I. Mountain Groundsel (S. sylvaticus). Leaves similar to S. vulgaris, but divisions more accentuated. When the ray is present it is rolled back. The flower-heads are more numerous than in vulgaris. Plant with unpleasant fœtid smell. Dry upland banks and pastures. July to September.

II. Stinking Groundsel (S. viscosus). More objectionable-smelling than the last. Leaves broader, more divided, glandular, hairy and viscid. Plant much branched and spreading. Flowers larger: rays rolled back. Waste ground. Local. July and August.

III. Ragwort (S. jacobæa). Stem thick and leafy, 2 to 4 feet high, somewhat cottony, with clusters of large golden yellow flower-heads with spreading rays. Leaves finely lobed and toothed. Waysides, woods and pastures. June to October. Very plentiful.

IV. Hoary Ragwort (S. erucifolius). Similar to the last, but the stem more loosely cottony; the segments of the leaves more regular and less divided; rootstock creeping. Hedges and roadsides. July and August.

V. Water Ragwort (S. aquaticus). Like S. jacobæa, but of lesser growth. Flower-heads larger, leaf-stalks longer. Wet places, riversides, ditches. July and August.

Rye-grass (Lolium perenne), and
Upright Brome (Bromus erectus).

The structure of grass-flowers has been already described, and the reader should refer back to page 19. The inflorescence is a spike, the spikelets arranged in two rows, with their edges to the stem, which is channelled. There is only one outer glume, which is strongly ribbed, and shorter than the spikelet. The flowering glumes number from six to ten, or more.

This is one of the grasses that send forth leafy runners, which root and occupy surrounding ground. It is one of the most valuable to the farmer, on account of it early ripening, and its usefulness either for permanent pasture or for cropping. With good management as many as four crops may be obtained in one year. It grows in all waste places, and flowers in May.

The Darnel (L. temulentum) is its only native congener; an annual. It is similar to L. perenne, but produces no runners. Its presence among wheat is dreaded, as when ground up into flour it is believed to produce headache, vertigo, and other symptoms of poisoning. Darnel is the Tares of the New Testament, and is one of the very few grasses that are deleterious.

Upright Brome (Bromus erectus) is a perennial of strong growth, with stout creeping rootstock, sending up smooth and rigid stems 2 or 3 feet in height. The narrow leaves have their edges rolled inwards. The inflorescence is a lax panicle; the spikelets purplish in tint. The two empty glumes are unequal, and contain from five to eight flowering glumes, with awns, and hairy all over. There are seven other British species in the genus.

Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger).

At one time the Henbane was held in great esteem as a medicinal plant, and was then to be found very commonly on rubbish heaps, and the banks of ditches. Although it is still retained in the Pharmacopœia, its empirical use is not so great as formerly, neither does the plant appear to be so plentiful as of old. Its appearance and smell are somehow suggestive of its evil nature. It has a stout, branching stem, growing to a height of about two feet. The leaves are oblong, with irregular lobes, and the bases of the upper ones clasp the stem. The flowers spring from the axils of the leaves, and are almost stalkless. The calyx is pitcher-shaped, with a five-toothed mouth. The corolla is funnel-shaped, with five unequal lobes, and of a dingy yellow, streaked with purple-brown veins, though a form occurs with the corolla uniformly yellow. The five stamens are inserted at the base of the corolla-tube, and end in purple anthers, discharging their pollen by slits. The ovary is two-celled, supporting a simple style with a round head—the stigma. The whole plant is densely covered with sticky hairs.

On fertilization the ovary grows into a constricted capsule, with a distinct lid, which drops off to release the numerous seeds. It is the only British representative of the genus, which is said to get its name from two Greek words, Us, a hog, and Kuamos, a bean, but such etymology cannot be considered at all satisfactory. It flowers from June to August.

Quake or Totter-grass (Briza media), and
Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis).

The Totter-grass differs so strongly in appearance from other grasses that minute description is unnecessary except as an aid in making out the structure. Every child that plays in the meadow singles this out as the most desirable acquisition among grasses, because of its constant tremblings. The inflorescence is a very loose pyramidal panicle, due to the extremely long and hair-like stalks upon which the shining purple spikelets are swung. The empty glumes are two; flowering glumes six to eight. The stem creeps below the surface, and the leaves are flat. The plant is perennial; but there is another species, the Small Quake-grass (B. minor), that is annual. This is not so common a plant, and is found chiefly between Cornwall and Hampshire. It is much smaller than B. media, and has tufted stems; it flowers in July, media a month earlier. The name Briza is Greek, and was anciently applied to some kind of corn.

The Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) bears a general resemblance to Timothy (page 25), to which it is not distantly allied; but from which it differs in having no pale or scales. Its cylindrical panicle is yellowish-green, with silvery hairs, the branches bearing three to six spikelets. It is a perennial plant, and produces runners. It forms a valuable portion of all good pastures, the herbage being exceedingly nutritive. It flowers in May and June. The name is Greek, signifying Foxtail. There are three other native species in the genus:—

I. Slender Foxtail (A. agrestis). Annual. Panicle slender, often purplish, branches hairy, with two spikelets. A wayside weed. May to October.

II. Alpine Foxtail (A. alpinus). Perennial. Panicle ovate, short, ¾ inch, branches with four to six spikelets. Anthers yellow. Rare, near alpine streams, from 2,100 to 3,600 feet. Scotland. July and August.

III. Floating Foxtail (A. geniculatus). Perennial. Stems, procumbent and rooting. Panicle dense, slender. Branches with one spikelet. Anthers purplish. Pools and wet places. May to August.

Dog-rose (Rosa canina).

Probably most non-botanical ramblers feel able to distinguish at once between the Dog-rose and the Field-rose, and a few may be learned enough to separate either or both from the Burnet-rose and the Sweet-briar—and they may do it. But the scientific botanist has difficulties, and he is not quite sure where one species leaves off and another begins. Many workers have so split up our six or seven British roses into a vast multitude of species, sub-species, and varieties that it is difficult to follow them. In this work we shall not attempt it. The Dog-rose is the largest of the British roses. It forms a bush of considerable size, with long arching branches, covered with broad hooks. The leaves are broken up into five leaflets, each of which is sharply toothed. The sepals are five in number, pinnate, and turned back towards the stem when the flower is open. The petals are five, pink and notched. Stamens many. Styles free, hairy. The ovary is sunk in the calyx, which changes to the pitcher-shaped scarlet fruits—the “hips” of the schoolboy—in which are the hairy achenes. Flowers mostly solitary. Generally common in hedges and copses, flowering from June to August.

I. The Field-rose (R. arvensis) is very similar to R. canina, but the flowers are generally in clusters, the petals white. Sepals falling off. In similar places. June and July. Easily distinguished by its trailing habit.

II. The Burnet- or Scotch-rose (R. spinosissima) is a much-branched shrub, with the leaves divided into seven or nine leaflets. Stem crowded with nearly straight prickles, showing every stage in the transition from thorns to stiff bristles and glandular hairs. Petals white or pink. Fruit nearly globular. Heaths and open places chiefly, on sand and chalk, especially near the sea. May and June.

III. Sweet Briar (R. rubiginosa). A small bush with erect or arching branches, set with hooked prickles mixed with glandular hairs and bristles. Leaflets densely glandular and aromatic. Flowers small, pink. Fruit globose. Bushy places, chiefly in South of England. June and July.

Rock-rose (Helianthemum vulgare).

On our chalk-downs, and on banks in gravelly soils, from June to September the pale yellow flowers of the Rock-rose are abundant. In spite of its plentifulness, however, it is not among those flowers that are generally known, except to the botanist. The rest of the world probably includes it among the buttercups, with which it has no relationship. The plant is shrubby, with a creeping rootstock; its branches trail on the ground among grass and low herbage. It is therefore by no means a conspicuous plant, though it occurs in considerable masses, and is perennial. The leaves are small, oblong, with an even margin; the upper surface hairy, the lower downy. They are arranged in pairs on the stem, and provided with stipules.

The flower-bud is protected by only three sepals, but there are two others reduced to the size and shape of stipules; and so their number really corresponds with the five somewhat flabby petals, which have the softness of the poppy rather than the stiffness of the buttercup. The stamens that surround the pistil are a multitude; they are also irritable, and on being touched fall back from the pistil. The plant is common throughout the country, except in Cornwall and West Scotland, in which districts it is rare. The name is Greek, and signifies sunflower.

There are three other British species:—

I. White Rock-rose (H. polifolium). Similar, but more shrubby; margins of leaves curled back. Flowers white. Very rare. Stony places in Somerset and South Devon. May to July.

