gg4 VINCA. [ctASS V. ORDKR t. 



not half as long as the tube of the corolla. Corolla salver- shaped, the 

 tube dilated upwards, and with slender veins running ils whole length, 

 the Ivnb violet purple, about an inch wide, oi five flat spreading 

 obliquely trunc-tted segments, spirally twisted [ogethcr in Uie bud, the 

 orifice of the tube surrounded with five promirent angles, paler than 

 the rest. Stamens five, arising about the ii.iddle of the tube ; above 

 their origin to the orifice of the tube is clothed with short white shining 

 hairs. Filaments short, dilated upwards, smooth above, hairy below, 

 curved, beneath the stigma they are bent with an acute angle, after- 

 wards curving over it, and with the connivent anthers turning over its 

 summit quite enclose it on all sides. The anthers flat, auriculated at 

 the base, curved over the stigma, pale yellow, of two cells opening on 

 the inner side, with longtitudinal fissures near the margins, the upper 

 or convex surface mostly with a few simple hairs scattered over it, 

 especially on the margin. Style short, smooth, swollen upwards. 

 Stigma flat orbicular glandular, having from its disk, on a short stalk, 

 a thick tuft of delicate white silky hairs. Fruit an erect two celled 

 follicle, surrounded with the persistent calyx. Seeds without seed 

 down, but seldom perfected in England. 



Habitat. — Woods, hedges, groves, and shady places ; not unfrequent 

 in various parts of England, not so common in Scotland or Ireland. 



Perennial; flowering from May to July. 



This, we fear, in various stations described for it, is often the outcast 

 of gardens; but it is decidedly wild in Devon, according to the Rev. 

 J. S. Tozer, both with blue and svhite flowers. The white flowered 

 variety is very common in gardens, and the leaves also variegated 

 green and yellow ; this variegation appears to be owing to the kind of 

 soil in which they are grown. We have repeatedly taken fine healthy 

 green leaved plants with purple flowers from a good soil, and planted 

 them in one of poor rubbishy sand, gravel, &c., and in the course of 

 one or two years the leaves have become variegated, and the flowers 

 paler and shortly white; if these same plants were again removed to a 

 good soil, they would soon regain their former state of green leaves 

 and purple flowers. Both this and the following species are extremely 

 useful plants to the gardener, growing and ornamenting with a good 

 cover all the year, situations under the shade of trees, the drip of 

 buildings, &c. where most other plants would perish; and they are not 

 in the least particular as to the atmosphere being free from the smoke of 

 houses : this renders them extremely useful in ornamenting suburban 

 plantations, shrubberies, &c. afi'ording a lively green cover all the 

 year by their plentiful leaves, and in some situations they are scarcely 

 ever without flowers. 



V. minor, the Clematide prima of the old authors, was likened 

 by them to a serpent creeping amongst the grass. The stems and leaves, 



