PBIMOLACEffi. 



545 



creeping rootstock. Leaves small, 

 mostly opposite, sessile, ovate or oblong, 

 and entire. Flowers of a pale-pink co- 

 lour, not 2 lines long. Calyx deeply 

 5-lobed. Stamens about the same length, 

 with slender filaments and small anthers. 

 On sands, salt-marshes, and muddy 

 places, near the sea, in Europe, north- 

 ern Asia, and America, extending to the 

 salt tracts and inland seas of central 

 Asia. Common on the British coasts. 

 Fl. summer. 



Fig. 651. 



VII. PIMPERNEL. ANAGALLIS. 



Procumbent or creeping herbs, with opposite leaves, and opposite 

 axillary flowers on slender pedicels. Calyx deeply cleft into 5 narrow 

 segments. Corolla 5-cleft, rotate or campanulate. Stamens 5. Cap- 

 sule opening transversely by a circular fissure across the middle. 



A small genus, chiefly from the Mediterranean region and central 

 Asia, with one South American species. 



Annual. Corolla rotate, blue or red 1. Common P. 



Perennial. Corolla campanulate, of a delicate pale-pink . . 2. Bog P. 



1. Common Pimpernel. Anagallis arvensis, Linn. (Tig. 652.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 529. Shepherd's Weather-glass.) 



A neat, much branched, procumbent 

 annual, 6 inches to near a foot long, with 

 opposite, broadly ovate, sessile, and en- 

 tire leaves. Pedicels considerably lon- 

 ger than the leaves, and rolled back as 

 the capsule ripens. Calyx-divisions 

 pointed. Corolla rotate, usually of a 

 bright red within, but occasionally pale- 

 pink, or white, or bright blue. 



A very common weed of cultivation, 

 in cornfields, gardens, waste places, etc., 

 all over Europe and Russian Asia, ex- 

 cept the extreme north, and has accom- Fig. 652. 