II. Spotted Annual Rock-rose (H. guttatum). An Annual, of erect habit; the lower leaves opposite, without stipules, the upper alternate, with stipules. Petals wedge-shaped, yellow, with a red spot at the base of each. Stony places, Anglesea and Holyhead; very rare. More freely near Cork and in the Channel Islands. June to August.

III. Dwarf Rock-rose (H. canum). More woody than the others; stems trailing. The whole plant hoary, and much branched. Leaves opposite, without stipules. Flowers yellow, not numerous. May to July, from Glamorgan to Westmoreland.

Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).

From June to October our commons, pastures, downs and railway banks are bright with the flowers of Bird’s-foot Trefoil, or as it is termed in some districts, Lady’s Slipper, a name which properly belongs to the rare orchis Cypripedium.

The plant belongs to the same Natural Order (Leguminosæ) as the Broom (see page 7 ante), and its flowers are of similar construction, though much smaller. There is a short, woody, perennial rootstock, from which originate several trailing branches, which are themselves much branched. The leaves are not trefoils, as the name would lead us to suppose, for the apparent stipules at the base of the leaf-stalk are in this genus leaflets. The flowers, which are in spreading heads of from three to ten flowers, are of a pretty yellow, tinted with red. They are succeeded by little cylindrical pods about an inch in length, which, when three or four are in a cluster, present the appearance of a bird’s claws. The plant is a valued ingredient in the formation of pastures and meadows. The name was given to the genus because this was believed to be one of the plants to which the ancient Greeks applied the name Lotus.

There are three other species natives of Britain:—

I. Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (L. uliginosus). More or less erect in habit. The calyx-teeth spreading in bud (in L. corniculatus they are erect in bud). Moist meadows and swampy places. July and August.

II. Hairy Bird’s-foot Trefoil (L. hispidus). Annual, trailing stems, long and slender, covered with lax hairs. Pods twice the length of calyx. Banks near the sea from Hants to Cornwall. July and August. Rare.

III. Slender Bird’s-foot Trefoil (L. angustissimus). Similar to L. hispidus, but stems shorter and more slender. Pod four times the length of calyx. Similar situations as last, but extending as far eastward as Kent. Very rare.

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa). Plate 44.

The Vetches are Leguminous plants, and the structure of the flowers is therefore very similar to those just described. The Vetches are chiefly climbing plants, and have pinnate leaves. The leaflets are numerous, and the leaf-stalk is continued for some distance beyond the leafy portion, where it becomes a clasping tendril, often divided into three or four branches. The Common Vetch is to be found in hedges and roadsides near cornfields, flowering from April to June. The flowers are pale purple in colour, and are produced singly or in pairs from the axils of the leaves. By some authorities this is not considered a true species, but merely a cultivated form of the Narrow-leaved Vetch (V. angustifolia). The seed-pods are slightly hairy, and from two to three inches in length. The name Vicia is the term by which the plants were known to the ancients and appears to have the same origin as Vinca (see page 5).

There are no less than ten British species of Vicia, but as some of these are very rare, we shall refer only to some of the commoner kinds.

I. Slender Tare (V. tetrasperma). Stem very slender, about 2 feet in height. Flowers singly or in pairs, pale blue. Pods with three or four seeds. Hedges and cornfields. May to August.

II. Common Tare (V. hirsuta). Similar to foregoing species, but hairy. Flowers smaller, pods shorter, hairy, and containing two seeds only. In similar situations. These are both annuals.

III. Tufted Vetch (V. cracca). With creeping rootstock and angled stem, climbing or spreading; somewhat silky. The bright blue flowers are borne in a dense one-sided raceme, to the number of twenty or thirty. The pod is beaked, about an inch in length, and contains a large number of seeds. Hedges and bushy places. June to August. Perennial.

IV. Bitter Vetch (V. orobus). Leaves in seven to ten pairs of leaflets, without tendrils. Stem erect, branched, hairy. The flowers purplish-white, ten to twenty, in loose one-sided racemes. Pod pointed at each end, containing four or five seeds. Rocky and mountainous woods on the western side of Britain. May to September.

