7 A, - ia hy
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RY sya
THE FLOWERING PLANTS
GRASSES, SEDGES & FERNS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN
=~. re a ae , oe
oe
1 MOUNTAIN
WILD TULIP
LLOYD LA
Lloydia serotina
Tulipa sylvestris
COMMON FRITILLARY OR SNAKES HEAD
Frontispiece.
Friullaria meleagris
Pi.
tS
ts
i}. COMMON MEADOW SAFFRON
Colchicum autumnale
5. MOUNTAIN SCOTTISH ASPHODEL
Tofieldia palustris
6 JOINTED PIPE WORT .
Exioraulon septangulare
Vol.
I.
THE FLOWERING PLANTS
GRASSES, SEDGES & FERNS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN
$2 J - 92
AND THEIR ALLIES
THe CLUB MOSSES, HHORSETAILS, é&c
By ANNE PRATT
NEW EDITION
REVISED BY: EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
THREE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN COLOURED PLATES
FIGURING
UPWARDS OF 1500 SPECIES
VOR. ctlt-
LONDON
FREDERICK WARNE & CO.
AND NEW YORK
1905
x
Wore
Aceras anthropophora
Ajuga alpina
chameepitys
pyramidalis
reptans
Allium ampeloprasum .
babingtonii .
oleracewm
schenopraswin
scorodopraswun
spheerocephalum .
triquetrum .
ursinunr
vineale
Alnus glutinosa
Amaranthus blitum
Anacharis alsinastruin .
Anagallis arvensis
tenella
Antirrhinum majus
orontium
Aristolochia clematitis .
Armeria maritima
plantaginea
Asarum europeum
Asparagus officinalis
Atriplex angustifelia
deltoidea
laciniata
littoralis
patula
pedunculata
portulacoides
rosea .
Ballota nigra
Bartsia alpina
odontites
VISCOSH
Beta vulgaris
Betonica officinalis
Betula alba .
NANe ,
Buxus sempervirens
men 7 1968
GONTLENTS.
VOL. Il.
(Arranged according to generic names.)
Green Man Orchis
Alpine Bugle .
Ground Pine, or Yellow Bugle
Pyramidal Bugle :
Common Bugle F :
Flowery Round-headed Garlic .
Bulbiferous Round-headed Garlic
Streaked Field Garlic
Chive Garlic
Sand Garlic.
Small Round-headed Garlic
Triangular-stalked Garlic
Broad-leaved Garlic
Crow Garlic
Common Alder :
Wild Amaranth :
Long-flowered Anacharis .
Scarlet Pimpernel .
Bog Pimpernel
Great Snapdragon . :
Lesser Snapdragon .
Common Birthwort .
Common Thrift :
. Plantain-leaved Thrift
. Asarabacca
. Common Asparagus .
Spreading narrow-leaved Orache
. Triangular-leaved Orache
- Frosted Sea Orache .
Grass-leaved Sea Orache .
Spreading Halberd-leaved Orache
Stalked Sea Orache .
Shrubby Orache
Spreading-fruited Orache
. Black Horehound . : ‘
. Alpine Bartsia
. Red Bartsia ,
. Yellow Bartsia .
- Common Beet . é
Wood Betony .
Common Birch 3
Dwarf Birch . : :
Common Box . : P
Plate
217
165
165
165
165
228
228
228
229
228
229
230
229
200
179
214
174
174
159
159
192
175
175
193
225
183
183
182
183
183
182
182
182
166
156
156
156
179
168
200
200
197
Fig.
Pre Nr PON WWE POOR WN OR Rowe ee Sl ee a |
LIBRARY
NEW YOR!
BOTANICA
GARDEN
vl
Calamintha acinos
nepeta
officinalis
sylvatica
vulgaris
Carpinus betulus .
Castanea vulgaris .
Centunculus minimus
Chenopodium album
bonus-henricus
Jicifolium
glaucum
hybridum
murale
olidum
polyspermum
rubrum
urbicum
Colchicum autumnale
Convallaria majalis
Corallorhiza innata
Corylus avellana .
Crocus awreus
minimus
nudiflorus .
sativus
VETNUS ‘
Ch Hae hedereefolium.
Cypripedium calceolus .
Daphne laureola
mezerewm
Digitalis purpurea
Empetrum nigrum
Epipactis ensifolia
grandiflora.
latifolia
palustris
rubra.
Epipogiun gmelini
Eriocaulon septangulare
Euphorbia amygdatoides
characias
coralloides .
cYparissias .
esula .
exigua
helioscopia . ‘
hiberna : 5
lathyris . .
paralias. 0
palustris
peplis .
peplus ;
platyphylla.
portlandica .
Euphrasia officinalis
Fagus sylvatica
Fritillaria meleagris
Gagea lutea .
CONTENTS
Common Basil Thyme
Lesser Calamint
Common Calamint . ‘ ;
Wood Calamint A : 6
Common Wild Basil
Common Hornbeam
Spanish Chestnut
Small Chaffweed, or Bastard Pimpernel
White Goosefoot .
Mercury Goosefoot
Fig-leaved Goosefoot
Oak-leaved Goosefoot
Maple-leaved Goosefoot
Nettle-leaved Goosefoot
Stinking Goosefoot .
Many-seeded Goosefoot
Red Goosefoot
Upright Goosefoot c
Common Meadow Saffron
Lily of the Valley
Spurless Coral-root . :
Hazel. : : : A
Golden Crocus 5 ;
Least Purple Crocus
Naked-flowering Crocus
Saffron Crocus ¢ : °
Purple Spring Crocus. .
Sowbread : .
Lady’s Slipper . : : :
s; 4 6) ws Je. faye) a, 6) je, 2
Common Spurge Laurel . :
Common Mezereon .
Foxglove
Black Crowberry .
Narrow-leaved White Helleborine
Large White Helleborine .
Broad-leaved Helleborine
Marsh Helleborine .
Purple Helleborine .
Gmelin’s Coral-root
Jointed Pipewort
Wood Spurge . ;
Red Shrubby Spurge
Coral-like Hairy Spurge .
Cypress Spurge 9
Leafy-branched Spurge
Dwarf Spurge . :
Sun Spurge
Irish Spurge
Caper Spurge .
Sea Spurge
Marsh Sun Spurge
Purple Spurge .
Petty Spurge .
Broad-leaved Warted Spurg ge
Portland Spurge
Eyebright
Beech tree : : :
Common Fritillary . 3 .
Yellow Gagea .
Plate Fig,
169
169
169
169
169
212
211
175
180
181
181
181
180
180
179
179
18]
180
232
225
215
212
223
223
223
223
223
173
222
192
192
159
193
216
216
215
216
216
232
197
197
195
195
195
196
194
194
197
196
195
194
196
194
196
156
211
232
231
Oe PNONON WH PH WRWNWNH PRED WONooR
mb
a
FPNWWHRE He PNR WP NWO mR Eb oe bo
or
Page
Galanthus nivalis .
Galcobdolon luteum
Galeopsis ladanwm
ochroleuca .
tetrahit ;
versicolor
Gladiolus communis
Glaux maritima
Goodyera repens
Gynnadenia conopsea
Habenaria albida .
bifolia c
chlorantha .
tntacta
viridis C
THerminiwm monorchis .
Hippophaé rhamnoides .
Hottonria palustris .
Humautlus lupulus .
Hydrocharis morsius-rane
Iris fetidissima
pseud-acorus
Juniperus communis
Lamium album
amplexicaule
incisum
intermedium
purpureum .
Leonurus cardiaca
Leucojum cestivum
vernun
Limosella aquatica
Linaria cymbalaria
elatine
minor. ;
pelisseriana
repens
spuria :
supind 5 :
vulgaris :
Liparis loéselit .
Listera cordata . 5
nidus-avis .
ovata .
Littorella lacustris
Lloydia serotina
Lycopus ewropeeus .
Lysimachia nemorum
numnularia
thyrsiflora .
vulgaris
Maianthemum convallaria
Malaxis paludosa .
Marrubium vulgare
Melampyrum arvense
cristatum
pratense
sylvaticum .
CONTENTS
Snowdrop : ;
Yellow Weasel-snout
Red Hemp-nettle
Downy Hemp-nettle
Common Hemp-nettle
Large-flowered Hemp-nettle
Common Corn-Flag
Sea Milkwort .
Creeping Goodyera .
Fragrant Gymnadenia_ .
Small White Habenaria
Lesser Butterfly Orchis
Great Butterfly Orchis
Entire Habenaria
Green Habenaria
Musk Orchis
Sea Buckthorn
Water Violet
Common Hop .
Frog-bit .
Stinking Ivis
Yellow Water-flag
Common Juniper.
White Dead-nettle .
Henbit Dead-nettle .
Cut-leaved Dead-nettle
Intermediate Dead-nettle
Red Dead-nettle
Motherwort 5
Summer Snowflake .
Spring Snowflake
Common Mudwort .
Ivy-leaved Toad-flax 5
Sharp-peinted Toad-flax .
Least Toad-flax j ‘
Upright Purple Toad-flax
Creeping Toad-flax .
Round-leaved Toad-flax
Diffuse Toad-flax
Yellow Toad-flax
Two-leaved Liparis . .
Heart-leaved Tway-blade.
Common Bird’s-nest
Common Tway-blade
Common Shore-weed
Mountain Lloydia
Common Gipsy-wort
Yellow Pimpernel
Creeping Loosestrife
Tufted Loosestrife . 3
Great Yellow Loosestrife .
May Lily
Bog Orchis : A
Common White Horehound
Purple Cow-wheat
Crested Cow-wheat . j
Common Yellow Cow-wheat
Lesser Yellow Cow-wheat.
6,6, ie) 8) ..2,
ee. Yet 6". lee: er ‘ee 8. (ee
Plate Fig.
224
167
166
166
166
166
173
217
220
221
221
221
221
221
200
172
199
214
223
223
213
167
167
167
167
167
166
224
161
160
160
160
160
160
160
160
215
217
217
217
178
232
162
174
174
174
174
215
169
157
157
157
157
b—2
Or Coe
e bo NNR Qe e CO bo em “Tb
OD wor mb i)
NPN OCR
PNP ORR wr whl oO
wm Cor bo Cor
vill
Melittis melissophyllum
Mentha aquatica
arvensis
pipertta . cl
pratensis
pulegium c
rotundifolia :
sativa. :
sylvestris
viridis :
Mercurialis annwa 3
percnnis
_ Mimutus luteus
Muscari racenosum
Myrica gale .
Nurcissus biflorus .
poeticus .
pseudo-narcissus .
Neottia cernwa
cestivalis
spiralis
Nepeta cataria
glechoma
Ophrys apifera
arachnites .
aranifera
muscifera
Orchis fusca . ¢
hircina 0
latifolia . .
laxiflora 0
maculata
mascula
militaris
mo7rio .
pyramidalis
tephrosanthos .
ustulata
Origanum vulgare.
Ornithogalum nutans
pyrenaicum
unbellatum :
Oxyria reniformis.
Pariectaria officinalis.
Puris quadrifolia . 0
Pedicularis palustris
sylvatica
Pinguicula alpina
grandiflora.
lusitanica .
vulgaris
Pinus sylvestris
Plantago coronopus
lanceolata
major . :
maritima
media. :
Polygonatum multiflorum
officinale c
verticillatum
CONTENTS
Bastard Balm . :
Water Capitate Mint
Corn Mint ¢
Peppermint
Narrow-leaved Mint
Pennyroyal .
Round-leaved Mint .
Marsh Whorled Mint
Horse-mint
Spear-mint
Annual Mercury
Dog’s Mercury 5
Yellow Monkey Flower
Starch Hyacinth
Sweet Gale
Pale Narcissus .
Poet’s Narcissus
Dafiodil
Drooping Lady’s Tresses .
Summer Lady’s Tresses
Fragrant Lady’s Tresses_ .
Catmint .
Ground Ivy
Bee Orchis é
Late Spider Orchis .
Spider Orchis .
Fly Orchis
Great Brown- winged Orchis
Lizard Orchis .
Marsh Orchis .
Lax-flowered Orchis
Spotted Palmate Orchis
Early Purple Orchis
Military Orchis
Green-winged Meadow Orchis é
Pyramidal ¢ Orchis
Monkey Orchis
Dwarf Dark-w inged Orchis
Common Marjoram .
Drooping Star of Bethlehem
Spiked Star of Bethlehem
Commen Star of Bethlehem
Kidney-shaped Mountain Sorrel
Common Pellitory
Herb Paris : 0
Marsh Lousewort
Pasture Lousewort
Alpine Butterwort
Large-flowered Butterw ort
Pale Butterwort
Common Butterwort
Scotch Fir "i
Buck’s-horn Plantain
Ribwort Plantain
Greater Plantain
Seaside Plantain
Hoary Plantain
Common Solomon’s Seal».
Angular Solomon’s Seal
Narr ow-leaved Solomon’ 5 Seal .
Plate
170
163
163
163
163
1638
162
163
162
162
193
193
227
200
224
224
224
Palel
217
217
169
169
222
222
222
222
218
220
219
219
220
218
219
218
220
219
218
164
231
231
231
191
199
225
157
157
171
171
171
171
213
178
ee
177
178
177
226
226
226
lig.
1
bo co COR ODP tO OI Ore Sb
Ne Poo bd OO
WCNRFWNWNNRFRNRrWRWPRWNH
NOPWNHERWNRN OWE OONH
Polygonum amphibian .
aviculare
listorta
convolvulus.
dumetorum
Jagopyrum .
hydropiper .
lapathifolium
laxum
maritimum
minus
mite . .
persicaria .
roberti
viviparum .
Populus alba
canescens
nigra .
tremula
Primula elatior
Sarinosa
scotica
veris .
vulgaris
Prunella vulyaris .
Quercus robur
Rhinanthus crista-galli .
Major .
Rumex acetosa
acetosella
alpinus
aquuticus
conglomeratus
crispus
hydrolapathum
maritimus .
obtusifolius.
palustris
pratensis.
pulcher
sanguineus .
Ruscus aculeatus .
Salicornia herbacea
radicans .,
Salix acuminata
alba
ambigua
angustifolia
arbuscula ,
arenaria
aurita 7
caprea c
cinerea :
cuspidata
doniana .
JSerruginea .
Jorbyana
Sragilis
Susca . C
hastata -
CONTENTS
Amphibious Persicaria
Common Knot-grass
Common Bistort
Climbing Buckwheat
Copse Buckwheat .
Common Buckwheat c
Biting Persicaria
Pale-flowered Persicaria
Slender-headed Persicaria
Seaside Knot-grass .
Small Creeping Persicaria
Lax-flowered Persicaria
Spotted Persicaria
Roberts’ Knot-grass
Viviparous Alpine Bistort
Great White Poplar
Grey Poplar c
Black Poplar .
eonel: or Trembling Poplar
Jacquin’s Oxlip
Bird’s-eye Primrose .
Scottish Primrose
Common Cowslip
Common Primrose
Common Self-heal
Common Oak . : :
Common Yellow Rattle
Hairy Yellow Rattle
Common Sorrel
Sheep’s Sorrel
Alpine Dock, or Monk’s Rhubarb
Grainless Water Dock
Sharp Dock c
Curled Dock
Great Water Dock
Golden Dock . .
Broad-leaved Dock .
Yellow Dock
Meadow Dock .
Fiddle Dock
Bloody-veined, and Green-veined Dock
Common Butcher’ s-broom
Jointed Glasswort .
Creeping Glasswort .
Long-leaved Sallow .
Common White Willow
Ambiguous Willow .
Little Tree Willow .
Small Tree Willow .
Downy Mountain Willow.
Round-eared Sallow ;
Great Round-leaved Sallow
Grey Sallow
Cuspidate Willow
Don’s Willow .
Ferrugineous Sallow
Fine Basket Osier ‘
Crack Willow . 5 :
Dwarf Silky Willow
Apple-leaved Willow
Plate
186
185
185
186
186
186
187
187
187
185
187
187
186
185
185
209
209
209
209
172
172
172
172
172
170
212
156
156
191
191
189
188
189
188
188
190
190
190
188
190
189
225
184
184
206
203
204
204
208
205
207
207
206
204
206
201
202
204
209
Lig.
Wwe PAMACW PNY NMR OW PR Orb Oe Whe we
a
Lott Sel oe SS eel SO Ol ell SS el OP
PND NE RE NDNDH
co Co POO CO DD
x
Salix herbacca 4 -
helix .
holosericea .
lanata
laurina 3 :
myrsinites .
nigricans
pentandra .
petiolaris
phylicifolia.
procumbens . .
purpurea. .
reticulata
rosmarinifolia
rubra.
sadlert
smithiana .
stipularis
triandria
viminalis
vitellina
undulata
Salsola kali .
Salvia pratensis
verbenaca
Samolus valerandi
Scilla autumnalis .
bifolia
nutans
verna .
Scleranthus annus
perennis
Scrophularia aquatica
ehrharti . 5
nodosa
scorodonia .
vernalis
Scutellaria galericulata.
minor.
Sibthorpia ewropea
Simethis bicolor
Cele; 0) Liat Late el Lele
Sisyrinchium angustifolium :
Stachys alpina
annua
arvensis
germanica .
palustris
sylvatica
Statice bahusiensts
binervosa
caspia . >
limonium .
Stratiotes aloides .
Suceda fruticosa
maritima .
Tamus communis .
Taxus baccata
Teucriwm botrys
chamedrys .
scordiwm
scorodonia .
Thesium hwmitle
CONTENTS
Least Willow . : :
Rose Willow . :
Soft Shaggy- flowered Willow
Woolly Broad-leaved Willow
Intermediate Willow : :
Green Whortle-leaved Willow .
Dark-leaved Sallow . :
Sweet Bay Willow . ;
Dark Long-leaved Willow
Tea-leaved Willow .
Smooth-leaved Alpine Willow .
Purple Willow.
Reticulated Willow .
Rosemary-leaved Willow .
Green-leaved Osier . :
Sadler’s Willow : . :
Silky-leaved Osier 0
Auricle-leaved Osier c
Blunt-stipuled Triandrous Willow
Common Osier.
Golden Willow
Sharp-stipuled Triandrous Willow
Prickly Saltwort 0
Meadow Clary, or Sage
Wild English Clary .
Brookweed : :
Autumnal Squill
Twin-leaved Squill . : ,
Wild Hyacinth , ‘ .
Vernal Squill .
Annual Knawel : : 5
Perennial Knawel . : .
Water Figwort :
Ebrhart’s Figwort . - :
Knotted Figwort . 5 é
Balm-leaved Figwort 5 :
Yellow Figwort . :
Common Skull-cap .
Lesser Skull-cap c
Cornish Sibthorpia . .
Variegated Simethis ;
Blue-eyed Grass : : ,
Alpine Woundwort . - .
Pale Annual Woundwort.
Corn Woundwort . i :
Downy Woundwort .
Marsh Woundwort .
Hedge Woundwort . :
Remote- flowered Sea, Lavender.
Upright-spiked Sea Lavender .
Matted Thrift .
Spreading-spiked Sea Lavender
Water Soldier . .
Shrubby Sea Blite c :
Annual Sea Blite . é :
Black Bryony .
Common Yew .
Cut-leaved Annual Germander
Wall Germander ‘ Z
Water Germander . ; :
Wood Germander . :
Erect Bastard Toad-flax .
Plate
209
201
209
207
208
207
202
203
208
209
201
205
203
201
206
205
202
205
203
202
184
162
162
175
230
230
227
230
184
184
158
158
158
158
158
170
170
161
227
168
168
168
168
168
176
176
176
176
214
184
184
225
213
164
164
164
Fig.
2
9
“
MPN PWOPR HEN WNONNPWNWNOANN WOH Re CT ee OC
Hm COCO CODD DD OO ROO
or
Co He Or
Page
169
151
163
170
Thesium linophyllum
Thymus serpyllum
Tofieldia palustris
Trichonema columnce
Trientalis europea
Tulipa sylvestris
Ulmus campestris .
suberosa
Urtica dioica
pilulifera .
Urens .
Utricularia intermedia .
minor.
vulgaris
Verbascum blattaria
lychnitis
nigrum
pulverulentum
thapsus
virgatum
Verbena officinalis .
Veronica agrestis .
alpina
anagallis
arvensis
beccabunga .
buxbaumit .
chamedrys .
Sruticulosa .
hederifolia .
montana
officinalis
saxatilis
scutellata
serpyllifolia
spicata
triphyllos
Verne .
CONTENTS
Lint leaved Bastard Toad-flax .
Wild Thyme
Scottish Asphodel
Columna’s Trichonema
Chickweed Winter Green
Common Tulip é :
Wych Elm. - .
Common Elm . ;
Great Nettle
Roman Nettle.
Small Nettle
Intermediate Bladderwor t
Lesser Bladderwort
Greater Bladderwort
Moth Mullein .
White Mullein
Dark Mullein . :
Yellow Hoary Mullein
Great Mullein .
Large-flowered Mullein
Common Vervain c
Field Speedwell : -
Alpine Speedwell °
Water Speedwell . :
Wall Speedwell ‘ -
Brooklime . :
Buxbaum’s Speedwell 5
Germander Speedwell
Flesh-coloured Speedwell .
Ivy-leaved Speedwell
Mountain Speedwell
Common Speedwell
Blue Rock Speedwell
Marsh Speedwell .
Thyme-leaved Speedw ell .
Spiked Speedwell
Blnnt-fingered Speedwell.
Vernal Speedw ell
Plate Fig.
192
164
222
223
173
232
bo co Ge Orr Co
199
199
198
198
198
171
171
171
> CONT CO O10
161
161
161
161
161
161
171
155
154
154
155
154
155
155
154
155
H S109 SC CONTINT OO OI NDOT PS
155
154
154
154
154
155
155
DOH NOrr
xi
Page
114
40
257
229
74
254
COW WH CH OHLONE DOP COP COAT
fae rhe yVERING. ELAN TS
OF
GREAT BRITAIN
Order LXI. SCROPHULARINEAZX—FIGWORT TRIBE.
Catyx 4—5-lobed, not falling off; corolla generally irregular, often
2-lipped, overlapping when in bud; stamens usually 4, 2 long and 2 short,
sometimes 2 or 5; ovary 2-celled; style 1; stigma 2-lobed; capsule
2-celled, 2—4-valved, or opening by pores; seeds few or numerous. This is
a large and important order, consisting chiefly of herbaceous, but, in some
cases, of shrubby plants, inhabiting all parts of the world. Many powerful
medicinal plants are contained in it, as the Foxglove and the Hedge-hyssop
(Gratiola officinalis); while it contributes many beautiful flowers to our
gardens, and makes our waysides gay with its Mulleins, Speedwells, and
other lovely wild flowers.
* Stamens 2.
1. SPEEDWELL (Verénica).—Corolla wheel-shaped, unequally 4-cleft, lower
segment the narrowest; capsule 2-celled. Named from Veronica, a saint of
the Roman Catholic Church.
* * Stamens 4, usually 2 long and 2 short.
2. Bartsta (Sdrtsia).—Calyx tubular, generally coloured, 4-cleft ; corolla
gaping, with a contracted throat, upper lip arched, entire, lower lip 3-lobed ;
lobes bent back ; capsule flattened, pointed, 2-celled ; seeds numerous, angular. ‘
Name in honour of John Bartsch, a Prussian botanist.
3, EyE-BRIGHT (Huphrdsia).—Calyx tubular, 4-cleft; corolla gaping,
upper lip divided, lower lip in 3 nearly equal lobes ; anthers spurred at the
base ; capsule flattened, blunt, or notched ; seeds ribbed. Name from the
Greek, euphraino, to gladden, in allusion to its supposed useful properties.
4, YELLOW-RATTLE (Lhindnthus). —Calyx inflated, 4-toothed; corolla
gaping, upper lip flattened vertically, lower lip plane, 3-lobed; capsule
flattened, blunt ; seeds numerous, flat and bordered. Name in Greek signi-
tying Nose-flower, from the peculiar form of the corolla.
5. Cow-wHEAT (Melampyrum).—Calyx tubular, with four narrow teeth ;
corolla gaping, upper lip flattened vertically, turned back at the margin,
lower lip 3-cleft ; capsule oblong, obliquely pointed, flattened ; seeds one
I,.— 1
2 SCROPHULARINEA#
to four in each cell. Name in Greek signifying black wheat, the form of
the seed resembling a grain of wheat, and the powdered seed being said,
when mingled with flour, to render it black.
6. LousE-wort (Pediculéris).—Calyx inflated, its segments jagged, some-
what leafy ; corolla gaping, upper lip arched, flattened vertically, lower lip
plane, 5-lobed ; capsule flattened, oblique, 2-celled; seeds angular. Name
alluding to a disease which it is supposed to produce in sheep that feed
upon it.
7. Ficwort (Scrophuldria).—Calyx 5-lobed ; corolla nearly globose, with
two short lips, the upper 2-lobed, with a small scale within, the lower 3-lobed ;
capsule opening with two valves, the edges of which are turned in. Name
from the disease which the plant was supposed to cure.
8. FoxGLoveE (Digitdlis)—Calyx in 5 deep, unequal segments ; corolla
irregularly bell-shaped, with 4—5 shallow lobes ; capsule egg-shaped. Name
from the Latin digitale, the finger of a glove, which its flowers resemble.
9. SNAPDRAGON (Antirrhinum).— Calyx 5-parted; corolla personate,
swollen, but not spurred at the base, its mouth closed by a palate ; capsule
2-celled, oblique, opening by pores at the top. Name in Greek signifying
opposite the nose, from the mask-like appearance of the flowers.
10. TOAD-FLAX (Lindria).—Calyx 5-parted ; corolla personate, spurred at
the base; mouth closed by a palate ; capsule swollen, 2-celled, opening by
valves or teeth. Name from /inwm, flax, which the leaves of some species
resemble.
11. MoNKEY-FLOWER (Mimulus). — Calyx 5-toothed, angular. Corolla
ringent, 2-lipped, the upper lip erect, 2-lobed; lower spreading, 3-lobed.
Stamens four. Stigma of two equal plates. Capsule 2-valved, with many seeds.
Name from the Greek, mimo, an ape, from the shape of the corolla mouth.
12. Mupwort (Limosélla).—Calyx 5-cleft ; corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft,
equal ; capsule globose, 2-valved. Name from the Latin Jimus, mud, from the
soil in which it grows.
13. Monery-worrT (Sibthérpia). —Calyx in 5 deep-spreading segments ;
corolla wheel-shaped, 5-cleft, nearly regular ; capsule nearly round, flattened
at the top. Name in honour of Dr. Sibthorp, formerly Professor of Botany
at Oxford.
* * * Stamens 5.
14. MULLEIN (Verbdscum).—Calyx 5-parted ; corolla wheel-shaped, 5-cleft,
irregular; stamens hairy. Name from the Latin barba, a beard, from the
shaggy leaves of some species.
1. SPEEDWELL (Veronica).
* Racemes terminal, tube of corolla longer than broad.
1. Spiked Speedwell (V. spicdta).—Flowers in a dense long-spiked
raceme ; bracts longer than the sepals ; leaves egg-shaped or lanceolate, with
roundish serratures, but entire towards the end, lower ones broader, blunt
and stalked ; capsules egg-shaped, downy, with a very long style ; stem erect,
branching at the base; perennial. In one form of this plant, the lower
leaves are oblong and wedge-shaped at the base ; while another form has its
4.
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FIGWORT TRIBE 3
leaves at the base either rounded or heart-shaped. This is a very rare Speed-
well of chalky pastures. It has been found about Newmarket and Bury, as
well as on some limestone cliffs in other parts of the kingdom. It is a common
garden flower, and its bright blue blossoms are very ornamental there,
during July and August. It is a much finer plant in the garden than when
in its wild state ; its dense spikes becoming, under culture, sometimes twelve
inches long. Gardeners call it Cat’s-tail Speedwell. It varies occasionally
with white blossoms.
