Chapter V: Part 5

II. Roman Nettle (_U. pilulifera_). Not so large. An annual; leaves
smooth but for the stinging hairs, margin entire or toothed. Male
flowers in panicles, female gathered in heads. Flowers larger than
in _dioica_. Under walls and among rubbish, near habitations,
chiefly in the Eastern counties, and near the sea. June to August.

III. Small Nettle (_U. urens_). The familiar annual plant of fields
and wastes. Leaves coarsely toothed, smooth but for stinging hairs.
Panicles containing flowers of both sexes; few flowered. Flowers
June to September.

Urtica dioica.

--URTICACEÆ.--]

Valeriana officinalis.

--VALERIANEÆ.--]

=Cat’s Valerian= (_Valeriana officinalis_).

The Great or Cat’s Valerian will come under the notice of the rambler whose way lies by the stream-side, through wet meadows or swampy woods. Where it is found it occurs in abundance, and its pretty flowers massed together in great heads will attract attention at once. It has a short perennial rootstock, increasing by suckers, and narrow pinnate leaves, those from the root soon withering. The stems are from two to four feet high, bearing the broad corymbs of pink or flesh-coloured flowers. The calyx is five-parted, and the lobes are at first rolled inward, but as the fruit matures these lobes expand and assume the form of a circlet of finely branched feathery hairs (_pappus_). The corolla is shortly tubular, with five lobes. The stamens three, and the stigma two-lobed. It flowers from June to August.

The roots have long been held in high esteem as a medicinal agent in certain nervous affections; and in some places the plant is known as All-heal, owing to its virtues. It has a warm aromatic taste, but when drying it develops a fœtid odour, which acts as a charm upon cats. If the reader would have cheerful nights let him plant Valerian in his garden, and every cat in the neighbourhood will call to enjoy it. Strange to say, rats are equally delighted with its fragrance, and rat-catchers are said to use Valerian to assist them in attracting their victims. Query: Had the Pied-piper a root of Valerian in his poke?

There is one other native species, the Small Marsh Valerian (_V.
dioica_), chiefly affecting boggy places. It has a creeping
rootstock, and the root leaves are egg-shaped, with a long
footstalk, whilst those of the stem are deeply lobed in pinnate
fashion, with a large leaflet at the tip. The flowers, which are
pink, are minute, and of four distinct kinds, which may be thus
enumerated according to the size of the corolla. 1. Large, with
anthers, but no pistil. 2. Small, with anthers and rudimentary
pistil. 3. Smaller, with pistil and rudimentary anthers. 4.
Smallest, with pistil, but no anthers. Flowers May and June.

The name is from the Latin, _valere_, to be in health.

=Yellow Toadflax= (_Linaria vulgaris_).

We have already dealt with one species of Toadflax (_see_ page 33), and although in habit the Ivy-leaved is altogether unlike the Yellow Toadflax, their flowers will be found to have the same structure, and we must ask the reader to refer back for the description. The Yellow Toadflax (_L. vulgaris_) immediately reminds one of the Snapdragon (_Anterrhinum_), to which its raceme of flowers, bears close resemblance; but the flowers themselves will be found to differ from Snapdragon in having a long tail or spur. This spur is a hollow tube in which honey is secreted to attract long-tongued bees, in order that they may fertilize the ovules. The plant has a slender rootstock, which creeps extensively underground, branching and sending up many stems. If these get into a garden the owner is at first delighted with the neat, bright appearance of the tufts of linear leaves; but by-and-by he finds it has taken entire possession of the bed, and become extremely difficult to extirpate. It is abundant in hedges and waste places, flowering from June till October. Other species are:--

I. Round-leaved Toadflax (_L. spuria_) with egg-shaped or round leaves and trailing branches: hairy. Corolla yellow, with purple throat and spur greatly curved. Annual. Sandy cornfields. July to October.

II. Sharp-pointed Toadflax (_L. elatine_), with spear-shaped leaves and trailing hairy branches. Corolla yellow, upper lip purple beneath. Spur straight. Annual. Dry, chalky and gravelly cornfields. July to October.

III. Pale-blue Toadflax (_L. repens_). Perennial. Smooth. Rootstock creeping. Leaves narrowly lance-shaped. Corolla violet, with darker lines and yellow palate: spur blunt. Waste places, rare. July to September.

IV. Small Toad flax (_L. minor_). Annual. Downy. Leaves narrowly oblong. Corolla but slightly larger than the calyx, purple, the lower lip white, and the palate yellow. Local, in sandy and chalky cornfields. From May to October.

Linaria vulgaris.

--SCROPHULARINEÆ.--]

Nuphar luteum.

--NYMPHEACEÆ.--]

=Yellow Water-lily= (_Nuphar luteum_).

In some districts, where the Yellow Water-lily floats on the bosom of ponds and sluggish streams, it is known as the Brandy-bottle, partly by reason of its unpleasant odour and partly on account of its flagon-like seed-vessel.

It has a thick fleshy rootstock, which creeps in the mud, and is rich in tannic acid; it is said to be a fatal lure to cockroaches if bruised and soaked in milk. Some of the leaves are submerged, and these are thin, but the floating ones are thick and leathery. The leaves are heart-shaped, the lobes not far apart; the stalks somewhat triangular in section, and traversed by a great number of fine air-canals, as are the flower-stalks also. The most conspicuous portion of the flower is the sepals, five or six in number, which are very large and concave. The petals are much smaller, and number about twenty; they produce honey at their base. The stamens are even more numerous than the petals, in several rows, their blunt tips bent over away from the many-celled ovary. The stigma is rayed. The fruit ripens above water, and is, as we have indicated, flagon-shaped; the seeds are imbedded in pulp. Flowers from June till August.

There is another species:--

The Lesser Yellow Water-lily (_N. pumilum_), which occurs in
Shropshire and in Scotland, from Elgin to Argyll, but it is rare.
Its oblong leaves are divided at the base, the lobes becoming
distant from each other. The petals are rounder than in _luteum_,
the anthers shorter, and the rays of the stigma reach to the
margin, which is lobed.

