Cflaux.] XL VI. PRIMULACE^E. 293 



northern Asia, and America, extending to the salt tracts and inland 

 seas of central Asia. Common on the British coasts. Fl. summer. 



VII. ANAGALLIS. PIMPERNEL. 



Procumbent or creeping herbs, with opposite leaves, and opposite 

 axillary flowers on slender pedicels. Calyx deeply cleft into 5 narrow 

 segments. Corolla 5-cleft, rotate or campanulate. Stamens 5. Capsule 

 opening transversely by a circular fissure across the middle. 



A small genus, chiefly from the Mediterranean region and central 

 Asia, with one South American species. 



Annual. Corolla rotate, blue or red I. A. arvensit. 



Perennial. Corolla campanulate, of a delicate pale pink . . . 2. A. tenella. 



1. A. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 660). Common P., Shepherd's or Poor 

 Man's Weather-glass. A neat, much branched, procumbent annual, 6 

 inches to near a foot long, with opposite, broadly ovate, sessile, and 

 entire leaves. Pedicels considerably longer than the leaves, and rolled 

 back as the capsule ripens. Calyx-divisions pointed. Corolla rotate, 

 usually of a bright red within, but occasionally pale pink, or white, or 

 bright blue. 



A very common weed of cultivation, in cornfields, gardens, waste 

 places, &c., all over Europe and Russian Asia, except the extreme 

 north, and has accompanied man in his migrations over a great part 

 of the globe. Fl. the whole season. The blue variety (A. ccerulea, Sm.) 

 is as common in central and southern Europe as the red one, but with 

 us it is rare. 



2. A. tenella, Linn. (fig. 661). Bog P. A delicate, slender, creep- 

 ing perennial, only a few inches long, with very small, orbicular, 

 opposite leaves. Flowers very elegant, of a pale pink, on long slender 

 pedicels. Segments of the calyx pointed but short. Corolla narrow 

 campanulate, of a very delicate texture, and deeply 5-cleft. Stamens 

 erect in the centre, with very woolly filaments. 



On wet, mossy banks, and bogs, chiefly along rivulets, throughout 

 western Europe, extending eastward to north-western Germany, Tyrol, 

 and here and there round the Mediterranean. Spread over the greater 

 part of Britain, but chiefly in the west from Cornwall to Shetland, and 

 in Ireland. Fl. summer. 



VIII. CENTUNCULUS. CENTUNCLE. 



Small, slender annuals, with minute axillary flowers, differing from 

 Anagallis in their alternate leaves, and in the parts of the flower being 

 in fours instead of in fives. 



Besides our own species, the genus contains but very few, all from 

 America. 



1. C. minimus, Linn. (fig. 662). Cha/a-eed. Stem often under an 

 inch and seldom 3 inches high, branched at the base only. Leaves 

 ovate, 1 to 2 lines long. Flowers almost sessile, shorter than the leaves. 

 Calyx-divisions linear. Corolla pink, very minute. Capsule opening 

 transversely as in Anagattis. 



In moist, sandy or gravelly places, ranging over Europe, Russian 