Some writers consider the word Veronica to be a corruption of Betonica ;
others have referred it to a Celtic word, corresponding to the modern Gaelic
firineachd, faithfulness, the plant having been an emblem of that virtue. It
is, however, with far more reason, believed to have originated in the legend
of the Roman Catholic Church, respecting the Saint Veronica, who was the
same as Berenice. The word is from the Greek hiera eikon, sacred picture ;
the blossoms having been fancied to bear a representation of the countenance
of our Saviour. A handkerchief, superstitiously believed to have formerly
belonged to this St. Veronica, was long preserved with great veneration at
St. Peter’s, in Rome, and is said to have been used by our Lord on His way
to the crucifixion, and to have the impress of the sacred lineaments. A
French writer tells us that a number of these “ Véroniques, or Holy-faces,”
which were imitations of the original, were prized by many persons.
* * Racemes terminal ; tube of the corolla very short.
2. Thyme-leaved Speedwell (V. serpyllifvlia).—Leaves egg-shaped, or
oval, slightly crenate ; lower leaves smaller and rounder ; raceme long and
many-flowered ; capsule inversely kidney-shaped, as long as the style ; stem
rooting below, afterwards erect, in one variety of the species prostrate, and
with shorter racemes of flowers; perennial. This is a small and not
unfrequent plant on waste lands, by road-sides, or in pastures. It bears
several many-flowered spike-like clusters of light blue blossoms, veined with
a darker tint. It is a very pretty plant, the variety (humifusa) with prostrate
stems being especially so. This last grows on the Highland mountains, and
has much larger and more beautiful flowers than the ordinary form.
3. Alpine Speedwell (V. alpina).—Leaves elliptical or egg-shaped,
toothed or entire ; lower leaves smaller; raceme few-flowered, hairy, with ,
spreading, not glandular hairs; capsule inversely egg-shaped, notched,
crowned with the very short style. This beautiful but rare species is found
only on the Highland mountains. Its stems are about four inches high, it
has large leaves, and its dense raceme of bright blue flowers expands in July
and August.
4. Blue Rock Speedwell (/. savétilis).—Leaves elliptical, somewhat
serrated, lower leaves smaller ; raceme few-flowered, downy, the hairs not
glandular ; stem spreading ; capsule egg-shaped, its valves 2-cleft ; perennial.
This, too, is a mountain flower, growing, though rarely, on high rocky places
in Scotland. Several of the Speedwells flourish at great elevations on most
bleak and exposed spots. Nor is the Arctic region without some of this
lovely tribe to enliven the landscape. Sir J. D. Hooker, in his “Flora
Antarctica,” referring to “Lord Auckland’s Isles,” tells us that among
1—2
4 SCROPHULARINE
several bushy plants and ferns growing there, a shrubby Veronica was
intermingled ; and he remarks that higher up the sides of the mountains a
beautiful alpine flora makes its appearance, unrivalled in beauty by those of
any Antarctic country. Such are the species of gentian and a Veronica, with
flowers ofi ntensest blue, several magnificent compound flowers, a ranunculus,
and a liliaceous plant, whose dense spikes of gold are often so abundant as
to attract the eye at a considerable distance. This latter plant, the
Ohrysobactron rossit, often renders large spots of so golden a hue as to be seen
at a distance of some miles from the shore. Sir Joseph Hooker remarks of
these regions, that the vegetation is abundant, but the species of plants few
in number.
5. Flesh- coloured Speedwell (V. fruticulésa).— Raceme many -
flowered, downy, with glandular hairs; leaves leathery, elliptic-lanceolate,
somewhat serrated ; stem ascending, woody, branched at the base ; capsule
egg-shaped, with 2-cleft valves; perennial. The flesh-coloured flowers ‘of
this species expand in July. The plant was found many years ago on Ben
Cruachan by Dr. Walker, and on Ben Lawers by Dr. R. Brown, but has not
been seen by any other botanists.
* * * Racemes axillary.
6. Marsh Speedwell (/. scutelldta).—Racemes alternate ; fruit-stalks
reflexed ; leaves sessile, linear, somewhat toothed ; capsule of two flattened
roundish lobes ; stem erect ; perennial. This species is found on the sides
of ditches, and on other boggy places, having a long weak stem, and pale
flesh-coloured or white blossoms, with darker bluish lines on the petals ; the
clusters of flowers are nearly opposite each other, and appear in July and
August. The stem sends out creeping scions from its base.
7, Water Speedwell (V. anagillis).— Leaves lanceolate, serrated,
acute, sessile; racemes opposite; fruit-stalks spreading; capsule slightly
notched ; stem erect; perennial, the stem sending out scions. This is a
pretty flower, frequent in England, in ditches, or on their borders ; and
having, in July and August, pale lilac or white flowers. The whole plant is
usually smooth, but sometimes the long many-flowered racemes are slightly
hairy. The stem is thick, hollow, and succulent, about a foot high. The
plant is less frequent in Scotland than in England.
8. Brooklime (V7. beccabiinga).—Leaves stalked, elliptical, obtuse, with
rounded notches at the margin; racemes opposite; fruit-stalks spreading ;
capsule swollen, roundish, slightly notched ; stem prostrate at the base, root-
ing; perennial. The Brooklime is a very frequent plant, having, in its
ordinary form, bright blue flowers, with bracts shorter than the stalks, but
found occasionally, as at Dalkeith, with longer bracts and pink or flesh-
coloured blossoms. It is a pretty succulent plant, with dark but bright green
thick leaves, and a stout juicy stem about a foot high. Its brilliant little
corollas may be seen glistening among the reeds by the watercourse from
May to September. It is very pungent, and well deserves its name, which
is said to be a corruption of the old Flemish Beckpungen, mouth-smart,
Beccabunga may be, however, derived from the name by which the plant is
4 .
still known in Germany, Bach-bunge ; “bach” being, like our old English
FIGWORT TRIBE 5
“beck,” the name for a stream. Another suggested derivation is from the
old word “beck,” a stream, and “bung,” a purse, in allusion to its favourite
habitat and the shape of the seed capsule. The Brooklime is commonly
called in Scotland Water-purpie ; and being esteemed an excellent purifier
of the blood, it is frequently sold with water-cresses, to be eaten as a salad,
but is too pungent to be generally agreeable. The leaves are much recom-
mended by old herbalists to be made into diet drinks, to be taken in spring,
and they are, doubtless, antiscorbutic.
9. Common Speedwell (/. officindlis). — Leaves elliptical, shortly
stalked, serrated ; flowers in dense racemes ; fruit-stalks erect ; stem pro-
cumbent, creeping; capsule inversely egg-shaped, triangular, with a wide
shallow notch, or straight, as if cut off; perennial. This is a very variable
plant, having in one form a very downy stem and broadly egg-shaped downy
leaves ; in another being almost smooth ; and in a third, having small egg-
shaped, somewhat lanceolate leaves, and a capsule inversely egg-shaped in
form, but without any notch: the stem, too, varies much in height in this
Speedwell, which is abundant in many dry woods, though somewhat local.
It bears its many-flowered clusters of blue flowers from May to July, but
they are too pale and small to render this Speedwell as attractive as most
of the genus. The plant was formerly very extensively used both in Sweden
and Germany as a substitute for tea, and it had the old French name of Thé
de lV Europe ; while Danish writers of former days positively asserted that it
was the identical tea of China. The Germans still prize the Speedwell tea ;
and Professor Martyn says that it forms a more astringent and grateful
beverage than the Chinese tea; but Dr. Withering says, that an infusion of
the Germander Speedwell makes a still better tea than this plant. In earlier
days, when the Chinese tea was costly, and so rare that Pepys could, in
1661, note in his Diary, “Sent for a cup of tea, a China drink, of which I
had never drunk before”—in such times Speedwell tea might prove a
valuable acquisition to an English meal ; but we, who have long been used
to our daily tea and coffee, have learned to look upon these gentle stimulants
as among our necessaries, and are rarely tempted to test the value of the
infusions made from the plants of our own woods or fields. Speedwell tea,
however, was believed by our fathers not only to afford present refreshment,
but also to strengthen the frame ; and Dutch writers on plants termed this’
one ‘Honour and Praise.” Fluellin, too, was one of its Welsh names, and
the herb was highly valued by those who so called it, as well as by him who
named it Paul’s Betony. Boerhaave said of another of the Speedwells
(V. orientalis), that he had cured with it a hundred different disorders ; and
Francus wrote a book solely on the virtues of this plant, which, according to
his narration, had effected marvellous cures. Hoffman spoke very highly of
the virtues of the Speedwell tribe, and many old French writers record cases
of their usefulness; yet, except a slight degree of astringency, they do not
seem to possess any peculiar powers, though they are all harmless.
10. Mountain Speedwell (V. mentdina).—Leaves stalked, broadly
egg-shaped, serrated ; fruit-stalks ascending ; capsule roundish, notched at
the base and summit, very large and quite flat, smooth, and with toothed
edges ; stem hairy, prostrate ; perennial. This is not an uncommon species
4 SCROPHULARINE
several bushy plants and ferns growing there, a shrubby Veronica was
intermingled ; and he remarks that higher up the sides of the mountains a
beautiful alpine flora makes its appearance, unrivalled in beauty by those of
any Antarctic country. Such are the species of gentian and a Veronica, with
flowers ofi ntensest blue, several magnificent compound flowers, a ranunculus,
and a liliaceous plant, whose dense spikes of gold are often so abundant as
to attract the eye at a considerable distance. This latter plant, the
Chrysobactron rossii, often renders large spots of so golden a hue as to be seen
at a distance of some miles from the shore. Sir Joseph Hooker remarks of
these regions, that the vegetation is abundant, but the species of plants few
in number.
5. Flesh-coloured Speedwell (V. /ruticuldésa).— Raceme many -
flowered, downy, with glandular hairs; leaves leathery, elliptic-lanceolate,
somewhat serrated ; stem ascending, woody, branched at the base ; capsule
egg-shaped, with 2-cleft valves; perennial. The flesh-coloured flowers ‘of
this species expand in July. The plant was found many years ago on Ben
Cruachan by Dr. Walker, and on Ben Lawers by Dr. R. Brown, but has not
been seen by any other botanists.
* * * Racemes axillary.
6. Marsh Speedwell (/”. scutelldtu).—Racemes alternate ; fruit-stalks
reflexed ; leaves sessile, linear, somewhat toothed ; capsule of two flattened
roundish lobes ; stem erect; perennial. This species is found on the sides
of ditches, and on other boggy places, having a long weak stem, and pale
flesh-coloured or white blossoms, with darker bluish lines on the petals ; the
clusters of flowers are nearly opposite each other, and appear in July and
August. The stem sends out creeping scions from its base.
7. Water Speedwell (V. anagillis).— Leaves lanceolate, serrated,
acute, sessile; racemes opposite; fruit-stalks spreading; capsule slightly
notched ; stem erect; perennial, the stem sending out scions. This is a
pretty flower, frequent in England, in ditches, or on their borders ; and
having, in July and August, pale lilac or white flowers. The whole plant is
usually smooth, but sometimes the long many-flowered racemes are slightly
hairy. The stem is thick, hollow, and succulent, about a foot high. ‘The
plant is less frequent in Scotland than in England.
8. Brooklime (V. beccabuinga).—Leaves stalked, elliptical, obtuse, with
rounded notches at the margin; racemes opposite; fruit-stalks spreading ;
capsule swollen, roundish, slightly notched ; stem prostrate at the base, root-
ing; perennial. The Brooklime is a very frequent plant, having, in its
ordinary form, bright blue flowers, with bracts shorter than the stalks, but
found occasionally, as at Dalkeith, with longer bracts and pink or flesh-
coloured blossoms. It is a pretty succulent plant, with dark but bright green
thick leaves, and a stout juicy stem about a foot high. Its brilliant little
corollas may be seen glistening among the reeds by the watercourse from
May to September. It is very pungent, and well deserves its name, which
is said to be a corruption of the old Flemish Seckpungen, mouth-smart,
Beccabunga may be, however, derived from the name by which the plant is
still known in Germany, bach-bunge ; “bach” being, like our old English
FIGWORT TRIBE 5
“beck,” the name for a stream. Another suggested derivation is from the
old word “beck,” a stream, and “bung,” a purse, in allusion to its favourite
habitat and the shape of the seed capsule. The Brooklime is commonly
called in Scotland Water-purpie ; and being esteemed an excellent purifier
of the blood, it is frequently sold with water-cresses, to be eaten as a salad,
but is too pungent to be generally agreeable. The leaves are much recom-
mended by old herbalists to be made into diet drinks, to be taken in spring,
and they are, doubtless, antiscorbutic.
9. Common Speedwell (/. officindlis). — Leaves elliptical, shortly
stalked, serrated ; flowers in dense racemes ; fruit-stalks erect ; stem pro-
cumbent, creeping; capsule inversely egg-shaped, triangular, with a wide
shallow notch, or straight, as if cut off; perennial. ‘This is a very variable
plant, having in one form a very downy stem and broadly egg-shaped downy
leaves ; in another being almost smooth ; and in a third, having small egg-
shaped, somewhat lanceolate leaves, and a capsule inversely egg-shaped in
form, but without any notch: the stem, too, varies much in height in this
Speedwell, which is abundant in many dry woods, though somewhat local.
It bears its many-flowered clusters of blue flowers from May to July, but
they are too pale and small to render this Speedwell as attractive as most
of the genus. The plant was formerly very extensively used both in Sweden
and Germany as a substitute for tea, and it had the old French name of 7hé
de V Europe ; while Danish writers of former days positively asserted that it
was the identical tea of China. The Germans still prize the Speedwell tea ;
and Professor Martyn says that it forms a more astringent and grateful
beverage than the Chinese tea; but Dr. Withering says, that an infusion of
the Germander Speedwell makes a still better tea than this plant. In earlier
days, when the Chinese tea was costly, and so rare that Pepys could, in
1661, note in his Diary, “Sent for a cup of tea, a China drink, of which I
had never drunk before ”—in such times Speedwell tea might prove a
valuable acquisition to an English meal ; but we, who have long been used
to our daily tea and coffee, have learned to look upon these gentle stimulants
as among our necessaries, and are rarely tempted to test the value of the
infusions made from the plants of our own woods or fields. Speedwell tea,
however, was believed by our fathers not only to afford present refreshment,
but also to strengthen the frame ; and Dutch writers on plants termed this
one “Honour and Praise.” Fluellin, too, was one of its Welsh names, and
the herb was highly valued by those who so called it, as well as by him who
named it Paul’s Betony. Boerhaave said of another of the Speedwells
(V. orientalis), that he had cured with it a hundred different disorders ; and
Francus wrote a book solely on the virtues of this plant, which, according to
his narration, had effected marvellous cures. Hoffman spoke very highly of
the virtues of the Speedwell tribe, and many old French writers record cases
of their usefulness ; yet, except a slight degree of astringency, they do not
seem to possess any peculiar powers, though they are all harmless.
10. Mountain Speedwell (V. montdéna).—Leaves stalked, broadly
ege-shaped, serrated ; fruit-stalks ascending ; capsule roundish, notched at
the base and summit, very large and quite flat, smooth, and with toothed
edges ; stem hairy, prostrate ; perennial. ‘This is not an uncommon species
6 SCROPHULARINE
in moist woods, having a weak trailing stem a foot or more long, and a few
pale blue flowers growing in loose clusters from April to July. Its leaves
are large, and the plant is remarkable for its large flat seed-vessels.
11. Germander Speedwell (/. chamedrys).—Leaves nearly sessile,
egg-shaped and heart-shaped, and deeply serrate ; racemes long and many-
flowered ; stem ascending, hairy ; fruit-stalks ascending ; capsules flat, in-
versely heart-shaped, deeply notched, fringed with hair, and shorter than
the calyx; perennial. If there is one of the species deserving pre-eminently
the old English name of Speedwell, it is this. In the latter end of April,
when breezes are all abroad,
‘* Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge,”
and when often we may hear the shower “sing i’ the wind,” when violets
and primroses are in all their glory, and the daisies scattered over every
meadow, then we may find clusters of this Speedwell. The flowers are large
and numerous, looking like sapphires among the emerald spring verdure,
having petals of brilliant blue, veined with darker lines, and varied by the
while pollen on the blue anthers. The leaves are wrinkled, and sometimes
deeply serrated ; and the plant has often, at the end of summer, on the
upper part of the stem, a number of whitish-green hairy knobs, which, if we
cut them open, we find to inclose two or three insects in the chrysalis state, and
of a yellowish or dull orange colour. This Speedwell is commonly by country
people called Cat’s-eye ; and some poets, like Keats, call it Eyebright, though
the true eyebright is the euphrasy. Wordsworth evidently intends our
brilliant Veronica, in the sonnet in which he speaks of the eyebright :—
‘- Ere yet our course was graced with social trees,
It lack’d not old remains of hawthorn bowers.
Where small birds warbled to their paramours
And earlier still was heard the hum of bees.
I saw them ply their harmless robberies,
And caught the fragrance which the sundry flowers,
Fed by the stream with soft perpetual showers,
Plenteously yielded to the vagrant breeze ;
There bloom’d the strawberry of the wilderness,
The trembling eyebright show’d her sapphire blue,
The thyme her purple, like the blush of even ”
Elliott also says :—
‘“ Blue eyebright, loveliest flower of all that grow
In flower-loved England.”
The French call the Speedwells Véronique ; the Germans, Hhrenpreisse ; the
Dutch, Herenprys ; the Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese, Veronica.
The following lines were written by H. G. Adams for this volume :—
‘Ah! the blue Germander Speedwell, ‘“Common, aye ; the hand that fashion’d
On the grassy bank that groweth ; Peerless rose and lily stately,
Ah! the little twinkling Cat’s-eye Sent the honeysuckle twining
’Twixt the April showers that bloweth, Round the elm that stands sedately ;
Peeping, creeping, hither, thither, Clothed with golden grain the upland,
Hiding midst the herbage rank ; And with grasses green the vale,
And when cometh sunny weather, Furnishing to man and cattle
Starting up as though to thank Nourishment that shall not fail,
Him who sendeth genial sunshine That same hand the Speedwell fashion’d
Gladdening the flow’rets all ; Perfect in its every part ;
What, a rhyme for such a common— ‘Tis a common weed, but show me
Very common weed, and small ? Such a work of human art.
}
4
COMMON SPEEDWELL 5
Veronica officinalis
MOUNTAIN s 6
V montana
GERMANDER §
~I
V. chamedrys
IVY-LEAVED SPEEDWELL 8
V. hederifolaa.
9. BLUNT FINGERED §$
V. triphyllos.
Pi, 156.
GREEN PROCUMBENT FIELD S
V agrestis
BUXBAUMS SPEEDWELL
V. buxbaumui
WALL SPEEDWELL
V. arvensis.
VERNAL S
V.verna
FIGWORT TRIBE |
‘* Therefore shall the little Speedwell ‘“ Wherefore should I speak of others ?
Have a tribute rhyme from me: All are beautiful, all free
Eyebright, Cat’s-eye, or Germander, For the weakest hand to gather,
Fluellin, Paul’s Betony, For the dimmest eye to see ;
Whatsoever name ’tis call’d by, Springing in the shady woodlands,
Ornament of rural ways, Growing in the sunny fields,
Once thought worthy—why not now so?— On the wild, and by the wayside,
Of all honour and all praise ; Every one a lesson yields,
In my rural walks I’ve often Mute yet eloquent—all preachers
Mark’d it with admiring eyes, Of God’s goodness are the flowers ;
With its notch’d leaves and blue blossoms. All are teachers, all beseechers
Brighter than Italian skies. Of these stubborn hearts of ours.
“Tt hath relatives a many, *“Unto me the little Speedwell,
One with ivy-shapen leaves, Insignificant and small,
That o’er gardens and o’er corn-fields Though I love them all, yet speaketh
Quite an emerald network weaves ; Even louder than they all.
One that groweth with the stonecrops If [ see it in the morning,
From interstices of walls ; ‘Speed thee well!’ it seems to say ;
One o’er banks and fields that runneth, At the noontide, ‘Hast thou sped well ?
On whose flower a grey shade falls : Over now is half the day.’
In the early spring we see them, In the evening, ‘ Night is coming !
See them through long summer days, Hast thou made thy calling sure ?
And when stacks are piled, and autumn Speed thee well, while light is with thee,
Sets the woodlands all ablaze. Not for long will it endure !’”
*%** * Flowers axillary, solitary ; flower-stalks recurved,
12. Ivy-leaved Speedwell (V. hederifélia).—Leaves all stalked, heart-
shaped, with 5—7 large teeth or lobes ; segments of the calyx heart-shaped,
fringed with fine hairs; capsule of 2 swollen lobes, each of which contains
from 2 to 4 large black seeds ; stem prostrate. No species of this genus is
more easily recognised than this, for its floral and stem-leaves are all exactly
similar, and all shaped like ivy leaves, of uniform bright green hue, and
somewhat thick and succulent. This Speedwell is one of the earliest bloom-
ing of the species, and is very common on hedgebanks and in cultivated fields,
growing up among the tender blades of corn as early as March, and its trail-
ing stems pretty thickly set with leaves. Its blossoms are not nearly so
large as those of the Germander, but are brightly pale blue, and are welcome
to the lover of wild flowers, because coming while flowers are yet but thinly
scattered over dale and hill. Many can say with Robert Nichols :—
‘* Beantiful children of the wood and field,
That bloom by mountain streamlets ‘nid the heather,
Or into clusters "neath the hazel gather,
Or where by hoary rocks ye make your bield,
And sweetly flourish on through summer weather,
I love ye all!
*‘ Beautiful things ye are, where’er ye grow:
The wild red rose, the Speedwell’s peeping eyes,
Our own blue-bell, the daisy that doth rise
Wherever suns do fall or winds do blow,
And thousands more of blessed forms and dyes,
I love ye all !”
The seeds both of this and the next species are very useful to those of our
singing birds which remain with us all the winter, or which in early spring
come back to their adopted summer homes.
13. Green Procumbent Field Speedwell (V. agréstis).—Leaves all
8 SCROPHULARINEA
stalked, heart-shaped and egg-shaped, cut, deeply serrated ; sepals oblong,
blunt ; stamens inserted at the very base of the corolla; capsule of 2 swollen
keeled lobes ; cells 6—10-seeded, sometimes hairy all over, at others fringed
on the keel; annual. This is a very abundant plant in waste places and
cultivated fields in March, April, and May. In one of those premature
seasons to which Shakspere refers—
‘* Short summers lightly have a forward spring,”’
we have found this flower in the first week of February, its little pale blue
petals gleaming among its leaves, and have thought how well it deserved its
old name of Winter-weed. It flowers throughout the summer, and the
lower part of the corolla is usually white, but a form of this plant occurs
in which the petals are wholly bright blue, and the egg-shaped sepals acute,
and this is the V. polita of some writers. The prostrate stems are three or
four inches long, slightly hairy. Bishop Mant thus describes the plant :—
‘The pastured mead or stubble field, Distinct it shows ; its pendent head
Or garden lightly scann’d, may yield Pluck, but be cautious lest you shed
The first of all its numerous kind, The petals of the tender flower,
Procumbent Speedwell. See inclined And shorten thus the little hour
On arching stalk of bright blue dye, At most allotted it to grace
And with a round and pearl-like eye, With transient bloom its native place.”
Everyone familiar with this plant will acknowledge the accuracy of this
description, and must have marked the peculiarly fugacious nature of its
petals, which are often shattered while the plant is being gathered.
14. Buxbaum’s Speedwell (V. buxbaimii).—Leaves egg-shaped and
heart-shaped, stalked and deeply serrate, shorter than the flower-stalks ;
segments of the calyx lanceolate and acute; stem procumbent; capsule
inversely heart-shaped, triangular, of 2 swollen sharply-keeled lobes, which
are flattened upwards; cells 8—12-seeded; annual. This plant is much
taller and stouter than the preceding, more hairy, and has far handsomer
flowers. These blossoms, which expand from May to September, are as
large and as brightly tinted as those of the Germander Speedwell. Its stem
is long and trailing, and it is found in fields and cultivated places. It
appears to have been introduced with clover-seed about the year 1825, and
from that time to have rapidly spread wherever man by tillage has prepared
a suitable soil for it. It is now thoroughly established and plentiful through-
out the country.
* * * * * Flowers in spikes or racemes ; flower-stalks erect or nearly so.
15. Wall Speedwell (/~ arvénsis).—Leaves heart-shaped and egg-
shaped, with rounded notches at the margin, lower leaves stalked, upper
ones lanceolate and entire, resembling bracts, longer than the flower ; raceme
somewhat spiked, many-flowered, lax ; capsule inversely heart-shaped, flat-
tened, fringed on the keel with slender hairs; annual. This is a common
plant of fields and old walls, having, from April to September, inconspicuous
light blue flowers with a white eye, almost hidden by the upper leaves,
which, differing in form from the lower ones, may be regarded as bracts.
The whole plant is downy, and, growing in arid plains, is often covered with
dust. It occurs sometimes on gravelly or sandy heaths.
FIGWORT TRIBE 9
16. Vernal Speedwell (V/. vérna).—Leaves cut and pinnatifid, the
upper ones or bracts lanceolate, entire ; flower-stalks shorter than the calyx ;
capsule broad, inversely heart-shaped, flattened and margined with roundish
lobes, with 12—14 thin flat seeds; annual. This very rare Speedwell has
an erect stem, from one to three inches high, simple or branched at the lower
part. It is much like the last species, and has in April and May pale blue
flowers, which are crowded on the spike. It occurs on sandy heaths about
Thetford, Bury, and Mildenhall in Suffolk.
17. Blunt-fingered Speedwell (V/. triphillos).—Leaves broadly ege-
shaped, cut, the lower ones stalked, upper ones or bracts sessile, fingered,
with obtuse segments ; flower-stalks longer than the calyx ; capsules inversely
heart-shaped, flattened, with roundish fringed lobes, and many seeds, which
are concave on one side; annual. ‘This, too, is a very rare species, readily
known by its deeply-fingered leaves, and by the dark blue flowers, which
expand in April. Its stem is erect, with spreading branches, and is about
four or five inches high. The plant has been found at Acomb near York, and
on sandy fields about Mildenhall and Bury in Suffolk.
2. Bartsta (Bartsia).
1. Alpine Bartsia (B. alpina).—Stem erect, hairy ; leaves opposite,
egg-shaped, slightly clasping, bluntly serrated ; flowers in a terminal, short,
leafy spike ; root-stock woody, creeping, and perennial. ‘This is a rare plant
of alpine pastures, and has been chiefly found in Westmoreland, Yorkshire,
and other northern counties of England, growing in the grass among rocks,
or in similar rocky and mountainous regions of Scotland. The stem is with-
out branches, square, and from four to eight inches high. The flowers
expand from June to August, are large, of deep, dull purplish-blue, and
downy.
2. Yellow Viscid Bartsia (BL. viscésw).—Leaves opposite, upper ones
alternate, lanceolate, cut, and serrated; flowers solitary, axillary, distant,
upper ones crowded; stem, leaves and calyx all viscid ; root fibrous and
annual. This Bartsia grows in damp places, as marshes and wet meadows,
in several parts of the west of England and Wales, in the south-west of
Scotland, and the south of Ireland. It is readily known by its large solitary
handsome yellow flowers, and by the clammy down which invests the whole
plant. It is not common, and except that its flowers do not form a cluster,
its general appearance is much like that of the yellow rattle. The stem is
round, unbranched, and from three to twelve inches high, and the flowers
open from June to October.
3. Red Bartsia (B. odontites).—Leaves narrow, lanceolate, distantly
serrated, upper ones or bracts alternate ; flowers in l-sided racemes ; corolla
downy, lobes of the lower lip oblong, obtuse ; stem branched, erect, downy ;
annual. In one variety of this plant the leaves taper at the base, and the
calyx segments are as long as the tube of the corolla, and the capsule oblong.
In a form described as Odontites rotundata, the leaves are broader at the base,
the calyx-segments broadly triangular, one-half the length of the tube, the
capsule almost rounded. The Red Bartsia is a very common plant in corn-
fields or on dry banks, but it has little beauty and no odour with which to
IlI.—2
10 SCROPHULARINEA
attract the wanderer in the field. It is a much-branched herbaceous plant,
with a slender stem, about a foot high, and numerous spikes of dull pink
flowers, having the floral leaves of a dim pinkish-brown. The hue of these
leaves, of the calyx, flowers, and stem, is, in some specimens, pretty nearly
uniform, and of dull red, and the plant rarely exhibits any brightness of
colour. The blossoms may be seen from July to September. Cattle will not
eat it, and are said to abstain from the grass to the distance of some inches
from the plant. All the plants of this genus are parasitic upon the roots of
other plants.
