THE BUTTER-WORT. 191 



very considerable, for, if the finger be passed over 

 the leaves, or flower-stems (on which last the dewy 

 points are even more conspicuous), it receives from 

 them a considerable quantity of moisture ; and yet 

 in two or three seconds the mark of its touch is 

 quite effaced, and the dew-drops glisten again as 

 before. The stalks are crowned with a beautiful 

 blossom, which, in the large-flowered butter-wort 

 (P. grandiflora), and in the common butter-wort 

 (P. vulgaris), are of the deepest and richest ame- 

 thyst purple ; while in the pale butter-wort (P. lu- 

 sitdnica) they are of a delicate lilac ; and in the 

 alpine butter-wort (P. alpvncL), a yellowish white, 

 a colour made more decided by a tuft of deep yellow 

 crystalline hairs * " which appears on the lower tip 

 of the corolla/' These four are the only species 

 admitted as indigenous to the British Islands by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker and Professor Balfour ; but the 

 "Edinburgh Catalogue" also gives a Pinguwula 

 longicornis (Gay). 



The corolla of the pinguicula is monopetalous, 

 but is cleft into five deep and irregular segments, 

 and has a lengthened spur at the back, from the 

 upper side of which the stem springs, so that the 

 blossom hangs suspended. 



The P. grandifolia, as a reference to the en- 

 graving will shew, is a handsome flower, whose 

 rich purple is relieved by a broad patch, on the 

 lower segment, of white traversed by purple lines, 

 and densely clothed with soft hairs, the rest of 



* Hooker, " British Flora." London says they are white, 

 but this must be a mistake. 



