primrose family

American  

noun

1. the plant family Primulaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants having simple, opposite, whorled, or basal leaves, flowers with a five-lobed corolla, and capsular fruit, and including cyclamen, loosestrife of the genus Lysimachia, pimpernel, primrose, and shooting star.

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Example Sentences

Samolus, sam′ō-lus, n. a genus of herbaceous plants of the primrose family.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

There were other flowers unfamiliar to me and hundreds of big blossoms of what I took to be a member of the primrose family.

From The Black Wolf Pack by Beard, Daniel Carter

Besides the primrose family, many other plants of several distinct natural orders present similar phenomena, one or two of the most curious of which must be referred to.

From Darwinism (1889) by Wallace, Alfred Russel

Eragrostis, 115Erechtites, 165Ergot, 110Erigeron, 165, 166Erodium, 142Erysimum, 135Euphorbia, 143, 144Euphorbiaceae, 143Evening primrose, 147Evening primrose family, 147 Fall dandelion, 168False Buckwheat, 121False flax, 134 Fe�male flow�er, one having pistils only, but no stamens; pistillate flower.

From Seeds of Michigan Weeds Bulletin 260, Michigan State Agricultural College Experiment Station, Division of Botany, March, 1910 by Beal, W. J. (William James)

Pimpernel, pim′pėr-nel, n. a plant of the primrose family, with reddish flowers—also Poor man's weather-glass, Red chickweed.—n.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various