The genus Bartsia is associated with the memory of Dr. John Bartsch, a
Prussian botanist, and a friend of Linneus. The great Swedish botanist
gave the genus its name, and he also gives an interesting and melancholy
narrative of his friend in his ‘“ Flora Suecica.” Names like these serve
among botanists to recall to affectionate memory many persons after whom
they were called. Sir Joseph Hooker records the effect on his mind, when
in the remote regions of the Himalaya, of finding plants of the genera named
respectively after Staunton, Buckland, and Wallich. ‘Such great names,”
he observes, ‘there brought before the traveller's notice, never failed to
excite lively and pleasing emotions: it is the ignorant and unfeeling alone
who can ridicule the associations of the names of travellers — naturalists
with those of animals and plants.”
3. EYEBRIGHT (Huphrasia).
Common Eyebright (EH. officindlis).— Leaves egg-shaped, deeply
toothed ; flowers axillary, smooth, lobes of the lower lip margined ; annual.
We have often remarked that few, save botanists, know the name of the
little Eyebright, common as it is on dry meadows, where the grass attains
little luxuriance, or on grassy chalky inland slopes, or on cliffs frowning over
the wide-stretched ocean.. It is a pretty little blossom of white hue, its
petals marked with lilac, while in some cases a lilac tinge is on the whole
flower, save where it is variegated with a dash of yellow. The stems are
from two to six inches high, little branched, and low on the chalk chff; but
when growing on the better soil of the pasture, it is often much branched,
and altogether more luxuriant. It was formerly, in this country, called
Euphrosyne, a name significant of joy or pleasure, perhaps because of the
elegance of its flower ; perhaps because of the relief believed to be given to
the sufferer by its medicinal properties. Our Euphrasy is a corruption of
this name, as is also the French Eufrase, and the Italian Hufrasie. The
Germans call the plant Augentrost, and the Dutch Oogentroost. The little
blossoms expand from May to September.
Botanists who have made a special study of the Eyebright consider that a
number of species, very similar, yet with sufficiently distinctive characters,
are lumped together under the name of L. officinalis. As these distinctions,
however, are of a character not likely to be appreciated by the popular
reader, the present editor is content to refer those who desire a closer
acquaintance with Eyebright to “A Monograph of the British Species of
Euphrasia,” contributed to the Journal of Botany, 1897, by Mr. F. Townsend,
M.A., F.L.S., who recognises no less than fourteen native species.
1, ALPINE BARTSIA
Bartsia alpina
2, YELLOW VISCID BARTSIA
B .viscosa
3, RED BARTSIA
B. odontites.
Li
» LOG,
+
a
6
COMMON EYEBRIGHT
Euphrasia officinalis
COMMON YELLOW RATTLE
Rhinanthus crista-galli
LARGE BUSHY YELLOW RATTLE
R. major,
Cy “sh ee 7
FIGWORT TRIBE 11
The Euphrasy is slightly bitter and astringent, and was formerly very
much valued as a remedy for ophthalmic disorders. Lightfoot says that the
Scotch make an infusion of the plant with milk, and anoint the patient’s
eyes with the liquid. All our old herbalists used it in various ways.
Culpepper says of it: “If the herb was but as much used as it is neglected,
it would half spoil the spectacle-maker’s trade ; and a man would think that
reason should teach people to prefer the preservation of their natural before
artificial spectacles ; which, that they may be instructed how to do, take the
virtues of Eyebright as followeth : The juice, or distilled water of Eyebright,
taken inwardly in white wine or broth, or dropped into the eyes, for divers
days together, helpeth all infirmities of the eyes that cause dimness of sight.
Some make conserve of the flowers for the same effect. Being used any of
the ways, it also helpeth a weak brain or memory.” He adds, that, mixed
with strong beer and drunk, or the powdered herb made into an electuary
with sugar, and taken, it “hath the same powerful effect to restore the sight
decayed through age: and Arnoldus de Villa Nova saith, it hath restored
sight to them that have been blind a long time before.” Gerarde, too,
recommended the use of the plant in nearly the same manner, both to take
away “darknesse and dimnesse of the eyes,” and that it might ‘comfort the
memorie”; and he directs that the plant should be gathered during its
flowering season for ‘“ physicke’s use.”
It is not wonderful that, having such universal repute, the poets of old
times should have referred to it. Thus we find Milton representing the
Archangel as clearing the vision of our first father—
‘‘Then purged with Euphrasy and rue
His visual orbs, for he had much to see.”
Michael Drayton says—
‘The fumitory get, and Eyebright for the eye,
The yarrow wherewithal he stops the wound-made gore.”
So, too, we find Spenser saying—
‘** Yet Euphrasie may not be left unsung,
That gives dim eyes to wander leagues around.”
Thomson, in later days, influenced probably by the earlier poets, as much as
by popular notions, says also—
‘“‘Tf she whom I implore, Urania, deign
With Euphrasy to purge away the mists
Which, humid, dim the mirror of the mind.”
A friend of Lobel is recorded to have lost his eyesight by the use of the
plant ; but this is not likely, as the Eyebright, when infused, gives a good
eye-water, possessed of a slight astringency, though, as an internal remedy,
it must be quite powerless. It is still in use among the descendants of some
of the old “simplers.” The author, on going into a small shop in Dover,
saw a quantity of the plant suspended from the ceiling, and was told that it
was gathered and dried as being good for weak eyes. The person who had
gathered it told her of a wonderful cure which had been performed in his
family by its use; and as the narrator was one in whose general truthfulness
22
.
i ol
12 SCROPHULARINEA
much confidence might be placed, the details of the cure were listened to
with interest, although from past experience the listener well knew how
strangely causes and effects were often misunderstood in relations of this
kind. All faith in the efficacy of the Eyebright in this case was soon lost,
as the narrator proceeded to tell how the patient had been previously stone
blind for many years, and had been cured by eating pieces of the Euphrasy,
gathered fresh from the neighbouring cliffs. A French botanist who wrote
in “ L’Encyclopédie des Sciences” remarks, that the virtues of this herb, as a
cure for ophthalmia, must be altogether imaginary, because the distilled
water of the plant, to which the virtue was ascribed, is absolutely scentless,
and is, in fact, simply water, without any medicinal property. The juice,
however, is apparently useful in some form of ophthalmic complaint ; for we
are assured by Professor Kranichfeld that it has been very successfully
employed in catarrhal affections of the eye. The plant is a root-parasite.
4. YELLOW RATTLE (/thindnthus).
1. Common Yellow Rattle (2. crista-galli).—Leaves narrow, oblong,
tapering to a point, serrated; flowers in loose spikes ; bracts egg-shaped,
deeply serrated ; annual. This is an abundant plant on many damp pastures,
though somewhat local. The stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high,
often much branched, of pale, yellowish-green, usually speckled with purple.
The flowers form a loose spike at its upper portion, having large pointed
bracts beneath. They are yellow, and are very small compared to the pale
green, shining, inflated calices. As the flowers fall off and the fruit ripens,
the loose seeds rattle in their husky cases, and we then diseover the aptness
of the familiar name of the plant. The crested bracts procured for it the
botanic and common appellation of Cock’s-comb, which it has also in many
European countries besides ours. The Italians call it Cresta di gallo; the
French, Cocréte des prés ; in Germany it is familiarly termed Hahnenkamm,
and in Holland Haanekam. It abounds in meadows in the north of Europe ;
and the Swedes, who call it Stallergriis, regard the rattling of its seeds in the
wind as an indication that the season has arrived for gathering in the hay,
though on our own meadows the grass is mowed while the Yellow Rattle is
in flower. In England it is disliked by the owners of pasture lands, as the
cattle, if they do not leave it altogether untouched, yet are not fond of it.
In the year 1839, when the author of these pages was visiting a village in
Essex, great annoyance was expressed by many owners of pastures at the
unusual amount of this plant among the grass. The grass was said by the
farmers to be “burned” by the Yellow Rattle, and much inquiry was made
both as to the cause of its increase, and also as to the injury which it was
considered to do to the meadows.
In the year 1847, M. Decaisne published, in the Comptes Rendus, his
opinion that the injury done to the grass by the Rattle was caused by the
parasitic nature of this plant. As British botanists had hitherto considered
that we had but one green-leaved parasite, the mistletoe, and that our parasites
in general were brown and leafless, this peculiarity had not been suspected
in England. M. Decaisne’s statements, however, led to experiments in this
country, by which it was ascertained that the Yellow Rattle grows on the
. FIGWORT TRIBE 13
roots of the grasses, and it has since been proved that some other of the
Scrophularinee are also parasitic. Professor Henslow found that plants of
the Rattle when growing at a distance from other plants did not thrive ; that
they were dwarfed in growth, flowered but in two specimens ; and that finally
they all withered, without producing seed. A single plant which grew near
to some wheat, attained its usual dimensions; but the Professor failed to
observe whether the seeds were perfected.
The Yellow Rattle is, in some parts of Kent, called Snaftles. It is termed
in Ireland Rattle-grass, Penny-grass, and Henpenny-grass.
2. Hairy Yellow Rattle, Large Bushy Yellow Rattle (2. major).
—Leaves linear, lanceolate, upper ones tapering to a point; flowers in
crowded spikes; calyx smooth, appendage of the upper lip of the corolla
egg-shaped or oblong; bracts egg-shaped, pointed; annual. A plant with
broader and serrated leaves, hairy calices, and egg-shaped bracts, and which
is usually the largest and stoutest form of the genus, is sometimes described
as a variety of the Common Yellow Rattle, and is also the R. hérsutus or
f. villosus of other writers. The authors of the “ British Flora” remark :
“Mr. Bentham observes to us in a letter, that now, since it has been proved
that this genus is parasitical, it is probable that all the supposed species
ought to be united ; an opinion in which we quite agree.”
The Large Bushy Yellow Rattle is found in corn-fields in the north of
England, and is described as having more dense and bushy spikes of flowers
than the Common Yellow Rattle, and yellowish bracts, each terminating in a
green point. The appendages to the upper lip of the corolla are purple ; the
seeds are thick at the edge, with a membranous margin.
5, COW-WHEAT (Melampyrum).
1. Crested Cow-wheat (I. cristdtwm).—Spikes densely imbricated ;
bracts heart-shaped, tapering to a point, and cut into slender segments ;
leaves linear, lanceolate, acute, entire, with dark veins beneath ; annual.
This is a very handsome piant in the month of July, with its dense 4-sided
spikes of yellow flowers, which have a dash of purple on the inner lip, and
grow each one in the axil of a floral leaf. These bracts are of deep rose-
colour at the base, and the stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high.
The plant is found in corn-fields, woods, and thickets in the eastern counties
of England.
2. Purple Cow-wheat (J. arvénse).—Spikes lax, oblong ; bracts ege-
shaped, lanceolate, and gradually narrowing, pinnatifid, with awl-shaped
segments ; calyx-teeth as long as the tube of the corolla; corolla closed ;
annual. This species, which is still more handsome and more rare than the
last, is found in woods, on dry banks and in corn-fields in the Isle of Wight
and about Norwich. The spikes of flowers are much larger than in the
crested species, and extremely beautiful from the varied tints which they and
their floral leaves display. The bracts are green and purplish rose-coloured,
the blossoms yellow, variegated with rose-colour and purple. This plant,
which is abundant on some corn-lands, is a very troublesome weed to the
farmer. Mr. Baxter, referring to it, says: ‘‘Dr. Bromfield tells me that the
value of the wheat on certain farms in the land behind St. Lawrence, in the
14 SCROPHULARINEA
Isle of Wight, is greatly lowered from the admixture of the seeds, which
cannot be separated from the grain by winnowing, the specific gravity of both
being nearly the same. These seeds impart a bluish colour to the flour, and
give it, when made into bread, an unwholesome flavour. The plant is known
in that neighbourhood as Poverty-weed, and various traditions are afloat as
to the manner of its introduction to this island, which, however, is not of very
recent date, the species having existed in some of its present stations for at
least forty years, and is by some supposed to have come over from Jersey,
where, however, it is not known at present as indigenous or introduced.”
The writer adds, that “this unwelcome though splendid addition to the flora
of this island probably arose from an importation of wheat from Norfolk, or
some other maritime county. It infests only such corn-lands in the island as
lie over chalk, or contain a large proportion of calcareous earth.” The plant
is in flower from June to August, and is eaten by cows, though unpleasing
to sheep.
3. Common Yellow Cow-wheat (J. praténse).—Flowers axillary, in
pairs, all turning one way ; corolla four times as long as the calyx, lower lip
longer than the upper ; leaves in distant pairs, narrow, tapering, smooth ;
upper bracts with one or two teeth at the base ; perennial. Varieties of this
plant occur, in one of which the bracts are quite entire, the plant is smaller
and somewhat succulent ; in another the leaves are bristly, the bracts with
spreading teeth at the base. Though this plant is called Meadow Cow-wheat,
yet it is not found in pastures, but in woods and thickets. It is a very
common, but not a very attractive, plant, having a slender stem about a foot
high, with straggling opposite branches. The flowers, which appear from
May to August, are tubular, of very pale yellow, sometimes almost cream-
coloured. It is much relished by domestic animals, particularly kine ; and
Linnzus says that the richest and yellowest butter is made from the milk of
animals grazing on spots where it is abundant. It is to this circumstance
that the genus owes its English name ; while that of Melampyrum, black
wheat, originated in the form of the seed, which is much like a grain of
wheat, conjoined with the blackness which the plant assumes in withering.
This hue is most remarkable when the plant has been preserved in an
herbarium, where, after a time, not a spot of green or yellow is perceptible
in its universal inky tint, a characteristic of most of these root-parasites.
An old notion prevailed that this plant turned into wheat ; hence one of its
names was the Mother of Wheat. The French call the plant Melampire ; the
Germans, WVachtelweizen ; the Dutch, Akkerig zwartkoom ; the Italians, MWelam-
piro ; the Spaniards, Zrigo de vaca ; and the Swedes, Skiille.
4. Lesser-flowered Yellow Cow-wheat (IM. sylvdticum).—F lowers
axillary, all turning one way ; corolla open, about twice the length of the
calyx, the lips equal in length, the lower one turning downwards ; bracts
entire ; leaves slender, lanceolate, in distant pairs; annual. This is a smaller
species than any of the preceding, and is a rare plant of mountainous woods
of the north of England, but more frequently found in Scotland. The stem
is about a foot high, the flowers about half the size of the common species, of
deeper yellow, and very dissimilar in shape. It flowers in July.
The whole of these Cow-wheats are root-parasites.
CRESTED COW-WHEAT
Melampyrum cristatum
PURPLE C. W.
M. arvense,
COMMON YELLOW Cc. Ww
M. pratense
4.. LESSER FLOWERED YELLOW C. W
M. sylvaticum .
MARSH LOUSEWORT
Fedicularis palustris
6. PASTURE L
P. sylvatica
Pt. 157.
FIGWORT TRIBE 15
6. LousEwort (Pediculdris).
1. Marsh Lousewort (P. palistris).—Stem solitary, erect, branched ;
leaves pinnatifid, segments oblong, blunt, and lobed; calyx egg-shaped,
downy, 2-lobed, lobes deeply cut ; perennial. From June to September this
is a very pretty marsh-flower, sometimes giving to a portion of boggy land a
rich red colour by its numerous large crimson blossoms, often with a spotted
calyx. Its branches have frequently a purple tinge, and the deeply-cut
leaves are extremely pretty. The plant is from twelve to eighteen inches in
height. Both this and the following species are considered to produce lice in
sheep feeding on the pasture where they abound ; and hence their familiar
name, though there is little doubt that the vermin attacking these animals
are as much to be attributed to want of tone produced by the unhealthy
nature of marshy grounds as to the plant itself. Lousewort, however, like
the sun-dews, spear-worts, and several other of our bog-plants, has some
degree of acridity. Mr. Purton says that the healthiest flocks when fed on
the next species (P. sylvdtica) soon become unhealthy ; and he adds, that
farmers should be careful to eradicate it. Both sheep and goats eat the
plant, and both our British species were formerly considered good vulneraries.
The leaves of a species known as P. landta are said by Ainslie to be used
in the Kurile Isles as a substitute for tea. That remarkable and magnificent
flower, peculiar to Lapland and Sweden, named by Rudbeck P. sceptrum-
carolinum, is the great ornament of the genus ; but our native kinds are both
pretty flowers, and we have several handsome garden species. Most of the
genus grow at great elevation above the level of the sea. Throughout
Europe the plants are generally known by names synonymous with their
scientific and English names. Thus the French call them Pédiculaire ; the
Germans, Liiusekraut ; the Dutch, Lwiskruid ; the Italians, Pidocchiera ; the
Spanish, Gallarito ; the Danes, Luusurt. In many of our country places they
are called Red Rattle.
2. Pasture Lousewort (P. sylvdtica).—Stem branched at the base,
erect ; branches long, spreading, prostrate; leaves pinnatifid ; segments
lobed ; calyx oblong, smooth, irregularly 5-lobed, inflated, and marked with
green veins crossing each other; perennial. This is quite a common plant
of moist heaths and pastures, especially abounding in hilly places. It is of
much lower growth than the last species, and its flowers are paler, being
either rose-coloured or white. The smooth calyx has five unequal leaf-like
lobes, its primary stem is very short, and the branches lie over the ground
thickly clad with their prettily-cut leaves. The flowers, which are large,
expand from June to August. Both species are root-parasites.
7. Frawort (Scrophuldria}.
* Calyx with fine rounded lobes, corolla purplish, upper lip with a scale on tts
inner side—the aborted fifth stamen.
1. Knotted Figwort (S. nodésa).—_Leaves egg-shaped, somewhat heart-
shaped, smooth, doubly and acutely serrated, the lower serratures largest ;
stem with four acute angles ; cymes Jax ; bracts small, lanceolate, and acute ;
16 SCROPHULARINEA
capsules egg-shaped; root-stock tuberous and perennial. The knots, which
give to this plant its specific name, must be looked for in the roots, and not
on the stem. The root consists of a number of white tubers, generally round,
and strung together by fibres, and varying from the size of a pea to that of a
large marble. These knobs, resembling the glandular swellings produced by
disease, apparently induced the older observers of plants to believe them to
be efficacious in these maladies, and hence the name of the genus. The
plant had much popular repute in former days, for Gerarde censures “divers
who doe rashly teach that if it be hanged about the necke, or else carried
about one, it keepeth a manin helth.” The Knotted Figwortis a tall slender
plant, three or four feet high, bearing in June and July repeatedly-forked
panicles of flowers. These flowers are very small for the size of the herb ;
they are almost globular, and of dull purple, mingled with greenish-yellow.
The whole plant has a disagreeable odour, like the elder, and the roots are
slightly bitter.
2. Water Figwort (8. aquitica).—Smooth ; leaves oblong, heart-shaped,
blunt ; flowers in close panicles; bracts linear, blunt ; sepals with a broad
membranous margin ; stem 4-winged ; root-stock creeping, perennial. This
plant is common by the sides of ditches and streams, attracting our attention
by its size, rather than its beauty. Its stem is commonly from two to five
feet high, hollow and succulent, but the editor of this edition has measured
examples in Cornwall that exceeded ten feet. The flowers are from eight to
fifteen in a cluster, of purplish-brown colour. Its leaves are serrated with
rounded notches, and are larger and of dark dull green. The stems become
very rigid as the plant dries, and the Rey. C. A. Johns observes, that they
are then very troublesome to anglers, as their lines become entangled among
the withered capsules. The plant was formerly called Water Betony,
Bishop’s-leaves, and Broad-wort, and in France it is termed Herbe de Si¢ge,
because it is said that during the siege of Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu, in
1628, the soldiers of the garrison supported themselves during a season of
famine by eating the roots of the plant, which abounded in the moist lands
in the neighbourhood. ‘Though many good botanists have stated that this
is the plant which afforded relief in the emergency, yet the roots are so small
that the author of these pages thinks that the Knotted Figwort, often found
in moist places, was probably the species to which the soldiers were indebted,
as its roots, though slightly bitter, are much larger. A decoction of the
leaves of the Water Figwort is used in country places asa medicine for some
domestic animals, but cattle refuse its herbage, and it is eaten only by the goat.
Wasps are very fond of its flowers, the carrion-like colour and rank odour
appearing to have special reference to their tastes; the shape of the corolla,
too, corresponds with the shape of their heads. Mr. Babington says that
these flowers are sometimes milk-white. The French call the Figworts
Scrofulaire ; the Germans, Braunwurz ; the Dutch, Schrofelkruid ; the Italians,
Scrofalaria ; the species was very generally applied some centuries ago in
most European countries as a cataplasm to tumours. M. Marchant stated
some years since, in his Memoirs of the French Academy, his opinion that
this plant is identical with the Hquetaia of the Brazilians, which is so
celebrated as correcting the disagreeable flavour of the medicinal senna;
1 KNOTTED FIGWORT 3, WATER F
Scrophularia nodosa . S. aquatica
2. EHRHARTS F 4. BALM LEAVED F
S. ehrharti. S. scorodonia
&. YELLOW F
8S, vernalis
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.
FIGWORT TRIBE 17
and for a time the Edinburgh College, in their infusion of that drug,
sanctioned its use. It was, Reece in all probability found to be annteed
for that purpose, as it Is now discontinued.
3. Ehrhart’s Figwort (S. chrharti).—Leaves smooth, egg-shaped, lan-
ceolate, acute, somewhat heart-shaped, sharply serrated, lower serratures
smaller; stem and leaf-stalks winged ; cymes lax, few flowered; sepals
roundish, with a broad membranous margin ; corolla greenish below, brown
above, scale 2-lobed ; bracts leaf-like, lanceolate, ead acute; rootstock
creeping, perennial. This plant occurs in a few wet places in various parts of
England and Scotland, having from July to September dark lurid purple
flowers. The stem is from two to four feet high. Under the name of
S. wmbrosa, Hooker classes this as a sub-species of S. aquatica.
4, Balm-leaved Figwort (S. scorodénia).—Leaves triangular, heart-
shaped at the base, downy on both sides; stem downy, bluntly 4-winged ;
cymes lax, few-flowered; bracts linear, blunt; sepals with a broad mem-
branous margin ; perennial. This species is at once distinguished from all
the others by its downy, wrinkled leaves, not unlike those of the garden
balm, and having large teeth that are again serrated. It is found only in
Cornwall and 8. Devon, at Tralee in Ireland, and in Jersey, where it occurs
in meist places. Its flowers, which appear in July, are dark purple, and its
stem is two or three feet high.
* * Calyx of 5 acute segments ; corolla yellow without a scale.
5. Yellow Figwort (S. verndlis).—Leaves downy, heart-shaped, acute,
twice serrated, stem winged, hairy ; cymes axillary, corymbose, with leaf-like
bracts ; sepals without a membranous margin; perennial. This is the only
ornamental species of Figwort found in Britain, and, though an introduced
species, of local occurrence, is occasionally found in great abundance. In
some of the wilder parts of Berkshire, for instance, it is so plentiful as to form
a feature in the landscape. It is very unlike the other species of Figwort ;
its swollen yellow flowers, with a gr eatly contracted mouth, much resembling
one of the Calceolarias, but its foliage is of a remarkably bright green colour.
Its stem is about two feet high, and it flowers early in spring, remaining
in blossom till June. Although we have but few British species of
Scrophularia, yet about 120 are “enumerated as belonging to the floras of
other lands.
8. FoOxGLovE (Digitdlis).
Purple Foxglove (D. purpirea).—Leaves large, egg-shaped, lanceolate,
downy beneath, wrinkled, and with rounded or sharp notches at the margin,
lower ones tapering to a footstalk ; sepals oblong, acute, downy, 3-nerved ;
corolla obtuse, smooth externally ; upper lip scarcely cleft, segments of the
lower lip rounded ; perennial. The Digitalis received its name from Fuchs,
who so designated the plant from dzgitabulum, a thimble, in allusion to
the form of the flower; and a similar reference is found in its familiar names
almost everywhere. Our name is a corruption of Folk’s glove, or Fairies’
glove, these imaginary sprites having been known as the “good folk.”
The French term it Gant de notre Dame, and Gantelée; the Germans, Fingerhut ;
Ill.—3
is SCROPHULARINE
and the Dutch, Vingerhoed. Turner, who wrote his book on plants in the
reign of Queen Mary, says, “There is an herbe that groweth very much in
Englande, and specially about Norfolke, about the conie holes, and in divers
woddes, which is called in English Foxglove. It is named of some in Latin
Digitalis ; that is to say, Thimble-wort. It hath a long stalke, and on the
toppe many flowers hanginge downe like belles or thimbles.” Cowley
fancifully said—
‘*The Foxglove on fair Flora’s hand is worn,
Lest while she gather flowers she meet a thorn.”
Yet these pretty poetical fancies are not so interesting as the teaching of
living naturalists, that the form of the flowers has relation to the shape and
size of the humble-bees that alone can fertilize the incipient seeds, whilst
smaller insects intent on the honey, but unable to earn it by a return service,
are forbidden by an array of hairs within.
The stem on which the bells hang is usually three or four feet high, and
the flowers are pale purple, beautifully spotted within, and from May to July
they form a spike-like cluster, sometimes a foot long. We have scarcely
another wild flower which can at all compete in stately beauty, in loveliness
of form and hue, with our magnificent Foxglove, the ‘““emblem of punish-
ment and pride,” as the poet has called it. Many a bard has told how it
gladdened grove and hill, and many a lover of wild flowers has gazed for
hours on spots enlivened by its beauty, while the artist has seized it as a
foreground for his picture of rural scenery.
This flower, though unknown in many districts of this kingdom, is
abundant in others, especially in hilly regions, apparently preferring a sandy
or gravelly soil, producing an abundance of seed, which sometimes springs
up after it has lain long in the earth. This was the case a few years since
on one of the hills of Malvern, where, when the soil was turned up, the Fox-
glove sprang up plentifully. On one part which was made into a pathway,
the young plant was soon crushed by the passing footsteps, but it grew up
in rows on each side of the path, giving it much the formal appearance of
having been planted there by the gardener. It often grows either among
the short grass of the hills, or amid the longer blades of the meadow, or by
the bushes of hedgerows ; and the author never saw it more luxuriant than
in Kent. In the neighbourhood of Saltwood Castle, near Hythe, the plant
is very abundant, growing in the woods and pastures among some of the
most magnificent orchises; and we have gathered thence more than one
specimen nearly six feet high, with its bells forming a pyramid two feet long.
Tne inside of the bell is beautiful, with its rich purple spots and silken hairs,
and its dashes of dark purple, which may be seen through its substance
marking its exterior surface, while a beautiful white variety of the flower
occurs in many woods. When this White Foxglove is removed to a garden,
however, it often becomes more or less tinged with the original lilac or
purple hue from which it varied.
But the Digitalis may be praised for its use, as much as for its beauty ;
for the leaves, after having been well dried in the sun or by the fire, yield a
very important medicine. Many country medical practitioners procure these
leaves, and themselves prepare the extract, as the plant should be gathered
PURPLE FOXGLOVE 2 GREAT SNAP-DRAGON
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FIGWORT TRIBE Ly
just at the season of its flowering in order to ensure its efficacy. The
influence of the Digitalis over the action of the heart, and its power of re-
straining in a short time the too rapid circulation of the blood, as well as its
other uses, render this medicine of much worth in the hands of the skilful
practitioner, though its powerful and dangerous properties make it safe only
in the hands of one well acquainted with diseases and their remedies. “The
history of this plant,” says Dr. George Johnston, “might afford a practical
censure to such as sneer at the pursuits of the botanist, and are continually
asking, ‘Cui bono? for it grew neglected, until Dr. Withering, a botanist,
made known its virtues.” The Foxglove had indeed been praised by old
herbalists ; as Gerarde, in 1597, wrote of various uses to which it was applied,
though he had not apparently discovered its influence over the action of the
heart ; and Parkinson, who was an apothecary of London, and herbalist to
Charles L., regretted some years after, that few physicians used it, and that
it was almost entirely neglected. This author says: “And it hath beene of
later experience found also to be so effectuall against the falling sicknesse,
that divers have been cured thereby.” Since Dr. Withering called the atten-
tion of physicians to this plant, the medicine has been in almost daily use,
not in England only, but on the Continent; and in Paris it is so highly
valued that the flower is often painted on the door-posts of an apothecary’s
dwelling. Modern practitioners do not, however, include among their
remedies that outward use of its leaves which suggested the old Italian
proverb, “ Aralda tutte piaghe salda.” ‘ Aralda (Foxglove) salveth all sores.”
