PIMPERXEL (Anagdllis arvensis, L.). Flowers wheel-shaped, 

 barely | inch in diameter, salmon-red (rarely blue or white), 

 with a dark purple spot at the centre; borne singly on thread- 

 like footstalks from the axils of the opposite sessile leaves. A 

 low, spreading annual of neat habit with square stems, bloom- 

 ing in summer and common everywhere in waste places, along 

 roadsides and in fields. Leaves and flowers are usually in 

 pairs. 



The Pimpernel is an immigrant from the Old World, and is 

 at home quite across the Continent. One would call it a 

 weed if one had the requisite indifference of heart thus to desig- 

 nate so innocent and appealing a face amid the grasses. The 

 flowers are addicted to that habit so captivating to the child- 

 like mind of closing at nightfall, or even at the approach of 

 cloudy weather, whence a number of descriptive popular names 

 for it in England, as Poor Man's Weather-glass, Shepherd's 

 Warning, Wink-a-peep, and John-go-to-bed-at-noon. The 

 last name is hardly deserved on our Coast, for the flowers stay 

 open until much after noon, if the day be sunny. 



154 