The name is from the Arabic for this or a similar plant, _naufar_.

The White Water-lily (_Nymphæa alba_), though constituting the
British representative of a distinct genus, is closely allied,
as, indeed, is the magnificent _Victoria regia_ of South American
rivers, with leaves 10 or 12 feet across, and flowers 15 inches and
more in diameter.

=Wild Teasel= (_Dipsacus sylvestris_).

We have explained (page 98) in what respect the Scabious differs from the somewhat similar flowers of Compositæ, and to a considerable extent that explanation will hold good for the genus _Dipsacus_, which is united to _Scabiosa_ in the Natural Order Dipsaceæ. There is this difference, however: in _Dipsacus_ the flower-bracts end in long, straight, sharp points, and the involucel is four-angled. There are two British species:--

I. Wild Teasel (_D. sylvestris_). A striking object in copse or
hedgerow; its stout, angular and spiny stems rising to a height
of 4 or 5 feet, and crowned by the prickly-cylindrical heads of
flowers. These heads have an involucre, consisting of from eight to
twelve slender rigid bracts, spiny, longer than the flower-head,
curved upward and ending in a fine point. The corolla is purple,
tubular, with four short unequal lobes. It is a biennial plant,
and only has radical leaves during its first year, sending up the
flowering stem the second season. These are stalked, lance-shaped,
with a stout mid-rib, which is armed with short curved spines. The
stem-leaves are opposite, not stalked, the lower couples joined
together by their bases, thus forming a large cup, in which rain
collects and drowns many insects that attempt to ascend the tall
stem. Flowers August and September. The Fuller’s Teasel (_D.
fullonum_), of so great importance to the cloth manufacturer, is
believed to be a cultivated variety of _sylvestris_, having the
involucral bracts shorter and spreading, and the scales of the
flower-heads hooked.

II. Small Teasel (_D. pilosus_). This is a more slender plant,
the stem not so tall or stout, and the prickles ending in soft
hair-points. Leaves stalked, hairy. Flower-heads at first drooping,
then erect; smaller, rounder, hairy, the involucral bracts shorter
than the head. Flowers white. August and September, in moist
hedges; not so generally distributed as _sylvestris_.

Dipsacus Sylvestris.

--DIPSACEÆ.--]

Tanacetum vulgare.

--COMPOSITÆ.--]

=Common Tansy= (_Tanacetum vulgare_).

Time was when every cottage garden and every kitchen garden had its clump of Tansy, for it was a valued item in the housewife’s pharmacopœia, and was all but invaluable in cookery. A belief is entertained by some botanists that the Tansy-plants growing wild in waste places by field and roadside throughout the country are garden escapes, or their descendants, that have become naturalized.

The Tansy is a perennial, with creeping rootstock, from which arise beautiful broad feathery radical leaves and flowering stems. The leaves are very deeply divided in a pinnate or bi-pinnate manner, the segments toothed. The angled stem reaches a height of about two feet, and then branches off into a _corymb_ of flower-heads. Each flower-head is enclosed in a half-rounded involucre of leathery bracts. There is an outer row of ray-florets, but they are very short, and of the same dull yellow colour as the disk-florets; they are pistillate only, whilst the disk-florets are all staminate. Flowers during August and September.

All parts of the plant give off a strong aromatic scent when touched or handled, and the taste is exceedingly bitter, a quality which caused it to be used as a stomachic tonic and a vermifuge.

This is the only British species of the genus, whose name is said to be a corruption of _Athanasia_ deathless; but probably it is not so derived.

=Blackthorn, or Sloe= (_Prunus communis_).

It seems quite natural to use the two common names of this beautiful shrub at different times. In the spring, before a leaf has unrolled upon the spine-tipped spurs of its soot-coloured branches, we call it the Blackthorn, for by contrast with its pure white stars its thorns are black indeed. In the autumn, when we search the common, the copse-side and the thick hedgerow for ripe bramble fruit, we only know it as the Sloe. Then the plant is again in full beauty with its groups of round plums, each finely coated with the purple bloom that is ruined by a touch. Like the Whitethorn (page 17) and the Bramble (plate 30), the Blackthorn is a rose, with the floral organs in fives. The fruit is botanically a _drupe_: it is the result of a swelling up of the ovary, the outer walls of which become succulent and pulpy, the inner hardened into the “stone” inclosing the “kernel” or seed. The leaves are small, elliptical, finely toothed, and in a young state the underside is downy, but in the adult condition smooth. All the branches are spiny.

There are two forms with brown bark which have been at various times regarded as separate species, or as mere varieties, but which Sir J. D. Hooker ranks as sub-species, marking a stage in which varietal characters have become permanent, but not sufficiently strong to hide their connection with the parent form. These are:--

I. The Bullace (_P. insititia_), with larger and broader leaves,
underside downy in the adult condition; branches straight, only a
few with spines; the petals broader; the fruit more drooping, black
or yellow, larger, and less rough to the taste.

II. Wild Plum (_P. domestica_). Branches straight without spines.
Fruit larger, black. Leaves downy on the ribs of the underside.
The plums of the fruiterer and the “prunes” of the grocer are
cultivated forms of this species.

They all flower in March and April. The name is the old Latin
appellation for the fruit.

Prunus communis.

--ROSACEÆ.--]

Humulus lupulus.

--URTICACEÆ.--]

=Wild Hop= (_Humulus lupulus_).

