" Nature,” observes Mr. Curtis, in his Flora Londinensis, “ seems to have 
taken uncommon pains in the formation of this little plant; few possess more 
liveliness of colour or greater delicacy of structure ; this must be sufficiently ob- 
vious to every common observer, but when its minute parts come to be viewed 
by the microscope, we are charmed with beauties altogether novel and unex- 
pected ; we then find that the edges of the flowers, which to the naked eye ap- 
pear a little uneven or hairy, are furnished with a number of little glands placed 
on footstalks, and that the hairs of the filaments, which par'ly tend to distinguish 
this genus, are regularly jointed. The pistil, which generally arises upright 
betwixt the stamens, is here inclined to one side, so that the stigma is placed 
without the circle of the stamens. The care which Nature has taken likewise in 
the preservation of these delicate parts from the injury of the weather, is not 
less remarkable. Every morning, if the weather be fair and warm, the blossoms 
fully expand, but if rain falls, or there be much moisture in the air, the flowers 
quickly close themselves up to secure the inclosed anther® and stigjna from 
having their functions destroyed : from this property it has acquired the name 
of the Shepherd’s, or Poor Man’s Weather-glass, — they have remarked, that 
if the flowers be open in a morning it will prove a fine day, if shut, the con- 
trary.” — It is stated in Loudon’s Encyclop»dia of Plants, that the flowers 
open regularly about eight minutes past seven in the morning in our latitude, 
and close about three minutes past two in the afternoon. Hence it is distin- 
guished by Linn/eus as one of the Flora: Horologia , which is thus elegantly 
alluded to by Mrs. Hemans, in her Dial or Flowers — 
“ ’Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours. 
As they floated in light away. 
By the opening and the folding flowers. 
That laugh to the summer’s day. 
Thus had each moment its own rich hue. 
And its graceful cup or bell, 
In whose coloured vase might sleep the dew, 
I.ike a pearl in an ocean-shell. 
To such sweet signs might the time have flow’d 
In a golden current on, 
Ere from the garden, man’s first abode, 
The glorious guests were gone. 
Yet is not life, in its real flight, 
Mark’d thus — even thus — on earth, 
By the closing of one hope’s delight. 
And another’s gentle birth ? 
Oh ! let us live, so that flower by flower. 
Shutting in turn, may leave 
A lingerer still for the sunset hour, 
A charm for the shaded eve.” 
A variety of the A. arvensis with a white flower is mentioned by Ray, as 
having been found in Cowley field, near Oxford, by Mr. Bobart. — A variety 
with a white flower, with a purplish pink eye, has been found by Mr. John 
Dillwyn, at Penllegare, South Wales : and by the Rev. E. Wilson, in York- 
shire. — In September, 1813, I found a variety with a kind of liver-coloured 
corolla, (fig. 2.) in a brick-field between Kensington and Hammersmith, at the 
back of Seymore-place. All these varieties, as well as A. carulea\, have 
come up spontaneously in the Oxford Garden every year for these eighteen years 
past. — A pale pink flowered variety was found by the Rev. Hugh Davies, in 
Anglesea ; and Professor Henslow, of Cambridge, met with the same variety 
at Higham, in Kent. — Mr. Wm. Pamplin, jun. of Lavender Hill Nursery, 
Wandsworth, informs me that a dull-red variety grow’s yearly in that nursey, 
spontaneously; he thinks it may probably be Parkinson’s sullen-red variety. 
Mr. Pamplin says they have also a light salmon coloured variety, and another 
nearly white, with a deep centre to the corolla, sent from near Taplow, Bucks, 
by Mr. Wm. Hurst. — A variety is sometimes met with that has four leaves 
growing together round the stem. 
J Botanists are of different opinions respecting the Specific Identity of Ana- 
gallis arvensis and c arnica ; some consider them as mere varieties, diffeiing 
only in the colour of the blossoms ; others have described them as distinct spe- 
cies. See Loud. Mag. of Nat. Hist, v iii. p. 537 ; v. iv. pp. 79, 277, 278, and 
466. and the several works quoted in the foregoing page. 
