Lentibularinee. a7 
yellow flowers having the stamens inserted at the base of the 
lower lip. There are three species found in Britain, but 
neither of them is common. Name from utriculus, a bladder, 
in allusion to the leaves. 
Orpen LXXXVI—PRIMULACEA. 
Perennial’ or annual herbs, rarely shrubs, many of them 
bearing handsome brightly-coloured flowers. Leaves usually 
all radical, but when cauline oppesite or whorled and exsti- 
pulate. Calyx inferior, regularly 5-lobed, or less frequently 
4- to 9-toothed. Corolla regular, hypogynous, rotate, campanu- 
late or infundibuliform. Stamensinserted on the corolla-tube 
and opposite its lobes. Capsule 1-celled, splitting in valves or 
transversely ; seeds attached to a free central placenta, albumi- 
nous. There are about 25 genera and 200 species, chiefly from 
temperate and cold regions. 
1. PRIMULA. 
Tufted perennials with crowded radical leaves and scapose 
umbellate flowers. Calyx tubular -campanulate, 5-toothed, 
usually persistent. Corolla salver-shaped, erect or spreading. 
Capsule splitting into 5 entire or bifid valves. About fifty 
species are known, mostly European and Asiatic, a few 
extending to North America. The name is derived from 
primus, first, from the early flowering season of the species 
originally described. 
1, P. vulgaris, syn. P. acailis. Primrose.—This plant is 
so well known that we need do no more than point out the 
differential characters. This is necessary, because the species 
have been confused, and because some of the cultivated forms 
appear to be intermediate between this and the next. Leaves 
tufted, sessile. Umbel sessile, giving the pedicels the appear- 
ance of being solitary. Calyx-tube inflated, angled; lobes 
acuminate. Corolla usually pale yellow, with a flat limb. The 
variety cauléscens (elatior of early English botanists), and 
commonly known as the Oxlip, has the umbel stalked and the 
calyx villous; but the true P. elatior is only found in the 
eastern counties, and there sparingly. This is said to differ 
from the variety cauléscens, and hybrids between P. vulgaris 
and véris: from the former in'the less inflated calyx, inodorous 
flowers, and capsule longer than the calyx-tube; and from the 
BB2 