The Wild Hop may not unfrequently be seen in the copse and hedgerow, especially in the South of England. It has a thick branching perennial rootstock--in the cultivated plant called a “set”--from which are produced several long, thin, but tough twining stems that turn with the sun, and tightly clasp the nearest small tree or shrub. It has no tendrils like the vine, but climbs like the convolvulus by simply twining with the sun as it grows. Its lobed and coarsely toothed leaves are very similar to those of the grape-vine, but very rough. The leaves are in pairs, and at the base of the leaf-stalk is a pair of long curved stipules. The Hop is what botanists term a _diœcious_ plant, because staminate flowers only are produced by one individual, and pistillate only by another, making cross-fertilization imperative. It is not the insects, however, that effect this crossing in the Hop, but the wind. The flowers are all small; the staminate produced from the axils of the leaves in long drooping panicles. They have no petals, but there are five sepals and five anthers attached to their bases. Each pistillate flower has a membranous sepal, an ovary, and two long tapering purple stigmas. Two of these pistillate flowers are produced in the axil of a green, broad, concave bract or scale. A number of these twin-flowered bracts are united into a dense spike, and after fertilization this develops into a large cone-like head of yellow scales with resinous glands at their base, which yield a resinous substance called _lupuline_. The true fruit is a little nut, which is enclosed in the sepal under the bracts. It flowers in July and August. It is the only British species. Beside their extensive use in brewing, the flowers are frequently used to stuff pillows, their narcotic odour inducing sleep.

=The Salad Burnet= (_Poterium sanguisorba_).

When “cool tankards” were more generally compounded than they are to-day, Salad Burnet was a better-known plant, for, like Borage, it formed one of the ingredients. It was used also in the salad bowl, its leaves having a flavour very similar to that of cucumber. It is a perennial, the rosette of radical leaves springing from a stout rootstock. The leaves are all pinnate; the leaflets in pairs, coarsely toothed, and a terminal leaflet. The stems are slender, branched, and the flowers are gathered into a purplish head. They have no petals, and are of two kinds: the upper ones have a four-lobed calyx with a narrow mouth, from which two styles with brush-like stigmas are exserted; the lower bear both stamens and stigmas, or stamens only. The stamens are four in number, attached to the mouth of the calyx, and the anthers hang out. The plant may be found abundantly in dry pastures, especially in a chalk district, flowering from June till August.

The Rough Burnet (_P. muricatum_), found in cultivated fields in
the Midlands and South of England, is probably only a variety of
_sanguisorba_, owing its large size and roughness to the richer
soil it finds in the fields.

The Great Burnet (_P. officinale_), was formerly regarded as
constituting a separate genus, _Sanguisorba_, but it is very
similar to the Salad Burnet. Its flowers, however, are all alike,
and contain both stamens and pistils. It is much larger than Salad
Burnet, and its flower-heads more cylindric, longer, and of a
darker purple hue. The stamens, too, instead of hanging far outside
the calyx, are no longer than the lobes of that organ. The flowers
produce honey, and are fertilized by insects. The leaflets are
fewer and longer in this species. Its habitat is damp meadows, and
its flowering time the same as Salad Burnet.

The name _Poterium_ is the Latin term for a drinking-cup, in
allusion to its use indicated above.

Poterium sanguisorba.

--ROSACEÆ.--]

Hedera helix.

--ARALIACEÆ.--]

=Ivy= (_Hedera helix_).

How common is Ivy, whether wild or cultivated! Yet how few are acquainted with its flowers!

There is no occasion to say that the Ivy is an evergreen perennial climbing shrub, nor to describe the form of the beautiful leathery leaf. If there is one leaf that may be said to be thoroughly well known to every British man, woman, and child, it must be the Ivy, for it thrives in dark corners of towns as well as on the hedge-banks of the country, and its foliage has been so well used in all classes of ornamental work. And yet there are few leaves that are subject to such great variation of form, though, with all its changes, one dominant character runs through them all, except its upper leaves, which are totally unlike. The Holly has prickly leaves for its lower branches, but those that are above the heads of browsing cattle have “entire” margins. So with the Ivy; its five-lobed leaves are for its trailing and climbing branches, but when it has reached the top of the wall or the tree it puts on simple lance-shaped leaves, and in September or October crowns these shoots with its umbels of yellow-green flowers.

The flower consists of a calyx with five triangular teeth, petals and stamens five each, style one, with five obscure stigmas. The flowers are succeeded by blackish berries, sometimes yellow. There is a common woodland variety, with smaller, narrower leaves, that never flowers; neither do those forms that persistently trail along the hedge bottom instead of climbing. Ivy has been at various times condemned as causing dampness in the walls it covers; the exact converse is the truth. It is the only British species; the genus contains but two for the whole world.

=Arrowhead= (_Sagittaria sagittifolia_).

One of the most striking among the many forms of leaves that go to make up the vegetation of the sluggish stream or the canal is the aptly-named plant here figured.

It is a perennial, the leaves are radical, and from the base of the plant runners are thrown out, each ultimately terminating in a globose tuber. The leaves are typical of what botanists describe as a “sagittate” leaf, and their long stalks are three-edged. The stem is leafless, but bears a number of flowers in series of threes. These flowers are of two kinds, staminate and pistillate, and because, like those of _Poterium_, they are borne upon the same plant, botanists describe _Sagittaria_ as _monœcious_, just as they describe the Hop as _diœcious_, because its two sexes are on different plants. There are three sepals, and three large white petals with purplish spots at their base. The lower flowers contain carpels only, which are many in number, and which develop into a compact head of nut-like fruits. The stalks of these pistillate flowers are shorter than those of the staminate flowers above them, which contain purple anthers. It flowers from July to September, and is frequent in England as far north as Cumberland, as an indigenous plant; in Scotland it has become naturalized, and in Ireland it is of local occurrence. It is the only British species.

The name is from the Latin _sagitta_, an arrow.

Sagittaria sagittifolia.

--ALISMACEÆ.--]

Sonchus arvensis.

--COMPOSITÆ.--]

=The Corn Sow-thistle= (_Sonchus arvensis_).

