Marsh Orchis (Orchis latifolia).

There are nearly forty British species of Orchideæ, divided into sixteen genera; and in the space at our disposal it is impossible to give anything like an adequate account of the group or of the specific characters. An attempt will be made, however, to make the reader acquainted with the general structure by means of three figures. The first of these represents the Marsh Orchis (O. latifolia), a species commonly to be met in wet meadows and marshy places, flowering from May to July. The two tubers are palmate, that is, more or less flattened like a hand, and terminating in finger-like processes. The leaves chiefly spring from the summit of one of these tubers, the lowest acting as sheath for the next, and so on, the tubular flower-stem rising through all the sheaths. The leaves are oblong, and spotted with purple. The inflorescence is a spike, the flowers crowded upon it, but separated by the long three-nerved green bracts. The structure of these flowers will be found to differ widely from all we have considered in these pages. The perianth is placed above the (consequently inferior) ovary, which is twisted. This twist, it will be well to bear in mind, brings the flower “upside down.” The three sepals and the three petals are equally coloured, and it is therefore convenient to speak of them as the perianth. There is only one stamen, which is supported by the pistil. Two of the perianth leaves combine to form a hood over the stamen, and a third is greatly larger than the others, divided into three lobes and hanging down like the lip of a labiate flower. This is known as the labellum, and it is continued backwards and downwards as a hollow spur, in which, however, honey is not secreted. At the top of this spur, at the back, is the stigmatic surface, and above it protrudes a fleshy knob, called the rostellum, which supports the anther. This organ consists of two lobes, side by side, which open in front, and reveal in each a mass of pollen grains tied together by elastic threads and attached to a slender foot-stalk with a sticky base. This is a tedious description, though we have made it as brief as possible. The reader shall see the reason for it if he will conduct a little experiment. We may premise that these orchids are fertilized by long-tongued insects, who suck the juice through the tender skin lining the spur.

Now for the experiment. Take a finely-pointed pencil, which we will pretend is the head and tongue of a humble-bee in search of this sweet juice. We push the point gently down the spur, when a part of the pencil touches against the rostellum and presses it down, touches lightly the viscid feet of the pollen masses (pollinia), and as the pencil is withdrawn both come with it, and stick out from it like a pair of horns. Be careful to hold the pencil in the exact position it now occupies, and watch. The heavy heads of the pollinia are drooping forward, but after a few minutes they cease to fall lower. Now push the pencil into this other flower. The pollen-masses go directly to the stigma, and some of the pollen is detached. If you are watching where orchids grow it is no uncommon thing to see insects flying around with these pollinia attached to their heads or tongues like a pair of horns.

It will be seen to be impossible for the pollen to fall upon the stigma of the same flower, and from its elastic attachments it is impossible that it should be carried by the wind to another flower, so that insect agency is here an absolute necessity.

The Butterfly Orchis (Habenaria bifolia).

This species is very similar in structure and habit to the Marsh Orchis, but the tubers are more cylindrical in shape, the radical leaves almost always restricted to two, the flower-spike lax. Flowers white with a greenish tinge, the labellum and spur very long: fragrant. The stigma two-lobed. Fertilized by moths. Occurs in meadows, hill-sides and woods, flowering from June to August.

The Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera).

In the genus Ophrys we have three species whose flowers bear quite startling likeness to a bee, spider and fly respectively. What is the purpose of this counterfeit presentment it is difficult to conjecture. It has been suggested that it might be to warn off or deceive insects, as the flowers are self-fertilized, but Charles Darwin did not think this was the probable reason. There is no spur in this group, there is no rostellum, and the ovary is not twisted. The stalks (caudicles) of the pollinia are so long and thin that the weight of the pollen masses causes them to bend over and touch against the stigma, fertilizing it.

I. Bee Orchis (O. apifera). The labellum is very convex and broad, three-lobed, of a rich velvety-brown colour, with a tail. The sepals are pinkish. The spike has only about half a dozen flowers upon it, with a large leafy bract under each. Hillsides, fields and copses on chalk and limestone, chiefly in the South of England and Ireland. June and July. (Plate 77.)