Handsome as is our wild Foxglove, it seems scarcely to equal a flower which
Colonel Mundy describes as resembling it, and which is the growth of Van
Diemen’s Land. “There are,” says this writer, ‘several very pretty Iris-
like bulbs in the moister soil, and in the lowlands of the Botany scrub. I
noticed a crimson and orange flower, like the Foxglove in form, very hand-
some, but so hard and horny in texture, that the blossoms actually ring with
a clear metallic sound as you shake them. It might be the fairies’ dinner-
bell calling them to their dew and ambrosia. Alas! there are no ‘good
people’ in Australia. No one ever heard of a ghost, or a bogle, or fetch
here. All is too absolutely material to afford a relic for imagination and
superstition.”
The Foxglove clump has a good effect either in garden or shrubbery,
and our common species is a frequent ornament of the parterre. Several
exotic species also, as the Great Yellow Foxglove, are beautiful plants. This
is a native of Germany, and is very luxuriant on mountains of that land as
well as in the Swiss Alps. The Madeira Foxglove is another magnificent
species, which, in the gardens of Ghent, sometimes grows to the height of
ten feet.
9. SNAPDRAGON (Auntirrhinum).
1. Lesser Snapdragon (A. oréntium). — Leaves mostly alternate,
linear, lanceolate ; spikes very few-flowered, lax; segments of calyx longer
than the corolla; annual. This is a very much smaller plant than the
following species, and its flowers have little to attract in their dull purplish
tint. The species is readily known from any allied plants by its leafy sepals,
—2
20 SCROPHULARINEAA
which are very much longer than the little blossom. Though somewhat
local, this is not an unfrequent plant in corn-fields, and the author often finds
it as a weed in gardens in Kent. The stem is about a foot high, and the
leaves are dark green. It is in flower from July to October.
2. Great Snapdragon (4. mdjus).—Leaves lanceolate, alternate, those
of the branches opposite ; flowers in spikes; segments of the calyx egg-
shaped, blunt, shorter than the corolla; upper lip of the corolla cleft ;
perennial. Everyone who has lingered among old walls and ruins during
our summer months, has seen the rich crimson blossoms of the Snapdragon
waving to the wind which sweeps over castle-turret or church-tower. Nor
is the bright flower wanting on the wall of more modern gardens. It is
certain this plant should not be recorded as wild; for though it grows in
innumerable places without culture, yet it has naturalized itself near to the
garden ground, where once it was planted. Like the wall-flower, though so
frequent on walls it is not confined to them, for it often occurs in chalk-pits
and limestone quarries. It varies in colour from deep purplish crimson to
pale pink or white, and in the garden, several varieties raised by nursery-
men and florists assume every tint of red, yellow, and white, or are streaked
like a carnation. Children press the corolla till they open the palate, when
it bears that resemblance to the imaginary dragon which induced our fathers
to give it its common name, though its similarity to the mouth of the pet
animal renders its other common appellation of Rabbit’s-mouth sufficiently
expressive. Bull-dogs, Lion’s-snap, Toad’s-mouth, and Dog’s-mouth, are also
old names of the plant, which the French call Mujlier ; the Germans, Lowen-
maul; the Dutch, Leewwebek ; the Italians and Spaniards, Antirrino. Vogel
says that in many countries the common people attribute a supernatural
influence to the Snapdragon, and believe it to serve as a counter-charm,
rendering all influences of the evil eye and of maledictions ineffectual. The
seeds are numerous, and yield an excellent oil, much used in Persia for
domestic purposes ; while in Russia the plant is sown in fields for the sake
of this oil. A species used in Cochin China as food for swine is called
A, porcinum.
10. TOAD-FLAX (Lindria).
* Stems and branches trailing.
1. Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (L. cymbaléria).—Leaves roundish, heart-
shaped, 5-lobed, smooth ; flowers solitary, axillary upon long stalks; peren-
nial. This plant is familiarly known to many persons by the name of Mother
of Thousands. It is indeed very prolific, both in flowers and leaves, and,
when once established on a bank or stone wall, will soon spread over it. The
long slender rooting stems attach themselves to the crumbled earth among
crevices of buildings, and droop down so as to have suggested one of its
familiar names, Maiden Hair. It is a common plant on the walls of gardens,
and doubtless was, in former years, cultivated there, for it is a naturalized
and not an indigenous species. It often combines with ferns and mosses to
give a verdant tapestry to the old church or castle; its shoots sometimes
winding in at a window, in which case the leaves are much smaller, for want
XS
IVY-LEAVED TOAD FLAX 4, CREEPING PALE BLUE T.F
linania cymbalaria L. repens
ROUND-LEAVED TOAD FLAX 5 YELLOW TOAD FLAX
L.spuria L. vulgaris
SHARP POINTED FLUELLIN 5.ab. FLOWERS OF VAR
L.elatime Peloria
6 LEAST TOAD FLAX
L.minor 7 UPRIGHT PURPLE TOAD FLAX
Pi, 160 Lpelisseriana
403 vs oi “
j
f
ie
FIGWORT TRIBE 21
of light. A specimen of this plant was exhibited in 1850 to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, by a deputation who waited on him respecting the abolition
of the tax on windows. This plant had lived for some years in a Wardian
case, on the top of a model of an abbey. The branches, which grew towards
the light, invariably produced leaves of the full size, with perfect flowers
and fruit ; whilst those branches which trailed down between the model and
the window, and were nearly without light, never produced either blossom
or fruit, and the leaves were not more than one-tenth the ordinary size.
As all the other conditions of the plant were the same, this dwarfed and
starved state of one part of the Toad-flax arose solely from the want of
light, and was well calculated to show the depressing effects of darkened
dwellings.
Dr. Joseph Hooker, when in the Himalaya, saw a similar plant, the yellow
branched Toad-flax, winding itself over every ruined wall of some ancient
fortress in the Soane Valley, just as the ivy-leaved species does in this
country. If the Himalayan kind should have the same singular mode of
depositing its seeds, we wonder not that its fertility should be equal. Our
Ivy-leaved Toad-flax has a peculiarity almost without a parallel in the vege-
table kingdom. The capsules before ripening turn round towards the wall
on which the plant so often grows, and place themselves in a crevice or hole,
so as to shed the seeds, when ripened, in a place where they may thrive,
instead of scattering them on the ground, where they would be wasted. The
leaves of our species are shaped much like those of the ivy ; are smooth,
thick, and succulent, often of a pinkish-purple beneath, and they have a
warm pungent flavour like the water-cress. The plant is often placed in a
pot hung from the cottage ceiling, where it sometimes attains great luxuri-
ance. ‘The author once measured a leaf from a cottage plant which was two
inches and three-quarters across. The flowers expand from May to Septem-
ber ; they are small, and of a pale or dark bluish-lilac.
This plant is used medicinally in India, and apparently with some success.
It formerly acquired much celebrity as being one of the ingredients of that
terrible poison known in France as the Poudre de Succession. The dreadful
art of slow and secret poisoning, by which the victim seemed sinking from
the ravages of lingering disease, is less possible now that chemistry has
enabled us to detect more readily the presence of any deleterious substance.
But it is not much more than a century since this wicked art had acquired
such perfection that the celebrated Tophania, a woman residing at Naples,
sold her cruel compound ; and found so many ready to share her wickedness,
that she is said to have caused the death of six hundred persons. Garelli,
the physician to Charles VI., King of the Two Sicilies, analysed her poison,
and found it to be composed of an arsenical oxide, dissolved in a liquid called
Aqua Cymbalarie, which was made of the Ivy-leaved Toad-flax.
‘““ Hearts have been found—thank Heaven ! not often found—
So soil’d and stain’d by the polluting air
And weariness of cities, men so vile,
And women, too, alas! sometimes, who’ve mix’d
Poison with the pure perfumes of a flower.”
The Ivy-leaved Toad-flax, from being believed to mingle with the Poudre
22 SCROPHULARINEAR
de Succession, acquired, however, a notoriety of which it was undeserving, for
the water distilled from it is simply an astringent, and by no means a power-
ful one; it was, therefore, doubtless used in these deleterious preparations
from an ignorant misconception of its properties.
We seldom look upon
‘¢The ivy-foliaged Toad-flax twined,
With purplish tendrils,”
withoat recalling an anecdote which was related by Schultz, in his “ Botanical
Visit to England,” and which gives us a pleasanter association with this
flower. Shortly after the publication by Linnzus of his arrangement of
plants, the latter, then a young man and little known, came over to England.
He went to Oxford, and there visited Dillenius and Sherard. The latter
botanist gave him a hearty welcome, but Dillenius, probably from that dislike
to innovation more prevalent then than now among scientific men, received
him very coldly. During a conversation which the two Oxford friends held
together, Dillenius remarked that this was the young fellow who was putting
botany and botanists into confusion. ‘Though unacquainted with the English
language, the quick ear of Linnzus detected the word canfiuschien, as Dillenius
with his German accent pronounced it; and readily connecting it with the
Latin confusio, he at once understood the feeling of the botanist towards
himself. They all three walked together up and down the Oxford garden, when
Dillenius stopped before a wall ornamented with masses of the Ivy-leaved
Toad-flax. Some difficulties respecting the structure of this plant had recently
occupied the attention of the Professor, and he now questioned Linnzus
as to his opinion on the subject. The doubtful points were all clearly under-
stood by the young Swede, and fully explained in his usual lucid manner ;
other difficulties respecting various plants were discussed in the conversation
which followed, and were explained with equal felicity, and the prejudice
which Dillenius had at first entertained for Linnzeus was succeeded by regard
and admiration for his genius and science. Before the three botanists
separated, they had become friends ; but on taking leave, Linnzeus could not
refrain from saying to Dillenius that he should have been very sorry to have
brought confusion into the garden at Oxford. Dillenius blushed at this refer-
ence, and immediately apologised for his unkind but inadvertent expression.
2. Round-leaved Toad-flax (L. spuria).— Leaves roundish, egg-
shaped; spur curved upwards; flower-stalks hairy ; stem procumbent ;
annual. ‘This plant trails over the ground in many gravelly and sandy corn-
fields, but is chiefly confined to the east and south-east of England. It is
abundant in many parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and not uncommon in Kent.
It is in blossom from July to November, and the flowers are small, solitary,
and axillary, yellow, with the upper lip purple. The foliage is of a greyish
dusty-looking green colour, and the leaves have sometimes one or two teeth
on the margin. In some cases the flowers are regular, with five spurs.
3. Sharp-pointed Fluellin or Toad-flax (L. eldtine).—Leaves broadly
halberd-shaped, downy ; flowers solitary, axillary, on long stalks; annual.
This species much resembles the last in the form of its flowers, and the colour
of its leaves, which is never of a bright green; and, like it, is a trailing
FIGWORT TRIBE 23
plant, flowering in the same months in corn-fields. The leaves, however,
form a very distinct specific character, being sharply pointed, and halberd-
shaped, with the exception of a few at the base of the plant. It grows both
on chalk and gravel, and, though a local plant, is not rare. This species is
more bitter than either of the others, and was formerly much used as a
medicine in cutaneous disorders. The corolla is yellow, the upper lip lined
with purple.
* * Stems erect, ascending, or diffuse.
4, Creeping Pale Blue Toad-flax (L. répens).—Leaves linear, scat-
tered, or partly whorled, smooth ; flowers in racemes; sepals lanceolate, as
long as the spur, but shorter than the capsule ; seeds angular and wrinkled ;
perennial. This plant is rare, occurring chiefly on rocky places and chalky
banks, especially near the sea. It has a slender-branched and leafy stem,
from a foot to a foot and a half in height; and its leaves are whorled
below. The flowers, which appear from July to September, are white or
pale lilac, marked with darker purple veins, and having a yellow palate. A
form known as ZL. sepium is a hybrid between this and L. vulgaris.
5. Yellow Toad-flax (L. vulgdris)—Leaves smooth, linear, tapering to
a point, crowded ; flowers in dense spikes ; sepals smooth, egg-shaped, acute,
shorter than the capsule or spur; perennial. This is the most common of
all the species of Toad-flax. In May we may see its light green stems beset with
slender grass-like leaves, of a pale sea-green hue, adorning the hedge-bank
or border of the corn-field, and sometimes peering up among the growing
corn. During August and September it is among the most showy flowers of
our landscape ; and the traveller, far away in the wilds of Siberia, sees it
growing there with the yellow silver-weed potentilla, and dreams of home
and harvest-fields. Its large and beautiful corollas are pale yellow, with a
deep yellow spot, and are crowded into a close cluster from one to three
inches long, on a stem which is one or two feet high. Country people call
the plant Butter-and-eggs, Pattens-and-clogs, and Flax-weed. It is Das
Flackskraut of the Germans, and La Linaive of the French. The leaves have
a bitterish and somewhat saltish taste, and emit, when bruised, a peculiar but
not very powerful odour. The plant is still sometimes infused, and taken +
medicinally ; but it should be carefully used as an internal remedy, as its
properties are powerful, though an infusion of its flowers is a good external
application for cutaneous affections, and the decoction, employed as a bath,
has also proved very successful in removing eruptions on the skin. In Sussex
it was formerly called Gall-wort, and was put into the water drunk by
poultry, in order to cure them when drooping. It was greatly esteemed as
a remedy for jaundice, and the juice is described as “cleansing the skin
wonderfully of all sorts of deformity,” and also as strengthening the sight
by being dropped into the eyes, though we would warn our readers against
this latter use of the herb. The flowers have been employed in dyeing
yellow, and, mingled with milk, they are often placed on tables in farmhouses,
as they serve to attract and destroy flies. A variety (peloria) is sometimes
found with a regular corolla and five spurs.
6. Upright Purple Toad-flax (L. pelisseridéna)—Smooth ; leaves
24 SCROPHULARINEA
linear, the lower ones whorled, the upper alternate, those of the barren shoots
broader and ternate ; flowers in short racemes ; flower-stalks as long as the
bracts ; sepals linear, acute; annual. This plant occurs in one or two places
in Jersey. Its stems are erect, about a foot high, and it has, in June, purple
flowers marked with darker veins.
7. Diffuse Toad-flax (L. suwpina).—Smooth ; stem diffuse or ascending ;
flower-stalks and sepals glandular, hairy ; leaves linear, blunt, mostly whorled ;
sepals narrow, shorter than the capsule; perennial. This plant has been
introduced, in all probability, with ballast, in the few spots on which it is
found. Its recorded places of growth are Catdown Quarries, Plymouth,
Poole in Dorsetshire, Hayle, and St. Blazey’s Bay, Cornwall. Mr. Babington
thinks that the plant may possibly be truly wild at the Cornish Stations, but
Sir J. D. Hooker excludes it from the British list. The flowers are in short
racemes, yellow, the throat and spur marked with slender purple lines. The
stem is but a few inches high, and much branched at the base. The plant is
in flower during July and August.
8. Least Toad-flax (L. minor).—Leaves linear-lanceolate, blunt, mostly
alternate, covered with glandular down; flowers solitary, axillary ; flower-
stalks three times as long as the calyx; segments of the upper lip of the
corolla spreading ; annual. This species is found in sandy and gravelly fields,
chiefly in the eastern and south-eastern parts of England, and rarely in Scot-
land. It bears, from May to October, small flowers, of which the lower lip
is yellowish ; and the tube, upper lip, and spur purplish. The stem is erect,
from four to ten inches high.
11. MONKEY-FLOWER (JMimulus).
Yellow Monkey-flower (IM. luteus).—Leaves opposite, egg-shaped,
the lower stalked, the upper sessile ; flowers solitary, from the axils of the
leaves, yellow. This North American plant has now got thoroughly estab-
lished along many rivers throughout the country. It flowers from July to
September. The stigma is irritable, the two lobes into which it is divided
folding together when touched on the inner surface. This is probably a
provision for the retention of pollen deposited by visiting insects.
12. Mup-wort (Limosélla).
Common Mud-wort (L. aqudtica).—Leaves lanceolate, narrow at the
base, on long stalks; flowers on stalks which are shorter than the leaf-stalks,
axillary and crowded; annual. This little plant would be likely to escape
the notice of any who were not intent on searching carefully the muddy
shores for their vegetable curiosities. It grows on the borders of ponds, and
on the edges of small standing muddy pools in many parts of England and
Scotland, but it is not a common plant. Its creeping root throws up a
number of leaves on long foot-stalks. They are quite smooth, and overtop
the minute blossoms, which are pale pink or white, with purplish anthers, and
appear in Junc and July. They are succeeded by a globose capsule, which
opens by two valves to distribute the wrinkled seeds. The Mud-wort is
sometimes called Bastard Plantain. The French call it La Limoselle ; and
the Germans, Das Sumpfkraut.
COMMON MUDWORT
Limosélla aquatica .
CORNISH MONEY WORT
Sibthorpia europaea
GREAT MULLEIN ,
Verbascum thapsus .
MOTH M.
V. blattaria
J Ej hy akatie
G
LARGE FLOWERED PRIMROSE LEAVED M .
WHITE
DARK
, YELLOW HOARY
M.
M
NM,
V. virgatoum
V. pulverulentanm .
V. tychurtis
V. nigrom
ae :
gL rep hie
vist nian i
FIGWORT TRIBE 25
13. SrBTHORP’S MONEY-wor?T (Sibthérpia).
Cornish Sibthorpia (S. ewropea).—Leaves roundish, lobed and notched ;
Howers axillary, 5-cleft, on very short stalks, solitary ; perennial. This, one
of the most graceful of our plants, is very common in Cornwall growing on
the shady banks of springs and streams, and forming masses of delicate
green. Its trailing stems are clad with the hairy, roundish kidney-shaped
leaves, which obtained for it its familiar name. The stems are hairy and
very slender ; and the tiny flowers, which expand from June to September,
are of a pale flesh-colour. This elegant little plant, which occurs also in
Devonshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Wales, Kerry, and the Channel Islands,
received its generic name from Dr. Humphrey Sibthorp, the Professor of
Botany, who succeeded Dillenius at Oxford, and who is well known to
botanists by his works on the plants of Greece, as he travelled into that
country for the purpose of identifying the flowers and trees mentioned by
classic writers.
14. MULLEIN (Verbdscum).
* Leaves running down the stem, woolly.
1. Great Mullein (/. thapsus).—Stem simple , leaves large, oblong,
somewhat egg-shaped, woolly on both sides, all running down the stem ;
flowers in dense spikes ; corolla wheel-shaped, two of its stamens longer than
the rest and smooth, the other three hairy; biennial. This tall Mullein,
with its stem four or five feet high, is not unfrequent on waste grounds and
banks of which the soil is chalk, gravel, or sand. It is also often planted in
gardens, not merely because it is ornamental, but because bees are very fond
of the flowers. The stem is angular and winged, and, like the leaves, it is
so clothed with grey, woolly down, that we wonder not at the poet's
description—
‘The antique Mullein’s flannel leaves,”
or that the peasant calls it Flannel-flower. Nor is its woolly covering adverted
to in the names of our own land only, for the Germans call it Wollkraut, and
the Dutch /Vollekruid. In Italy the familiar name for the Mullein is Tassobar-
basso, and in Spain Crordolobo, while the French call it Bouillon blanc, and the +
Portuguese Verbascum bianco. When we look at its tall tapering spike of
light yellow flowers, we are not surprised to find that in a period when
candles were commonly burnt in churches it should have suggested to our
fathers the old names of High Taper, Candlewick Taper, and Torches ; while
it was also known, in common with some other species, by the names of Hare’s-
beard and Bullock’s Lung-wort. It is frequent in several parts of Europe,
growing, as with us, on dry banks and field borders, and is said to have taken
its specific name from its abundance in the Isle of Thapsos. Mr. Purton, in
his “Midland Flora,” remarks, that this species has considerable medicinal
qualities ; and other authors mention that its golden yellow flowers, when
dried in the sun, yield an unctuous ointment. Kalm, when in Pennsylvania,
remarks of this plant, “The Swedes settled here call it Tobacco of the
Savages.” They thought that the Indians smoked the leaves, but their
Iil.—4
26 SCROPHULARINEAS
opinion is probably not correct. They bound the Mullein leaves, however,
about their arms and feet to cure ague.
* * Leaves smooth, glandular, or hairy ; upper ones half clasping, running down
the stem ; flowers solitary, or in pairs.
2. Moth Mullein (/. blattdria).—Leaves oblong, smooth, notched ; root-
leaves often lobed at the base, upper cnes pointed ; flowers solitary, stalked,
collected into a long spike-like loose tuft; hairs of the filaments purple ;
annual. ‘This tall and slender Mullein has shining leaves, and its flowers,
which expand in July and August, are of a rich yellow colour. Though not
a generally distributed plant, it is occasionally found south of Norfolk and
Staffordshire, in the south and west of Ireland, and in the Channel Isles,
growing on banks of a gravelly soil. Many botanists consider that it is not
truly wild in this country. It appears to be peculiarly disliked by cock-
roaches, and there is no better method of expelling these troublesome insects
than by strewing its leaves over places to which they resort. The specific
name is from Oblatta, a cockroach; and if Gerarde’s statement is true, it
deserves also its English name of Moth Mullein, for he says that moths and
butterflies frequent the places where it is laid.
3. Large-flowered Primrose-leaved Mullein (/. virgdtum). —
Leaves twice serrated, slightly hairy, with glandular hairs, or in some cases
quite smooth, egg-shaped, lanceolate, and toothed, those of the root some-
what lyrate, narrowing at the base ; flowers from two to six together, shorter
than the bracts; biennial. This rare plant, which is found in fields and on
gravelly banks, is by some writers considered a sub-species or variety of the
last species. Indeed, several so-called species of Mullein seem to run into
each other, owing to the existence of hybrids, so that they have required
much attention from botanists, who are not agreed as to their exact number.
M. Schrader has published a learned monograph on the subject. The fila-
ments of this species, like those of the last, are covered with purple hairs,
but the racemes are more densely flowered.
* * * Leaves woolly or powdery, not running down the stem ; flowers in clusters.
4, Yellow Hoary Mullein (/. pulveruléntum).—Leaves egg-shaped and
oblong, slightly serrated, and covered on both sides with mealy wool, lower
ones oblong and narrow, gradually tapering into a foot-stalk, the upper one
sessile and pointed ; stem rounded, panicled above, with spreading branches ;
biennial. This species is a common plant of the road-sides in Norfolk and
Suffolk, and some other counties. It is, however, rare in other parts of this
country, and is so extremely beautiful a flower, that we can but regret that
it is not a more general ornament by our pathways. It is readily distinguished
from any other Mullein by the mealy woolly down on both sides of its leaves,
which in most cases may be easily rubbed off with the finger, but which
appears in a variety of the species to be permanent. This is in the month
of July a truly magnificent plant, its hundreds of large corollas being spread
open to bee and butterfly, forming a golden rod on a stem three or four feet
high, and beautifully varied with the scarlet stamens, which are covered with
white hairs. ‘The flowers are on very short stalks, and these, as well as the
FIGWORT TRIBE 27
calyxes, are covered with a thick wool. Mr. H. C. Watson questions its
right to be considered a native.
5. White Mullein (/”. lychnitis).—Leaves nearly smooth above, woolly
and powdery beneath, with rounded notches at the margin ; lower leaves
oblong, wedge-shaped and stalked; upper leaves sessile, egg-shaped, and
pointed, with a rounded base; stem angular and panicled, with ascending
branches ; biennial. This species occurs chiefly in chalky districts, and in
some parts of the kingdom is not uncommon on the hedges and borders of
fields and pastures. It is less showy when in flower than most of its family,
its blossoms, though numerous, being small and generally cream-coloured,
though sometimes yellow ; they are on short stalks, and their filaments have
white hairs. They expand in July and August. The lower sides of the
leaves are covered with thick wool, and the down of this, as well as of some
other species, has been on some occasions used as tinder or as wicks to lamps ;
hence its name of Lychnitis, from the Greek for lamp. Morin states that a
good yellow dye for cotton may be obtained from this plant ; and adds, that
an infusion of its flowers was formerly used by the Roman ladies to tinge
their hair with that rich yellow hue once so much admired in Italy, and long
after prized so highly in our own country when Spenser wrote :—
‘* Instead of yellow locks, she did devise
With golden wire to weave her curléd head :
Yet golden wire was not so yellow thrise
As Florimell’s faire heare.”
This also is a doubtful native.
6. Dark Mullein (J, nigrum).—Leaves nearly smooth above, woolly or
downy beneath, with rounded notches at the margin, oblong heart-shaped,
upper ones nearly sessile, lower ones on long stalks; flowers in dense tufts
on a long crowded spike; stem angular; perennial. This species bears its
handsome spike of rather large, rich yellow flowers from July to September,
and their filaments are beautifully fringed with bright purple hairs. It is a
tall plant, not so stout as the Great Mullein, and much darker in hue, the
leaves being of a deep green. It grows on banks and way-sides on gravelly
and chalky soils, and is abundant and truly wild in the midland and southern
counties, but in the north of England and Scotland is believed to be naturalized.
It is said to possess slightly narcotic properties, and to have been used for’
intoxicating fish. A large number of species of Mullein are to be seen
adorning our gardens. They are brought chiefly from the south of Europe,
and some of them, ‘having escaped in several spots from cultivation, have
been described as native plants. Such are the /. phwniceum, V. ferrugineum,
and some others, but they are neither wild nor naturalized to any extent.
Parkinson, in his “Garden of Flowers,” describes a species called the Woody
Mullein, or French Sage, which appears to have bee much prized in olden
times. He says the leaves are somewhat resembling sage in form and rough-
ness, but not in scent. “ Whereof,” he says, “our people gave it the name
of Sage, calling it French Sage (whereas it is as great a stranger in France as
it is in England), yet they doe with this as with many other things, calling
those French which come from beyond the seas; as, for example, all or most
of our bulbous flowers they call ‘French flowers.’ ”
4—2
28 LABIATA
Order LXII. LABIATA®—LABIATE TRIBE.
Calyx tubular, regular or 2-lipped ; corolla irregular, mostly 2-lipped
(labiate), the lower lip largest, and 3-lobed ; perfect stamens 4, 2 longer than
the others, or sometimes wanting; ovary deeply 4-lobed; style 1; stigma
2-cleft ; fruit of four seeds, each of which is inclosed within a distinct shell
or rind, and all lying at the bottom of the calyx. This is a large order,
marked by very distinct and obvious features, the plants having square stems,
usually opposite leaves, labiate or 2-lipped flowers, and a 4-lobed ovary, with
a single style arising from the base of the lobes, and, in a large number of
the genera, four stamens, two long and two short. Not a single plant of the
order possesses any poisonous properties, the Betony only being slightly
acrid ; many are highly aromatic, and more or less bitter, and have cordial,
tonic, and stomachic virtues ; some, which abound in essential oil, are used
as stimulants. Many, like the Balm, Sage, Marjoram, and Thyme, are
valued as seasoning herbs, and several, like the Mint, for medicine. Others,
as Lavender and Rosemary, are largely employed in perfumery. The latter
plant is mingled with other ingredients in eau-de-Cologne, and the essential
oil of several, like the Sage and Lavender, contains so much camphor that it
has been supposed that the separation of it might become an object of
commerce. Rosemary yields camphor in a great degree; and Professor
Lindley, as well as other botanists, considered an infusion of this plant
decidedly useful as a wash for improving the hair both in strength and
quantity. The flavour of the Narbonne honey is ascribed to the bees feeding
on Rosemary flowers, as that of the honey of Hymettus was said to owe its
taste to their having gathered it from wild Thyme. The Labiate plants are
most abundant in temperate climates, and in our country their flowers are
more frequent during autumn than at any other season.
