F I
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slender, filiform, an inch and a half long. Calyx deeply
5-parted ; segments lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, with a
scariose white border. Corolla double the length of the
calyx, lilac, rotate, divided into 5 rounded, crenulate, veiny
lobes. Stamens 5, equal. Filaments free at the base, clothed
with purple woolly down. Anthers linear, yellow, introrse,
reflexed, the cells parallel, and opening lengthways. Ovarium
sphærical. Style filiform, glabrous. Stigma small,
capitate.
Few plants make a more brilliant display in the flower
border, especially if planted in groups, than do the différent
species and varieties of this elegant genus, which is therefore
deservedly a general favourite with the cultivators of showy
flowers.
The present very pretty variety was communicated in
May last, by the Hon. William T. H. Fox Strangways, from
his collection at Abbotsbury Castle, Dorset. The colour of
the flower is intermediate between A . Monelli and fruticosa,
which we are convinced are nothing more than mere varieties
of one and the same species, having no other mark, except
colour, to distinguish them. Indeed, Botanists have been
disposed to place too much reliance upon colour in this
genus, in which it is an equally fallacious test of specific
difference as in the other genera of Primulaceoe.
The A . Monelli was taken up by Linnæus from Clusius and
other ancient authors, and we rely entirely upon them for
the species, as the specimen so named in the Linnæan Herbarium
proves to be only the blue variety of arvensis.
The generic name is derived from avayeXaa, to laugh, and
was applied by the ancient Greeks to a plant beneficial in
diseases of the liver. D . Don.
1. Calyx laid open, with the pistil. 2. Corolla with the stamens.
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