II. Spider Orchis (O. aranifera). Similar to the last, but the sepals greenish, labellum differently marked, and without a tail. Similar situations to apifera, but much more rare. April and May.

III. Fly Orchis (O. muscifera). Sepals greenish, labellum narrow, flat, brown, with a yellow-edged, squarish blue patch. Strikingly like a fly. May to July.

The name of the genus is from the Greek, ophrus, an eyebrow, said to refer to the markings on the labellum.

Several other British species in different genera from those named bear similarly strange likenesses, such as the extremely rare Lizard Orchis (Orchis hircina), but some of the foreign forms are more remarkable still.

In addition to the species figured and those briefly described, we would call attention to a few others that may come under the rambler’s notice. In boggy ground and sphagnum beds he may be so fortunate as to find the rare Bog Orchis (Malaxis paludosa), a small plant with tiny yellow-green flowers (July to September), and the scanty leaves producing bulbils from their edges which grow into new plants. In similar situations in the eastern counties he may even find the larger but much rarer Fen Orchis (Liparis loeselii).

A singular species, to be found chiefly in beechwoods throughout the country, is the Birds’-nest Orchis (Neottia nidus-avis), so called from the peculiar character of its roots, which are stout and juicy, and woven into a resemblance to a nest. The whole plant is of a pretty uniform brown tint—both stem and flowers. There are no leaves, for the plant lives upon decaying vegetable matter, and has no necessity to bother about chlorophyll. It is botanically known as a saprophyte. Flowers June and July.

The very distinct Twayblade (Listera ovata) is sure to be encountered in woods and pastures. Its two leaves are very broad, and appear to be opposite, but are not really so. The flowers are small and greenish; they appear in May. There is a singular fact in connection with the fertilization of this plant that should be noted. The pollen-masses are dry and friable, and would not be likely to adhere to insects. But if the rostellum be touched ever so lightly, it instantly exudes a gummy fluid, which enables the pollen to stick tightly to the insect causing the irritation. Examine the flower with your lens, irritate the rostellum by prodding it with the point of a hair from your own head, and note what you observe.

At the end of Summer in dry pastures there may be found a slender plant with a twisted spike of fragrant white flowers. These flowers are very small, enclosed each in a hood-like bract. It is the Autumnal Lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes autumnalis). The rosette of leaves from the root does not appear until after the flowers.

Hairbell or Blue-bell (Campanula rotundifolia).

This is the true Blue-bell of Scotland. As we have indicated (page 14), the Blue-bell of the Southron is the Wild Hyacinth. Scotsmen are very sensitive upon the point of the Hyacinth having so dear a name bestowed upon it, when it has already a sufficiently good and classical one, and there are few, if any, more certain ways of rousing a Scot than by exhibiting Scilla as the true Blue-bell, or by describing Campanula as the Hairbell. Others have found the plant a fruitful source of controversy on a philological point—should it be spelled Hairbell or Harebell?—does its name refer to the slender hair-like stems, or to its habit of growing where hares delight to revel? As against Hairbell, which is descriptive of the plant, Harebell has no chance of retention among botanists, whatever philologists may say.

There are six species of Campanula included in the British flora, of which two are rare, and one of these is probably only an escape from cultivation. The characteristic of them all is a beautiful bell-shaped corolla with five lobes, five stamens, and the style with three to five stigmas. They are mostly perennial, and the flowers most frequently blue. C. rotundifolia has a creeping rootstock, and several slender-angled stems. The first formed leaves, near the ground, are more or less rotund in shape, and stalked, but as they occur higher up the stem they are more and more linear. The flowers are nodding or drooping, and swayed by the breeze. Heaths and pastures. July to September.

The Nettle-leaved Bell-flower (C. trachelium) is an erect tall-stemmed (3 feet or more) hairy species, with leaves like nettles, with large purple flowers in a terminal panicle. Woody lanes and copses. August to October.

The Centaury (Erythræa centaurium).

