PRIMULACEJ5. 



537 



deeply divided calyx, and in the capsule, which opens by lateral slits 

 instead of terminal teeth. 



Besides our own species, the genus only comprises a single North 

 American one. 



1. Water Hottonia. Hottonia palustris, Linn. (Fig. 641.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 364. Water Violet Featherfoil) 



Stock perennial and creeping, with 

 whorled leafy branches entirely sub- 

 merged ; the leaves alternate and deep- 

 ly pinnatifid, with narrow-linear lobes. 

 From the centre of the whorl a single, 

 erect, leafless flower-stem arises out of the 

 water, bearing at intervals whorls of 

 from 3 to 5 or 6 handsome, pale-purple 

 flowers, on short pedicels, each with a 

 small bract at its base. Calyx of 5 deep, 

 linear divisions. Corolla with a straight 

 tube, rather shorter or scarcely longer 

 than the calyx, and a broad, 5-lobed 

 limb. 



In pools and channels, in central and 

 northern Europe, but not extending to 

 the Arctic Circle. Yery local in western 

 England and in Ireland, more common 

 in the central and eastern districts, and 

 not found in Scotland. Fl. early summer. 



Fig. 641. 



II. PRIMROSE. PRIMULA. 



Herbs, with radical leaves ; the flowers either solitary or in a ter- 

 minal umbel, on leafless, radical peduncles. Calyx tubular or cam- 

 panulate, with 5 teeth or lobes not reaching to the base. Corolla with 

 a straight tube, and a spreading, 5-lobed limb, each lobe often notched 

 or 2-cleft. Capsule opening at the top in 5 teeth. 



A genus widely spread in Europe and northern and central Asia, 

 containing many alpine species, one of which reappears in Antarctic 

 America. 



VOL. IT. D 



