I 4 2 FLOWERS OF THE CORNFIELDS 



The capsule is long and narrow and ribbed, and the seeds may be 

 partly dispersed like those of the censer fruits by aid of the wind. 



This plant is largely a lime plant growing on a lime soil, but will 

 also subsist on a dry sand soil. The Oolites are a specially favourite 

 formation of this plant. 



Legoiisia is from Legous, in honour of an early botanist, and the 

 second Latin name refers to the twofold colour of the corolla, blue 

 inside, lilac outside. 



This plant is called Venus's or Our Lady's Looking Glass and 

 Corn Violet. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



189. Legousia kybrida, Delarbre. Stem wiry, terete, sub-simple, 

 glabrous, angular, leaves sinuate, radical leaves stalked, stem-leaves 

 sessile, flowers few, solitary, lilac-blue, sessile, in the axils, corolla 

 rotate, shorter than the rough calyx, capsule triangular. 



Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis, L.) 



This pretty trailing cornfield weed is apparently quite a modern 

 plant in this country, not having been found in ancient deposits. At 

 the present day it is found in Europe and N. Africa, Siberia, West 

 Asia, as far east as the Himalayas in the North Temperate Zone. 

 It is an introduction in North America. The Scarlet Pimpernel is 

 found in every part of Great Britain except Peebles, Selkirk, Ross, 

 and the Shetland Islands. It is thus common from Ross and Banff 

 southwards. Watson regards it as a colonist in Scotland. 



The Scarlet Pimpernel is a typical cornfield plant, growing in open, 

 loamy, clayey fields, rarely lingering long in fields that have run to 

 fallow. It is similarly found in all places that are connected with 

 farming operations, and in the garden, being unable to compete with 

 grass in a meadow, and on the sea coast it is found upon shingle 

 and sand. 



This plant has the habit of Wood Loosestrife, which has in fact 

 been called Yellow Pimpernel. The stem is erect or lying on the 

 ground, branched, square, smooth and twisted, with water furrows 

 between the leaves. The leaves are opposite, stalkless, three-nerved, 

 egg-shapecl, narrowly elliptical, or heart-shaped, smooth, and with 

 brown dots below. 



The flowers are usually scarlet and solitary. They are borne in 

 the axils on long, slender, turned-back flower-stalks. The calyx has a 

 membranous margin and is triangular. The petals are purplish at the 