A very neat and beautiful plant, not nearly so well-known as it should be. It is an annual plant, with erect stem, less than a foot in height, the leaves in pairs growing together at their bases, and funnel-shaped pink flowers produced in terminal cymes. It grows in woods and sandy or chalky pastures, flowering from June till September.

The name is from the Greek, Eruthros, red, in allusion to the pink flowers.

Wild Mignonette (Reseda lutea), and
Weld or Dyer’s-weed (Reseda luteola).

So familiar is the Sweet Mignonette of our gardens, and so like and yet unlike are these wild species, that whilst no one would take them for the garden plant one need not be a botanist to see their natural affinities at a glance. Like their garden relative these are annual herbs, becoming biennial when we have mild winters; with flowers that are individually inconspicuous, but which gain sufficient prominence by being associated in racemes. In colour they are a yellow-green. The calyx is irregular, and divided into from four to seven narrow segments; there is a similar number of unequal petals, each deeply cleft into two lobes, and a multitude of stamens. The stigmas are lobes at the mouth of the open ovary.

I. Wild Mignonette (R. lutea) grows in dry waste places, especially in chalky districts. Its leaves vary a great deal, but are either pinnate or deeply lobed in a somewhat irregular manner. Flowers, pale-yellow in a tolerably dense raceme. Very similar to the Sweet Mignonette, but stiffer, more erect, and scentless. Flowers June to September.

II. Weld (R. luteola). This is a much taller plant than R. lutea, with longer racemes and denser; the flowers more green than yellow, and with undivided glossy leaves. Petals, three, four, or five. In the days before aniline colours this plant was much used by dyers, and cultivated for their purposes. It yields a beautiful yellow dye, and its juice is also used in the preparation of the artist’s colour called Dutch pink. It is a common wayside plant in England and in Ireland, more rare in Scotland, and flowers from June to September.

The name is from the Latin, Resedo, to appease, from these plants being formerly considered as sedatives.

Borage (Borago officinalis).

This is a plant one may find on rubbish heaps and waste ground anywhere near the habitations of man, for it is not, strictly speaking, a native, though thoroughly well-established here. An old adage runs: “I, Borage, always bring courage,” and it was supposed to brace up the heart for great enterprises. It was therefore widely cultivated in old gardens, and has survived to this day in the grounds of old houses, where it has frequently made its escape, or surplus plants have been thrown out upon the rubbish heaps. Instead of allowing itself to go the way of garden refuse, it has taken hold of the ground there, multiplied and brightened the place with its beauty.

Every part of the plant, except the corolla, bristles with short stiff hairs. It has an erect juicy stem, and rough, lance-shaped leaves, the radical ones on long footstalks, those on the stem stalkless and clasping their support. The sepals are five in number, long and narrow, cohering by their bases. The corolla is of the form technically known as rotate, that is, with the petals joined at their lower parts to a short tube, from the top of which five pointed lobes radiate. It is coloured a most brilliant and beautiful blue, such as is rarely seen in flowers. There is a pale yellow ovary that secretes honey, and around it, attached to the throat of the corolla-tube, are the five united stamens. The anthers are dark purple, and open in such manner that the pollen falls between them and the pistil, somewhat as in Viola. By this arrangement both honey and pollen are protected from the depredations of insects who have no right to it. Bees, however, in forcing their tongues down to the honeyed ovary, separate the anthers and let loose the pollen, which falls upon their heads and will be brought into contact with the stigma of another flower at their next visit. Cross-fertilization is further helped by the stigmas of a flower not becoming ripe until its anthers have shed their pollen. Flowers June and July.

Name probably from the Latin Bourra, a flock of wool, in allusion to its hairy character.

Oblong Pond-weed (Potamogeton polygonifolius).

