from fields above Sandown Bay. They are also noticed by Gaudin 

 (Fl. Helv. ii. p. 67, ad calcem), who observes that the seeds of the 

 common scarlet Anagallis are fatal to small birds, which eat those of 

 the blue variety (held by him distinct) with impunity. 



Anagallis tenella. In boggy, springy or peaty ground, by the sides 

 of drains and rills, amongst the short herbage of moist heaths, com- 

 mons, and in woods; very frequent in the Isle of Wight, and in many 

 other parts of Hampshire, at least towards the coast. Near Ninham 

 farm, and in a field near Weeks's, by Ryde. Abundant on slipped 

 land near Niton, especially betwixt Knowle and the Sandrock Spring, 

 fringing the margin of a little stream descending to the shore from 

 the cliffs, and where my friend George Kirkpatrick, Esq., and myself 

 found a variety with pure white flowers, July 9, 1839. Bog at Cockle- 

 ton, near Cowes. On Lake and Blackpan Commons, in plenty. 

 Most abundantly in a moory meadow close to Stone farm, near New- 



