298 A pocynceaw—Vinea. 
1. VINCA. 
Herbs or evergreen trailing shrubs. Leaves opposite, entire, 
glabrous and glossy. Flowers solitary, axillary, blue, white, or 
purple. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes glandular inside at the base. 
Corolla salver-shaped, the tube hairy within; lobes oblique. 
Stamens 5; anthers bearded. Disk biglandular. Carpels 2, 
many-seeded ; seeds neither plumose nor winged. There are 
about 10 species, occurring in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The 
genus derives its name from wincere, to bind, the use made of 
the flexible branches. 
1. V. mayor. Larger Periwinkle.—A trailing shrub with 
erect flowering-branches. Leaves ovate-cordate, ciliate. Flowers 
large and showy, bright blue, appearing in the Spring; calyx- 
lobes ciliate. There are several varieties, but the one called 
elegantissima, with beautifully variegated foliage, is the best. 
This species is a native of Europe and North Africa, and is 
occasionally found as a straggler from cultivation in Britain. 
2. V.minor. Lesser Periwinkle.—This is smaller in all its 
parts than the preceding. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or elliptical, 
not ciliated on the margins. It blooms about the same time. 
There are blue, reddish purple, and white single- and double- 
flowered varieties, and others with gold or silver variegated 
foliage. This species is frequently met with growing wild in 
England, though not usually considered as indigenous. It is 
confined to Europe. 
3. V. herbceca.—As the name implies this is of more her- 
baceous habit and less vigorous growth. The foliage, too, is 
less ample, and ovate or narrowly lanceolate, and rough on the 
margins. Flowers more abundant, with narrower corolla- 
lobes. A native of Hungary, flowering in Spring. 
2, AMSONIA. 
Perennial herbs with alternate leaves and terminal panicles 
of pale blue flowers. Corolla-lobes narrow. Anthers naked. 
Carpels or follicles long and narrow; seeds naked. Other 
characters the same as in Vinca. This genus consists of five 
or six North American species, and was named after an American 
traveller of some note. 
1. A. Tabernemointane, syn. A. latifolia.—An erect herb 
with ovate-lanceolate shortly-stalked glabrous leaves and ter- 
minal cymes of pale blue flowers appearing in Summer. 
