Anagallis arvensis Linnaeus
scarlet pimpernel
worldwide except tropics
Though a common weed over much of the British Isles and seemingly native
in coastal habitats here and there (mostly in the far west), the records for
Anagallis arvensis as a folk medicine are oddly restricted geographically, with
a marked concentration in the south-west of Britain, albeit in use for a diver-
sity of ailments there. This may well be a relic of the older cultural layer of
that region associated with the speakers of the Cymric branch of Celtic. In
Wales the plant allegedly had a magical aura, with a reputation for keeping
away melancholy, to which end an infusion of it was once widely drunk.^258
Certainly ‘pimpernel’ features with impressive prominence in the recipes of
the medieval physicians of Myddvai in Carmarthenshire, which may in this
St John’s-worts to Primulas 127Anagallis arvensis, scarlet pimpernel
(Fuchs 1543, fig. 8)