BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
245 
GENUS VI. 
THiJ] W ATER-VIOLET. (Hottonia, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx five-parted. Corolla with a short tube, and a flat five-lobed limb. Stamens five, nearly sessile. 
Capsule globose, crowned with the long persistent style. (Dec.) 
Description, &c. —There is only one British species in this genus, viz. the Water Feather-Foil, or Common 
Water-Violet (Hottonia palustris, Lin.), and it is found in clear ditches and ponds in almost every part of 
England. The leaves are constantly under water, and they are so deeply cut, as to appear like a plume of 
feathers. The flowers are rather handsome, and of a delicate pink. The long fibrous roots of this plant 
penetrate deeply into marshy soil, and runners are thrown out from the crown of the root like those of the 
Strawberry. The plant is a perennial, and it flowers in June. The genus is placed in the Linnman class and 
order Pentandria Monogynia, because it has five stamens and a single style ; and the name of Hottonia is given 
to it in honour of a Dutch botanist called Hotton. 
GENUS VII. 
THE PIMPERNEL. (Anagallis, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Calyx five-parted. Corolla rotate, five-lobed. Capsule globose, dehiscing by a transverse incision. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —The species belonging to this genus are all elegant little plants, with ornamental flowers 
and square stems. The name of Anagallis is from the Greek word for laughing, but why it is given to this 
genus is not certain. It is placed in the same Linnman class and order as Hottonia. 
1 —THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, OR SHEPHERD’S WEATHER-GLASS. (Anagallis arvensis, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 529 ; 2nd ed., t. 287 ; and our fig. 6, in PL 46. 
Specific Character. —Leaves ovate, dotted beneath. Stem procumbent. Corolla minutely notched. (Smith.) 
Description, &c. —The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the prettiest of the British flowers; and though it is so 
common as to be found in every place where weeds are permitted to spring up, it has yet found favour with the 
poets, who have noticed its flowers closing before rain. 
Clo8ed is the pink-eyed Pimpernel, 
’Twill surely rain ; I see with sorrow 
Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.”— Dr. Jenner. 
(( Of humble growth, though brighter dyes, 
But not by rural swains less prized, 
The trailing 6tems allure, 
Of Pimpernel, whose brilliant flower 
Closes against the approaching shower, 
Warning the swain to sheltering bower, 
From humid air secure.”— Moral of Flowers. 
Humble as this little plant appears, there are many things in its botanical construction worthy of attention. 
When the flowers fade, the stems curl up and bring the seed-vessels near the ground. The seed-vessel itself is 