* Stamens 2.
1. Grpsy Wort (Lycopus).—Calyx 5-toothed; corolla 4-cleft, nearly
regular. Name from lucos, a wolf, and pous, a foot, from a fancied resem-
blance of the leaves to a wolf’s paw.
2. SAGE, OR CLARY (Sdlvia).—Calyx 2-lipped ; corolla gaping ; filaments
forked. Name from the Latin salvo, to heal, from the healing properties of
the genus.
* * Stamens 4.
+ Corolla nearly regular, its tube scarcely longer than the calyx ; stamens
spreading upwards.
3. Mint (Méntha).—Calyx equal, 5-toothed ; corolla 4-lobed, with a very
short tube. Name, the Latin name of the plant.
t + Corolla 2-lipped, the tube about as long as the calyx ; lips nearly equal in
length ; stamens nearly equal.
4, THYME (Thymus).—Calyx 2-lipped, 10—13-ribbed, the throat hairy ;
corolla with the upper lip notched, the lower 3-cleft ; flowers in heads or
whorls. Name, the Latin name of the plant,
LABIATE TRIBE 29
5. Marsoram (Origanum).—Calyx 5-toothed, 10—13-ribbed, the throat
hairy ; flowers in spikes, which are imbricated with large bracts. Name
from the Greek oros, a mountain, and ganos, joy, from the favourite station
of the plants.
+ + t+ Corolla with the upper lip very short or wanting, the two lower stamens :
longer than the upper.
6. GERMANDER (Tedcrium).—Calyx 5-cleft ; corolla with the upper lip
deeply 2-cleft, lower 3-cleft. Name from Teucer, who is said to have been
the first to use it in medicine.
7. Bucie (Ajuga).—Calyx 5-cleft ; corolla with a long tube, upper lip
very short, lower 3-cleft. Name said to be corrupted from Abia, an allied
plant.
+ t Tt t Corolla 2-lipped, lips unequal ; calyx 5—10-toothed ; stamens longer
than the tube of the corolla.
8. Brack HorEHounD (Balléta).—Calyx funnel-shaped, with 5 sharp
equal teeth; corolla with the upper lip erect, concave, lower 3-lobed, the
middle lobe largest, heart-shaped. Name from the Greek ballo, to reject,
from its unpleasant odour.
9. MorHeRwort (Leonirus).—Calyx with 5 prickly teeth ; corolla with
the upper lip nearly flat, very hairy above; anthers sprinkled with hard
shining dots. Name from leon, a lion, and owra, a tail.
10. HEMP-NETTLE (Caledpsis).—Calyx bell-shaped, with 5 prickly teeth ;
corolla with an inflated throat ; upper lip arched, lower 3-lobed, with two
teeth on its upper side. Name from galeé, a weasel, and opsis, aspect, from a
fancied resemblance of the flower to the snout of that animal.
11. WEASEL-SNOUT (Galedbdolon).—Calyx with 5 ribs, and as many nearly
equal teeth ; corolla with the upper lip arched, lower in three nearly equal
acute lobes. Name from galeé, a weasel, and bdolos, a fetid scent, because
supposed to have the odour of a weasel.
12. DEAD-NETTLE (Liémium).—Calyx bell-shaped, with 10 ribs and 5
teeth ; corolla with an inflated tube, upper lip arched, lower 2-cleft, with 1
or 2 teeth at the base on each side. Name from the Greek, laimos, a throat,
from the form of the flower.
13. Berony (Beténica).—Calyx egg-shaped, with 10 ribs, and 5 sharp
teeth ; tube of the corolla longer than the calyx, upper lip slightly arched,
lower flat, of 3 unequal lobes. Name altered from the Celtic bentonic, ben
signifying head, and ton, good.
14. WouND-worT (Stdéchys).—Calyx tubular, bell-shaped, with 10 ribs
and 5 equal teeth ; tube of the corollaas long as the calyx, upper lip arched,
lower 3-lobed, the side lobes bent back before withering. Name from the
Greek stachys, a spike.
15. Cat-mint, GRrounD Ivy (Népeta).—Calyx tubular, 15-ribbed, and 5-
toothed ; tube of the corolla longer than the calyx, upper lip flat, straight,
notched, or 2-cleft, lower 3-lobed. Name of doubtful origin.
30 LABIATA
tt + 7 t Lips of the corolla unequal ; calyx 5—10 toothed ; stamens shorter than
the tube of the corolla.
16. Waite HoreHounD (Marribiwm).—Calyx with 10 ribs and 5 or 10
spreading teeth, the throat hairy ; tube of the corolla longer than the calyx,
upper lip straight, very narrow, deeply 2-cleft, lower 3-lobed. Name of
doubtful origin.
+7 + + 1 T Lips of the corolla unequal ; calyx 2-lipped.
17. CALAMINT (Calamintha).—Calyx 13-nerved, tubular, upper lip 3-cleft,
lower 2-cleft, throat hairy. Name from kalos, good, and mentha, mint.
18. Witp Bastarp Baum (WMellitis). —Calyx bell-shaped, much wider
than the tube of the corolla, variously lobed ; upper lip of the corolla nearly
flat, entire, lower with three rounded, nearly equal lobes ; anthers approach-
ing in pairs, and forming a cross. Name from the Greek melitta, a bee, on
account of the honey yielded by the flower.
19. SELF-HEAL (Prundélla).—Calyx flattened, and closed when in fruit ;
corolla with the upper lip nearly entire, arched, lower one 3-lobed ; filaments
2-forked. Name from the German Obraiine, quinsy, which complaint it was
supposed to cure.
20. SKULL-CAP (Scutelléria). — Upper lip of the calyx bulged outward
about the middle, and finally closing down like a lid over the fruit ; tube of
the corolla much larger than the calyx. Name from the Latin scutella, a
little cup, from the form of the calyx.
1. Gipsy-worT (Lycopus).
Common Gipsy-wort (L. ewropéus).—Leaves deeply and irregularly
cut, almost pinnatifid, and serrated, wrinkled and opposite ; flowers small, in
dense sessile whorls in the axils of the upper leaves; perennial. This is not
a frequent plant in all parts of this kingdom, though in many counties it is
found very commonly on the margins of rivers and stagnant waters. To
the owner of the moist pasture land it often proves a very troublesome
weed, for it has a creeping root-stock not easily removed, and ready to pro-
duce a new plant if but a small portion be left in the soil. No cattle will
touch it, nor is it very ornamental to the meadow. Its flowers are crowded
among the upper leaves, and Pollich says that he has sometimes counted
eighty-two blossoms in a whorl. They are small, hairy within, white dotted
with purple, which gives them a pale rosy appearance, and expand in July
and August. It is said that the wandering people who wish to pass for
gipsies use this plant to give a brown tint to their complexions, and the juice
of the walnut-leaf has been affirmed to be used for the same purpose. The
dye of the Gipsy-wort would probably prove the more permanent hue, for it
will impart a black stain to almost anything which its juice touches. In
France it has been used in giving a good deep brown hue to silk, wool, and
linen. The cut leaves, which suggested the botanic name, which is taken
from the Greek, are also alluded to in several of the familiar names by which
the plant is called in other countries. The Germans term it /Volfsfuss ; the
Dutch, Volfspoot ; the Italians, Licopo. Our country people know it as the
Water Horehound, and it is the Marrube aquatique of the French, It was
1
GIPSY - WORT
ME ADOW
CLARY.
Lycopus europens
SAGE
Salvia jratensis
» verbenac a
Pi, 162,
kL
6
HORSE-MINT
Mentha sylvestris
ROUND LEAVED M
M. rotundifolia
SPRAR M
M. viridis
LABIATE TRIBE 31
formerly termed Lancea Christi, and has been from earliest times praised as a
febrifuge. It appears to possess powerfully astringent properties. It is
rare in Scotland, but is found by Loch Lindore, Fifeshire ; and at Delvin,
Perthshire.
2. SAGE OR CLARY (Salvia).
1. Meadow Sage (8. praténsis).—Root-leaves oblong, heart-shaped at
the base, irregularly notched at the margin, stalked; those of the stem few,
sessile ; uppermost narrow and pointed ; bracts egg-shaped and heart-shaped ;
corolla thrice as long as the calyx, upper segment clammy ; perennial. This
plant varies in height from half a foot to more than two feet. It has wrinkled
leaves, and its large bright blue flowers grow in whorls of about six, with
short egg-shaped bracts. It is very rare, occurring on dry meadows and
hedge-banks in a few English counties, such as Cornwall, Kent, and Oxford.
The flowers are of two forms, a larger containing both stamens and pistil,
and a smaller with perfect pistil only. Both produce honey for the attraction
of insects, and the stamens are mature in advance of the pistil. These
stamens are of a remarkable character : the tissue connecting the two anther-
lobes is drawn out to a great length, so that whilst one is in the vaulted
upper lip, the other, which is not fully developed, blocks the way to the
honey. On this lower one being pressed by the head of the bee, the leverage
thus applied brings down the upper anther upon the bee’s back, which is thus
smeared with pollen. When the pollen has all been distributed the style
lengthens greatly, and the stigma arms reach out so as to come in the way of
an insect visitor and to touch his back. Many botanists think that it is not
a truly wild flower.
2. Clary or Wild Sage (S. verbendca).—Leaves broadly egg-shaped,
blunt, heart-shaped at the base, wavy at the edge, crenate and stalked, those
of the stem sessile and clasping; corolla scarcely longer than the calyx ;
bracts oblong and pointed, about the length of the calyx; perennial. This
is a very generally distributed plant, and is not unfrequent on dry chalky or
gravelly pastures, especially near the sea. The blossoms are of a dull dark
purple, growing in long spikes, and they would give one the idea of being
never fully expanded, as their calyxes surround them, and are almost as long.
as the corollas. The square stem is about one or two feet high, bearing a
few wrinkled, ragged-looking leaves. The whole plant has a strong aromatic
odour, something like that of the garden Sage, but, except inits wrinkled leat,
it would not remind us of that plant, the foliage being of deep green hue,
often tinged with purple, and marked with strong veins. In Scotland it
occurs on the eastern side only.
This Sage is a native of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Its seeds when put
in water yield a mucilage which, placed within the eyelid for a few minutes,
envelops any particle of dust which may pain the eye. Hence the name of
the plant, Clary, or Clear Eye. Our old herbalists consider it one of the
most efficacious of herbs in any complaint of the eyes; and not content, as
we might be, to use the mucilage only, they all give directions that the seed
itself should be laid under the eyelid. Gerarde says of this: ‘‘ If put whole
into the eies it cleanseth and purgeth them exceedingly from rednesse, inflam-
32 LABIATA
mation, and divers other maladies, and taketh away the pain and smarting
thereof, especially being put into the eie one seed at a time and no more. y
The virtues of this plant were held in such estimation, that it obtained the
name ‘“ Officinalis Christi.” An old writer, who justly disapproved of this
name, says: ‘It is so called most blasphemously,” and adds, “I could wish
from my soul that blasphemy, ignorance, and tyranny were ceased among
physicians, that they may be happy and I joyful.” Like all the other old
writers, he recommends that the seed should be placed in the eye, and left
there till it dropped out: the pain, he says, “will be nothing to speak of,”
and if often repeated “it will take off a film which covereth the sight; a
handsomer and safer and easier remedy it is a great deal than to tear it off
with a needle.”
Besides its uses in diseases of the eye, this wild Clary was recommended
for a variety of maladies, and seems to have shared the esteem in which the
Garden Sage was held, which had a high repute from remote antiquity. The
saying of the ancients that “No man need die who had Sage in his garden,”
probably was the foundation of our own old English proverb :—
‘* He that eats Sage in May
Shall live for aye.’
Parkinson says: “Sage is much used in the month of May fasting, with
butter and parsley, and is held of most to conduce much to the health of
man ;” and a work called the “Englishman’s Doctor,” printed in 1607, has
some lines on the subject, which, if not very metrical, were doubtless deemed
at least truthful :—
ce
Sage strengthens the sinews, feaver’s heat doth swage,
The palsie “helps and rids of mickle w oe,
In Latin (Salvia) takes the name of safety 2
In English Sage, is rather wise than craftie ;
Sith then the name betokens wise and saving,
We count it Nature’s friend and worth the having.”
The mucilage covering the seed of this plant is not to be seen till the
seeds are moistened. Mr. Baxter says: “This mucilage I have found to be
composed of very minute spiral vessels, similar to those first described by
Professor Lindley as partly composing the mucous matter which invests the
seeds of Collomia linearis. These spiral vessels are very numerous in the
mucous matter which envelops the seeds of this Salvia. If a seed of this
plant is placed on a glass-slip on the stage of a compound microscope, and
then subjected to moisture by dropping upon it a drop or two of clear water,
the spiral vessels may be seen almost immediately to dart forth from the
outside of the testa, or skin, and to form a complete and beautiful radius
round the seed. If the seed on which this experiment has been tried is
allowed to dry upon the glass, the spiral vessels will remain in their extended
position (their bases inclosed in the mucous matter, which also dries upon
the glass), and may be preserved as an interesting object for the microscope
at any future time.”
A curious preparation of this plant seems to have been a favourite dish
with our ancestors. Parkinson says: “The leaves taken dry, and dipped
into a batter made of the yolks of eggs, flour, and a little milk, then fryed
LABIATE TRIBE 33
with butter until they be crisp, serve for a dish of meate, acceptable with
manie, unpleasant to none.’
A very old name for the Clary was Orvale sauvage.
In Crete, where our Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) grows in wild abund-
ance on the rocks, and where its fragrance is far more powerful than in our
land, the leaves.are annually collected by the Greeks for medicinal purposes.
They deem it of especial importance to gather the plant either on the first’
or second day of May, before sunrise. They also drink an infusion of Sage
leaves as tea, and make sweetmeats of the galls which are formed by insects
on one of the species common there, and which are sold in the markets under
the name of Sage-apples. Sage tea is still drunk in our own villages during
spring, as beneficial to the health, and the Chinese were said some years since
to prefer this beverage to their own tea, and once traded with the Dutch, to
the great advantage of the latter people, by exchanging with them one pound
of tea for four pounds of sage leaves. Many species ‘of Sage are valued in
different European countries : as medicinal herbs, and most of the continental
names are, like the botanical one of Salvia, from salvo, to save or heal. Thus
the French call the plant La Sauge, and the Germans Die Salbey. In Holland
it is termed Sale ; in Italy and Spain Salvia ; in Portugal, Salva ; in Russia,
Schalweja ; and in Poland, Szalwia. In Holland, the flowers of S. glutinosa
are used to give a flavour to English wines, and a good wine is sometimes
made in our own country by boiling the leaves and flowers of our common
wild Clary with sugar. This is said to have the flavour of Frontignac. All
the genus are wholesome and cordial, and many, by the beauty of their
bright scarlet or blue flowers, contribute greatly to the adornment of our
gardens.
In the meadows of Germany several very handsome species of Salvia are
common wild flowers. Anna Mary Howitt, referring to the suburbs of
Munich, says: ‘‘ You stand in fields covered with a lovely odorous mosaic of
flowers and deep rich grass. Here the tall Salvia rears its graceful spike of
brilliantly blue flowers. Clovers, white and red, scent the air with their
honeyed perfume ; the delicate eyebright, daisies, harebells, thyme, bugloss,
yellow vetch, the white powdery umbel of the wild carrot, and the large
mild-looking dog-daisies, bloom in a gay, delicious tangle.” A form of S. ver-
benaca is found in the Channel Islands, and is sometimes described as a
separate species under the name of S. clandestina. It is altogether a more
slender plant, with more purple flowers, and the corolla-tube longer than the
calyx.
3. Mint (Wéntha).
* Flowers in spiked whorls, or terminal heads.
1. Horse-mint (J/. sylvéstris)—Leaves almost sessile, egg-shaped, or
lanceolate, serrated, and hoary beneath ; spikes almost cylindrical, scarcely
interrupted ; bracts awl-shaped; calyx with sharp teeth, and very hairy ;
perennial; This Mint is not unfrequent in England on damp waste grounds,
having, during August and September, its slender spikes formed of crowded
whorls of pale lilae flowers, with long floral leaves. It has the strong but
pleasant odgur common to many of the Mint family, and often grows in
.—5
34 LABIATA&
large masses by the waterside. The foliage, which is very white beneath,
sometimes looks asif it were mouldy. In one variety it has lanceolate leaves,
while in another form these are oval, and it is sometimes found with very
crisp and ragged leaves.
2. Round-leaved Mint (J/. rotundifélia).—Leaves sessile, elliptical,
blunt, acutely crenate, wrinkled, shaggy beneath; spikes oblong, dense ;
bracts lanceolate ; perennial. The whole of this plant is covered with long
soft hairs ; its stem is about two feet high, and the under part of the leaves
shaggy with white down. It flowers in August and September, and its
corollas are of a pale pink colour. It has a strong but disagreeable odour,
and is not unfrequent by riversides and on bogs in England, though appar:
ently not truly wild in Scotland, nor the north of England.
3. Spearmint (M. viridis).—Leaves sessile, lanceolate, acute, smooth,
and serrated ; spikes elongated, interrupted ; bracts awl-shaped, and as well
as the calyx either smooth or hairy ; flower-stalks always smooth ; calyx-teeth
bristle-tipped ; perennial. The stem of this Mint is from two to three feet
high, smooth, distinctly four-cornered, erect, and branched, and its bluish-
lilac flowers appear in August. It is more often found in the kitchen-garden
or the cottage-bed, where it has been cultivated for culinary purposes, than
on any wild spot. It grows, however, in some marshy places in several parts
of England, and has a few Scottish localities, though some botanists regard
it as a naturalized, and not a wild plant of this kingdom. Its strongly-
scented flowers appear in April, and the flavour of its aromatic and pungent
foliage is too well known to need any comment. Like others of the genus,
it leaves a sense of coolness on the tongue. In modern times, and in this
country, it is chiefly used either in medicine or as a sauce for roasted meat,
or as an addition to green peas and other vegetables, as also an ingredient in
soups ; but in olden times it was in much more general use, as it still is in
some other countries. Its culture in the garden is very ancient, as we know
both by its old name of Our Lady’s Mint, and also from lines in Chaucer’s
“Romaunt of the Rose ” :—
‘Then wente I forthe on my right honde,
Downe by a little path I fonde
Of Mintes full and fenell greene.”
Parkinson tells that it was, in his time, boiled with mackerel and other
fish, and that when dried it was put into puddings, and also among green
peas, which were “ broght for pottage.” He adds, “If applyed with salte it
is a good helpe against the biting of a mad dog, and when dockes are not to
be had, they use to bruise Mintes and lay them upon any place that is stung
by bees, wasps, and such like, and that to good purpose.” Other writers of
those days say, that Mint should be smelled, as being comfortable for the
head and memory. Pliny had said of this herb, “The smell of Mint doth
stir up the minde and taste to a greedy desire of meat.” Margaret Paston,
writing in 1746 about the illness of her cousin Bernay, says, “I remember
yat Mynte, or water of millefole, were good for my cosyn Bernay to drinke,
for to make him browke ;” the word browke meaning to brook or digest
meat. Gerarde considered that the savour or smell of the water of Mint
“rejoyceth the heart of man, for which cause,” he says, “they use to strew
LABIATE TRIBE 35
it in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, and when feasts
and banquets are to be made.” Even within the last century the odour of
Mint has been considered as good for the head, and many would agree with
Dodsley in his estimate of this and other plants. Referring to the works of
the great Creator, he says :-—
‘* He the salubrious leaf
Of cordial sage, the purple flowering head
Of fragrant lavender, enlivening Mint,
Valerian’s fetid smell, endows benign
With their cephalic virtues.”
The Americans seem to have retained some of the old liking for Mint, as
their mint julep is a favourite beverage. Mint is highly valued in Eastern
countries, and the custom yet existing of placing Mint in the synagogues of
the Jews is probably a remnant of an old Oriental practice. Our Saviour’s
rebuke to the Scribes and Pharisees proves that mint was in common culture
amongst the Jews. He, who deemed the uprightness of heart, and the love
of God and our neighbour, as of far higher value than the outward observance
even of some appointed duty, said, “‘ Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of Mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the Law.” There is little doubt that the word
rendered anise by our translators should have been dill; and Rosenmiiller
quotes Rabbi Eliezer as saying, that the leaves, seed, and stem of dill were
subject to tithe, so that we have reason for inferring that Mint would be also
tithed. That our Saviour’s words did not imply any disapproval of attention
to these minor duties is evident from those which followed : ‘ These,” said
our blessed Lord, ‘ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone.” ‘The whole passage, however, certainly proves that Mint was in
general culture in Palestine as a garden herb ; and though it is exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, to tell the exact species of Mint valued by the
Jews, especially as several of the species are very nearly allied to each other,
yet the Mentha sylvestris, our Common Horse Mint, and the Mentha sativa,
are probably the kinds referred to. The latter species, which by some
botanists is called JZ. arvénsis, is very widely diffused, and occurs in Greece,
in parts of Caucasus, in the Altai range, and as far as Cashmere. Dr. Royle
says that the Horse Mint (JL. sylvestris) is the most common species in Syria, ©
and observes that it was found by Russell at Aleppo, and mentioned by him
as one of the herbs cultivated in the gardens there. It also occurs in Greece,
Taurus, the Altai range, and Cashmere. This author quotes passages from
Celsus and Pliny, proving the high estimate of Mint among the ancient Jews.
He remarks also that Dioscorides mentions it as useful to the stomach, and
peculiarly grateful as a condiment. Mint was employed by the ancients in
the preparation of many dishes. One very old use of Mint is still retained
in Holstein, in Germany, where, when the peasants lay the remains of their
departed friends in the tomb, Mint is carried by youths attending the
funeral.
It is not unlikely that im former days more species were in common
culture in this country, where now the Spearmint and Peppermint are the
two plants chiefly selected. Our fathers had also their Crosse Mint, Browne
5—2
36 LABIATA
Mint, Mackerel Mint, Curled Mint, Holy Blackish Mint, Heart Mint, Red
Mint, Fish Mint, and Brook Mint, besides some which, like Horse Mint, are
yet known by their old English names. The Spearmint, as well as many
other species, is doubtless a powerful carminative, and the medical prepara-
tions made from it are much more agreeable than those obtained from the
Peppermint, though they are not perhaps so useful. It contains much
essential oil, and affords, as well as the oil, the spirit and water of mint,
besides that a conserve is prepared from the herb. The conserve is very
agreeable to those who like the flavour of Mint, and the distilled waters,
both simple and spirituous, are agreeable to many persons, and are useful in
many forms of suffering. Large quantities of Mint for the use of the druggist:
are grown in the neighbourhood of Mitcham, in Surrey. For more than
a hundred years past many of the culinary, medicinal, and perfumery plants
have been sent up to the London market from this neighbourhood. Hundreds
of acres are covered with sweet and fragrant plants, diffusing at the season
of their maturity the most delicious odours. These flowery fields are not,
however, so lovely to the eye as an imaginative reader might suppose, for
the plants, cultivated for use and not for show, are mostly arranged in
formal rows, and are often of very low growth. Here and there a field of
roses or of lavender may tint the landscape with brightened hues, and, like
the humbler masses of Mint and Peppermint, give long and pleasant notice
of their neighbourhood by the odours which are wafted by the summer
breeze. Coltsfoot, poppy, wormwood, aniseed, ‘chamomile, deadly night-
shade, liquorice, horehound, and other plants used by the physician, the
perfumer, or the maker of liqueurs, are cultivated there ; and it is said that
the owner of a large chamomile garden sometimes pays as much as a hundred
pounds in a week to the women and children who are employed to gather in
these medicinal flowers.
When used for medicinal purposes, the Spearmint is cut just when the
flowers appear, and the herb-garden is then a very busy scene, as it is also
some days after, when the plant is in full flower, as that is the season for
gathering in Mint when it is required for the essential oil, and in both cases
it must be cut while the weather is dry. The south of Europe affords the
chief produce of perfumery herbs, and Grasse and Nice are the especial seats
of the art, affording as they do, by their geographical position, within short
distances, such changes of soil and climate as are desirable for the growth of
various scented plants. Thus, the grower at Nice can plant his cassia on the
sea-coast, fearless of those winter frosts which, in our climate, would in one
night destroy all the results of his industry. Nearer the Alps the climate is
well adapted for the culture of his violets, which yield a better odour there
than if reared in those warmer spots which suit so well the orange-flower
and mignonette. But it is to the English gardener that the druggist and
perfumer look for their Mint, Peppermint, and lavender; and the essential
oils obtained from these herbs, when grown at Mitcham, obtain a much larger
price than those of the sunnier climes of France or Southern Europe, and
have a sweeter and more delicate odour. It has been remarked, as a general
observation, that though the flowers of warm climates have usually a more
powerful odour, yet the more delicate fragrance is afforded by the plants of
ay)
PEPPER MINT
Mentha piperita
WATER CAPITATE M
M. agqnatica
MARSH WHORLED M
M. sativa
Pt. 163.
CORN ™,.
M. arvensis
NARROW LEAVED M
M pratensis
PENNY ROYAL,
M puleginm
on
eer
7 wi!
LABIATE TRIBE 37
moderately warm regions. But, as in all lands the great Creator has given
beauty to flowers, so to some among them He has in every clime granted
sweet odours.
Some idea of the value of odoriferous plants, as an article of commerce,
is gained from the statement lately made in a popular journal. It mentions
that one of the large perfumers of Grasse in France employs annually
80,000 lbs. of orange blossoms, 60,000 of cassia flowers, 54,000 of violet
flowers, 20,000 of tuberose, 16,000 of lilac flowers, besides Mint, rosemary,
lavender, thyme, orange, and other sweet-scented plants. It would be
difficult to compute the amount of Mint and Peppermint grown in this
country, but the wholesale druggists, and not the perfumers, are, in this
kingdom at least, the great consumers of these two plants. In consequence
of the great improvements of chemical science, it has, of late years, been
found possible to imitate the scents usually procured from odoriferous herbs.
Lord Playfair, in a lecture to the Society of Arts, observes :—“ Perfumers,
if they do not occupy whole streets, as they did in ancient Capua, show more
science in attaining their perfumes than those of former times. The Jury of
the Great Exhibition, or rather two distinguished chemists of that Jury,
Dr. Hoffman and M. Delarue, ascertained that some of the most delicate
perfumes were made by chemical artifice, and not, as of old, by distilling
them from flowers. The perfumes of flowers often consist of oils and ethers
which the chemist can compound artificially in his own _ laboratory.
Singularly enough, they are generally derived from substances of intensely
disgusting odour. A peculiarly fetid oil, termed fusel-oil, is formed in
making brandy and whisky.” From this fusel-oil and various chemical
preparations, Lord Playfair adds, is obtained the oil of apples and the oil of
pears, while the oil of pine-apple, now largely employed in making pine-
apple ale; is procured from the action of putrid cheese on sugar. Oil
of grapes and oil of cognac, used to impart the flavour of French cognac
to British brandy, are little else than fusel-oil; and the artificial oil of
almonds, so largely employed in perfumery, is prepared by the action of
nitric acid on the fetid oils of gas-tar. ‘‘ Many a fair forehead,” the lecturer
remarked, “is damped with eau de millefleurs without knowing that its
essential ingredients are derived from the most disgusting sources. All these,”
says Dr. Playfair, “are direct modern applications of science to an industrial
purpose, and imply an acquaintance with the highest investigations of organic
chemistry. Let us recollect that the oil of lemons, turpentine, oil of juniper,
oil of roses, oil of copaiba, oil of rosemary, and many other oils, are
identical in composition ; and it is not difficult to conceive that perfumery
may derive still further aid from chemistry.”