We were nearly remarking that the Sow-thistle is one of the most beautiful of our native flowers, but remembering that we have already applied that observation to several species, we will alter the formula and say it is among the most handsome. Certainly no one who sees it growing is likely to pass it by without plucking some of the flowers, though they will be disappointed in these flagging and losing their beauty before home is reached. We have three native species, of which this is undoubtedly the finest, the stem growing to a height of three or four (or, as we have found it in Surrey, over five) feet. It is a perennial, with a large creeping rootstock, which sends off runners. The stem is hollow, milky, and clasped by the bases of the finely cut leaves. These are deeply lobed, and edged with sharp teeth; the lower leaves have stalks, the upper have not. The unopened involucre--for this again is a Composite--will strike the finder as being singularly square; it is covered all over--as are the stems also-with short hairs with glandular tops of a golden yellow. The expanded flower-head is about two inches across, and is composed entirely of ray-florets. The plant will be found flowering in or around cultivated fields in August and September. The other British species are:--

I. Marsh Sow-thistle (_S. palustris_), now all but extinct, and
found only rarely in the Eastern counties of England and Kent. It
is taller-growing than _arvensis_, the stem sometimes reaching nine
feet, but the flowers are only half the size of that species.

II. Common Sow-thistle (_S. oleraceus_). A common annual in every
field and waste. General character of plant very similar to
_arvensis_, but smaller. Stem, two to three feet in height, without
(or rarely with) the glandular hairs. Flower-heads many, not
exceeding an inch in diameter. June to September.

Name supposed to be derived from the Greek, _sonthos_, hollow, in
reference to the fistular stems.

=Grass of Parnassus= (_Parnassia palustris_).

It is a singular thing that some of our most beautiful plants grow in the most unpleasant places. We remember a backwater of the River Thames that used to receive the waste waters from a large soap-works, and in the evening, when this waste was poured out, the stench arising from the ditch was unbearable. Yet, with its feet in this vile liquid, the Meadow-sweet grew luxuriantly, but truth compels us to add that its sweetness was thrown away; it could not overcome the other smell. Black bogs and mossy swamps are the particular haunts of floral beauties, such as the marsh violet, the bog buckbean, the marsh marigold, the bog pimpernel, the sundew, the bog asphodel; and it is in such resorts we must look for the Grass of Parnassus, a plant so pretty and elegant of form that it must first have grown upon Mount Parnassus. At any rate, the English name is a mere translation of that given to it by Dioscorides, among the six or seven hundred plants mentioned by him.

It is a perennial, with a stout rootstock. With few exceptions the leaves are radical; they are heart-shaped, smooth, with untoothed edges, and on long stalks. The flowering stems are long, angular, with a stalkless leaf nearly half-way up. At the summit is the solitary large flower. The fine thick sepals are slightly conjoined at their bases, the petals white, veined and leathery. The ovary is large, and on its summit, without the intervention of a style, are the four rayed stigmas. Around the ovary are five stamens--there should be ten, but five have been transformed into scales, which alternate with the perfect stamens, and are fringed with white hairs, each ending in a yellow knob; on the face nearest the ovary each scale bears two small honey-secreting glands. The perfect stamens ripen in succession, and as each becomes mature, it raises itself until the anther comes on top of the stigma, but with its back to it. The front opens and discharges the pollen away from the stigma; but it falls where insects seeking the honeyed glands (using the ovary as a perch) will get it upon their forelegs, and so attach it to the stigmas of the next flower they visit.

Parnassia palustris.

--SAXIFRAGÆ.--]

Avena sativa.

--GRAMINEÆ.--]

It flowers in August and September. This is the only British species.

=Oat-grass= (_Avena sativa_).

We have three British species of Wild Oat, but a knowledge of their structure and differences may be best obtained perhaps by a consideration of the cultivated Oat of our fields. It is indeed probable that the cereal oat is but a cultivated form of our Common Wild Oat (_A. fatua_), for Professor Buckman succeeded years ago in obtaining as the ninth generation from seeds of _A. fatua_ good crops of the farmers’ varieties called White Tartarian and Potato Oats. It is known that oats shed in harvesting often degenerate into the wild forms. As a cereal the Oat does not appear to be nearly so ancient as wheat and barley, for it was not cultivated by the Hebrews, the Egyptians, Greeks or Romans.

The genus is distinguished by having its flowers in a lax-panicle, the spikelets borne principally upon long, slender stalks. Each spikelet contains two or more flowers, of which the upper one is usually imperfect, and each is armed with a long twisted and bent awn. There are two outer glumes, each flowering glume deeply notched, the awn arising from the bottom of the notch. The pale is two-nerved, the scales two-toothed, the stamens three. The ovary has a hairy top and two short styles with feathery stigmas. The fruit adheres to the glume.

I. Wild Oat (_Avena fatua_). An annual with two- or three-flowered
spikelets which droop at length. The empty glumes with nine nerves,
flowering glumes covered with stiff hairs. Brown awn much bent,
the lower half twisted. Leaves flat and roughish; sheaths smooth.
Cornfields. June to August.

II. Narrow-leaved Oat (_A. pratensis_). Perennial; not to be sought
in the place indicated by _pratensis_, as it is a plant of the
moor and dry pasture. Spikelets half erect, six flowered. Leaves
flat, or edges rolled inwards, smooth, hard and rigid. Lower
sheaths rough. Flowering glume, rough. Awn only slightly bent. June
and July.

III. Downy Oat (_A. pubescens_). Perennial. Spikelets half erect,
two-flowered. Leaves flatter than _A. pratensis_, downy; sheaths
very downy. Awns wider apart. Dry pastures. June and July.

The name is the old Latin term for oats and reeds.

=Mountain Ash or Rowan= (_Pyrus aucuparia_).

We have considered many members of the beautiful Rose family already, but we have now a representative of another branch of it--the Wild-Apple section. The fruit of the Mountain Ash is really a little apple. It has no relationship with the Ash (_Fraxinus_, _see_ page 135), but the mere resemblance of its pinnate leaves has won the name. It is a low tree, growing from twenty to forty feet in height. It flowers in May, the creamy white blossoms being grouped in a cyme. The leaf is divided pinnately into six, seven, or eight pairs of leaflets and a terminal odd one; each leaflet toothed, the mid-rib and nerves hairy. The calyx also is hairy. The flowers are succeeded by a cluster of bright scarlet tiny apples, with yellow flesh and a three-celled hard “core” or endocarp. These are ripe in September, and are eagerly sought after by birds--a fact of which advantage has been taken by bird-catchers of all times and places where the tree grows. It is used for the purpose of baiting their horse-hair springes, whence it has got the name of Fowler’s Service-tree, and in the principal European countries it bears a name of like import. Its folk-names in this country alone make a long list:--Quicken-tree, Quick-Beam, Wiggen, Whichen, or Witcher, Wild Ash, Wild Service, Rowan, Roan, or Roddan, Mountain Service, and other variations. Some of these names are reminders of its supposed protective powers against the machinations of witches and warlocks. “Witches have no power where there is Rowan-tree wood.”

