76 BRITISH BOTANY. 



ceolate or linear or oblong. Flowers blue, roseate, or white, 

 pendulous, with coloured, very caducous bracts. Sepals five, very- 

 unequal, the two inferior ones (wings) large and petal-like, 

 changing into herbaceous-membranous when ripe. Capsule ob- 

 long or obovate, more or less notched, compressed perpendicu- 

 larly to the partition, with a border. Seeds oblong, hairy, black, 

 crowned with a white three-lobed aril. 



P. vulgaris, Lin. Common Milkwort. — e.b. 7Q. l.b.s. 141, 

 141b, 141c. 



A. 18. C. 82. Lat. 50-60°. Alt. 0-900? yds. Tern. 51-38°. 



Root tapering, vertical, woody. Stems 6-12 inches high, re- 

 clining at the base, ascending or erect, leafy ; stems shrubby only 

 at the base, wiry and prostrate, or slightly ascending. Lower 

 leaves scattered, oblong or ohovate, much shorter than the upper 

 ones ; upper leaves lanceolate-linear, alternate. Flowers blue or 

 pink, rarely white, in many-flowered terminal clusters, often uni- 

 lateral. Wings oblong or oblong-obovate, three-nerved, anasto- 

 mosing with an oblique branch of the central nerve (the two la- 

 teral nerves ramify repeatedly, so that, in fact, for nearly the 

 whole length of the wing there are 5 principal nerves, and at the 

 centre or middle of the leaf there are 7 nerves ; the branches 

 of the nerves are all directed towards the margin), or the two 

 lateral nerves are joined to the central one near the apex by two 

 horizontal nerves, and very much ramified towards the margin. 



Dry upland pastures, especially on a chalky or limestone soil. 

 Perennial ; May-September. 



Var. P. oxyptera, Reich. — P. calcarea, Schultz. — P. amara, 

 Don. — E.B.s. 2827. Lower leaves obovate, blunt, in an irregular 

 tuft. Calyx-wings oblong. "Lateral nerves distinct from the 

 central nerve," Babington. Flowers pale pink, rather small. 



In Jersey. 



P. austriaca, Crantz. — P. iiliginosa, Reich. 



Stems herbaceous, with a terminal raceme of flowers. Lower 

 or radical leaves obovate, obtuse, in a rosette. Stem-leaves oblong- 

 elliptical, much smaller than the root-leaves. Calyx-wings oblong 

 or ovate, blunt, with simple or slightly branched nerves. Capsule 

 broader than the wings, roundish, cuneate. 



Var. a. Leaves of the rosette larger than the leaves of the 

 branching stem ; flowers smaller than in the following ; capsule 

 rounded below. 