We have pond-weeds in abundance, but the Potamogetons are the pond-weeds par excellence. There is scarcely a piece of water in this country, be it river, lake, pond, canal, or intermittently dry ditch, but has one or more species growing there. The genus is a very difficult one, such as it is impossible to do more than show the general characters of here. Hooker and Bennett, in their revision of the genus, give twenty-one British species with a number of connecting sub-species and varieties. The one figured here is the Oblong Pond-weed (P. polygonifolius), with narrowly egg-shaped floating leaves, and narrower submerged leaves. All have long leaf-stalks. The floating leaves always present the upper side to the air, and are always perfectly dry. The flowers are greenish and unattractive, collected into a slender spike. Individually they consist of a four-parted perianth, four stamens, four carpels. There is a species (P. natans) with broader floating leaves and narrow submerged leaves. A broader still is P. plantagineus, with clearer leaves and more slender leaf-stalks. P. crispus, P. densus, P. perfoliatus, P. prælongus, etc., have only submerged leaves, which are more or less oblong.

The species with floating leaves form refuges for many interesting low forms of life, and the microscopist will find them very fruitful in specimens for him.

The name is from the Greek words, potamos, a river, and geiton, a neighbour.

Traveller’s Joy (Clematis vitalba).

When rambling, in chalky districts especially, our readers will meet this climbing shrub at every turn, scrambling over all the hedges, flinging its arms out over the way, and clinging persistently to any branch or shoot it touches. It has a variety of names, some of which may be applied at different seasons by persons who think they are speaking of different plants. In the early summer it may be the White Vine, or the Virgin’s Bower; in autumn, when the feathery awns are lengthening on its seed-vessels, it may fitly be called the Old Man’s Beard, and when winter has cleared most things away from the hedges, but left these gleaming feathers in abundance, it may give the Traveller Joy to see them as he passes.

It is a perennial plant, with a tough stem, climbing by means of its leaf-stalks, which curl round any likely support, and become hard as wire. The leaves are opposite and compound, the leaflets usually five, the stalks of these also acting as tendrils. The flower has no corolla, but the four thick sepals are coloured greenish-white to serve instead. The stamens are a crowd round the central cluster of many-bearded styles, which afterwards elongate and become the “old men’s beards.” The flowers, which are slightly fragrant, may be found from July to September.

The Traveller’s Joy is peculiarly English, so far as its distribution in the United Kingdom is concerned. It is found only to the south of Denbigh and Stafford. This, too, is the only British member of the genus; but a very large number of foreign species are cultivated in our gardens, where they are quite hardy.

The name is from the Greek Klema, a vine-twig.

The Self-Heal (Brunella vulgaris).

A perennial herb of the wayside and the damp pasture, that has fallen upon evil days, so far as reputation is concerned. Time was when it was considered one of the most useful medicines for inward and outward wounds. Culpepper says “he needeth neither physician nor surgeon that hath Self-heal and Sanicle to help himself,” and he prints that sentence in italics, to impress it more firmly upon his readers. On this account it was called Carpenter’s Herb, Hook-heal, Sickle-wort, and Prunella. The last is a softened form of Brunella, from the German Bräune (quinsy), because it was believed to cure that complaint. Its reputation has passed, but the names remain, and one has been adopted as its scientific appellation.

There is a suggestion of the Bugle in its general appearance, but seen together (see page 21) there is no danger of mistaking them. In Ajuga the whorls are far apart, in Brunella they are contracted into a dense head. The corolla here is broader, the upper lip erect and vaulted, whilst in Ajuga it is short and notched.

The plant has the square stem, lipped flowers, and four stamens, characteristic of the Labiate order, a creeping rootstock, and stalked leaves; these are long, oval, toothed, or with entire margins. The bracts of the flower-spike have purple edges. Leaves and stem more or less hairy; flowers purple, sometimes white or crimson. July to September. Occasionally small flowers are produced later, in which the anthers are suppressed, but the pistil is perfect.

This is the only British member of the genus, whose name has been explained above.

Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon pratensis).

One of the folk-names of this plant is “John-go-to-bed-at-Noon,” and I think it is the only example of a British plant name that is a sentence of six words. “Three-faces-under-a-hood” runs it pretty closely, but the few names we have of this order do not usually exceed four words; such as Queen-of-the-Meadows, Jack-by-the-hedge, and Poor-man’s-weatherglass. John-go-to-bed, etc., is a nice expressive name, and is due to the fact that the flower is an early-closer with a vengeance. It is probably the originator of the eight-hours day, for it opens at four in the morning and closes by twelve. Farmers’ boys were said of old to consult its flowers with reference to dinner-time, but probably in these days of machine-made watches the practice is obsolete.