Pyrus is the old Latin name for a pear-tree.

Pyrus aucuparia.

--ROSACEÆ.--]

Polygonum fagopyrum.

--POLYGONEÆ.--]

=Buckwheat= (_Polygonum fagopyrum_).

In the neighbourhood of manure-heaps and on the borders of cultivated ground one may come across this plant, which was formerly included in the British Flora, but is now known to be a mere waif of cultivation. Its home is in Central Asia, but it has been so long cultivated as a food-plant in Europe and in the United States that it has become naturalized in most places. In this country it is chiefly grown as a food for pheasants. It is an annual, with a tall, slender, branched, reddish stem, and heart-shaped, almost arrow-headed leaves with entire margins. Flowers in panicles. The individual blossoms consist of five pale reddish sepals, no petals, eight stamens, and three styles. The flowers are of two forms, one with long stamens and short styles; the other with short stamens and long styles. The fruit is large, three-sided, solitary in a nut, very like beech-mast, whence its folk-name _buch_- or buck-wheat. It will be noted that at the base of the leaf-stalk is a pair of thin stipules, which sheathe the stem and mark the swollen nodes that give the knotted appearance so characteristic of the genus, and which has given it the name of many knees or joints (Greek _polus_ and _gonu_). Buckwheat flowers during July and August. It is a valuable honey-plant, esteemed of bee-masters. There are a dozen British species; among them:--

I. Bistort or Snake-root (_P. bistorta_). Perennial, with large
twisted rootstock. Radical leaves long, egg-shaped, the upper part
of the leaf-stalk winged. Stem-leaves almost stalkless, broader
near the stem. Flowers pink or white, producing honey; moist
meadows. June to September.

II. Amphibious Buckwheat (_P. amphibium_). Perennial, rootstock
sometimes creeping in the ground, at others floating in the water.
If the plant is floating the leaves have long stalks; if growing
on land they are almost stalkless. Stipules tubular, large, smooth
in water, bristly on land. Stamens five, styles two. Flowers,
rosy-red. July and August; margins of pools and in other wet places.

III. Spotted Knotweed (_P. persicaria_). Annual. Stem erect; leaves
long, narrowly lance-shaped, with a black heart-shaped patch in the
centre, downy beneath; the stipules fringed with a few long hairs.
Flowers flesh-coloured; stamens six, styles two. July to October,
in moist places.

IV. Knotgrass (_P. aviculare_). Annual. Stems branching from the
root, very slender and straggling, smooth. The leaves small and
grassy, stipules small, white, torn-looking, red at the base.
Flowers very small in the axils, pink. Stamens eight, styles three.
Waste places and neglected gardens. May till October. The seeds are
much esteemed by birds, and to the entomologist the fresh plant
is invaluable as an almost universal food for the caterpillars of
geometers.

V. Black Bindweed (_P. convolvulus_). Annual, with twining stems.
The leaves are very similar to those of the true Convolvulus,
the lobes more pointed; stipules short. Sepals green, with paler
margins. Fields and wastes. July to September.

=Fool’s Parsley= (_Æthusa cynapium_).

Fool’s Parsley is fond of cultivated ground, and it is no unusual thing for it to make its appearance in the very garden beds that have been set apart for rearing that pot-herb for which fools are said to mistake it. It is an annual, with a spindle-shaped, fleshy root, round, hollow stem, branched, and marked with fine longitudinal lines. The leaves are smooth, compound, and bluish green in tint. The wedge-shaped leaflets are themselves pinnate, and the pinnæ are lobed. The flowers are small and irregular, white, grouped in small umbels, which are again gathered into large umbels of umbels.

The reader is invited to turn back to page 55, where the structure of umbelliferous flowers and fruits is more intimately described. The small umbels in _Æthusa_ are provided with an involucre consisting of three or five little bracts, very narrow and hanging vertically. This feature will serve to distinguish _Æthusa_ from all other umbellifers. The entire plant is evil-smelling, and said to be poisonous. It flowers during July and August, and is the only species. It gets its generic name from the Greek _aitho_, to burn, from its acrid character, and its specific name is a combination of _Kynos_, dog, and _apion_, parsley, which is a further note of its worthless character.

Æthusa cynapium.

--UMBELLIFERÆ.--]

Erica cinerea.

=Heather-Ling.=

Calluna vulgaris.

--ERICACEÆ.--]

=Fine-leaved Heath= (_Erica cinerea_).

This is the common Purple Heath of our elevated heaths and commons, distinguished from its relatives by its smooth stems and leaves; the latter exceedingly narrow, their edges curled under, and arranged around the stems in whorls of three leaves, with clusters of minute leaves in their axils. The flowers also are in whorls, and either horizontal or drooping. The sepals are four in number, green; the corolla in one, egg-shaped, with four short lobes around the mouth. The stamens are eight, bearing two-celled crested anthers, each cell opening at the side to discharge its pollen, and having a toothed process at its base; the cell-openings of one anther being pressed against those of neighbouring anthers. The style is dilated at the top, and its surface is the stigma. Flowers July to September.

Another common species is

The Cross-leaved Heath (_E. tetralix_), with downy stems and
leaves; the leaves in whorls of four, and fringed with hairs,
margins rolled under as in _cinerea_. Flowers pale-rosy, drooping,
gathered into a dense head at the summit of the stem. The corollas
are pale, almost white, on their under-sides. The anthers like
those of _cinerea_, but with two longer processes from the base
of each. Bees visit the Heath plants for their plentiful honey,
and in pushing their long tongues into the flower in search of it
touch their heads against the stigma, which partially blocks the
mouth of the corolla. The tongue has to press against one or more
of the anther processes, which has the effect of dislocating the
series of anther-cells, and allowing the pollen to fall through
the opening upon the bee’s head, which is thus ready to fertilize
the next flower it visits. This species may be found growing with
_E. cinerea_, but usually selects the dampest, boggy spots on the
heath. Flowers July to September.

