Lentibularinea. 371 



yellow flowers having the stamens inserted at the base of the 

 lower lip. There are three species found in Britain, but 

 neither of them is common. Name from utriculus, a bladder, 

 in allusion to the leaves. 



ORDER LXXXVL PRIMULACE^I. 



Perennial or annual herbs, rarely shrubs, many of them 

 bearing handsome brightly-coloured flowers. Leaves usually 

 all radical, but when cauline opposite or whorled and exsti- 

 pulate. Calyx inferior, regularly 5-lobed, or less frequently 

 4- to 9-toothed. Corolla regular, hypogynous, rotate, campanu- 

 late or infundibuliform. Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube 

 and opposite its lobes. Capsule 1 -celled, splitting in valves or 

 transversely ; seeds attached to a free central placenta, albumi- 

 nous. There are about 25 genera and 200 species, chiefly from 

 temperate and cold regions. 



1. PRIMULA. 



Tufted perennials with crowded radical leaves and scapose 

 umbellate flowers. Calyx tubular - campanulate, 5 -toothed, 

 usually persistent. Corolla salver-shaped, erect or spreading. 

 Capsule splitting into 5 entire or bifid valves. About fifty 

 species are known, mostly European and Asiatic, a few 

 extending to North America. The name is derived from 

 primus, first, from the early flowering season of the species 

 originally described. 



1, P. vulgaris, syn. P. acaulis. Primrose. This plant is 

 so well known that we need do no more than point out the 

 differential characters. This is necessary, because the species 

 have been confused, and because some of the cultivated forms 

 appear to be intermediate between this and the next. Leaves 

 tufted, sessile. Umbel sessile, giving the pedicels the appear- 

 ance of being solitary. Calyx-tube inflated, angled ; lobes 

 acuminate. Corolla usually pale yellow, with a flat limb. The 

 variety caulescens (elatior of early English botanists), and 

 commonly known as the Oxlip, has the umbel stalked and the 

 calyx villous ; but the true P. elatior is only found in the 

 eastern counties, and there sparingly. This is said to differ 

 from the variety caulescens, and hybrids between P. vulgaris 

 and veris : from the former in the less inflated calyx, inodorous 

 flowers, and capsule longer than the calyx-tube ; and from the 



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