Goat’s-beard has a tap-root, somewhat like a parsnip, and long curling grass-like, stalkless leaves that clasp the stem by their bases. The flower-heads are solitary, yellow, and the eight involucral bracts are united at the base. All the florets (like those of Dandelion, Sowthistle and Chicory) are rayed, and contain both stamens and pistil. They are invested with pappus hairs (see page 20), which are stiff and feathered. It is from these beards the plant gets its English name, which is reproduced in the Greek words from which the name of the genus is composed, tragos, a goat, and pogon, a beard. It flowers during June and July, and is fairly common in meadows and wastes in England; much more rarely in Scotland and Ireland.

There is an introduced species with larger purple or rose-coloured flowers, found occasionally in damp meadows. This is the Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius). It is occasionally grown for the sake of its roots, which have a medicinal value, but inferior to those of Scorzonera, which it somewhat resembles.

Wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum).

The Wild Thyme grows on the hills and the high heath lands, usually among fine grasses that are close-cropped by sheep and rabbits; or if on lower ground it will probably be found upon the light and well-drained soil of a mole-hill among mosses. In spite of its diminutive stature it is a shrub, with a woody rootstock and a creeping stem, from which arise the flowering stems. The leaves, which are very small and stalked, are egg-shaped, with even margins, often turned under. The rosy-purple flowers are produced in spikes. They are of the usual labiate type, and both the calyx and the corolla are two-lipped. The upper lip of the calyx is three-toothed, the lower cleft in two, the whole of a purplish hue. The upper lip of the corolla is straight and notched, the lower cut into three lobes. There are two forms of flower—smaller and larger; the small are perfect, the larger bearing developed anthers only. It should be noted also that in the complete flowers the anthers shed their pollen before the stigmas are ripe; self-fertilization is therefore impossible. The flower produces much honey, the whole plant is highly fragrant, and in consequence is very much visited by insects who carry the pollen. While the stamens are ripe the pistil is short and almost hidden within the corolla-tube; when the pollen has been shed the style elongates, the two arms of the stigma diverge and occupy a prominent position far outside the lips. Under this arrangement insects alighting on the younger flowers dust themselves with pollen, and upon visiting those a day or two older could scarcely fail to deposit some of it upon the ripe stigmas.

This is the only native species of a genus named from the ancient Greek name for the plant.

Mercury Goosefoot (Chenopodium bonus-henricus).

The genus to which this plant belongs consists of thorough weeds. Their habitat is waste places, usually where the soil is made up of man’s refuse. The plants are fairly uniform in colour, from stem to leaf and flower. They are fertilized by the wind, so they have no need to put on showy colours to attract insects. The flowers are small, and the petals are entirely wanting; they consist of from three to five sepals, from two to five stamens ranged around the ovary, which is surmounted by the two or three spreading stigmas. Some are distinguished by unpleasant odours, and they have little to attract popular attention, although some have been used as potherbs—notably the species figured, and which rejoices in the alternative titles of “Good King Henry” and “All-good.”

Mercury Goosefoot (C. bonus-henricus) is a perennial with a thick fleshy rootstock, and erect channelled stems from one to three feet in height. The leaves are large, dark green, and of the shape that botanists describe as “hastate,” that is, like the head of an ancient halberd. These leaves are somewhat succulent, and in some places are used as a substitute for spinach. The ovary when ripe becomes what is technically known as a utricle, a thin loose case containing a single seed. In this species the seed is black, marked with small punctures. Flowers May to August.