V. Wood Vetch (V. sylvatica). Perennial creeping rootstock. Stems, 3 to 6 feet, scrambling and trailing over bushes and undergrowth. Tendrils branched. Leaves beautifully divided into six or eight pairs of leaflets. Flowers white, streaked and veined with purple, and borne loosely in a one-sided raceme, to the number of eight to eighteen. A beautiful species, found only locally in woods at high elevation.

VI. Bush Vetch (V. sepium). Creeping perennial rootstock, giving off runners. Leaflets, six to eight pairs. Flowers, dull purple, four to six in a cluster, not on a long stalk as in the Wood Vetch, but from the axils of the leaves, as in the Common Vetch. May to September. In hedges and bushy places.

The Duckweeds (Lemna).

The Duckweeds—Shakespeare’s “Green mantle of the standing pool”—are plants that are well-known to everybody, and consequently very few persons know anything of them. This is a paradox; but they are so common and so small that the average man or woman is content to know them in the aggregate, and cannot condescend to a more intimate acquaintance with individuals, or with the different species, yet like many other small things—“unconsidered trifles”—they are very interesting to the botanist; for these are among the smallest and simplest of the flowering plants. Taking up two or three plants from one pond and comparing them with some from another piece of water, we shall probably find a difference in them; but they are all possessed of a more or less flattened green body that floats on the water, and which we shall be inclined to call a leaf. It is not a leaf, however, but a plant that produces no leaves, though it has roots and flowers. To be more accurate we will call it a frond, from whose under-surface there goes down one or more simple unbranched roots, and in clefts of whose margin are simple flowers. The flower consists of an envelope or spathe (see page 15), within which is a bottle-shaped pistil, with one or two stamens beside it. Some authorities contend that the pistil and each of the stamens is really a distinct flower similar to those in Arum. These flowers are so minute that they are rarely seen, and so are thought to flower only occasionally. The plant is chiefly multiplied by the production of new fronds from its edges. The four species figured give the whole of the genus, so far as Britain is concerned; but three others are known in foreign waters. The differences in the natives may be thus briefly enumerated:—

I. Least Duckweed (Lemna minor). The most frequent species. Frond not more than a quarter of an inch long, egg-shaped, the top flat and bright green, underside very pale green and slightly convex, with a single root. Spathe two-lipped, one much larger than the other. Stamens two, one maturing before the other; style long. Flowering in July.

II. Ivy-leaved Duckweed (L. trisulca). Frond thin and flat, nearly an inch long, tailed at one end, coarsely toothed at the other. New fronds emerge at right angles to the parent. Roots solitary. Stamens two; style short. June and July.

III. Thick-leaved Duckweed (L. gibba). Frond nearly round, narrowed at one end, large, almost flat, green opaque on top, greatly swollen beneath, whitish, clear, the cell-structure being very noticeable. Root solitary, stamens two. Flowers June to September.

IV. Great Duckweed (L. polyrhiza). At once distinguished from the others by its bunch of roots from each frond. Upper surface slightly convex, dark green with seven nerves. Underside purple, as also the upper margins. Stamens two. Flower has been rarely, if ever, seen in this country.

Late in Autumn the fronds sink to the bottom of the ponds and ditches, and remain there hibernating till Spring, when they arise to the surface, and again vegetate. The name of the genus is the old Greek appellation of the plant Lemna, supposed to be derived from Lepis, a scale.

Corn Chamomile (Anthemis arvensis).

We have already described several species of Compositæ, and now return to that order to describe a type of flower very similar in general appearance to the Daisy (page 1). The Corn Chamomile is an annual plant; the lower portion of its stem is prostrate, sending up erect branches with alternate, prettily cut leaves, twice pinnate. The flower-heads are borne singly on long stalks, and the floral envelope (involucre) consists of a number of over-lapping scales (bracts), whose margins are dry and chaffy. The base (receptacle) upon which the florets are packed is convex and covered with little chaffy scales, which stand up between the florets. The disc-florets contain both anthers and pistil; the ray-florets are pistillate only. The whole plant is downy. It occurs in fields and waste places, flowering from May to August. Though somewhat widely distributed, it is a local plant. The name is an old Greek name for the Chamomile, from anthemon, a flower, probably owing to the profusion of its blossoms.