4. Peppermint (MV. piperitu).—Leaves stalked, egg-shaped, and lan-
ceolate or oblong, serrated, upper leaves smaller ; bracts lanceolate ; flowers
in loose, short, blunt spikes, interrupted below; calyx with awl-shaped
teeth, quite smooth at the base, often red; perennial. A variety, often
known as M. officinalis, occurs with broad and rounded leaves, heart-shaped
at the base, and with its flowers in very long spikes. The Peppermint
appears to be a truly wild plant on some of the riversides and moist places
where it is found, but has probably escaped from cultivation. It is often
38 LABIATA
planted for its essential oil, which is used in lozenges and other confectionery,
and so largely employed for mediciiial purposes. Its stem and leaves are
nearly smooth, and the spikes of purplish-lilac flowers appear in August and
September. Its scent is much stronger than that of the Spearmint. Its
essential oil exists in minute glands on the calyx and leaves, which are
usually apparent to the naked eye. Nyman is of opinion that it exists
nowhere as an indigenous plant, and many regard it as a mere cultivated
form of MW. aquatica.
5, Water Capitate Mint (J. aqudtica).—Leaves stalked, egg-shaped,
serrated, rounded or slightly heart-shaped below, uppermost leaves like
bracts, and shorter than the flowers; flowers at the summit of the stem
in dense whorls, the highest forming a head, and sometimes also growing in
axillary remote whorls ; calyx tubular; perennial. Several varieties of this
Mint occur, in one of which the leaves are cut, toothed, and crisped ; while
in another the leaves, calyx, and flower-stalks, are quite smooth. We have
often thought, when, in August and September, we have seen the rounded
heads of pale bluish-lilac flowers of this Mint peeping up from among the
shallow waters, or clustering on some little islet of the stream, that it far
outrivals most of its family in beauty. Its flowers are of a bluer tint than
any other species ; its leaves are downy, and in wet places, where it luxuriates,
it often forms large masses one or two feet high. It is the commonest of all
the Mints, and were it not for its strong and unpleasant odour, would be a
good addition to the wild-flower nosegay of autumn. This odour, however,
has its uses, for Dr. Johnston tells us, in his “Flora of Berwick-on-Tweed,”
that Mr. Macdonald of Scalpa in the Hebrides, having had much injury done
to his wheat by the depredations of mice, gathered a quantity of this plant
from a neighbouring brook, and placed it among his wheatsheaves, after
which they remained untouched by these animals. He then put the Mint
with cheese and other articles, then in store, which had formerly been much
injured by mice, and found the plan successful, the Mint, both in its fresh
and dry states, effectually repelling the intruders. There are several varietal
forms of this species, distinguished in most cases by the amount of hairiness
or downiness of the leaves.
* * Flowers in aaillary, distant whorls.
6. Marsh Whorled Mint (JI. sativa).—Leaves stalked, egg-shaped or
elliptical, serrated, upper ones similar but smaller, all longer than the whorls ,
whorls all distant, dense ; calyx with lanceolate sharply-pointed teeth. This
plant is subject to great changes, being in various forms more or less hairy.
The authors of the “British Flora” remark of the Mints in general :—
‘Nearly all the species are hairy, with serrated leaves, but are subject to two
principal variations, viz. to be almost entirely smooth, in which case the
flower-stalks and lower part of the calyx become quite smooth, and the odour
of the species is milder and even pleasant ; and to have the leaves cut and
crisped. This latter is more strictly a monstrosity, and is sometimes
accompanied with a considerable change in the inflorescence.” The Marsh
Whorled Mint grows on the banks of rivers or moist hedge-banks, and in
copses. It has distant whorls of numerous reddish-lilac flowers, which
LABIATE TRIBE 39
expand in July and August. ‘This species, which runs into a considerable
number of sub-species and varieties, is regarded by some as itself but a mere
varietal form of J. aquatica, differing in bearing the whorls in the axils
instead of in terminal spikes.
7. Corn Mint (MZ. arvénsis).—Leaves stalked, egg-shaped or elliptical,
sometimes heart-shaped at the base, serrated, upper leaves similar, and
equally large ; calyx bell-shaped, in some varieties downy, in others smooth,
having triangular acute teeth, about as broad as long; perennial. This very
variable species is nearly allied to the last, its most marked difference being
in the form of its calyx-teeth. The wanderer in the corn-fields at that
pleasant season in which the labourer is gathering in his harvest, is very
likely to see this Mint cut down by the scythe, or to find it at a later season
springing up among the stubble. It is one of the commonest species of Mint.
The stem is from six inches to a foot in height, and it has whorls of small
lilac flowers in August and September. The smell is, in the ordinary form
of the plant, powerfully unpleasant, and has been not unaptly compared to
that of decayed cheese. It has carminative properties, and has sometimes
been employed as a stomachic medicine. Its stem is more or less branched,
and is, in some of its varieties, much tinged with red, in others bright green,
and some of these are of a mild and pleasant odour. This is one of the
plants that have flowers of two forms: a larger containing both stamens and
pistil, and a smaller containing pistil only.
8. Narrow-leaved Mint (J/. praténsis).—Leaves nearly sessile, egg-
shaped, lanceolate, acute and serrated, upper ones similar, all longer than the
whorls ; calyx bell-shaped, glandular, lower part smooth ; teeth triangular ;
perennial. This is a very rare plant of marshy places. Its stem and leaves
are usually smooth, and the latter are paler on the under surface, and
glandular. The flowers grow in August and September in distant, almost
globular, whorls. Some writers doubt if the species is indigenous, as its only
record is in the year 1789, when Sole found it in the New Forest ; even then
it appears to have been only a form of M. sativa.
9. Penny-royal (M. puldégium).—Flowers whorled ; leaves egg-shaped,
downy, blunt, slightly serrated ; stem prostrate ; flower stalks and calyx
downy, the mouth of the latter closed with hairs; perennial. This species
is very unlike the others, and is readily known by its prostrate stem; it is’
also smaller than our other wild kinds of Mint. It is a common plant near
streams or bogs, and has a most powerful odour, which some persons think
agreeable. Its purple flowers appear in June and July, the uppermost axils
of the leaves being usually empty. It is frequently planted on the little
plot of the cottage-garden—
‘«The thyme strong-scented ’neath one’s feet,
The marjoram beds so doubly sweet,
And Penny-royal's creeping twine,
These, each succeeding each, are thine.”
It is still deemed a useful medicinal herb, and an exaggerated idea of its
properties probably won for it its epithet of Royal. The French also term
it Pouliot royal. A tea made from its leaves is an old village remedy for
colds and coughs, and all the old simplers describe it as “good and whole-
40 LABIATA#
some for the lungs,” while Gerarde said that a garland of the plant worn
about the head would “cure giddiness.” ‘The leaves of this herb often curve
downwards, and are sometimes covered with short hairs. ‘The whole plant
is pungent, with a slight flavour of camphor, and its odour, especially when
bruised, is very powerful. Parkinson says of this herb: “It used to be put
in puddings and such like meates of all sortes, and therefore in divers places
they call it Pudding-grasse. The former age of our great-grandfathers had
all these hot hearbes in much and familiar use, both for their meates and
medicines, and therewith preserved themselves in long life and much health ;
but this delicate age of ours, which is not pleased with anything almost, be
it meat or medicine, that is not pleasant to the palate, doth wholly refuse
these almost, and therefore cannot be partakers of the benefit of them.”
Many writers have believed the Penny-royal to be the Dictamne of the
ancients. Virgil told how the deer ate of the plant, and were cured of the
wounds inflicted by the huntsmen’s arrows, a legend often alluded to by our
own poets. Thus Stirling, in his “ Aurora,” says :
** And whilst I wander, like the wounded deer,
That seeks for Dictamne to recure his scarre.”
4. THYME (Thymus).
Wild Thyme (7. serpyllwm).—F lowers in heads or whorled ; stems pros-
trate, branched, hairy ; leaves flat, egg-shaped, blunt, more or less fringed at the
base, stalked ; floral leaves similar ; upper lip of the corolla notched ; peren-
nial. Those who love to wander over breezy hills, where the sheep are
scattered far and wide about the landscape, well know the Wild Thyme.
During July and August, many an open, lonely tract of our country is
purpled over with its flowers, which are bringing fragrance to wide-spread
heath, or grassy moorland, or sunny bank, or chalky sea-cliff, and forming
aromatic cushions on which the rambler may repose to listen to murmuring
bees and low whispering airs. Often as we have gone over such hills on
some Sabbath morning, summoned by the welcome bell to the House of
Prayer, we have, as we looked on the flock, been reminded of the shepherd’s
boy whom Graham describes as watching his sheep, on the thymy hills of
Scotland :—
‘‘Nor yet less pleasing at the Heavenly Throne
The Sabbath service of the shepherd boy,
In some lone glen where every sound is lull’d
To slumber, save the tinkling of the rill,
Or bleat of lamb, or falcon’s hovering ery ;
Stretch’d on the sward he reads of Jesse’s son,
Or sheds a tear o’er him to Egypt sold,
And wonders why he weeps ; the volume closed,
With Thyme-sprig laid between the leaves, he sings
The sacred lays, his weekly lesson, conn’d
With meikle care, beneath the lowly roof
Where humble lore is learnt.
Thus reading, hymning, all alone, unseen,
The shepherd boy the Sabbath holy keeps.”
So refreshing is the perfume of the Thyme, that we wonder not that the
old Greeks gave to the plant a name expressive of strength or courage, in
the belief that it renewed the spirits both of man and animals, though they
lL. WILD THYME 4. WOOD GERMANDER
Thymus serpylhim Teuecrium scorodonia
2 MARJIORUM + WATER G
Origanum yulgare T. scordium
5 WALL G
T. chamedrys
Pl, 164.
Lavery if 25 bre
AR the oe eee
‘=t Fo 7) mi tt pa
oe
LABIATE TRIBE 4]
certainly ascribed to the slightly tonic and stimulating pr operties of the herb
a higher praise than they deserved. Thyme tea is yet in good favour in
villages, and many a tuft of the closely allied garden Thyme is still to be
seen on the cottage plot, and is gathered for “that purpose. Often, too,
perhaps, it is looked upon by some moralizing matron, to whom it is signifi-
cant of the mingled weal and woe of daily life, as she remembers the old
proverb, “ Rue and thyme grow baithe in a garden.” The plant was, in the
opinion of our fathers, “a noble strengthener of the lungs, as notable a one
as grows ;” and in some of the earliest manuscripts of this country it was
recommended for those who were “streyt ondyd,” that is, short-breathed.
Besides its use as an infusion, and in various liquid preparations, an oint-
ment was made from Thyme blossoms which was considered very healing.
The leaves bruised, and laid upon the part stung by a bee or wasp, were
thought to allay the irritation. Parkinson says of this herb: “Thyme is a
speciall helpe to melancholicke and spleneticke disease. The oyle that is
chymically drawne out of ordinarie Thyme is used, as the whole herbe is, in
pils for the head and stomacke. It is also much used for the tooth-ache, as
many other such-like hot oyles are.” The substance now sold as a remedy
for tooth-ache by the name of Oil of Thyme is made, however, from the
marjoram. Mr. Purton, whose medical, as well as botanical science renders
him a good authority in such matters, considers an infusion of the leaves of
wild Thyme good for headache, and says it is reputed to be an infallible cure
for nightmare ; and Linnzus recommended its use for pains in the head.
The plant yields camphor by distillation, and an infusion of its leaves may
probably be taken with advantage by nervous persons. Bees are very fond
of its flowers, and these are very pretty, in their deep purple tint, varying
to pale lilac, and clustering amid their chocolate-coloured floral leaves. The
plant is common on dry places in most European countries, and it forms a
thick turf on some of the fields of Iceland, among which the whortleberries,
bearberries, and cranberries flourish in abundance ; while with its frequent
companion, the marjoram, it grows on the Himalayan Mountains of India,
at the height of 8,200 feet above the sea. The Germans call this plant
Thimian ; the French Thym ; the Dutch, Gemeene thym ; the Italians, Teino ;
the Spanish, Zomillo ; the Poles, Zym, and the Danes, Zimian. The old
French writers term it Pouliot-thym, and Pillolet, and it was formerly called in
this country, Puliall Mountaine, Pella Mountaine, and had besides the names
of Running Thyme, Creeping Thyme, Mother of Thyme, and Shepherd’s
Thyme. Its leaves laid near the resorts of mice are said to drive these
animals from the place.
Old writers, both in prose and verse, tell how sheep are improved by feed-
ing upon Thyme ; but the fact is that these animals, except by accident, or
when driven by hunger, leave untouched the aromatic herbs supposed to be
so beneficial to them, and no doubt these strong odours may always be
regarded as developed by the plant in order to protect it from the attacks of
browsing animals. But the Thyme grows on downs and commons where the
air is pure and bracing and the pasturage sweet ; and sheep seem to have
been destined rather for hilly and mountainous, than for lowland pastures
and turnip-fields, though they can be accommodated to the latter conditions.
WI1.—6
42 LABIATAR
The wild Thyme varies much in different situations, not only in the
degree of hairiness of its stems and leaves, but also as to size and odour.
Sometimes, instead of the dark-green glossy foliage, we find specimens with
leaves white with down, and occasionally the flowers are white. When
growing on dry, exposed situations it is small and prostrate, but when
beneath the shelter of furze or broom it has a stalk a foot or more high.
Mr. Babington has expressed his opinion that two species of Thyme are
included in that described as serpyllum ; one is 7. chamedrys, the other the
true 7. serpyllum, but as the difference is chiefly in their habit of growth, they
require to be examined while growing. He remarks: “In 17. serpyllum there
is a difference between the flowering shoot and that intended to extend the
plant. Quite prostrate and rooting shoots are produced each year, which
grow from the end of the shoots of the preceding year, and do not flower ;
also there spring from the other axils of these old prostrate parts of the plant
short, erect, or ascending shoots, which forma linear series, and each of which
terminates in a capitate spike, consisting of a very few whorls, and which die
back to the base after the seed has fallen. The growing shoot is perennial,
but the flowering shoot is annual. In 7. chamedrys there is no such manifest
separation between the flowering and young shoots. The terminal bud often
produces the strongest shoot, which itself ends in flowers, differing thus
from the terminal shoot of 7. serpyllwm, which always ends in a flowerless
shoot. It wants the regularity of 7. serpyllum, and presents a dense irregular
mass of leafy shoots and flowers intermixed.” Sir J. D. Hooker regards
T. chamedrys as a sub-species of 7. serpyllum.
The garden Thyme (7. vulgaris) is a native of Southern Europe ; it is
largely cultivated in herb gardens for the London market. It has the same
qualities as the wild Thyme, yielding camphor in distillation with water. It
is in Spain infused in the pickle used to preserve olives, and before the intro-
duction of Oriental spices entered largely into the cookery of all European
countries.
5. MARJORAM (Origanui).
Common Marjoram (0. vwulgire).—Leaves stalked, broadly egg-
shaped, blunt, sometimes slightly toothed ; bracts egg-shaped, longer than
the calyx ; flowers in crowded panicles; perennial. Our hilly, chalky dis-
tricts, bright as they are with the many flowers which thrive on their soil,
would yet lose much of their autumnal beauty if they were deprived of their
masses of Marjoram—
“The Marjoram sweet in shepherd’s posies bound.”
On dry, sunny hedge-banks, on towering cliffs, enlivening the road-side for
miles together, the handsome and fragrant flowers are very common, and, as
we see them on some rounded hill, we remember how both in this and other
lands they are blooming at such elevations as to deserve their pretty and
expressive name, “Joy of the Mountain.” All about Dover the flower is
most plentiful—so plentiful that when we find Shakspere making the words
“Sweet Marjoram” the passwords between King Lear and Edgar, we feel
how likely the walk towards the cliffs would be to suggest it. Near the
LABIATE TRIBE 43
conspicuous cliff which yet bears the name of the poet, samphire and Marjoram
still bloom within sight of
“The dread summit of that chalky bourn ;”
and many a panting man climbs “to the top of that same hill, that horrible
steep,” and says now what Edgar is represented as saying then—
‘** Hark ! do you hear the sea ?”
Village people often gather, during autumn, large quantities of Marjoram,
some of which is used while fresh for herb tea, while some is tied up in
bunches, and hung to dry for winter service. The infusion is very grateful
and refreshing, and doubtless is wholesome, though its efficacy in preserving
health may be somewhat overrated by country people. In some parts of
Northern Europe the plant is collected to put into ale, which it not only
preserves from becoming sour, but also renders more intoxicating. The juice
of this herb is highly stimulating, and is useful to allay rheumatic pains, as
well as toothache. It is also very properly applied to sprains and_ bruises,
and is said to be a good remedy for the falling off of the hair, an opinion
which is most probably correct, as it possesses some of the same properties as
the rosemary, a most useful plant for that purpose. The dried leaves are
used in fomentations to allay pain. Both flowers and leaves are aromatic,
and their odour seems to have been much valued in former years. Parkinson
says: “'The sweete Marjeromes are not only much used to please the out-
ward senses in nosegaies, and in the windowes of houses, as also in swete
powders, swete begs, and swete washing waters, but are also of much use in
physicke, to comfort the outward members and parts of the bodie, and the
inward also.”
The essential oil of this plant is, when undiluted, so acrid that it may
almost be termed caustic. It is secreted in abundance in the leaves and stems,
and is the cause of its fragrance. Professor Burnett remarks: ‘“ Fee observes
that odoriferous plants exhibit three remarkable variations; in some, the
aromatic principle is free, and then it is dissipated by drying: this occurs
chiefly in flowers such as the tuberose and jessamine, and it is not communi-
cable either to water or spirit, and seems to be artificially retained only by
the aid of fixed oils ; while occasionally, as in the lily and narcissus, it cannot
be retained at all. In some, the aromatic principle is in union with, or is
peculiar to, the essential oil with which the utricles or crypt are replete ;
and in this form it is miscible with water and alcohol, but scarcely with fixed
oils. In others, again, it is in combination with a resin, or gum-resin, and
then it may be collected in concrete masses by wounding the plants, or if by
distillation it deposits camphor after standing for some time. The fragrance
of the Labiate is dependent on an essential oil, or odoriferous principle, of the
latter kind, and their oil is remarkable for the quantity of camphor it con-
tains.” The camphor yielded by our wild Marjoram and thyme has caused
the juice of these plants to be frequently used as an ingredient of various
compositions intended to avert infection.
The Marjoram bears its flowers in roundish crowded clusters. They are
purple, with floral leaves tinged with something of the same hue, but usually
6—2
44 LABIATA
darker, almost chocolate coloured. They expand in July and August. It
will be noted, as in the case of thyme, that there are two forms of flower :
the larger and more purple ones being complete, whilst the smaller and paler
ones bear pistils only. The plant is sometimes called Wild Organy. The
French term it Marjoraine ; the Germans, Majoram ; the Dutch, Mariolein ;
the Italians, Maggiorana ; the Spanish, Mejorana. The Oregon territory of
the United States is said to have derived its name from the abundance of
Marjoram found there.
6. GERMANDER (7Tedcriuin).
1. Wood Germander, or Wood Sage (7’. scorodénia).—Leaves heart-
shaped, oblong, stalked, wrinkled, crenate, downy ; floral leaves small ;
flowers in lateral and terminal one-sided racemes; upper lip of the calyx
undivided, egg-shaped, lower with four teeth; perennial. When walking in
woods, during July and August, we often find large masses of this Wood
Sage; for it is a social plant, and we rarely meet with a solitary specimen.
It grows also on banks, by roadsides, on dry heaths among bushes, on
cliffs by the sea, and in copses. The erect stem of the plant is one or
two feet in height, and its wrinkled and strongly-veined leaves are some-
what like those of the Sage, but of a more yellowish-green. The flowers
grow in a one-sided cluster. They are of a yellowish-green colour, some-
times having a faint tinge of purple, and the stamens are pinkish-purple.
We often pass by this plant with little notice, but our fathers regarded it
with great interest ; for they considered its bitter juices very medicinal, and
it is not unlikely that they used the Ambrosia, as they called it, as we know
they used some other labiate plants, in brewing ale. Mr. Curtis, referring to
Jersey, says, ““ When cider, the common beverage of the island, has failed, I
have known the people each to malt his barley at home, and instead of hops use,
to very good purpose, the Ambrosie of their hedges.” The beer is said sooner
to become clear by the use of this plant ; but Dr. Withering remarks that it
gives the liquor too, dark a colour. Of all our native bitters, this has
certainly most resemblance to the flavour of the hop, and he who should
taste either leaf or flower would immediately be reminded of that plant.
The flowers have an interest unknown to our forefathers: they act in a
manner that would be regarded as intelligent in the case of animals. In
order to secure cross-fertilization, the stamens successively hold themselves
forward where their pollen must be brushed off by bees that seek the
honey ; and during this period the pistil looks over the back wall of the
flower. But when the last anther has discharged, a change takes place—the
fading stamens retire to the back, whilst the pistil with its ripe stigmas
comes forward and occupies their former position, and receives the pollen
brought from other plants. This plant is often called Garlic Sage, because,
when bruised, it has a slight odour of garlic ; and it is said that if cows feed
upon it, it communicates the flavour of that plant to their milk. It is, how-
ever, rarely touched by these animals, though readily eaten by sheep and
goats. Our fathers had a variety of names for this plant. It was called
Ambrosia salgia, Ache champesire, and Wylde sawge ; and Cotgrave describes it
as “the herbe called oke of Cappadocia.”
LABIATE TRIBE 45
2. Water Germander (7. seérdium).—Stem procumbent below ; leaves
sessile, oblong, either narrowed or broad, and heart-shaped below, toothed,
green on both sides ; floral leaves similar ; flowers whorled, axillary, distant,
2—6 in a whorl; calyx-teeth equal; perennial. This is a rare species, occa-
sionally occurring in low wet meadows, chiefly in the Eastern counties. It is
about half a foot in height, and bears rose-purple flowers, in distant whorls,
during July and August. It is more or less hairy according to its situation,
and has, like the last species, an odour of garlic. It was formerly used
medicinally, and supposed to be useful against infectious diseases.
3. Wall Germander (7. chamédrys).—Leaves egg-shaped, cut, and
serrated, wedge-shaped, and entire at the base, green on both sides; floral
leaves smaller, nearly entire, whorls of 2—6 flowers; calyx-teeth lanceolate,
nearly equal; perennial. This species has a much-branched stem, of which
the lower part is woody, and it bears, in July, large and handsome purple
flowers, marked with darker lines, generally about three together in the axils
of the upper leaves. It is found near old ruins, and occasionally on field-
borders ; but it isa rare plant. It is plentiful on the city walls of Norwich,
and occurs also on Winchester Castle. It is probably not a truly wild plant,
but an escape from the garden. It was formerly called Ground Oak. The
French term the plant Germandrée, which is an evident corruption of the old
name Gamandrée, under which name it first appeared in a very rare Herbal of
Mayence, printed in 1485.
4, Annual Germander (7. Jvtrys).—Stem ascending ; leaves 3-cleft, or
pinnatifid, with oblong, entire or cut segments, green on both sides ; floral
leaves similar, whorls axillary, 4—6 flowered; calyx inflated at the base,
teeth lanceolate, equal; annual. This plant is very rare, and is a doubtful
native. Its central stem is erect, with ascending branches, and it has
numerous pale purple flowers. It has been found near Box Hill, Surrey.
7. Buaue (Ajuga).
1. Common Bugle (4. répians).—Stem erect, with creeping scions at
the base; lower leaves egg-shaped, or inversely egg-shaped, either cut or
quite entire, tapering into a footstalk, all smooth, or slightly downy ;
perennial. This pretty flower is very common in moist woods, hedges, and
pastures, during May and June. It has a solitary tapering flowering stem,
from six to nine inches in height, from the base of which the creeping scions
extend over the grass: they are a foot or more in length. The flowers grow
in dense whorls, which are crowded closely together so as to form a spike,
and their colour varies from deep purplish-blue to pale lilac or white, while
the floral leaves are of darker purple than the blossoms. The plant is scent-
less and tasteless, and a slight degree of astringency seems to be its only
virtue ; but it was highly extolled by old writers as a remedy for pulmonary
affections, and was greatly praised as an application for wounds. It was
called Middle Comfrey, Consolida minor, Bugula, Brown Bugle, Sicklewort,
and Carpenter’s Herb. The French call it Bugle ; the Germans, Giinsel ; the
Dutch, Senegroen ; and the Italians, Bugola ; and a very old French name for
this plant is Herbe de St. Laurent. There is a variety (pséudo-alpina) without
scions, and with the lower floral leaves lobed. This mountainous Bugle is
46 LABIATA
very rare. It has been reported from Castleton in Derbyshire, and some
other spots in England. Some botanists describe this as the Alpine Bugle
(4. alpina); but it appears probable that a variety of 4. reptans without
stolons has been mistaken for the 4. alpina of Linneeus, and there is no
reason for believing that the latter has occurred here.
2. Pyramidal Bugle (4. pyramiddlis).—Stem solitary, without scions ;
leaves oblong, entire, or crenate, root-leaves tapering at the base, stem-leaves
sessile, upper ones longer than the flowers ; flowers whorled, forming a four-
sided pyramidal spike; perennial. ‘This is a very rare Highland plant, but
is plentiful at the Burn of Killigower, and on the Ord of Caithness ; it also
occurs in Westmoreland. Its stem is from four to six inches high, and its
flowers, which expand in May and June, are bluish-purple. The whole plant
is sometimes hairy.
3. Ground Pine or Yellow Bugle (4. chamépitys).—Stem much
branched, spreading; leaves deeply 3-cleft, segments linear and entire ;
floral leaves similar, longer than the flowers; flowers solitary and axillary ;
annual. This plant is well called Ground Pine, as its narrow leaves look
like a tuft of foliage taken from the pine-tree, only that their colour, instead
of being dark, is of sea-green hue, and the yellow flowers, spotted with red,
are almost hidden among them. ‘This species differs altogether in its general
appearance from the others of the genus. Its stem is about three or four
inches high, reddish-purple, and glutinous ; and the whole plant is somewhat
hairy. It is in flower from May to September. It is by no means a common
plant, but it is plentiful on sandy and chalky fields in some counties, as Bed-
ford, Cambridge, Essex, Hants, Herts, Kent, and Surrey. Our fathers called
it by the name of Herb Ivy, though for what reason is not apparent. It was
also called Field Cypresse, and both English and German writers of Queen
Elizabeth’s time called it Forget-me-not. The plant contains a slight amount
of tannin, and was believed formerly to afford a very useful medicine for
gout. Charles V. is said to have been cured of that malady by drinking a
vinous infusion made of the herb; ‘at least,” observes Professor Burnett,
“he got better after he had taken the medicine for sixty successive days ;
which, as a rare example of patience and explicit obedience to medical
authority, deserves to be recorded.”
8. HOREHOUND (Balldta).
Black Horehound (B. nigra).—Leaves egg-shaped, serrated ; bracts
linear, awl-shaped ; teeth of the calyx pointed, spreading, longer than the
tube of the corolla; perennial. A variety of this plant, in which the calyx-
tube is shorter and stouter, the teeth short, suddenly pointed, tipped with a
spine, keeled and turning downward, is, by some writers, described as
B. fetida ; while another, having the calyx-tube narrow, elongated, and
widely spreading upwards, with awned, egg-shaped, erect and spreading
teeth, is described as B. ruderalis. Large quantities of the Black Horehound
might be gathered from almost any hedge or road-side, often covered with
the dust of the road, and never having any brightness, either of leaf or
blossom. The foliage is wrinkled, of a grey green, and the numerous whorls
of flowers, which from June to October invest the upper portion of the stem,
1 COMMON BUGLE 3 .FALSE ALPINE B.
Ajuga reptans Axeptans, var pseudo -alpina
2 PYRAMIDAL B 4- . YELLOW .B.
A pyramidahs A cham zepitys
Pl. 165,
LABIATE TRIBE 47
are of a dull faded-looking purple hue. ‘The stem is two or three feet in
height, and the whole plant has a very disagreeable odour. It is not often
seen in woods and hedges, far away from houses ; but there are few English
villages or towns, except in Scotland and Ireland, in or near whick we might
not find it. It is one of those plants which follow man, and besides being
pretty general all over Europe, it is to be found in Australia wherever the
English colonist has come, and the Horehound raises its tall stem by many
of the sheep-stations of that country. The French call it Ballote, the
Germans Zahnlose, the Dutch Ballote, and the Italians Marrobio. The Swedes
think it a remedy in almost every disease to which cattle are liable.