All the other British species are annuals, and among them may be noted the Stinking Goosefoot (C. vulvaria), with spreading stems, small, greasy, mealy leaves, grey-green, and with an odour like rotten fish. Many-seeded Goosefoot (C. polyspermum), with several spreading branches, ovate leaves and many minute, rough, dark-brown seeds. White Goosefoot (C. album), leaves ovate, covered with a white mealy substance, upper portions toothed, sepals keeled, seed dark, shining, very minutely dotted. Red Goosefoot (C. rubrum), with erect, frequently red, stems, smooth and shining, leaves variable in form, and the character of the margin, sometimes toothed, sometimes entire, sepals not keeled. The name is from two Greek words, signifying Goosefoot, in reference to the shape of the leaves in some species.

Burdock (Arctium lappa).

The Burdock is a plant well-known to artists and boys; the former being interested in it as a fine foreground plant, the latter on account of its hooked bracts, which make the fruit-head an admirable instrument of torture, or an ornament for decorating some other person’s clothes. In its young state the plant is suggestive of the Butterbur, the fine bold lower leaves having a densely cottony underside as in that plant. But there the similarity ends, for in Butterbur there is no rising stem, whereas in Burdock this ordinarily reaches a stature of three or four feet. We encountered a fine specimen near Chessington, Surrey, in June, 1894, that had reached the height of seven feet three inches, and as it had only just commenced flowering it would probably put on a few additional inches before its growth ceased. The stem is stout, the leaves alternate, heart-shaped, thick. The flowers are in dense heads, like a thistle, but without any spreading rays. The involucre globose, of many leathery bracts ending in long stiff hooks, by means of which the ripe heads become firmly attached to the coats of animals, and the seeds are thus carried far and wide. Corollas, five-lobed, purple. Common in all waste places. Flowering from June to September. According to Hooker this is the only British species, but the “splitters” have made four or more species out of it.

The name is from the Greek, Arktos, a bear, from its rough appearance.

Goosegrass or Cleavers (Galium aparine).

Although Goosegrass has nothing else in common with Burdock it resembles it in the fact that its fruit “sticketh closer than a brother.” It is a plant of the hedge, where it forms dense masses, the whole plant—stem, leaves and fruits—being covered with flinty hooks. The rambling botanist, when playfully inclined, detaches a yard-length from the hedge and deftly throwing it against his unconscious companion’s back, causes a hundred hooks to catch in the warp or weft of his coat. It belongs to the Bedstraws, a genus comprising nearly a dozen British species, and distinguished by having minute flowers, yellow, white or greenish, calyx minute, a mere ring, the corolla four or five-lobed, honeyed. Stamens four, styles two, united at their bases. The leaves are borne in whorls of from four to ten, at distant intervals on the square stem. In G. aparine the leaves vary from six to eight, the flower-cymes arise from their axils, the flowers are white, the fruit first green then becoming purplish. Flowers June and July.

White Campion (Lychnis vespertina).

On page 66 we gave a figure of Lychnis flos-cuculi, and descriptions of that species and L. diurna, the Red Campion. The present species was classed by Linnæus as a mere variety of L. diurna, the two being combined under the name of L. dioica. In general characters the White Campion agrees with the Red, but the calyx is more greenish, and the petals are entirely white (occasionally reddish). The plant is larger and more coarse than its diurnal relative—for, as its name signifies, L. vespertina opens in the evening and is fertilized by night-flying moths. It is a fragrant plant, but its fragrance is reserved for its flowering time—not that its nocturnal visitors require the scent to direct them to the flowers, for they glow and gleam in the dark field and hedgerow from May to September.

The Holly (Ilex aquifolium).

The popular knowledge of the Holly has been gained chiefly about Christmas-tide, when its brightly varnished yet repellent leaves and its brilliant berries are much sought for household decoration. To most persons the flower is unknown; yet if they sought the holly in the woods or hedges any time from May to August they would probably find the white flowers produced in “umbellate cymes” from the axils of the leaves. The calyx is slightly downy, with four or five divisions. The petals are four in number, white, conjoined at their bases, or entirely separate. The stamens are four, one attached to the base of each petal; stigmas also four, attached to the ovary, without intervening styles. The fruit, with which we are all so familiar by sight, is technically a drupe, in which category are also placed the cherry and the plum, fruits which have the seed enclosed in a hard “stone” (or endocarp), surrounded by a fleshy pericarp. The holly-berries, as the fruits are called (though they in no wise resemble the gooseberry, which is a true berry), contain four of such stones. This is the only British species.