There are two other species, _E. vagans_ and _E. ciliaris_, but
they are confined almost entirely to the county of Cornwall; the
former distinguished by its _bell-shaped_, not egg-shaped, corolla,
and anthers and pistil hanging outside; _ciliaris_ marked by its
leaves being fringed with hairs, each hair tipped with a gland.

The name is from _Ereikh_, the ancient Greek name for heath or
heather.

=Heather or Ling= (_Calluna vulgaris_).

The Ling is distinguished from the Heaths by the botanist because its bell-shaped corolla is concealed by the longer, equally coloured calyx leaves, and below these are four bracts which resemble a calyx. Its leaves are triangular, very minute and densely packed, overlapping each other. Like the Heaths its flowers are persistent, and are to be found bleached but preserving much of their original form, nine or ten months after they opened. The anthers are short, and contained within the corolla, but the style is long, and protrudes. The tough wiry stems attain considerable size in the highlands of Scotland, where they serve many useful purposes. It flowers from July till September. _C. vulgaris_ is the only species. The genus gets its name from the Greek _Kalluno_, to beautify or adorn, an epithet which all who have visited the moorlands in its flowering season will admit is well-bestowed.

=Mistleto= (_Viscum album_).

Is there a person in these islands above the age of infancy who does not know the Mistleto by sight? Why, then, let it occupy space here? Because it is one of those very well-known things that we only partially know. What percentage of those who took advantage last Yule-tide of the mystic sanctions of the plant, and who consequently think they know it so well, have seen its flowers? or know that it has flowers? True, those of our British Mistleto are not very striking in point of size or showiness; but there are tropical species with flowers both large and brilliant.

In _V. album_ the flowers are of two kinds, male and female, each (with rare exceptions) being borne on separate plants, so that cross-fertilization is imperative. They are both green, and consist of a four-lobed perianth, the male with four anthers attached to the perianth, such anthers opening by a large number of pores. The female flower has the perianth adhering to the ovary, to which the stigma is directly attached, there being no style. The ovary, as all know, develops into the globose white berry, containing the large seed with its viscid coat. These occur usually in twos or threes. The flowers may be found any time between March and May.

Viscum album.

--LORANTHACEÆ.--]

Colchicum autumnale.

--LILIACEÆ.--]

This leathery parasite is not very particular as to its host. Quite a large number of trees of different species harbour it, notably the apple; next in favour are poplars, hawthorns, lime, maple, mountain-ash, and very rarely the oak. It has been suggested that the very fact of its extreme rarity upon oak gave oak-grown mistleto its sacred character among the ancient Britons.

=Meadow-Saffron= (_Colchicum autumnale_).

The Meadow-Saffron is more frequently known as the Autumnal Crocus, but we object to the name as conveying a wrong idea of the botanical characters of two distinct genera. Further, there is a true autumnal crocus (_Crocus nudiflorus_), though its claim to be considered British is open to doubt. Like Crocus, Meadow-Saffron has an underground solid stem (_corm_), resembling a bulb, and from this arise the flowers in succession from August to October. These flowers are of a pale purplish colour, and consist of a long slender tubular perianth, enlarging at its upper part into a bell-shape, and this portion is divided into six segments, to each of which a stamen is attached (Crocus has but three). The ovary lies deep within the calyx-tube, and from it arise three long thread-like styles, which are bent over near the tip, the inner side of which is the stigma.

The fruit develops during the winter, and by the spring is ripe. Then when the long, flat leaves make their appearance, the flower-stalk lengthens and brings the ripe capsule above the ground. Sometimes the flowers mistake the seasons and put in an appearance with the leaves in spring, but they are imperfect, and the perianth is greenish-white.

The name is from _Colchis_, where it is said to have grown abundantly.

=Hart’s-tongue Fern= (_Scolopendrium vulgare_).

Hitherto we have dealt only with flowering plants. In these sexual organs are borne in more or less conspicuous blossoms, and, as the result of fertilization of the ovules by the pollen, seeds are produced which give rise to plants exactly like that which bore them. Ferns produce an enormous number of minute bodies, called spores, which are incapable of developing directly into a plant similar to that by which they were produced; but on germination they give rise to a minute green scale, like a liverwort, upon the under surface of which sexual organs appear, and by the mingling of their cell-contents a true bud is formed, from which a true fern-plant is evolved. There are other important points upon which ferns differ from flowering plants, but it is not within the author’s province to deal with them here. Let it suffice to add that as a fruit-bearing organ the leafy portion of a fern differs greatly from the leaves of other plants. To prevent confusion it is termed a _frond_.

The Hart’s-tongue has a frond of very simple character--strap-shaped--consisting of a stout mid-rib (rachis), with a leathery green expansion on either side, the upper end tapering off to a point, the lower divided into two lobes. A large number of thick red-brown parallel ridges on the under surface will attract immediate attention. These are heaps of delicate capsules (_sporangia_), which contain the spores. The Hart’s-tongue is a plant of sandy or rocky hedgerows.

Scolopendrium officinale.

=Maidenhair Spleenwort.=

Asplenium Trichomanes.

--FILICES.--]

Nephrodium filix-mas.

--FILICES.--]

=Maidenhair Spleenwort= (_Asplenium trichomanes_).

A common plant locally on rocks and walls, having a slender dark-brown polished rachis and a large number of roundish-oblong leaflets (_pinnæ_), arranged pinnately on each side. The capsules will be found in short thick lines on the under surface. There is a similar species, the Green Spleenwort (_A. viride_), with a green, softer rachis and the pinnæ distinctly stalked, shorter and paler; growing on wet rocks in mountainous districts.

=Male Fern= (_Nephrodium filix-mas_).

