THE PRIMROSE TRIBE. 189 



indicating its formation out of five carpels. The pe- 

 culiarity in the stamens is, however, sufficient without 

 referring to the fruit, except when the corolla has 

 fallen off. 



"With this character agree the beautiful pigmy 

 Alpine plants called Aretia and Androsace ; here also 

 are referred Soldanella with its little hells of blue so 

 prettily notched on the border and Cyclamen or 

 Soic-hread, whose fruit is forced, by the rigid coiling 

 up of the flower-stalk, down upon the earth, where it 

 lies concealed by the broad ivy-like leaves. Here 

 too are arranged the Pimpernel (Anagallis), one of 

 whose species is called the Poor Mans Weather-glass^ 

 because it is found in every piece of waste ground, 

 and will only open its tiny brick-red flowers in fine 

 weather, closing them at the approach of rain ; and 

 Loosestrife (Lysimachia), whose creeping stems, little 

 yellowish-green leaves, and brilliant yellow flowers 

 are the brightest ornaments of the moss and short 

 herbage that springs up in woods and shady places. 



Interesting as are the British species of this natural 

 order, they are far inferior in beauty to their relations 

 which live on the mountains of other countries : for the 

 Primrose tribe most frequently prefers Alpine stations 

 to all others. It is in the higher regions of the 

 mountains of Switzerland and Germany, on the 

 Pyrenees, and upon those stupendous ridges, from 

 which the traveller beholds the vast plains of India 

 stretching at his feet in a boundless panorama, that 

 the Primrose tribe acquires its greatest beauty. 

 Living unharmed beneath a bed of snow during the 



