P E N T A N D R I A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. wheel-fliaped. Capf. burfting ail
round. Stamina hairy.
Sp e c . Ch a r . Leaves ovate, dotted beneath. Stem
procumbent.
Syn . Anagallis arvenfis. Linn. Sp. PI. 2 1 1 . Hudf. 87.
With. 238. Relh. 83. Sibth. 74. Curt. Land,
fafc. i .,t . 12. Tsiclif. II. Sicc.fafc. 12. ix.
A. flore phoeniceo. Raii Syn. 282.
A COMMON weed on fandy or gravelly foils in all kinds
of cultivated land, flowering all fummer long; yet, as Dr.
Withering obferves, “ every part of it is Angularly beautiful,
and will amply repay the trouble of a minute examination.”
Root final), annual. Stem procumbent, much branched at
the bottom, fquare, fmooth, leafy. Leaves oppofite, rarely in
fours, feflile, ovate, entire, fmooth, with one rib and feveral
longitudinal veins, dotted all over the under fide with purple.
Flowers axillary, folitary, on ftalks longer than the leaves.
Calyx-leaves lanceolate, with a membranous edge, very fharp-
pointed. Corolla in 5 deep-cut roundilh fegments, minutely
crenate or fomewhat fringed, of a vivid fcarlet with purple at
the bafe. Stamina purple, fringed with hairs of the fame colour.
Antherae heart-fhaped, yellow. Stigma blunt, notched.
Capfule globofe, greenifh, femitranfparent, burfting in two
equal hemifpheres. Seeds many, angular, thickly crowded into
a globe.
The blue Pimpernel is fuppofed to be a permanent variety
of this. We have as yet found no fpecific difference. Ray
mentions a white one.
This pretty flower opens only in fine weather, and infallibly
clofes againft rain ; hence it is called the poor man’s weather-
glafs, and it is one of the moll certain that can be confulted,
as we have often experienced.