In the Male-fern--so-called by our fathers owing to its robust habit as compared with the tender grace of one they called Lady-fern (_Asplenium filix-fœmina_)--we have an advance in the intricacy of frond-division. Our page is not sufficiently large to represent the whole of the frond, but the portion we give shows that the pinnæ are themselves again divided into _pinnules_. This fern grows to a great size, its rootstock very thick and woody, its fronds erect and three or four feet high. As a rule the rachis and its continuation below the leafy portion (_stipes_) are shaggy with loose golden-brown scales. The spore-capsules are in little round heaps in rows along the pinnæ, and each heap is covered by a thin kidney-shaped involucre. Note in the unrolling of a young frond how beautifully the whole is packed up. The lateral divisions of the pinnæ are rolled each on itself, then the pinnæ are rolled up from their tips toward the rachis, and finally the whole frond is coiled up from the tip downwards. This is the characteristic _vernation_ of ferns, and differs greatly from the packing of undeveloped leaves in the leaf-buds of flowering-plants.

The genus _Nephrodium_ (named from _nephros_, the kidneys, in
allusion to the involucre) contains half-a-dozen other British
species, of which the most frequent is the Broad Buckler Fern (_N.
spinulosum_), with arching fronds, broad at the base, the stipes
sparingly clothed with dark-brown scales. Pinnules toothed, the
teeth ending in long soft points. Damp woods.

Mountain fern (_N. oreopteris_), with habit of Male fern, but
stiffer, and of a yellow-green hue. Spore-heaps near the margins of
the pinnæ. High hills and mountain pastures.

=Field Horsetail= (_Equisetum arvense_).

The Horsetails are a small group of flowerless plants, quite distinct from the ferns, though there are certain points in which some resemblance may be traced. We have eight British species out of twenty-five that are known to inhabit the earth. The most widely distributed of these is the Field Horsetail (_E. arvense_), which farmers regard as a pest. In common with the whole tribe it has a creeping underground rootstock, from which more or less erect jointed stems arise. If we break off one of these joints at its natural articulation we shall observe that the ends are solid, and that the upper extremity is crowned by a sheath ending in long pointed teeth, into which the lower end of the next joint fitted. This leaf-sheath, as it is called, is composed of a number of aborted leaves--the only vestiges of leaves the plant possesses. Just below the leaf-sheath a whorl of jointed branches is given off, each constructed in a manner similar to the upright stem. If now we cut our main joint across its middle with a sharp knife we shall find that it is tubular, a central cavity occupying about one-third of its diameter. Between this cavity and the exterior wall is a series of small tubes, somewhat egg-shaped in outline, the smaller end towards the central cavity; alternating with these and nearer the centre are a number of smaller circular tubes. This section should always be made when in doubt as to the species, for the shape and arrangement of these cavities differs in each, as do the external ridges. The accompanying cuts represent half-sections through the stems of the principal British species. In this species there are about a dozen blunt ridges on the stem, extending right to the points of the leaf-sheath. The branches are four-angled, solid, and jointed and sheathed like the main stem. The cells of the cuticle secrete silica in such quantity that the whole of the vegetable matter may be got rid of by maceration, yet the form of the stem will remain in this transparent skeleton of silica. Certain species are used for polishing metal, under the name of Dutch Rushes.

Equisetum arvense.

--EQUISETACEÆ.--]

Cladonia cornucopioides.

B.--=Wall-Lichen.=

Physcia parietina.

--LICHENES.--]

1. Equisetum maximum.
2. ” pratense.
3. ” arvense.
4. ” sylvaticum.
5. ” limosum.
6. ” palustre.
7. ” hyemale.]

So far we have been describing what is known as the barren stem, because it ends in several unbranched joints, without any fructification. Before these barren stems appeared there arose from the rootstock a stem differing greatly in appearance, usually without branches, and lacking the green colouring matter (_chlorophyll_). It is pale brown in colour, of stouter build, but much shorter, for whereas the barren stem is about two feet in length, the fertile is only a few inches, or at most less than a foot. The leaf-sheath is longer, and the teeth frequently adhere two or three together. The stem terminates in a kind of cone, consisting of many whorls of flat scales, each supported by a central stalk, on the underside of which are arranged from six to nine capsules containing spores. These spores are very curious: they are globular in form, and invested with several coats, the outermost of which splits into four narrow strips, which are highly hygroscopic, and which remain attached to the spore at one point only. These _elaters_, as they are termed, are very sensitive to changes in the humidity of the atmosphere, as may be proved by breathing upon them, however slightly, when they will be seen (through the microscope) to be in active movement. In many ferns the spores require months to elapse before germination takes place; those of Horsetails will germinate in a few hours. Owing to its possession of chlorophyll the spore, if not placed in a situation suitable for germination, perishes in the course of a few days.

The name of the genus is from the Latin, _equus_, a horse, and _seta_, a bristle. The fertile stems appear in March and April, the barren ones at intervals later.

=Lichens= (_Lichenes_). Plate 126.

The rambler will meet with specimens of the Lichen tribes at every turn, when he has got fairly away from the smoke of towns. He will find them on the tree-trunks or rocks and walls, old posts and palings, on thatch and on the ground. Wherever they are found they may be accepted as certificates of the purity of the air. Formerly considered as a distinct type, they are now held by the advanced school of cryptogamic botanists as _commensals_, or partnerships formed between a _fungus_ and an _alga_. They are usually thin crusts, consisting of an upper and a lower epidermis, formed of closely crowded cells, and to the lower layer rootlike filaments are attached. Between these layers are two differing elements; a loose stratum of green cells (_gonidia_), which are said to be _algæ_, and below these a layer of fungoid threads. The contention of the new school is that these _algæ_ have been captured by a fungus and held in bondage, being forced to elaborate starch by means of their chlorophyll from the inorganic material obtained by the rootlike filaments, which starch the fungus is able to feed upon. Some of the green cells are pushed out from time to time invested with a few wisps of fungus-threads, and so reproduce the partnership. It is but right to add that some good authorities on this branch of botany decline to accept these views, and still regard lichens as independent organisms and not partnerships.