9. MOTHERWORT (Leonitirus).
Motherwort (L. cardéaca).— Leaves stalked, lower ones palmate,
5-cleft and toothed, upper ones lanceolate and wedge-shaped, 3-lobed, the
uppermost almost entire; perennial. This plant, though found in hedges
and on waste places in several parts of England, is neither common nor
indigenous. It occurs in Scotland and Ireland occasionally. It is easily dis-
tinguished from any other plant of the Labiate order by the palmate form of
its lower leaves. Its foliage is of dull green, and the branched stem about
three feet in height. The flowers expand in August, and form thick whorls
of purplish-pink, or sometimes white, hairy blossoms, with a downy upper
lip. Its name of cardiaca was given because the plant was formerly supposed
to cure, not alone heart-burn, but the mental malady figuratively called
heart-ache. It is slightly astringent, and has been used in Russia as a
remedy for canine diseases. It has a very bitter and disagreeable flavour,
and an unpleasant odour. The French call the plant L’ Agripaume, and it is
the Hartgespan of the Dutch, the Herzgespann of the Germans, and the
Agripalme of the Italians and Spanish. An old herbalist says of it :—‘“ There
is no better herb to drive away melancholy; and against vapours, to
strengthen the heart and make a merrie blythe soul, than this herbe ; there-
fore the Latins called it Cardiaca. It may be kept in syrup or conserve.”
The seeds of this plant are numerous, and are round and black.
10. HEMP-NETTLE (Galedpsis).
1. Red Hemp-nettle (G.. Jddanum).—Stem either smooth or covered
with soft down, not swollen below, the joints ; leaves lanceolate, slightly
serrated, rather small, stalked, downy on both sides ; calyx having some-
times a few glands ; upper lip of the corolla slightly notched ; annual. This
plant is not unfrequent in gravelly and sandy fields, having, in August and
September, purple flowers, mottled with crimson and white, and shagg
externally. It often grows on limestone rubbish, and a variety of the plant
with narrow, almost entire leaves has been found at Southampton, among
the shingle of the beach; this is by some regarded as a sub-species under
the name G. angustifolia. The stem is nearly a foot high, with opposite
branches.
2. Downy Hemp-nettle (G. ochroleiica).—Stem downy with soft hairs,
not thickened at the joints ; leaves egg-shaped, lanceolate, serrated, soft and
downy on both sides, upper leaves egg-shaped ; calyx glandular, shaggy with
48 LABIATZ&
closely-pressed hairs, with a few gland-tipped hairs intermixed ; upper lip of
the corolla slightly notched; annual. ‘This rare plant, the stem of which is
from ten to twelve inches high, bears its large pale yellow flowers in July
and August. It has been found in sandy cornfields in Yorkshire, Durham,
Lincoln, Notts, and Essex, and also in Carnarvon. Also known as G. dubia.
It is not a true native. 3
3. Common Hemp-nettle (4. fetrihit).—Stem bristly, swollen below
the joints; leaves egg-shaped, pointed, serrated and bristly ; calyx teeth
twice as long as the tube; corolla with the tube as long as the calyx, upper
lip egg-shaped, erect; annual. This is a common plant in cornfields, just
about the season when the wheat is ripening. In some fields, especially
where the soil is of chalk or gravel, the flower may be seen ornamenting the
short stubble long after the gleaners have carried away the scattered ears,
and blooming on till the winds of November are fast scattering leaf and
blossom. It also occurs sometimes in woods. It is an erect slender plant
about two feet high, with opposite spreading branches, having numerous
whorls of flowers, variegated with bright but pale purple and yellow, some-
times of a white tint, delicately tinged with purple. The whorls of flowers
are remarkable for the long sharp teeth of their calyxes, and the stems are
very much swollen beneath each pair of leaves. Dr. George Johnston tells
us in his “Flora of Berwick,” that labourers in the harvest-field are some-
times affected with a severe inflammation of the hand or of a finger, which
they uniformly attribute to the sting of a Dog-nettle, the name by which
this plant is known among them. ‘On examining its bristles,” says this
writer, ‘‘we perceive that they consist of three or four tubular joints, and
arise from a swollen base or vesicle. On the upper part of the branches, on
the calyxes and flowers, they are intermixed with others tipped with a gland.
Now the former seem fitted by their structure for containing and emitting a
fluid ; and though in general too soft to wound, yet by chance, when rudely
pressed, they may perforate the skin, and lodge their contents, which must
be virulently poisonous, if the opinion of the cause of the disease be correct.”
It is not, however, impossible that the inflammation suffered by reapers may
be caused by the Stinking Chamomile (Anthemis cotula). The author of these
pages could never excite any irritation on the skin by handling the Hemp-
nettle, though 4. cotula readily causes irritation. All persons are not, how-
ever, similarly affected by the same plants, and she has known the hands of
some inflamed by the yarrow (Achillea millefolium), though on her own skin
it failed to produce any effect.
Our British species of Hemp-nettle do not appear to possess any medicinal
virtues, but the G. grandiflora is thought by physicians to have been very
serviceable in pulmonary complaints. The French call these plants Galeope ,
the Germans Taube nessel ; the Dutch Knoopige hondsnetel. The latter term
this and several plants of the Dead-nettle kind Ortica mortu.
4. Large-flowered Hemp-nettle (G4. versicolor). —Stem bristly,
swollen below the joints; leaves oblong, egg-shaped, pointed, bristly and
serrated ; calyx-teeth shorter than the tube; corolla with the tube much
longer than the calyx, upper lip horizontal and inflated ; annual. This species
appears in a printed description to be very similar to the last, yet it is quite
1 BLACK HOREHOUND 4:. DOWNY H.W
Ballota nigra G ochroleuca
2 MOTHERWORT 5 COMMON .H WN
Leonurus cardiaca G tetrahit
RED HEMP NETTLE 5 LARGE FLOWERED H.N
Galeopss ladanmo G versicolor
Pil, 166.
LABIATE TRIBE 49
different when seen growing in the corn-field. It is a common plant in the
Scottish corn-lands, but very local in England. It is a larger, coarser-looking
herb than the common Hemp-nettle, often two or three feet in height. The
flowers expand in July and August, and are large and conspicuous, the
yellow corolla having a broad purple spot on the lower lip. It is in Scotland
called Bee-nettle. Sir Joseph Hooker regards it as a sub-species of the last,
and calls it G. speciosa.
11. WEASEL-SNOUT (Galedbdolon).
Yellow Weasel-snout, or Archangel (G. liitewm).—Leaves egg-
shaped, pointed, stalked, and deeply serrated ; flowers in whorls ; perennial.
We do not wonder that Gerarde disputed much whether this plant should
not be included in the genus Lamm, where, indeed, Sir J. D. Hooker places.
it, It very much resembles the white Dead-nettle in form, and its blossoms
are about the same size, and except in colour, very similar. It is usually,
however, rather a taller and less erect plant, with narrower and more pointed
leaves. The flowers, which in May and June grow in numerous whorls
around the upper part of the stem, are bright yellow, more or less marked
with patches of orange-red. The stem is about two feet high, and its leaves
are often variegated with dashes of pale yellow. It is a local plant, but is
very common in many shady woods in England, and may sometimes be seen in
woodlands, where the trees have been cut down, growing in such abundance
as to render some spots of a yellow hue. It is commonly called Yellow
Archangel, and is L’ortie morte des bois of the French. The Germans call it
Gelbehanfnessel, and the Dutch, Geelbloemige hondsnetel. It grows in many
European countries, and is known in Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Germany,
Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Its properties are slightly astringent.
12. DEAD-NETTLE (Lami).
1. White Dead-nettle (ZL. dlbwm).—Leaves heart-shaped, pointed,
deeply serrated and stalked ; calyx-teeth long, awl-shaped, spreading ; tube
of the corolla curved upwards, the throat dilated, upper lip oblong, the side
lobes of the lower one with 1—3 awl-shaped teeth; perennial. Everybody
knows the White Dead-nettle, for it springs up by our pathway on sunny or
shady bank or field-border in abundance, in May, and when the cold blasts of
December are nipping most plants we find it still lingering beneath some
hedge, its white blooms soiled and stained, and rent by wind and weather.
Country boys make whistles of its square stalks, and bees gather honey from
its flowers, but its odour is very disagreeable, and cattle will not eat it while
any other herbage is within their reach. The flower is, in its common form, .
pure white, with black anthers ; but we know a bank in Kent on which
masses of the plant have grown, summer after summer, with very pretty
rose-coloured blossoms, though not differing in any other respect from the
common condition of the White Nettle. The stem is usually about a foot
high, and the leaf sufficiently like that of the stinging-nettle to render many
persons afraid to touch it. The stingless nature of the leaves, however,
induced our fathers to call the plants of this genus not only Dead-nettles,
but also Blind- or Dumb-nettles. In that old work, the “ Promptorium par-
Ii.—1
) LABIATA
or
vulorum,” or Anglo-Latin Dictionary, reprinted by the Camden Society, we
find the archangel called Deffe nettil. The Editor, Mr. Albert Way, remarks
of the adjective: “It is applied to that which has lost its germinating power :
thus in the north, as well as in Devonshire, a rotten nut is called ‘deaf,’ and
barren corn is called ‘deaf-corn,’ an expression literally Anglo-Saxon. An
unproductive soil is likewise termed ‘deaf.’ The plant Lamium, or Archangel,
known by the common names Dead or Blind Nettle, has the epithet ‘ deffe’
evidently because it does not possess the stinging property of the true
Nettle.”
Linnzus says, that the leaves of the White Archangel are eaten in spring
as a potherb. The French call the plant L’ortie blanche. ‘The similar, but
purple-flowered Dead-nettle, often cultivated in gardens, is not a variety of
this, but an introduced species, L. maculutum.
2. Red Dead-nettle (L. purpireum).—Leaves heart-shaped, crenate, all
stalked, the upper ones crowded, the lower ones hanging downwards on long
stalks ; teeth of the calyx as long as the tube, always spreading ; tube of
the corolla straight, within, having a hairy ring, the throat much dilated ;
side lobes of the lower lip with two short teeth; annual. This plant is
readily known by the reddish-purple tint of its floral leaves, and the silky
hairiness with which the upper, and sometimes the lower leaves, also, are
invested. It is truly a red nettle, and its whorls of reddish corollas are
scarcely brighter than the purple-red leaves among which they grow. Large
quantities of the plant may be found on most English hedgebanks, often
forming masses there, as well as on the borders of meadow land, or in corn-
fields. It is in blossom throughout the summer, but we scarcely notice so
dull and weed-like a plant when gayer blooms are expanding around us,
though the lover of wild flowers looks upon it with favour in February or
March, when it is almost the only blossom ; or cherishes it in the latest nose-
gay which he can, in autumn, gather from lane or field. It usually grows to
the height of a foot or a foot and a half. The author is informed by a friend
that he has seen the roots of this plant boiled by cottagers for the food of
pigs, and that it affords excellent nourishment for these animals. It was
certainly used in this country in very early times for pottage. Pottage was
by the old writers called ‘“jowtes,” or ‘“joutes,” and Gower speaks of
Diogenes gathering joutes in his garden. Mr. Albert Way quotes from the
Sloane MS. a list of plants for compounding joutes: ‘Cole, borage, persyl,
plumtre leaves, redde nettil, crop, malves grene, rede briere croppes, avans,
violet, and prymrol.” These were to be ground in a mortar and boiled in
broth. We fear that few modern palates would be gratified by the pre-
paration.
3. Cut-leaved Dead-nettle (L. inciswm).—Leaves broadly heart-shaped,
deeply cut into teeth at the edges, all stalked, upper ones broadly egg-shaped
and crowded, the uppermost being wedge-shaped at the base ; calyx-teeth
always spreading, and as long as the straight tube, which is without hairs
within ; annual. This species has its dull purple flowers from March till
June. It is common on waste ground, and very difficult to distinguish from
the last, with which some botanists unite it as a sub-species. Its stems are
cither few, slender, and elongated, or thick, short, and numerous.
YELLOW WEASEL SNOUT
Galeobdolon lattenm
WHITE DEAD NETILE
Lamiom alhun
RED. D.N
L -purpuremmn
4 CUT LEAVED-.D. N
L.ineisum
INTERMEDIATE. D.N
L interne dram
G HENBIT.D. N
L .antplexie aule
Pb, 167.
oan
ian a) $,
t i ie ae ' si
Pee NG
LABIATE TRIBE 5]
4, Intermediate Dead Red Nettle (L. intermédium).—Leaves blunt,
cut, and crenated, lower ones stalked and kidney-shaped, upper ones sessile,
somewhat crowded ; teeth of the calyx awl-shaped, longer than the tube,
always spreading; tube of the corolla straight, naked within; side lobes of
the lower lip with a short tooth; annual. The purplish-coloured flowers of
this species expand from June to September. It is a dull-looking plant,
about a foot high, its calyx usually tinged with purple. It is common on
cultivated ground in Scotland and the north of England, but rare in Ireland.
‘It is intermediate in character between L. purpureum and L. amplexicaule.
5. Henbit Nettle (LZ. wmplexicaule).—Leaves roundish, heart-shaped,
deeply and bluntly cut, upper sessile and clasping, lower stalked ; calyx-teeth
green, longer than their tube, erect after flowering ; tube of the corolla
straight, naked within ; annual. This is a prettier species than any other
of the purple-flowered Dead-nettles, fcr its corollas are of so much richer
tint, being of a fine deep reddish-purple, on very long tubes. arly in the
season the flowers are small, and do not expand, but yet they are fertile, and
the fruit, consisting of four small nuts, is produced. The plant is about
half a foot or a foot high ; the stem is slender, and as it lengthens the floral
leaves become somewhat distant. The leaves and stem are not so dull
coloured as those of most of the species ; they are rarely tinted with purple,
and usually of a deep rich green hue.
13. Betony (Beténica).
Wood Betony (B. officindlis).—Leaves oblong, heart-shaped, crenate ;
corolla twice as long as the calyx, middle lobe of the lower lip somewhat
notched ; perennial. The Betony is a much prettier and brighter plant than
the Dead-nettles, and has one peculiarity in its mode of flowering which
distinguishes it from most other labiate plants, as it bears what botanists
term an interrupted spike. Its flowers appear in July and August, forming,
ona slender stem about a foot high, whorls which for an inch or more are
crowded closely together ; then a piece of the green stalk appears, and below
that portion there are again three or four whorls of flowers. ‘The corollas
are bright reddish-purple, and there are always two or three pairs of sessile
leaves between the divisions of the spike; the lower leaves are all stalked. ,
The plant has a slightly aromatic odour.
We have often seen in cottages in Kent, and doubtless there might be
seen also in other counties, large bundles of the ‘“ medicinal Betony,” as Clare
calls it, hung up for winter use. An infusion of the plant is taken for colds
and coughs, and its slightly tonic properties render it serviceable in low fevers.
When used while fresh, the plant has an intoxicating property, which is
removed by drying. It is not, perhaps, of any great worth as a medicine,
and its rustic uses are doubtless remnants of usages introduced when the true
properties of plants were less known. Of all the herbs praised both by
British and Continental writers of the olden time, none, if we except the
vervain, was more highly esteemed than this. Antonius Musa, the physician
to the Emperor Augustus, wrote a whole book setting forth the excellences
of the herb, which he said would cure forty-seven different disorders ; while
Franzius told how even the wild beasts of the forest knew its virtues, and
(—2
52 LABIATA
when wounded, availed themselves of its efficacy. Even now the proverbs
are in common use in Italy which record its worth: “ May you have more
virtues than Betony,” is sometimes the pious wish of a parting friend ; and
“Sell your coat, and buy Betony,” is an old advice to the sufferer; while,
every old English herbal abounds with its praises ; and, in Scott’s “Demonology
and Witchcraft,” the reader is told that “the house where Herba Betonica is
sown is free from all mischief.” The dried leaves, when powdered, excite
sneezing, though this effect is probably only the result of the small hairs
found on the leaves. In Bacon’s ‘‘ Natural History ” we find that it had its uses
on this account. He says: “ We see sage and Betony bruised for sneezing-
powder, or liquors, which the physitions call errhines.” An infusion of the
leaves for tea was very generally taken by those who were in delicate health ;
and Sir William Hooker says that the plant is cephalic. The roots are very
bitter, and sheep are probably the only animals that will eat the plant, even
the goat refusing it. The French call this herb Betoine; the Germans,
Betomka ; the Dutch, Betonie, and the Italians, Betonico. It grows commonly
among bushes, and abounds in many of our woodlands. Bacon observes:
“The putting forth of certain herbs discovereth of what nature the ground
where they put forth is; as wild thyme showeth good feeding ground for
cattle ; Bettony and strawberries showeth grounds fit for wood; camomile
showeth mellow grounds fit for wheat; mustard-seed growing after the
plough, showeth a good strong ground, also for wheat ; burnet showeth good
meadow, and the like.” Also known as Stachys betonica.
14. WouNDWoRT (Stdchys).
1. Hedge Woundwort (8S. syluvdtica).—Leaves egg-shaped and heart-
shaped, acute, serrated, long-stalked ; upper floral ones linear and entire ;
whorls of 6—8 flowers distant ; calyx-teeth very acute; perennial. This
branched hairy plant is common in woods and hedges. Its stem is two or
three feet in height, and in July and August its whorls of flowers are
numerous, though not close together. They are of a reddish-purple colour,
often marked with white. This, as well as the other species, is very nearly
allied to the plants of the last genus, the chief difference between the genera
being the shorter tube of the corolla in the Woundworts. It has, especially
when bruised, a strong and disagreeable scent. When the green portion of
its stem is decayed, so strong a fibre has been left, that it has been suggested
that the plant might be used for some of the same purposes as hemp or flax.
It also furnishes a good yellow dye. Cattle leave it untouched. When in
fruit, the calyx-teeth are remarkably rigid. The species were all formerly
considered vulnerary plants. The French call the Woundwort Stachyde ; the
Germans, Rossnessel ; the Dutch, Andoorn ; the Italians, Stachi ; the Spaniards,
Estaquis ; and the Portuguese, Ortiga morta dos bosques. It is commonly called
Hedge-nettle in country places.
2. Marsh Woundwort (8. paliistris).—Leaves linear-lanceolate, or
egg-shaped and lanceolate, rounded or heart-shaped at the base, sessile or
stalked ; whorls of 6—10 flowers, bracts minute, calyx-teeth very acute ;
stem hollow ; perennial. In one variety of this plant the lower leaves are
shortly stalked, the upper sessile and somewhat clasping ; in another, the
L. WOOD BETONY a DEWAN E e
Betonica officinalis S. germanica
Z HEDGE WOUNDWORT 5 SORN - W
Stachys sylvatica 5. arvensis
MARSH . Ww, 6 PALE ANNUAL. W
S palustris S. annua
Pl. 168,
ape ae
i a a zy i ie, ba ;
ty rte att
im ty i
ne i“ i eo if
‘i Ppa’ r A
LABIATE TRIBE 53
leaves have distinct stalks about half the length of the leaf. This Wound-
wort is very common on river banks and watery places, its widely-creeping
roots spreading through the moist soil, and causing much inconvenience to
the agriculturist; yet these roots might apparently be turned to good
account. Lightfoot, in his “ Flora Scotica,” says, that in times of scarcity
they have served for food, either when boiled or dried, and have been made
into bread. Thick tuberous buds form upon the roots, and contain a tasteless
farinaceous substance of a highly nutritive character. They are probably
the only tubers of any labiate plant which could be used as esculents.
Mr. Houlton, some years since, received from the Society of Arts a silver
Ceres medal for introducing this plant to public notice, having previously
cultivated it, and made various experiments on the root. The roots are dug
up by swine from the low moist lands where they are abundant, and eagerly
devoured. Gerarde praises the virtue of this plant in healing “ grievous and
mortal wounds.” He says he derived his knowledge of its powers from a
clown, who cured a wound with it in a week, which would have required
forty days with balsam itself ; hence he called the plant Clown’s Woundwort.
3. Downy Woundwort (S. germénica). —Whorls many-flowered ;
leaves egg-shaped, with a heart-shaped base, crenate or serrate, stalked,
densely covered with silky hairs; upper leaves lanceolate, acute, sessile ;
stem erect and woolly ; calyx with erect teeth, silky ; bracts as long as the
calyx ; biennial. This plant has been found very rarely in hedges and by
road-sides in various parts of England, where the soil is of limestone, and is
more common in Oxfordshire, Hants, and Kent, than elsewhere. The stems
are about two feet high; the flowers, which are externally woolly, are of
light purple, the palate striped with white. The plant is remarkable for its
dense covering of silky hairs or wool. It flowers in September.
4, Corn Woundwort (8. arvénsis).—Flowers in a whorl ; stem spread-
ing ; leaves egg-shaped, heart-shaped at the base, blunt, crenate ; teeth of
te alps awned ; corolla scarcely longer than the calyx; floral leaves sessile,
acute ; annual, This is a small plant, found more frequently than the farmer
desires upon cultivated lands, though it is rare in Scotland. It is easily
distinguished, not only from the other species, but from all other labiate
plants, by its whorls of from four to six small light purple flowers, with the
palate white, and spotted with purple, and by its lesser size and weak
branched stems, as well as its small blunt leaves. It occurs on dry sandy
and gravelly soils, flowering from July to September.
5. Pale Annual Woundwort (8. dnnua).—Whorls of from 4 to 6
flowers, forming a spike ; leaves lanceolate, somewhat acute, broadly serrated,
three-nerved, the lower ones stalked ; floral leaves lanceolate, acute ; calyx
hairy, with awl-shaped teeth ; tube of the corolla longer than the calyx ; ;
annual. This plant, which expands its yellowish flowers in August, is very
rare. It was found by Mr. Woods in a field between Gadshill and Rochester ; ;
but it is an alien species introduced with seed from abroad. Its roundish
nuts are glossy, and minutely rough.
6. Alpine Woundwort (8. alpina). —This south European species has
recently been reported from Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, by Mr.
Cedric Bucknall. The flowers are from 5 to 10 in a whorl; leaves oval,
54 LABIATA
heart-shaped at base, crenate, downy on both sides, the lower ones with long
foot-stalks, the stalks of the lance-shaped stem-leaves gradually diminishing
in length, uppermost sessile ; calyx bell-shaped, with unequal spiny teeth,
woolly without; corolla twice the length of calyx, purple, marked with
white. This plant, which attains the height of two or three feet, is very
variable, and may have been frequently overlooked as S. sylvatica.
15. CAT-MINT, GROUND Ivy (Népeta).
1. Cat-mint (JV. cdtaria).—Stems erect ; flowers in dense, many-flowered
whorls, on short stalks, and forming a spike; leaves heart-shaped, stalked,
with tooth-like serratures, downy; perennial. ‘This plant, though it can
scarcely be called common, is not unfrequent in many counties of England ;
and in Kent, especially on the chalky soils, it sometimes grows in great
plenty in the hedges. It is rare in Scotland, but occurs near Craig-Nethan
Castle, and on a few other spots. The stem is two or three feet high, much
branched ; and, as well as the leaves, soft, and rendered so white by the
down, as to have suggested the old English simile, ‘‘as white as Nep,” which,
Mr. Forby says, is still in common use in Norfolk. The whorls of flowers,
which are to be seen from July to September, are very numerous, and the
corollas are white, dotted with crimson. The powerful odour of the plant
resembles that of the penny-royal. Cats are extravagantly fond of it; but
it is remarkable that they will pass by the herb when growing in the hedge,
as we have observed them to do, though, if brought into the house, they
quickly discover it, and seem quite intoxicated by it. There is an old
proverb respecting this herb—
‘““Tf you set it, the cats will eat it ;
If you sow it, the cats won’t know it.”
John Ray tells us that the young plants which he removed from the
fields into his garden were always destroyed by cats, unless he defended
them by thorns placed around them till they had taken root and flowered,
but he adds that these animals never touched those plants which had come
up from seed. This must be accounted for on the principle that the odour
is not perceptible to the cats until the plant is broken or bruised, as it 1s
either by transplantation or by gathering. Mr. Miller mentions that he
removed some of his plants of Cat-mint to another part of his garden within
two feet of some which he had previously raised from seeds, but the former
were all selected and destroyed, while the others remained untouched. No
animal except the sheep will eat the Cat-mint on the pasture-land. It seems
when gathered to have its influence on the cat only, as when laid beside the
dog, or hung near the caged bird, it excites no attention.
This plant is in some places called Cat-nep, and our fathers termed it
Herba Catti, or Herba Cattaria. The French call it Chataire ; the Germans,
Nept; the Dutch, Kattervid ; the Italians, Cattavia. It is sometimes used
medicinally, and the leaves of several foreign species are eaten in order to
restore tone to the digestive organs. Commercon states that a species
common in Madagascar, which has tubercular roots, is a favourite vegetable ;
the roots are called Houmines. Hoffman relates that the root of our native
Cat-mint, if chewed, will make the most gentle persons fierce and wrathful,
1 CAT MINT
Nepeta cataria .
2 GROUND IVY
N. glechoma
3 WHITE HOREHOUND
Marrubium vulgare
COMMON BASIL THYME
Calammths acinos
Pl. 169
LESSER
COMMON
woop c
COMMON
CALAMIN'
Cc
WILD BASIL
c
*. officinalis
sylvatica
chinopodium
LABIATE TRIBE 55
and adds that Turneiserius tells of a hangman who was usually gentle and
pusillanimous, and who never had courage to perform the duties of his
wretched vocation until he had first prepared himself by masticating this
root. The writer of these pages, who, with a friend who joined in the
experiment, chewed a piece of this bitter and aromatic substance, of the
length of a finger, is able, however, to assure her readers, that for at least
four-and-twenty hours after taking it, both she ang her companion retained
a perfect equanimity of temper and feeling.
2. Ground Ivy (N. gléchoma). Leaves kidney-shaped, downy, crenate
and stalked ; stems creeping; flowers three together, in the axils of the
leaves ; root-stock perennial, and sending out long runners. In early spring,
while flowers are few, we are more disposed to be observant of the forms of
buds and leaves than in the later season :
‘Though still so early one may spy,
And mark Spring’s footsteps every hour:
The daisy with its golden eye,
And primrose bursting into flower ;
And snugly, where the thorny bower
Keeps off the nipping frost and wind,
Excluding all but sun and shower,
The children early violets find.”
Thus sang Clare of the country aspects of March; and besides these
opening flowers, leaves of various form and hue are daily appearing among
the grass. Sometimes even in the first month of the year, the young trailing
shoots of the Ground Ivy creep in abundance on the bank among some older
ones which have lived through the winter, and we should welcome this early
herald of Spring, had we not faith in the proverb—
‘Tf Janiveer calends be summerly gay,
‘Twill be winterly weather till the calends of May ;”
which, old as it is, is but a version of a Welsh proverb of higher antiquity,
and the truth of which experience has confirmed. In March, however, be
the spring early or late, we shall be sure to find the Ground Ivy leaves
spread open on the sunny bank beside those of the creeping potentilla, and
the green and glossy arum leaf. A very pleasant fragrance has our Ground
Ivy, besides its slightly bitter and aromatic taste. In olden times the herb
was in great request for tea, and we were accustomed in childhood to take
it, as it is still occasionally drunk in villages, as a Spring drink. It is
popularly believed to be tonic and invigorating, nor are we disposed to
regard these diet drinks as altogether useless, while Mr. Abernethy could
allude to these vegetable preparations in his work on the digestive organs,
and consider them to have great efficacy. John Ray regarded this infusion
of the Ground Ivy as good for the head-ache ; and Professor Burnett says,
that cases are on record in which it would appear that the plant has been
really serviceable in hypochondriacal constitutions, and in mania. A pamphlet
was published about twenty years since, stating its good effect in cases of
mania; and we can add from experience, that an infusion of the leaves
sweetened with sugar-candy, is an excellent medicine in cases of cough and
cold. It is, at any rate, perfectly innocuous, and we can venture to recom-
mend persons subject to pulmonary affections to dry the herb for winter use
56 LABIATA
as well as to take it while fresh. Our fathers considered it useful in a variety
of maladies ; and the plant was commonly sold in Queen Elizabeth’s reign by
the “herbe-women of Chepeside,” under the names of Gill-by-the-ground,
Hay-maid, Cats-foot, Ale-hoof, and Tun-hoof ; and it was frequently put into
beer instead of hops, or used to clear ale made with that plant. An old
writer says, “It is good to tun up with new drink, for it will clarify it in
any night that it will be the fitter to be drunk the next morning ; for if any
drink should be thick with removing, or any other accident, it will do the
like in a few hours.” It was customary also to drop the juice of Ground Ivy
into the ear, to stay the singing tones which sometimes trouble the invalid ;
and it was also applied to the eyes to cure any temporary inflammation ; but
the beneficial results in both these cases were probably rather to be attributed
to time, and the gradually restorative powers of Nature, than to the herb
itself. Country farriers, however, still use the juice as an application to the
eyes of horses, and all our old writers assure us that “it helpeth beasts as
well as men.”