The other British species of the genus are two only:—

I. The Stinking May Weed (A. cotula). Ray-florets usually without pistils. The plant is smooth or hairy, not downy, but the leaves are quite smooth, and covered with minute glands, which secrete a fœtid-smelling and acrid juice, causing swelling of the hands in persons clearing fields of this weed. The flower-stalks are more slender than in arvensis, and the involucral bracts are narrower at their tips. Fields, wastes and roadsides; very common in South of England, rare in the North. Flowers June to September.

II. The Chamomile (A. nobilis). Perennial. Branches spreading from the root, leafy and furrowed, hollow. Leaves woolly, aromatic. Flower-stalk long and slender; involucre downy and chaffy. The ray-florets are sometimes wanting. In great favour as a remedy for indigestion. Gravelly pastures and dry wastes in England and Ireland. Rare. It is not a native of Scotland. Flowers July to September.

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum).

There are no less than eleven native species of St. John’s Wort, all characterized by a neat habit, clean-cut leaves without stalks, yellow flowers in cymose clusters, and a multitude of stamens, which are more or less joined in several bundles.

The species represented on our plate is one of the commonest, and occurs in copses and hedgebanks throughout the kingdom, as far north as Sutherland, flowering from July to September. It is very erect in habit, the stems two-edged, pale brown and smooth, two or three feet high. If the leaves are held up to the light it will be found that the veins (but not the reticulations) are pellucid, and that the leaf is thickly dotted with pellucid glands. The flowers are 1 to 1¼ inch in diameter. The calyx, corolla, and sometimes leaves are more or less marked with black dots and lines. The sepals and petals are each five in number; the ovary large, pear-shaped, surmounted by three long styles, which are longer than the ovary. The stamens joined in three bundles by their bases only. Sepals glandular.

Among the other British species are:—

I. Square-stalked St. John’s Wort (H. tetrapterum). Stem with four narrow wings, 1 to 2 feet, leaves broader than in perforatum, but the glands, veins and reticulations are pellucid. Styles shorter than the ovary. Flowers dense, ½ to ¾ inch. across. Moist places, July and August.

II. Trailing St. John’s Wort (H. humifusum). Stems slender, compressed, prostrate, not exceeding a foot. Leaves small, oblong; glands pellucid; the margins are often marked with black glands, and are sometimes rolled back. Flowers, ½ inch across. Sepals unequal. Styles very short. Commons and wastes. July and August.

III. Small Upright St. John’s Wort (H. pulchrum). Stems slender, round, smooth, erect. Leaves heart-shaped, with pellucid glands. Sepals small, oblong, with black glandular teeth. Petals yellow, tinged with red, and edged with black glands. Styles short; anthers red. Flowers ¾ inch, loose panicles. Dry woods and heaths. June and July.

IV. Hairy St. John’s Wort (H. hirsutum). Stem erect, round, downy. Leaves large, with short stalks, downy beneath, pellucid glands. Sepals very narrow, half length of petals, with black glandular teeth. Woods and thickets, especially on chalk. July and August.

V. Tutsan (H. androsæmum). Stem shrubby, compressed, 2 feet high. Flowers few, ¾ inch across. Sepals unequal, glandular, except margin. Petals and stamens not permanent. Stamens in five bundles. Styles shorter than stamens. Hedges and thickets. July to September.

Clovers (Trifolium).

Everybody knows a Clover when he sees it; it is therefore unnecessary to take up our space with a general description. Their great value as pasture plants has caused their typical forms of flower and leaf to be well known; but we have so many native species, to say nothing of the introduced kinds, that few besides botanists and agriculturists are acquainted with their specific characters.

All the Clovers or Trefoils are Leguminous plants, and the structure of the individual flower is very similar to that of Lotus and Vicia; but the flowers are much smaller, and are gathered into a conspicuous head. In certain species there are floral bracts, and in some these form an involucre. It is characteristic of most of the clovers that when the seed is set the petals do not fall off, but simply dry up and wrap round the pod. The name of the genus is Latin, and signifies three-leaved. The principal British species are:—

I. Subterranean Trefoil (T. subterraneum), so called from its singular habit of burying its pods in the earth when they are ripening. The plant has many creeping stems, covered with soft hairs. The heads of flowers are cream-coloured, and are produced in the axils. The individual flowers are long and slender; only a few in each head are fertile, and in this species the petals fall off early. The pod is a compressed orb. Dry, gravelly pastures. May and June.