Hypnum triquetrum.

=Hair-Moss.=

Polytrichum formosum.

--MUSCI.--]

Amanita muscarius.

B.--=Edible Boletus.=

Boletus edulis.

C.--=Puff-ball.=

Lycoperdum gemmatum.

D.--=Chanterelle.=

Cantharellus cibarius.

--FUNGI.--]

The species are very numerous, but their identification is not easy, and requires serious application. The two figured are exceedingly common in some districts. Various species of Cup-moss (_Cladonia_) will be met on heaths, sandy hedge-banks, etc. They have a flat crust-like base, from which arise pale grey tubes or cups, bearing at their tips the bright scarlet, pinky-brown, or even black fruits. A more common form in woods and on banks is _Cladonia pyxidata_, with the tube greatly increasing in width upwards. _Cladonia rangiferina_ is the well-known Reindeer-moss, of inestimable value in extreme Northern latitudes as the food of the useful animal whose name it bears; it may be found in abundance in this country on heaths and hillsides covering the ground beneath the heather.

The other species figured in our plate, the Wall-lichen (_Physcia parietina_), is also very common, forming the familiar orange stains upon walls and maritime rocks. A closely allied species, the grey _Parmelia saxatilis_, is common on tree-trunks: it has been used time out of mind in the production of a brownish-red dye for wools. Several others of the same genus are valuable in a similar direction: our own _Parmelia perlata_, which grows on tree trunks, is largely imported from the Canaries as a dye-weed, and has been sold at as high a rate as £200 per ton.

Lichens are generally of slow growth and long life. Mr. Berkeley kept watch upon a patch of _Lecidia geographica_ for twenty-five years, and found little change in it all that time. The Rev. Hugh Macmillan recounts how he found on the top of Schiehallion a species of lichen encrusting quartz rocks, which exhibited beneath the lichen the marks of glacial action as distinct and unchanged by atmospheric effects as though the glacier had only passed over them yesterday. He suggests that the lichen may reckon its days back very nearly if not quite to the glacial period in Britain!

There are upwards of a thousand British species, and the best list of them will be found in “Crombie’s British Museum Catalogue of Lichens,” of which the first part was published in 1894.

=Mosses= (_Musci_). Plate 127.

Another important tribe of flowerless plants, to which we must be content with merely giving the general characters, for in a volume primarily intended as a guide to wild-_flowers_ we must not occupy too much space with plants that do not produce flowers. At the same time, we believe the non-botanical among our readers will be glad to have a slight introduction, upon the strength of which they may cultivate the closer acquaintance of a most beautiful and interesting group of plants.

A. Three-cornered Hypnum (_Hypnum triquetrum_) is a common species on woodland banks, growing in branching tufts. The stems are well clothed with leaves, which consist of a single layer of cells; there is therefore no necessity for the breathing pores (_stomates_) found on the leaves of flowering plants and giving access to the tissues beneath the cuticle. The leaves of mosses are not provided with stomates; neither are they stalked, but attached directly to the stem by their base. From the sides of the stem at intervals a number of brown, hair-like threads are given off, and each of these ends in a brown, pear-shaped nodding organ, the spore capsule. These capsules are each closed with a lid (_operculum_), beneath which is a double row of teeth, their tips directed towards the centre of the mouth. When the spores are ripe the operculum is cast off, and these teeth erect themselves to allow the minute spores to escape. The teeth (forming the _peristome_) of mosses are always some multiple of four; in Hypnum each row contains sixteen.

B. Beautiful Hair-moss (_Polytrichum formosum_) represents another division of mosses in which the fruits are borne on the termination of the stem or principal branches. In an earlier condition than that figured the capsule is covered with a conical densely-hairy cap (_calyptra_); this is thrown off when the spores are ripe, the operculum follows and the spores are cast.

=Mushrooms and Toadstools= (_Fungi_). Plate 128.

We cannot pretend to do other than call the rambler’s attention to the interesting plants that are variously called mushrooms or toadstools, according to whether they are of the two or three species commonly eaten, or of the multitude concerning which the British public knows nothing, and therefore dismisses them as worthless toadstools.

A. The Fly-Agaric (_Agaricus muscarius_), though in general structure it closely resembles the common mushroom (_Ag. campestris_), is to be avoided as a poisonous species. Its large orange or crimson cap, more or less thickly dotted with whitish flakes, is a very striking feature in woods in late summer and autumn. An examination of the underside of the cap (_pileus_) will reveal a great number of thin yellowish plates set on edge and radiating from the stem to the circumference. Over these plates or _gills_ is stretched a membrane, called the _hymenium_, on which the spores are borne. From this characteristic of the bulk of our mushrooms and toadstools the tribe containing them is dubbed the _Hymenomycetes_.

B. Edible Boletus (_Boletus edulis_). In this group (_Polyporei_) the hymenium, instead of investing gills, lines minute pores or tubes, with which the under surface of the pileus is packed, and in which the spores are produced. Many of the _Boleti_ are edible, but their good qualities are known only to the few in this country. _Edulis_ may be distinguished from other species by a delicate network of raised white lines covering the stem.

C. Jewelled Puff-ball (_Lycoperdon gemmatum_). This species represents a tribe in which the spore-bearing surface is contained within the fungus. In a young state Puff-balls of many kinds are filled with a white creamy substance, and so long as this remains white and does not change colour on being cut the fungus is good to eat, after being cut in slices and fried. When the spores are ripe the Puff-ball splits open at the top, and discloses a hollow filled with brown dust--the spores. Certain species of Lycoperdon attain very large proportions: _L. giganteum_ is abundant in some localities in grassy places, usually measuring nine or ten inches in diameter, but occasionally it exceeds twenty inches, and weighs as many pounds. Slices may be cut from one side of it for several days in succession, but so long as the rooting portion is not interfered with it will continue to grow. _L. gemmatum_ is common on downs or pastures. Readers should be cautioned against eating these small species in a raw state, as such a course has been known to have serious effects.