Vinca.] apocynaoe^. 305 



dilated at their summits into 5 concave connivent scales, bearing 

 the anthers. Oermen and style binary, closely united together 

 with 2 glands at their base. Stigma a tuft of hairs on the peltate 

 summit of the style. Follicles 2, erect. Seeds naked (destitute 

 of pappus). 



A small genus of suffratescent, rarely herbaceous or truly shrubby plants, with 

 trailing or reclining, seldom erect* slems, opposite, entire, mostly persistent leaves, 

 and blue or rose-coloured flowers. Natives chiefly of the extra-tropical parts of 

 the Old World. Four species are found in Europe. 



The genus Vinca is interesting to the British botanist, as being, like some 

 others, the only indigenous representative of its natural order. Though closely 

 allied to the beautiful Oleander of our conservatories, if not possessing the splen- 

 dour of that favourite exotic, it at least does not share the poisonous qualities 

 common lo that shrub, with most other Apocynaceae. 



*1. V. major, L. Greater Periivinkle. Stems ascending, leaves 

 subcordato-ovate fringed, flowers stalked, sepals as long as the 

 tube of the corolla subulate ciliated, stigma with 5 angles. Sm. 

 E. Fl. i. p. 340. Br. Fl. p. 365. Lindl. Syn. p. 176. E. B. viii. 

 t. 614. Curt. Fl. Land. fasc. 4, t. 19. 



Half wild on hedgebanks and garden-fences, under walls, palings, and about 

 shrubberies, seldom at any great distance from habitations, and certainly not indi- 

 genous. Fl. March. Fr. July, August. 2^. 



E. Med. — Plentifully along a hedge in the bye-road from Nettlestone green to 

 Sea-view ; doubtless escaped from the shrubbery at Fairy Hill. In a hedge by 

 Pound farm, and in wet clay on a high bank of slipped land amongst brushwood 

 at Watch-house point, appearing at first as if wild; but the spot was formerly a 

 signal-station. Along a stone fence at St. Lawrence, near the well, in plenty, but 

 evidently introduced. In a lane at Norton. About Godshill, on banks and gar- 

 den-fences, in several places, but always near houses ; abundant on a bank below 

 the church, on the S. side. Under a wall at one end of a field called the Eastern 

 Acres, at the Steephill estate, apparently wild, Albert Hambrough, Esq. 



TV. Jlfed. — Between Cowes and Newport. Norton. Between Colwell and 

 Weston, and many other parts of the island. S. of Yannouth, plentifully, Mr. 

 W. D. Snooke. 



Root creeping extensively, somewhat knotty, and emitting bundles of whitish 

 fibres, stouter and less tufted than in V. minor. Stems stouter, less hard, tough 

 and rigid than in V. minor, scarcely shrubby, though long-enduring, the younger 

 and flowering shoots erect, the older and barren ones reclining, ascending or 

 arched, the rest trailing or sarmentaceous and rooting at the extremities; terete, 

 pale green and shining, a little succulent, more or less but not much branched, 

 usually reddish and mottled with purplish brown in their inferior part. Leaves fur 

 larger than in V. minor, the middle ones about 3 or 3| inches in length and from 

 li to 2f inches wide, persistent, much less rigid, of a deep, rich, lucid green and 

 a somewhat greasy lustre, as if oiled, slightly fleshy, and becoming membranaceous 



pervinca, possibly from pervincere, to overcome, in allusion to its power of over- 

 coming disease; or perhaps as an occasional substitute for the laurel or myrtle 

 crown of the victor in the field or the circus. Gerarde speaks of it as a never- 

 failing remedy in dysentery and hoemoptysis. Or it may derive its appellation 

 from its long trailing shoots usurping the soil in which it grows, and so choking 

 or overcoming all other plants in its vicinity, but not by clasping or twining 

 round them, which is contrary to its nature. 



* The V. rosea of Madagascar, so common in our stoves,, and now abundantly 

 naturalized in the W. India Islands, recedes considerably in structure from the 

 typical species of the genus. 



2 B 