The name Ilex is said to be of Celtic origin, and derived from ec or ac, a sharp point, but this appears to us very unsatisfactory. Its old English name was holm, a word that has become fixed in some of our place-names for localities where holly is still abundant: such as Holmesdale, Holmwood, and Holmbury, all in Surrey.

If the smooth grey bark of old hollies be scrutinized closely one may find upon it a number of raised black cuneiform marks, not unlike the characters of the Chinese alphabet. They are really the fruits of a lichen, Graphis elegans. With care the piece of bark containing these curious marks may be cut out without defacing or injuring them.

Charlock or Wild Mustard (Brassica sinapis).

An upland cornfield in June with Charlock between the short corn-plants is a beautiful sight for the rambler, but the farmer may be pardoned if he fails to take the æsthetic view; for all that vegetable gold must be laboriously hand-picked, or “cleaned,” as he would probably express it. Charlock is a weed that keeps close to the farmer; that likes the comparatively light and dry soil of the ploughed field.

It is a hairy annual belonging to the cabbage tribe, which is a branch of the Cruciferæ or Cross-worts, so-called from the four petals being arranged cross-wise. In this and the two following species the petals are bright yellow. To make the flower symmetrical there should be four or eight stamens; there are six, and it has been suggested that there were eight, but two have been suppressed. The fruit is an angular pod, with a straight beak, not persistent, and two hairy valves, but containing only one row of dark-brown seeds. Flowers from May to August.

There are many species of Brassica, two of which may be confounded with B. sinapis; they are:—

I. Black Mustard (B. nigrum). Stem bristly, upper leaves very narrow, lance-shaped, smooth, with entire or toothed margins. Pods awl-shaped, quadrangular. Beak short and slender, containing no seeds. Valves keeled. Seeds reddish-brown, oblong. Flowers June to September in hedges and wastes.

II. White Mustard (B. alba). Hairy, like B. sinapis, but the hairs pointing downwards. The upper leaves deeply lobed, lyre-shaped, the lobes being again cut and lobed. Stem marked with longitudinal incised lines. Pod short, no longer than the flat thin, or sword-shaped, ribbed beak. Seeds larger than the last, more globose, yellow. Flowers June and July in cultivated ground.

The genus bears the Latin name for the Cabbage, the wild form of which is B. oleracea, a wild plant on the sea-cliffs of South-west England and Wales, from which have arisen the cultivated varieties known as Scotch-kail, cow-cabbage, savoys, brussels sprouts, red cabbage, white cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.

Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense).

Quite a number of our common plants have been distinguished in popular nomenclature by the prefix “cow,” and as a general rule it would appear to have been applied in depreciation, as in the parallel cases of “dog,” “horse,” and “hog,” to signify coarseness or worthlessness. In the case of the Cow-wheat our forefathers had a notion that if its seeds were ground up with wheat the bread made from the flour would be black. One of the species (M. arvense) affects cornfields, and its seeds are like black grains of wheat, and from this fact the genus gets its scientific appellation from the Greek, melas, black, and puros, wheat. In addition the plants themselves turn black when dead and dry.

I. Common Yellow Cow-wheat (M. pratense) is an annual, partially parasitic upon roots, like Eyebright. The leaves are almost stalkless, very narrow, with even margins, and produced in pairs. The flower follows the general structure of the Scrophularineæ (see pp. 33 and 50 ante). The calyx is five-toothed, the corolla tubular, straight, dilated at the mouth and two-lipped, the upper with the edges turned back, the lower three-lobed. The four stamens will be found close under the upper lip, with the small stigma. It should be noticed that in this species, which is common in dry woods and on heaths, the pale yellow flowers assume a horizontal position, whilst the capsule is more deflexed. May to September.

II. Small-flowered Yellow Cow-wheat (M. sylvaticum) is a rare species, found in alpine woods from Yorkshire northwards. It has a small deep yellow corolla, which is borne more erectly than in pratense. Other points of difference will be found in the curved corolla-tube, and in the position of the capsule, which is not deflexed. Flowers July and August.

