546 



THE PRIMROSE FAMILY. 



panied man in his migrations over a great part of the globe. Fl. the 

 whole season. The blue variety, by some ranked as a species {A. cceru- 

 lea, Eng. Bot. t. 1823), is as common in central and southern Europe 

 as the red one, but with us it is rare. 



Bog Pimpernel. Anagallis tenella, Linn. (Eig. 653.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 530.) 



A delicate, slender, creeping perennial, 

 only a few inches long, with very small, 

 orbicular, opposite leaves. Flowers very 

 elegant, of a pale pink, on long, slender 

 pedicels. Segments of the calyx pointed 

 but short. Corolla narrow-campanulate, 

 of a very delicate texture, and deeply 5- 

 cleffc. Stamens erect in the centre, with 

 very woolly filaments. 

 On wet, mossy banks, and bogs, chiefly 

 along rivulets, throughout western Europe, extending eastward to 

 north-western Germany, Tyrol, and here and there round the Mediter- 

 ranean. Spread over the greater part of Britain but chiefly in the 

 west, from Cornwall to Shetland, and in Ireland. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 653. 



VIII. CENTUNCULE. CENTUNCULUS. 



Small, slender annuals, with minute axillary flowers, differing from 

 Pimpernel in their alternate leaves, and in the parts of the flower 

 being in fours instead of in fives. 



Besides our own species, the genus contains but very few, all from 

 America. 



1. Small Centuncule. Centunculus minimus, Linn. 



(Fig. 654.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 531. Chaffweed.) 



Stem often under an inch and seldom 3 inches high, branched at the 

 base only. Leaves ovate, 1 to 2 lines long. Flowers almost sessile, 

 shorter than the leaves. Calyx- divisions linear. Corolla pink, very 

 minute. Capsule opening transversely as in Pimpernel. 



In moist, sandy or gravelly places, ranging over Europe, Russian 



