PRIMROSE FAMILY. Primulaceae. 



company, pushing their way up through the mold and 

 pine-needles, in the Wawona woods. 



PRIMROSE FAMILY. Primulaceae. 



A rather large family, widely distributed; herbs; leaves 

 undivided; flowers perfect, regular, parts usually in fives, 

 corolla mostly with united petals, stamens on the base or 

 tube of the corolla, opposite its lobes, sometimes with some 

 extra, sterile filaments; ovary one-celled, mostly superior, 

 with one style and round-headed stigma; fruit a capsule, 

 with one or many seeds. 



There are several kinds of Anagallis, not native in this 

 country. 



A little weed, common in gardens and 



Scarlet Pimpernel waste places with smoO th, four-sided, 

 Poor-man's . . * ., 



Weather-glass stems, branching and half trailing on the 



Anagallis ground, smooth, toothless, bright green 



arvensis leaves and charming little flowers, a 



quarter of an inch or more across, with a 

 West etc five-lobed calyx and wheel-shaped, five- 



lobed corolla, usually bright orange-red 

 and darker in the center, rarely white; the stamens five, 

 with hairy filaments; the capsule smooth and roundish, 

 containing many minute seeds. The flowers and leaves 

 are usually in pairs, the seed-vessels on the tips of slender 

 stems, curving around and toward each other, as if the 

 plant were stretching out its little hands, and opening its 

 little blossoms only in bright weather and closing them at 

 night. The Greek name means "amusing." The plant 

 was used medicinally by the ancients. 



There are three kinds of Trientalis, much alike, peren- 

 nials, with tuberous roots. The Latin name means "one 

 third of a foot," the height of these plants. 



A little woodland plant, with a slender 

 Star-flower gt from three tQ gix inc ^ es tall bearing 



Trientalis 



latifolia at ^ e to P a circ ^ e * from four to six, 



White, pink smooth, bright green leaves and one or two, 



Spring, summer threadlike flower-stalks, each tipped with 

 Northwest, Cal., a delicate fl ow er. The corolla is about half 

 an inch across, wheel-shaped, with no tube 