II. Hare’s-foot Trefoil (T. arvense). Stems almost erect. Flower-heads numerous, dense, cylindric, softly hairy; flowers pinky-white, minute; teeth of the calyx longer than the corolla. Corn-fields and dry pastures. July to September.

III. Common Purple or Red Clover (T. pratense). (See figure.) This is the clover so commonly grown in meadows as an important ingredient in the hay-crop. Its large oval leaflets are frequently marked with a whitish band that takes more or less of a quarter-moon shape. Its flower-heads are round, afterwards becoming longer than broad, purplish red in colour. Calyx-teeth slender, bristly, not longer than corolla. Top of pod dropping off when ripe. This is the clover Darwin made famous by showing that the cultivated forms must die out but for the humble-bees, whose tongues alone are long enough to fertilize its long flowers. Meadows, pastures and roadsides. May to September.

IV. Zigzag or Meadow Clover (T. medium). Leaflets more pointed than in pratense, and spotless. Stem branched in such a manner as to give it a peculiarly zigzag appearance. Heads larger, and of a deeper purple than pratense. Calyx-teeth half the length of corolla. Pod splitting lengthwise. Pastures, flourishing in lighter soils than pratense. June to September.

V. Soft Knotted Trefoil (T. striatum). Stem more or less reclining, downy or silky. Flower-heads both terminal and axillary, small, rosy-red, broader at the base. Calyx-tube swollen, ribbed, contracted at mouth, teeth not so long as corolla. Dry pastures. June and July.

VI. Rough Rigid Trefoil (T. scabrum). Stems rigid, prostrate. Leaflets rigid, toothed, the veins thickened. Flower-heads broadest in middle. Flowers small, the corolla white, calyx purple; calyx-teeth as long as corolla. Chalky and sandy pastures near sea. May to July.

VII. Dutch Clover (T. repens). Stems smooth, creeping, but not rooting. Leaflets often with a dark spot at the base, below a whitish band. Heads of flowers globose, all produced from the axils, on long stalks. The flowers white or pinkish, attached by short stalks, which are recurved after flowering, so that the pods are all drooping. Meadows and pastures. May to October.

VIII. Strawberry-headed Clover (T. fragiferum). Similar in habit to the last. Flower-head globose, of small purple-red flowers, much larger after flowering, when the calyces swell and take on a red colour, which increases size of head to an inch in diameter, and gives it a strawberry-like aspect. Meadows and pastures. July and August.

IX. Hop Trefoil (T. procumbens). (See Figure on p. 47.) This must not be confounded with the Hop Trefoil of the farmer (Medicago lupulina), in which the flowers are borne in spikes (see p. 73). The stems are downy, one growing erect, others all round it creeping. The flowers are pale yellow, crowded in the heads, the upper petal (standard) broad, and arched over the straight pod, turning bright brown, which gives the head the appearance of a hop strobile. The pods are always so covered in this species, whereas, in Medicago lupulina they are naked. Dry pastures and roadsides. June to August.

X. Small Yellow Trefoil (T. dubium). Stems slight, creeping, nearly smooth. Heads smaller, on long slender stalk. Flowers yellow, the standard narrow, keeled, turning dark brown after flowering and wrapped round the pod. Similar situations and date to last.

Sain Foin (Onobrychis sativa). Plate 49.

Still keeping to the Leguminous plants, we have here a handsome herb of aspect very different from that of the Trefoils. It is much cultivated as a fodder plant in dry fields, but will also be found growing wild on chalk-hills and downs. It is, however, suspected of being an escape from cultivation that has taken to an independent life. The plant springs from a perennial woody rootstock, and its stout downy stems are more or less erect. The leaves are pinnate, the leaflets in about twelve pairs and a terminal one. The flowers are in spikes, the standard broad; bright clear pink, veined with a deeper rosy tint. The pod is semicircular, wrinkled, and contains but one seed. Flowers June to August. The name is derived from two Greek words, signifying the braying of an ass, because that animal is fabled to bray after it when he sees but cannot reach it.

Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis).

