OX-EYE DAISY. 54 



as handsome as it is mischievous. Its ray-florets are of a deep yellow hue, then- 

 tips not notched but divided into two lobes by a central indentation. The involucral 

 bracts are broad, with wide margins. Flowers June to September. 



II. Fever Few (C. parthenium}. Like the Ox-eye, this is a perennial plant 

 with a much-branched erect stem, broad pinnate leaves, downy and aromatic. The 

 flower-heads are small, and are clustered in many-headed flat-topped bouquets 

 (corymbs). The white rays are short and broad. Whole plant bitter and tonic. 

 Waste places and hedgebanks. July to September. 



Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis). 



The Scarlet Pimpernel, or Poor Man's Weather-glass, is one 

 of those wild flowers with which every country-dweller is 

 acquainted, for it has long enjoyed a reputation as a cheap 

 barometer, in consequence of its habit of closing the petals 

 over the essential organs on the approach of rain. The genus 

 Anagallis belongs to the order Primulacee, at whose 

 characteristics we have already glanced (see page 2). It has a 

 square stem, which lies along the ground and sends up many 

 erect branches. The leaves are ovate, the margins entire, 

 stalkless, usually borne in pairs, but occasionally in threes or 

 fours. The flowers are produced singly, on very long and 

 slender stalks, from the axils of the leaves. The sepals are 

 narrow, sharp-pointed, almost as long as the corolla. When 

 the flower has passed, their long stalks curve downwards with 

 the globose seed-vessel. When these are ripe they open by a 

 clean fissure all round, so that the upper half falls off and dis- 

 closes the numerous seeds. There is a variety often found with 

 blue flowers, which was formerly regarded as a distinct species, 

 but experiments with the seeds have proved it to be a mere 

 variety. One or other of these forms is common in all fields 

 and wastes from May till November. 



The Bog Pimpernel (A . tenella) is a distinct and very beautiful species. It has a 

 creeping and rooting stem, with small broadly-ovate leaves on short stalks. The 

 flower-stalks are shorter and stouter than in arvensis, and the sepals much shorter 

 than the graceful pale-rosy funnel-shaped corolla, which is very large in proportion 

 to the leaves and stem. It may be found in boggy places growing amid sphagnum- 

 moss, and flowering in July and August. The name Anagallis is the old Greek 

 name, and is made up of ana, again, and agallo, to adorn. 



