The Pimpernel. 215 



Weather Glass, because the corollas never expand in rainy 

 weather or when the air is moist ; but on the contrary, when the 

 atmosphere is dry and the sun shining, they display their scarlet 

 and purple with happy effect, bespangling the earth with their 

 bright eyes in the most agreeable manner, but which are regu- 

 larly and firmly closed when Phoebus retires to the west This 

 is one of the wonderful instincts of inanimate nature ; were it 

 otherwise, the damps of the night air would prevent the discharge 

 of the farina from the anthers, and this species of plants would 

 be consequently lost to the link of nature's perfect chain ; for 

 although the Pimpernel is too lowly to excite the great interest 

 of man, its seed is the food of insects, who have their office to 

 perform towards the completion of the general harmony of the 

 globe. The smaller kind of birds seek this seed with great 

 avidity ; and as it is a plant that follows cultivation, it may con- 

 siderably save much of the seed of the husbandman from the 

 ravages of the feathered tribe. Like the poppy, the Pimpernel 

 is generally found in ploughed grounds and in gardens, particu- 

 larly where the air is pure and the soil light and sandy. The 

 Common Pimpernel — Anagallis Arvensis, the one represented 

 in our plate, continues to give out a succession of blossoms from 

 the month of June to the end of September ; and is, although a 

 mere weed, deserving a situation on the parterre, its flowers being 

 of a fine yellow scarlet, having a purple circle at the eye, which 

 adds considerably to the beauty of this miniature flower. It is a 

 native of England. 



The Blue-flowered Pimpernel — Anagallis Ccsrulea, is 

 far less common than the scarlet. It grows abundantly in Swit- 

 zerland, Germany and Sweden, and is often found in England. 

 Its petals have a spot of carmine color at the base of each, in the 

 same manner as the scarlet kind is marked by purple. Old 

 writers, after the ancient authors, distinguish these two kinds of 

 Anagallis by calling the blue flowered the female, and the red 

 the male Imperial. Pliny remarks, that sheep avoid the blue 

 Pimpernel, but eat of the scarlet, which he considers extraordi- 

 nary, since the difference of the plants can only be perceived by 

 the color of the flowers. He adds, that when a sheep by acci- 

 dent has eaten of the blue Pimpernel, the animal goes by instinct 

 to a plant, which he calls Ferus Oculus. Schreber says, that the 

 sheep eat Pimpernel readily; by some experiments we find in 



