288 THE HEATH FAMILY. [ Monotropa. 
A genus of very few species, inhabiting the woods of Europe, Asia, and 
America, obviously allied to Pyrola, but readily distinguished by the want 
of green "leaves. As in the case of Pyrola, it has been divided into almost 
as many genera as there are species. 
1. M.Hypopitys, Linn. (fig. 646). Common Monotropa, Yellow 
Bird’s-nest.—Stem about 6 or 8 inches high, often rather downy in the 
upper part, bearing oblong or ovate concave scales instead of leaves. 
Flowers few, in a short terminal raceme. Sepals and petals nearly of the 
same size, ovate or oblong, glabrous or slightly downy inside, ‘persisting 
round the capsule. Anthers small, on slender filaments, opening by 
transverse valves. The terminal flower has its parts in fours, the lateral 
ones in fives. The whole plant is of a pale yellowish-brown colour, turning 
black in drying. Hypopithys multiflora, Scop. 
In Fir, Birch, and Beech woods, in Europe and all across Russian Asia 
and North America, becoming a mountain plant in southern Europe, but 
extends neither to high northern latitudes nor to great elevations in the 
Alps. Scattered over nearly the whole of England, but only found in 
some of the southern counties of Scotland, and very rare in Ireland. 7. 
summer. 
XLVI. PRIMULACEA. THE PRIMROSE FAMILY. 
Herbs, with leaves undivided except when under water ; 
the flowers either axillary or in terminal racemes or umbels, 
Calyx usually of 5, sometimes 4, 6, or 7 divisions or teeth. 
Corolla regular, more or less deeply divided into as many 
lobes or teeth as divisions of the calyx, or rarely wanting. 
Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, inserted in the 
tube opposite the centre of the lobes, or where there is no 
corolla, alternating with the lobes of the calyx. Capsule 
single, 1-celled, containing several seeds attached to or im- 
mersed in a free central “placenta, which is often thick a 
elobular. Style single, with a capitate stigma. 
A widely spread family, inhabiting chiefly the northern hemisphere, and 
especially high mountains, often at very great elevations. A few species 
reappear in the Antarctic regions, and even within the tropics, but the 
group is there represented chiefly by the Myrsinacee, which scarcely differ, 
except in their arboreous or shrubby growth. Both these families are 
chiefly distinguished from other regular-flowered Monopetals by the stamens 
being opposite to, not alternate with, the lobes of the corolla. This 
character requires some care in observing it, especially in those species 
of Lysimachia which have a deeply divided, rotate corolla, and the stamens 
erect in the centre of the flower. 
Aquatic plant, with the leaves all submerged and pinnate, with 
linear lobes . . ‘ ° « 1. Horronra. 
Terrestrial plants, leaves undivided. 
Leaves opposite, whorled or rarely alternate. Flowers axillary or 
rarely terminal. 