From the close-cropped turf of our commons and in meadows the bright eyes of this plant peep out through the summer. In such situations it is a very lowly herb, only an inch or so in height, but in some places, as in the pastures of the Highlands, it grows erect to a height of nearly a foot, with many opposite branches. The leaves are ovate, opposite, without stalks, and of a dark-green hue. The flowers are borne near the extremities of the branches. Some of the flowers are much larger than others, and in the larger the stigmas ripen before the anthers; in the smaller the anthers mature before the stigmas. The tubular calyx is divided into four sharp lobes. The corolla is white, streaked with purple, except the central lobe of the lower lip, which is yellow. This is the only native species of the genus—which is comprised in the order Scrophularineæ—though there are several varietal forms. Flowers from May to September. The name is from the Greek, Euphraino, to delight or gladden, in allusion to the pleasing contrast of its bright flowers with the dark foliage, or from its supposed efficacy for complaints affecting the eyes—its removal of these giving gladness.

The plant is—at least partially—a parasite, and preys upon the roots of other plants, which it robs. Probably the lowly forms to which we have referred may be less parasitic than those of greater stature; for if the seeds are sown in pots by themselves they will germinate and grow, but will never get large robust plants.

Great Reed Mace (Typha latifolia).

Of late years it has become the general error to call this plant Bulrush, a name which belongs by right to Scirpus lacustris. Every autumn the hawkers in London and other cities offer the cylindrical spikes of Typha for sale as æsthetic decorations, and call them bulrushes; but they are not the originators of the blunder. It is the artists who have done this thing, especially one Delaroche, whose picture of “The Finding of Moses” is of world-wide popularity. In that painting he depicted the future leader of his people rocking in his ark amid a forest of Typha. What more was needed to associate the word bulrush of the Bible (itself a blunder of the learned translators) with this plant?

There are two British species, perennial plants with long, narrow, grass-like leaves, the bases of which sheath the stem. The stamens and pistils are produced in separate flowers, but upon the same plant. The flowers have no perianth other than a few slender hairs. The staminate flowers occupy the upper portion of the well-known spike or “mace,” and consist simply of several stamens joined together, the anthers opening along their sides. The pistillate flowers consist of a stalked ovary with a slender style and a one-sided narrow stigma. The specific differences are as follows:—

I. Great Reed Mace (T. latifolia). Leaves as much as an inch and a half broad, in two rows, bluish-green. Flowering stem naked, 6 or 7 feet high. Staminate and pistillate spikes continuous, or but slightly interrupted. Growing in lakes and on the banks of rivers. Flowering in July and August.

II. Lesser Reed Mace (T. angustifolia). Whole plant smaller. Leaves half the width, dark green, grooved at lower end. Staminate and pistillate spikes separated by an interval. Stigmas broader. Ditches and pools. Less common than latifolia. Flowering July.

Name from Greek, Tiphos, a fen or marsh, from the habitat.

Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria).

The Kidney-vetch or Lady’s fingers was celebrated from early times as a plant that was efficacious in the cure of wounds, and hence its specific name vulneraria. There is no doubt that this reputation was well-founded, for its bluish leaves are covered with silky hairs and its calyces downy. It is a perennial herb that affects dry pastures and rocky banks. From a woody rootstock arise several stems and a large number of radical leaves; these consist of a long terminal leaflet and two disproportionately small lateral leaflets. The leaves from the stems (caudal leaves) have a larger number of leaflets in pairs, as well as a terminal one. The flowers are borne in heads, with an involucre of leaflets, and the heads are chiefly in pairs. The calyx is membranous, and therefore permanent, the mouth oblique, with fine teeth. The petals are nearly equal in length, and typically yellow, but subject to considerable variation. After flowering the straw-coloured calyx becomes inflated, and the roundish smooth and veined pod with its solitary seed is hidden within. In some of the coast localities for this plant it will be found with flowers white, cream-coloured, crimson, and purple; this has been especially noted at the Lizard in Cornwall. It is ordinarily in flower from June to August. This is the only British species.

The name is the one in use among the ancient Greeks, and signifies bearded flower, which is obviously a reference to the woolly calyces.

Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum).

We have already given several examples of Composite flowers, and an examination of the Ox-eye Daisy would quickly convince the reader that he has another Composite under consideration. The popular eye noted long ago its similarity to a big daisy, and named it accordingly. In Scotland, too, where the daisy is known as a “gowan,” the resemblance has been recorded by calling the Ox-eye a “horse gowan.” If reference be made back to the Daisy (page 1), it will be seen that the involucre consists of a single series of green scales, whilst in the Ox-eye this part of the flower consists of three or four series of scales with thin brown or purple edges, overlapping each other after the manner of the tiles on a roof. The white ray-florets are notched at the ends, unlike those of the Daisy. The Ox-eye, too, it will be noted, has a distinct stem, the leaves of which differ from those produced directly from the rootstock, being narrower, deeply toothed and stalkless. It is but too abundant in pastures and hay fields, which are effectively whitened by its flowers from May to August. The name is from two Greek words, Chrysos, golden, and anthemon, flowers, from the golden discs of the flower-heads.

