Plumbago.] LXXII. PLUMBAGINE^. 946 



obtuse, acute or acuminate, the larger ones 2 to Sin. long but mostly smaller, 

 the petiole dilated at the base into a stem-clasping ring or sometimes forming 

 prominent auricles. Flowers white or blue, each one sessile Tvithin a small 

 broadly ovate acuminate bract and 2 much smaller bracteoles. Calyx 4 to 5 

 lines long, the ribs strongly glandular-muricate, neither contracted nor expanded 

 at the top. Corolla-tube slender, much longer than the calyx ; lobes obovate, 

 about as long as the exserted part of the tube. Stamens included in the tube. 

 Nut much shorter than the calyx, contracted at the top and at the base, 5- 

 angled.— Bot. Eeg. 1846 t. 23 ; Wight, Illustr. t. 179. 



Hab.: Keppel and Shoalwater Bays and Thirsty Sound, jR. Brown ; Barnard Isles, M'GilUvray ; 

 Port Denison, Fitzalan ; Broadsound, BowjOTam; Bockhampton, DaKacft?/ >' Moreton Bay, F. u. 

 Mueller and others; very abundant on Goode Island, Torres Straits, the flower being quite as 

 pretty a blue as the garden variety F. capensis. 



The species extends over tropical Africa and Asia and the Pacific Islands to the Sandwich 

 Islands. 



Oeder LXXIII. PRIMULACEJE. 



Calyx usually of 5, sometimes 4, 6 or 7 divisions or teeth, free or rarely 

 the tube shortly adnate to the ovary. Corolla regular, more or less devided 

 into as many lobes or teeth as divisions of the calyx, imbricate and often contorted 

 in the bud, rarely veanting. Stamens as many as lobes of the corolla, inserted 

 in the tube or at the base, opposite the lobes. Ovary 1 -celled, with 1 or more 

 ovules attached to or immersed in a central placenta, usually quite free, thick 

 and globular, rarely ovoid and connected with the top of the cavity. Style 

 single, with a capitate stigma. Fruit a capsule, usually dehiscent. Seeds 

 albuminous. — Herbs or very rarely undershrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, 

 undivided except when growing under water, without stipules. Flowers axillary 

 or terminal. 



A widely spread Order, inhabiting chiefly the northern hemisphere, and often rising in high 

 mountains to great elevations, with a few southern species, and but very few within the tropics, 

 except in monntain districts. The 2 Queensland genera are both widely spread over the area 

 of the Order. Myrsinea, which generally replace Primulncete in the warmer regions of the 

 globe, scarcely differ from them, except in their shrubby or arboreous habit. — Benth. 



Tbibe I. ZiysimachleSB. — Corolla-lobes contorted. Ovary superior. 



Capsule circumsciss. Corolla rotate or campanulate. Leaves opposite or 



alternate ... 1. Anagalijs. 



Tkibe II. Samolese. — Corolla-lobes imbricate. Ovary half -inferior. 

 Staminodia or scales alternating with the lobes of the corolla. Leaves alternate 2. Samolus. 



* 

 1. ANAGALLIS, Linn. 

 (Supposed to possess the power to remove sadness.) 

 (Euparea, Gtertn.; Micropyxis, Duby.) 

 Calyx free, deeply 5-cleft. Corolla' rotate or campanulate, deeply 5-lobed. 

 Stamens 6. Capsule opening transversely by a circular fissure across the middle 

 (oircumciss). Placenta globular. — Annuals or perennials, with creeping procumbent 

 or diffuse stems. Leaves opposite or alternate. Flowers pink i^ed or blue, 

 axillary and solitary. 



A small genus, widely dispersed over the temperate and warmer regions of the globe, although 

 in some countries only as introduced weeds. Of the 2 following species, one belongs to the 

 latter class, the other may be indigenous, although common to tropical . Asia, Africa, and 

 America. — Benth. 



Leaves opposite. Corolla quite rotate 1. *A. arvensis. 



Leaves alternate. Corolla broadly campanulate, almost rotate. Flowers very 

 small 2. A.pumila. 