III. Purple Field Cow-wheat (M. arvense). This is a local species whose distribution in this country is restricted to Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Herts, and the Isle of Wight. Where it occurs it is a conspicuous item in the cornfield flora, by reason of its large spikes of flowers with their many colours. The bracts are reddish-purple, the corolla rosy, with yellow throat, and the lips a full pink. Flowers July and August.

IV. Crested Cow-wheat (M. cristatum). This also is a rare plant, confined to the Eastern counties of England, and affecting woods, copses, and cornfields. It has broad, heart-shaped, purple bracts, with long fine teeth. The flowers in a dense spike (not so large as in arvense); corolla-tube curved, yellow, the upper lip purple within. Flowers September and October.

Sea Buckthorn (Hippophæ rhamnoides).

Let us say at once that this plant is in no way related to the Buckthorns, properly so called. It is another example of the readiness with which our fathers seized upon a mere superficial resemblance as justification for the partial repetition of a name, and to save them the trouble of finding a new one.

Sea Buckthorn is the sole representative in this country of the Natural Order Elæagnaceæ, and is a low shrubby tree, growing on sand-hills and cliffs on the East and South-east coasts from York to Sussex. The branches commonly end in a spine, which has brought the plant its alternative name of Sallow-thorn. The alternate leaves are a dull leaden green above, but the underside is covered with silvery scales. At first they are egg-shaped, but lengthen after the plant has flowered. The flowers are of two kinds, borne on separate plants (diæcious), one kind containing stamens only, the other a pistil alone. The staminate flowers are produced in clusters from the axils, and consist of two sepals with four stamens. The pistillate flowers are produced singly. The ovary is enclosed in the calyx-tube, and develops into the globose orange-yellow fruits. Flowers from May to July.

The fruits do not appear to be used in this country; though in Tartary they are said to be made into a pleasant jelly, and in the Gulf of Bothnia they are used in the concoction of a fish-sauce. Their flavour is decidedly acid.

The name has been derived from the Greek hippos, a horse, and phao, to give light, from a supposed power of curing equine blindness; also from hippos, and phao, to destroy, from its fatal effects when eaten by horses; and from hypo, under, and phao, to shine, in allusion to the silvery underside of the leaf. The reader will kindly select that which seems the most reasonable—or reject them all.

Meadow-sweet (Spiræa ulmaria).

Our first encounter with the Queen of the Meadows, or Meadow-sweet, is an event to be remembered. It will probably be beside a shallow stream, and for a long distance we shall see the continuous line of thick clumps, with the handsome, much-divided radical leaves standing erect around the taller furrowed stems. Individually the creamy-white flowers are minute, but combined in large dense cymes they are very conspicuous. There is an airy grace about the plant that is particularly charming, quite apart from the attraction of its powerful fragrance.

Meadow-sweet has a short perennial rootstock, the leaves are interruptedly pinnate (see p. 63), the terminal leaflet three-lobed. The undersides are downy and white. The stem-leaves are provided with broad-toothed stipules. In spite of their fragrance the flowers produce no honey, but, attracted by the sweet odour, insects visit them in great numbers, and from the closeness of the flowers cannot help fertilizing them. The calyx has four or five lobes, turned back; the petals are four or five, the carpels vary from five to nine, curiously twisted, and surrounded by a large number of stamens. It flowers from June to August, and may be found beside watercourses and in wet meadows, as well as by the sides of streams and rivers.

There is one other British species:—

The Dropwort (Spiræa filipendula), which grows far away from the haunts of the Meadow-sweet, delighting in high dry pastures, chalk downs, and gravelly heaths. He that has seen ulmaria will not fail to identify filipendula as the sister of the meadow queen, for though much smaller it is in general appearance very similar. The unopened flowers are rosy, but the inside of the petals is of the same creamy-white as in Meadow-sweet. It is not fragrant. Flowers June and July.

A third species, the Willow-leaved Spiræa (S. salicifolia), may occasionally be met in plantations; but it is not a native.