There are two other British species:—

I. Corn Marigold (C. segetum). A troublesome annual weed in cornfields, but as handsome as it is mischievous. Its ray-florets are of a deep yellow hue, their tips not notched but divided into two lobes by a central indentation. The involucral bracts are broad, with wide margins. Flowers June to September.

II. Fever Few (C. parthenium). Like the Ox-eye, this is a perennial plant with a much-branched erect stem, broad pinnate leaves, downy and aromatic. The flower-heads are small, and are clustered in many-headed flat-topped bouquets (corymbs). The white rays are short and broad. Whole plant bitter and tonic. Waste places and hedgebanks. July to September.

Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).

The Scarlet Pimpernel, or Poor Man’s Weather-glass, is one of those wild flowers with which every country-dweller is acquainted, for it has long enjoyed a reputation as a cheap barometer, in consequence of its habit of closing the petals over the essential organs on the approach of rain. The genus Anagallis belongs to the order Primulaceæ, at whose characteristics we have already glanced (see page 2). It has a square stem, which lies along the ground and sends up many erect branches. The leaves are ovate, the margins entire, stalkless, usually borne in pairs, but occasionally in threes or fours. The flowers are produced singly, on very long and slender stalks, from the axils of the leaves. The sepals are narrow, sharp-pointed, almost as long as the corolla. When the flower has passed, their long stalks curve downwards with the globose seed-vessel. When these are ripe they open by a clean fissure all round, so that the upper half falls off and discloses the numerous seeds. There is a variety often found with blue flowers, which was formerly regarded as a distinct species, but experiments with the seeds have proved it to be a mere variety. One or other of these forms is common in all fields and wastes from May till November.

The Bog Pimpernel (A. tenella) is a distinct and very beautiful species. It has a creeping and rooting stem, with small broadly-ovate leaves on short stalks. The flower-stalks are shorter and stouter than in arvensis, and the sepals much shorter than the graceful pale-rosy funnel-shaped corolla, which is very large in proportion to the leaves and stem. It may be found in boggy places growing amid sphagnum-moss, and flowering in July and August. The name Anagallis is the old Greek name, and is made up of ana, again, and agallo, to adorn.

Chickweed (Stellaria media). Plate 54.

To utilize a blank space we have printed the portrait of the lowly and ubiquitous Chickweed, a plant that has followed English pioneers wherever they have gone about the world. It is thoroughly known to all, but for particulars concerning it and the genus the reader is referred to page 62.

Fennel (Fœniculum officinale).

To see the Fennel in its native haunts we must seek the coast where there are cliffs, up whose face we shall find its tall, stout, jointed stems and umbellate flowers. In this plant we make acquaintance with an important Natural Order, the Umbelliferæ, which includes such useful plants as Celery, Parsley, Carrot, Parsnip, Asafœtida, Anise, Dill, Hemlock, etc. The prevailing characteristics of this order are: The stems are hollow; the leaves, with few exceptions, are divided; the leaf-stalk at its base expands and forms a sheath to the stem; the flowers borne on long stalks arranged like the ribs of an umbrella; the flowers five-parted, the ovary below the petals and stamens, and the fruit what is known as a cremocarp.

Fennel grows to a height of three or four feet, with a round and tubular, but almost solid stem, quite solid at the joints, and grooved. The leaves are so much divided that the divisions are merely many green threads. The flowers are individually minute, the petals yellow, but to give them greater prominence they are gathered into umbels, and these are arranged in umbels of umbels, or what botanists would term compound umbels.

The ovary consists of two carpels placed face to face, in each of which is a single seed suspended like a nut in its shell (pericarp). Each of the carpels with its ripe seed is termed a mericarp, and the entire fruit is a cremocarp. It is hard on the reader to fling all these technical terms at him at once, but in truth there is no help for it. If he wishes to become acquainted with the extensive order of Umbelliferous plants he must constantly use these terms, for the fruits play an important part in distinguishing umbellifers of various genera.