CCXI.— THE PIMPERNELS. 
Anagallis tenella Lightfaot, A. ccerulea Schreber, and A. arvensis Linne. 
T O appreciate to the full the manifold beauties of Nature we must vary our 
focus of vision. As he who would cultivate a catholic taste in art admires at 
one time the broad masses of colour on the spacious canvas that requires a gallery 
for its exhibition, and may then turn with equal pleasure to the miniature painting 
of the Dutch school ; so, while our eyes are at one moment charmed with the 
landscape effect of some fine tree, or of wide surfaces gay with some flower which 
may or may not possess much beauty of individual form, at the next moment we 
may delight in the delicate tracery and tinting of a single tiny weed, a spot of grace 
and colour upon the ground. 
And assuredly there are few more beautiful little plants than the Pimpernels. 
The popular name would justify our inclusion of the subject of the last Plate in 
this dainty group ; but, charming as it is, the genus Anagallis requires no addition 
to its list of beauties. Of twelve species in all, eight are European and three are 
British ; but their copious seed-production, efficient dispersal-mechanism, and small 
requirements as to space and soil, have secured for the group a wide area of extension 
in all four quarters of the globe. No one disputes the nativity of that lovely little 
denizen of our bogs, Anagallis tenella ; but our two other species are mainly cornfield 
weeds and as such are subject to the suspicion of an alien origin, apart altogether 
from the tint of their blossoms, so unusual among British plants. 
Mr. Dunn in his “ Alien Flora of Britain ” writes : — 
“Anagallis arvensis, L. A widely spread weed of roadsides, cultivated and waste places. It is native on sand-dunes in 
England, as well as in Southern and Western Europe. It is not often recorded in England from natural habitats, and may be 
confined as a native to the south-western counties. On the other hand, it may perhaps have a wider indigenous distribution, 
as such a common plant would often be overlooked in unusual habitats. With regard to the variety carulea y the plant recorded 
under this name by British botanists is the blue-flowered form of the Pimpernel, differing from the type in no other respect 
than colour. It is a common cornfield veed in Europe, and frequently reaches this country as a grain introduction.” 
We are not convinced of the soundness of several of these conclusions. The 
Scarlet Pimpernel, so well established on our vacant sand-dunes, may, after all, have 
come from the cornfields, as it might spread itself to other unusual habitats ; and we 
believe that in Anagallis c<erulea Schreber we have a species altogether distinct from 
the blue variety of A. arvensis Linne. 
Curiously enough, both the Latin and the common English names of these 
lovely little plants are of obscure origin. ’Ava-yaWis, Anagallis , used by Dioscorides, 
is said to denote that the plant excites pleasure ; but its etymology is uncertain ; 
while of Pimpernel Dr. Prior can only say that, as applied, with the variation Pimpinell , 
to the Salad Burnet ( Poterium Sanguisorba Linne) and to the Umbelliferous Burnet 
Saxifrage ( Pimpinella Saxifraga Linne), it comes from the mediaeval bipennella and 
refers to bipinnate leaves ; but that as applied to Anagallis it in no way agrees with 
that explanation. We would venture to suggest that here, as is often the case in 