In the ancient Anglo-Latin Dictionary referred to on a former page, we
find “ Hove, or Ground Yvy (herbe), Edera terrestris.” Mr. Way, commenting
on this, says, that G. de Biblesworth mentions eyre de bois e eyre terrestre
(heyhowe). He adds, “In John Anderne’s ‘Practica,’ Sloane MS., the use
of harhowe, vel halehoue, vel folfoyt, vel horshoue, in the composition of an
unguent called Salus populi, is set forth. Langham, in the ‘Garden of
Health,’ 1579, details the qualities of Ale-hoofe, Ground Ivie, Gilrumbith,
Ground or Tudnoore ; and Cotgrave gives Patte de Chat, Catsfoot, Ale-hoof,
etc. Skinner thought that Ale-hoof was derived from all, and behofe, from
its numerous medical properties ; but the derivation of the name is probably
from hof wngula, in allusion to the hoof-shaped leaf.” Mr. Way adds, “ that
it is probable that the Read-hofe of the Anglo-Saxon herbals is the Ground
Ivy, to which, however, the name ¢oroifig was assigned.”
The flowers of the Ground Ivy expand in April and May, and are
exceedingly pretty in their tints of rich purple, varied with the white anthers,
which, growing in pairs, form a cross. The stems, creeping several feet
among the grass, are often very troublesome on meadow lands, for the plant
is rarely eaten by domestic animals, and is even thought to be injurious to
them, while it impoverishes the pasture, and occupies soil which would
nourish herbs of more worth to the owner of the meadow. Small galls are
often found in this plant, which are made by a species of Cynips. They are
sometimes eaten in France, but Réaumur justly doubted if they would “rank
with good fruits.”
16. Waite HorenounD (Marribium).
Common White Horehound (J. vulgdre).—Stem erect, hoary ;
leaves egg-shaped and narrowed into a leaf-stalk, or roundish and _heart-
shaped, crenate, hoary and rugged ; whorls many-flowered ; calyx-teeth ten,
awlshaped ; upper lip of the corolla 2-cleft ; perennial. This is a bushy-
looking plant, with stems one or two feet high, thickly covered with white
woolly down, which also invests the wrinkled leaves, rendering them of a
whitish-green hue. The foliage has an aromatic odour, and a bitter flavour,
LABIATE TRIBE 57
and in August the flowers form close thick whorls around.the stems. The
blossoms are small and white, their calyx-teeth sharp and hooked. The
Horehound, though not a very frequent plant, grows on waste grounds and
waysides in many parts of England, but is more rare in Scotland and Ireland.
It has for many centuries been used in disease, especially that of the lungs,
and though not now employed by physicians, is thought by some good
botanists to merit more attention from the faculty than it at present receives.
An infusion of the leaves is a common remedy for coughs and colds, and
candied Horehound and balsam of Horehound are still sold by druggists.
The former is much in use for children, and the latter compound is said to
be made of an infusion of Horehound and liqucrice roots, with double the
quantity of brandy. Horehound tea, sweetened with honey, is a safe
remedy for coughs; and Dr. Thomson says, that it has been of decided
service to consumptive persons. The plant loses its aromatic flavour if kept
long.
Linnzus observes, that the word Marrubium is derived from an ancient
Italian town called Maria-urbs, situated on the borders of the Fucine Lake.
The French term the plant Marrube commun ; the Germans, JVeisse andorn ;
the Duteh, Gemeene malrove ; the Italians, Marrobio bianco.
17. CALAMINT, Basin THyME, WiLD Basi (Calamintha).
* Whorls of six simple separate flower-stalks.
1. Common Basil (C. dcinos).— Stem ascending, branched ; leaves
oblong, on short stalks, acute, serrated, or sometimes almost entire, more or
less fringed at the base; annual. This is a very pretty little plant, often
found on dry chalky hills or gravelly heaths, flowering in August ; rare in
Scotland and Ireland. It is about six or eight inches high, with whorls of
small bright purple flowers, more or less marked with white on the lower lip.
The tubular calyx is distinetly two-lipped, and the lower lip bulged at the
base. The plant has a slight fragrance, resembling that of the thyme. It
is often called Basil Thyme. The French call our pretty wild herb Basilique
sauvage ; the Germans, Kleine bergmiinze ; the Dutch, Vold mynte ; and the
Spaniards, Albahaca menor.
* * Flowers in whorls of 2-forked cymes.
2. Lesser Calamint (C. népeta).—Leaves egg-shaped, serrated, pale
beneath, shortly stalked ; calyx somewhat bell-shaped, obscurely 2-lipped ;
teeth nearly all of the same shape, and shortly fringed, the upper ones
slightly shorter, the hairs in the throat protruded ; flowers in forked many-
flowered cymes; perennial. This is rather a rare species of Calamint, bearing
its pale, pinkish-purple flowers on long stalks in July and August, and
growing on dry banks in a chalky soil. It has a strong odour, like that of
penny-royal, and much resembles the next species, of which some regard it
as a sub-species, though it is smaller, and its leaves more strongly serrated.
A good distinction, however, is found in the white hairs in the throat of its
calyx. Both this and the next species were recommended by our forefathers
to be burned or strewed in chambers, to drive away venomous serpents ; and
the ‘‘wholesome Calamint ” is referred to by several of our cld poets.
111.—8
58 LABIATA
3. Common Calamint (C. offcindlis)—WLeaves broadly egg-shaped,
blunt, stalked, green on both sides, with rounded serratures at the margin ;
cymes stalked, few-flowered ; calyx distinctly 2-lipped ; teeth with a long
fringe, those of the upper lip triangular, of the lower longer, and awl-shaped ;
hairs in the mouth not prominent; lobes of the lower lip of the corolla
distant, middle one the longest; perennial. This is not an infrequent plant
in dry places, on hedgebanks, and by waysides. It is erect and bushy, its
stems and foliage of a pale greyish-green, and downy. Its flowers expand
in July and August ; they are numerous, of a pale pinkish colour, and have
small pointed bracts in the forks of their stalks. The flavour and scent of
the plant are aromatic, and the tea made by an infusion of the leaves is an
old and not disagreeable medicine for colds and other maladies, while a com-
pound syrup of Calamint is sold by druggists for the cure of coughs. The
plant is sometimes called Calamint Balm, or Mountain Mint, and it is said of
it, that if put upon meat which has been kept too long, it will remove all
unpleasant odour and flavour. The French call it Calement ; the Germans,
Kalamint ; the Dutch, Berg-Kaulaminth ; the Italhans Calaminta.
4. Wood Calamint ((. sylvdtica).—Stem with ascending branches ;
leaves stalked, broadly egg-shaped, sharply serrated, green on both sides ;
flowers in forked cymes ; calyx distinctly 2-lipped ; teeth with a long fringe,
those of the upper lip spreading or turning backwards, of the lower longer
and awl-shaped ; hairs in the mouth not prominent ; lobes of the lower lip
of the corolla with overlapping segments, all nearly equal in length ;
perennial. This plant bears large pale purple flowers from August to
October, and its leaves are larger than those of the other species, though all
the Calamints are very much alike. The root creeps slightly below the
ground. This is a rare species, found among copse-wood in the Isle of Wight,
and some parts of Hampshire and Devon. It is also regarded as a sub-
species of . officindlis.
** * Flowers in dense axillary whorls ; bracts forming a sort of tnvolucie.
5. Wild Basil (C. vulgdris).—Leaves egg-shaped, obtuse, rounded below,
slightly crenate ; whorls equal, many-flowered ; bracts bristly, as long as the
calyx; perennial. This plant was formerly called Unprofitable Basil,
probably in contrast to the Sweet Basil of the garden, or Royal Basil, as it
was termed. This is the Ocymum basilicum, and was thought to be the Ocumum
so prized by the ancients, of which, however, we know little more than that
Pliny said it throve best when sown with cursing and railing. Our Wild
Basil is about a foot or a foot and a half in height. It is a straggling, hairy,
not very attractive plant, having in July and August bristly whorls of stalked
reddish-purple flowers, with numerous long pointed bracts. It occurs
abundantly on dry banks, and in hedges, or other bushy places, in England,
where we may often meet with a stray plant or two flowering long after the
usual season, and cheering the December landscape ; in Scotland and Ireland
itis rare. It grows wild throughout Europe, from Sweden to Greece and
Sicily, in Middle Asia, and also in some parts of North America, where,
however, it is an introduced plant. The French call it Le Clinopode, and the
Germans Die Wirbeldoste. It is the Borstelkrans of the Dutch, the Clinopodio
LABIATE TRIBE 59
of the Italians, the Albahaca silvestre of the Spaniards, and is termed by the
Russians Lloschinza. It is the C. clinopodium of Bentham.
18. BastarD Bato (Melittis).
Bastard Balm (J. melissophyllum).—Leaves oblong, egg-shaped, or
somewhat heart-shaped, serrated ; upper lip of the calyx with 2 or 3 teeth ;
perennial. This is a very handsome but rare plant, found in woods in the
south of England, as well as in Wales and Worcester. It is about a foot
high, having very large leaves; and in June and July it bears either showy
purple flowers with a creamy margin, or cream-white, blotched in different
ways with purple. It has while fresh a disagreeable odour, but when dried
its scent is pleasant, like that of new-made hay. The true balm belongs to
another genus, and is the Melissa officinalis. The latter plant is sometimes
included in the British Flora, as it is naturalized in the south of this kingdom.
It has egg-shaped leaves, with rounded serratures, paler on their under sur-
faces ; the white flowers spotted with rose grow in axillary one-sided whorls.
It is a native of Southern Europe, and a very old inhabitant of the garden.
Chaucer says, when referring to some delicious odour—
‘“ As men a pot-full of Baume held
Emong a basket-full of roses.”
19. SELF-HEAL (Prunélla).
Common Self-heal (?. vulgdris).—Leaves stalked, oblong egg-shaped,
blunt, upper lip nearly entire, or slightly toothed ; upper lip of the calyx
with short teeth, cut suddenly off, and tipped with a spine ; flowers in whorls,
forming a crowded spike ; perennial. The Prunella, or Brunella, as our
fathers called it, is very common on banks, and in moist or barren pastures.
Its dense short spikes of flowers are usually of a deep purple colour, though
we have seen them of a pale lilac, and even white tint. The lower lip of
the corolla has a toothed margin, and at the base of the spike are two leaves,
and two slender bracts are beneath each whorl, which, as well as the calyxes,
are of deep purple. Like most of our labiate plants, it is in flower during
July and August. Its old names of Carpenter’s Herb, Sickle-wort, and
Hookweed, as well as that by which it is still called, allude to its uses as a
vulnerary ; and many cases are recorded by old herbalists in which wounds
inflicted by sickles, scythes, and other sharp instruments, were healed by its
use. As it possesses some astringency, it was probably useful in such cases.
The plant grows by waysides in most European countries. Sir Charles
Lyell saw it in New England, where doubtless it had been introduced from
Europe ; and Sir Joseph Hooker saw it on the mountains of the Himalaya.
Linnzus softened down the old name of Brunella to its modern appellation,
but the former word is said to have been derived from the German briwne,
the quinsy, from its supposed uses in that complaint. Its modern name is
pretty nearly alike in all the countries of Europe. The French term it
Brunelle ; the Germans, Prunelle ; the Dutch, Bruinelle ; the Italians Brunella ;
and the Spaniards, Brunela.
8—2
60 LABIATAi—LABIATE TRIBE
20. SKULL-CAP (Scutelldria).
1, Common Skull-cap (8S. galericuldta).—Stem branched; leaves
oblong or egg-shaped, and lanceolate, rounded or heart-shaped at the base ;
flowers axillary, opposite, all turning one way ; calyx downy ; perennial.
This handsome plant is not unfrequent on the borders of rivers and ponds.
Its stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, and from June to Sep-
tember its pretty blue flowers are blooming. They are rather large for so
small a plant, and the tube of the corolla is much longer than the calyx. As
soon as the flowers fall off the upper lip of the calyx closes on the lower one,
and gives to the seed-vessel the appearance of having a lid. One would
wonder, at seeing the four little nuts at the bottom of this closed calyx, how
they were to emerge from it, for the contrivance for their dispersion is not
at first sight apparent. When, however, the little parchment-like box is well
dried, it divides into two distinct portions, and the smali seeds destined for
the growth of future plants fall out, and are soon buried beneath the soil.
It is one of the many marks of design which the thoughtful botanist discovers
continually in his observation of the flowers of the field, and from which he
gathers a remembrance of God’s care and goodness. The Skull-cap received
its name from the singular character of its calyx, which, when inverted,
resembles a helmet with its visor raised, while in its ordinary state it is not
unlike a cup or dish with a handle; hence its botanic name from scutella.
It is also called Hooded Willow-herb. The French term the plant La Toque ;
the Germans call it Schildkraut ; the Dutch Helmkruid ; and the Italians,
Terzanaria.
2. Lesser Skull-cap (S. minor).—Leaves shortly stalked, blunt, usually
quite entire, lowest ones broadly egg-shaped, the intermediate ones ege-
shaped, lanceolate, heart-shaped, and sometimes halberd-shaped, at the base,
upper and floral ones lanceolate and rounded at the base ; flowers solitary,
axillary, and opposite; corolla with the throat dilated ; calyx downy :
perennial. This is a small bushy plant from four to six inches high. The
lower leaves are often toothed at the base, and the small flowers, which
expand in July and August, are of a dull pinkish-purple colour, almost white,
with the lower lip spotted. The plant is not common, although pretty
generally distributed.
Order LXIII. VERBENACEAZ — VERBENA TRIBE.
Calyx tubular, not falling off, corolla irregular, with a long tube ; stamens
4, 2 longer than the others, rarely 2 only ; ovary 2 or 4 celled ; style 1 ;
stigma 2-cleft; seeds 2 or 4, adhering to one another. ‘This order is very
nearly allied to the Labiate. It consists of trees, shrubs, and herbs, with
opposite leaves, and flowers growing in spikes or heads. The species are rare
in Europe, in Northern Asia, and North America ; and in colder latitudes the
plants are herbaceous, but are shrubs, or even large trees, in tropical regions,
where the order is chiefly represented. Our gardens are enlivened by the
bright flowers of many of the Verbenas, and the Lemon-plant has long been
1
Ww
BASTARD BALM ,
Melittis mehssophyllnm
COMMON SELF HEAL
Prmella vulgaris
Pl, 170,
COMMON
LESSER
SKULL CAF
Scntellaria 6alericulata
Ss. ¢
S.mrmor .
VERBENACEAA— VERBENA TRIBE 61
a favourite because of its strongly fragrant leaves; this shrub is the Verbena
triphylla of older botanists, but is now called Aloysia citriodora. Some of the
plants of the order are used for remedial purposes, but few of them are
remarkable either for their medicinal or economic uses.
VERVAIN (Verbéna).—Calyx 5-cleft ; corolla unequally 5-cleft; stamens
shorter than the tube of the corolla. Name, the Latin name of the plant.
VERVAIN (Verbéna).
Common Vervain (/”. officindlis).—Stamens 4; stem erect, 4-angled,
somewhat rough ; leaves shining above, rough beneath, lanceolate, cut anc
serrated, or 3-cleft with cut segments; spikes slender, somewhat panicled ;
bracts about half the length of the calyx ; perennial. The Vervain is a very
common plant in England, while in Ireland it is local, and in Scotland it is
not a native. It is remarkable for growing in the neighbourhood of towns
and villages, and is seldom, perhaps never, found at the distance of more than
a mile from houses. It grows on barren grounds, on stony pastures, heaths,
and sea-cliffs, and is a slender plant, branched above, with very few leaves,
and with flowers which are remarkably small for the size of the herb.
They are of a pale lilac colour, and form terminal slender spikes in July and
August.
The interest excited in these days by the Verbenas is directed to the
beautiful garden species, which are natives of America, and far handsomer
than our wild plant in their showy clusters of pink, purple, white or dazzling
scarlet blossoms. But few of our native plants derive a greater interest from
old associations than our common Vervain. It rivals the Mistletoe in the
number of ancient usages connected with it, and might, like that plant, serve
to awaken in the thoughtful mind a thankful spirit for the clearer light
revealed to men of modern days. As Gerarde, however, justly said, ‘‘ Manie
old wives’ fables are written of vervayne tending to witchcraft and sorcerie,
which you may read elsewhere, for I am not willing to trouble your eare with
such trifles.” The Druids regarded this herb with peculiar reverence, and
Pliny relates how, in Gaul, they often used it in casting lots, telling fortunes,
and foreshowing future national events, gathering it with peculiar ceremonies.
It was to be sought for when the great Dog-star was just rising in the
heavens, and when plucked, an offering of honeycomb was to be made to the
Earth as a recompense for depriving her of so goodly a herb. The Romans,
too, held it in high honour, and the ancients generally seem to have believed
the notion recorded by Pliny, that if the hall or dining chamber be sprinkled
with the water wherein Vervain lay steeped, all that sate at the table should
be “very pleasant and make merry more jocundly.” The Romans, who
considered it a sacred plant, placed it in the hands of ambassadors who were
about to enter on important embassies, and used it in sacrifice to their gods.
Pliny tells us that the festival table of Jupiter was swept and cleansed with
branches of the Vervain, with great solemnity, and the floors of houses were
rubbed with it to drive away evil spirits. In our own country the plant was
called Holy-herb, and was connected with several superstitious usages. To
preserve its peculiar virtues certain forms had to be observed in gathering
62 VERBENACEAA—VERBENA TRIBE
it, such as making the sign of the cross with the hand and repeating this
incantation :—
‘Hallowed be thou, Vervain,
As thou growest on the ground,
For in the Mount of Calvary
There thou wast first found.
Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Clirist,
And staunchedst His bleeding wound ;
In the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
I take thee from the ground !”
It was doubtless owing to the veneration in which the plant was held in
ancient days, that it was in later ones believed to possess great medicinal
virtues. Indeed, in several old directions for its use, we find intimations of
a belief in its magical properties. Even of late years the author has seen a
piece of Vervain root tied round the neck of a child as a charm to cure the
ague, and was told that the plant required to be attached to a white satin
ribbon in order to ensure its efficacy. But the herb was also described as a
remedy in thirty different maladies; and the author can remember having,
during childhood, seen a pamphlet wholly devoted to a description of the
uses of the plant in various disorders, and prefaced by an engraving of the
Vervain, though the herb does not appear to possess any real medicinal powers
beyond a slight degree of astringency. We find Michael Drayton thus
alluding to it :—
‘Here holy Vervayne, and here dill,
’Gainst witchcraft much avayling ;
Here horehound ’gaynst the mad dog’s ill,
By biting, never failing.”
We never find this plant omitted whenever the old poets wrote, as they often
did in their verses, a list of the various herbs of power. Thus, Spenser
Says :—
‘* And then again he turneth to his play,
To spoil the pleasure of that paradise,
The wholesome sage, and lavender still grey,
Rank-smelling rue, and cummin good for eyes ;
The roses reigning in the pride of May,
Sharp isop, good for green wounds’ remedies ;
Fair marygolds, and bees alluring thime,
Swete marjoram, and daisies decking prime.
‘Cool violets and orpine growing still,
Embathed balm, and cheerful galingale,
Fresh costmary and breathful camomil,
Dull poppy and drink-quickening setewale,
Vein-healing Verven, and head-purging dill,
Sound savory, and bazil, harty-hale,
Fat coleworts and comforting perseline,
Cold lettuce, and refreshing rosmarine.”
No wonder that the Vervain had the expressive old name of Simpler’s
Joy. It was called also Juno’s Herb, Mercurie’s Moist Blood, Enchanter’s
Plant, and Pigeon’s Grasse. The last name was given because, according to
Gerarde, “Pigeons are delighted to be amongst it, and to eat thereof.” It
is called in France, Vervene ; in Germany, Fisenkraut ; in Holland, Yzerhard ;
in Russia, Scheelsnik ; in Italy and Spain, Verbena.
1
2
2
4:
COMMON VERVALIN Verbens. officinalis
COMMON BUTTERWORT, Pinguicula vulgaris
LARGE FLOWERED B P. grandiflora
ALPINE .B P. alpima
Pl. 177;
GREATER BLANDERWORT Utriculana vulgaris
INTERMEDIATE .B
LENTIBULARILAZ—BUTTERWORT TRIBE 63
Order LXIV. LENTIBULARIZ—BUTTERWORT TRIBE.
Calyx divided, not falling off; corolla irregular, 2-lipped, spurred ;
stamens 2, sometimes 4, 2 long and 2 short; ovary I-celled ; style 1, very
short ; stigma 2-lipped, the lower lip smallest ; capsule 1-celled, 2-valved,
many-seeded. ‘This order consists of small herbaceous plants, with leaves all
from the root and undivided, or compound root-like leaves, with numerous
small bladders or air-vessels. The species are natives of marshes, or rivulets,
or fountains, in all parts of the world, especially in temperate and cold
countries. They are not known to possess any important properties.
1. Burrerwort (Pinguicula).—Calyx 2-lipped, upper lip 3-cleft, lower
2-cleft ; corolla gaping, spurred. Name from the Latin pinguis, fat, the
leaves being greasy to the touch.
2. BLADDERWORT (Uftriculdria). —Calyx of 2 equal sepals ; corolla
personate, spurred. Name from the Latin uériculus, a little bladder.
1. Burrerwort (Pinguicula).
1. Common Butterwort (P. vulgdris).—Spur cylindrical and tapering,
nearly straight, shorter than the limb of the corolla; segments of the corolla
very unequal, rounded and diverging from each other, and all entire ; capsule
egg-shaped and pointed ; leaves all from the root ; perennial. This singular
and very beautiful plant, though rare in the southern and midland counties
of England, is not unfrequent on the bogs and heaths in the north of this
kingdom, and is common also. in the countries of Northern Europe. The
leaves, which are of a pale brownish-yellow colour, have their edges rolled
in, and their surfaces so covered with minute crystalline points, that they
look as if sprinkled with hoar-frost. These points are really glands from
which the greasy fluid is poured out. The slender delicate stalks are three
or four inches high, several springing from one root, and bearing each a
bright blue flower in the month of June. The plant is called by the Lap-
landers Tét-grass, and the leaves are used by them in preparing a favourite
beverage of milk, which they call Zaeotmioelk. 'The fresh leaves of the Butter-
wort are laid upon a filter, and warm reindeer’s milk is poured upon them, .
which, after passing through the filter, is allowed to remain for one or two
days, till the milk becomes sour, when it is found not to have become
separated from the whey, and yet to have acquired by this method a much
greater tenacity and consistence. Nor is it necessary to gather fresh leaves
in order to prepare another portion of milk ; for Professor Lindley observes
that a small quantity of this solid milk will act upon that which is fresh, in
the manner of yeast. It is from these uses that the plant acquired the name
of Butterwort, and the greasy surface of the leaves originated the French
name of Grassette, and also that of Pinguicula. If these leaves are only laid
in cow’s milk, they readily coagulate it; and the Swedes and Norwegians
use them much in their dairies. When crushed, they serve as a village
remedy for bruises, and their unctuous nature renders their juices good for
the skin, irritated by exposure to wind. In Wales, a pleasant syrup is pre-
pared with this foliage.
64 LENTIBULARILA
The late Charles Darwin, having had his attention drawn to the numbers
of dead insects frequently found adhering to the leaves, investigated the
matter, and proved conclusively that Butterwort is an insectivorous plant.
The edges of the leaf are rolled in towards the centre, and thus form a vessel
capable of retaining fluids. Flies get stuck to the leaf, and their presence
excites the glands to an increased flow of their secretion, which now becomes
acid and capable of digesting their softer portions. The result is after-
wards absorbed by the glands and utilized for the nourishment of the whole
plant. All the species exhibit this insectivorous habit.
The Butterwort is sometimes called Yorkshire Sanicle, and is said to
have been formerly used to dye the hair yellow. It is known in Germany
as Feltkraut ; in Holland as the Smeerblow ; the Spaniards call it Grassila ; and
the Italians Pinguwicula. It is very difficult of cultivation, but is occasionally
planted in gardens, though the handsomer P. grandiflora is more easily reared,
and better repays the cultivator.
2. Large-flowered Butterwort (P. grandifléra).—Spur awl-shaped,
cylindrical ; segments of corolla very unequal ; perennial. This is the most
beautiful of all the native species. It grows on bogs in the counties of Cork
and Kerry, in Ireland, bearing, in May and June, its flowers of deep but
bright purple colour. It is a rare plant, and may be distinguished from the
Common Butterwort by the broader lobes of the lower lip, and the notched
tip of the spur. The leaves, both of this and the last species, die in winter,
and buds are formed, which in the following spring expand into perfect
plants. This is regarded by some as a sub-species of P. vulgaris.
3. Alpine Butterwort (P. alpina).—Spur conical, shorter than the
limb of the corolla, and curved towards the lower lip; capsule acute ; peren-
nial. This species is much smaller than the Common Butterwort, which it
resembles in habit, and in the texture of its foliage. Its flower-stalks are
smooth, and its flowers, which expand in June, are yellowish-white, having
clear yellow hairs beneath, and a very short spur. It is very rare, being
found only in bogs in Scotland. The recorded localities of this flower are
the Isle of Skye, and the bogs of Aughterflow and Shannon, in Ross-shire.
4. Pale Butterwort (P. lusiténica).—Spur cylindrical, blunt, curyed
downwards ; segments of the corolla nearly equal; leaves and flower-stalks
covered with short hairs; perennial. This plant is about the same size as
the last, and though not nearly so rare, yet is very local, never occurring in
the east of this kingdom, and rarely in the midland counties, but being
chiefly confined to the marshy plains and moors at the west. It has been
found on marshy ground near Basing, three miles from Basingstoke ; and it
is abundant in the Hebrides, and in the bogs of Ireland. The leaves are
greenish-white, and veined ; and the lilac flowers with yellow throats expand
from July to September.
2. BLADDERWORT (Utricularia).
1. Greater Bladderwort (U. vulgéris).—Spur about half as long as
the corolla, conical, straight and blunt; upper lip of the corolla about as
long as the inflated palate; leaves pinnate, and much divided; anthers
cohering; perennial. This is a not very common plant in ditches and deep
BUTTERWORT TRIBE 65
pools. It has an erect stalk, from four to six inches in height, and in June
six or eight of the large bright yellow flowers grow from the upper part of
the stalk, and several inches above the surface of the pool.
This plant is of great physiological interest, on account of the numerous
air-bladders which invest it. The shoots or runners are submerged in the
water, and are clothed at regular intervals with divided capillary leaves,
armed with distant minute spines. Attached to the leaves and shoots are
many little crested membranous bladders, of a green, purple, or pink colour.
The bladders are of a most curious structure. Each has an aperture closing
with an elastic valve, which Mr. Wilson has observed to be of a much thinner
texture than the vesicle to which it is attached. It opens inwards, and this
botanist remarks that aquatic insects often enter the orifice, and are, of course,
contined there. All the species of Bladderwort have these little bladders on
some part of their structure, and by their aid entrap large numbers of the
small fresh-water crustaceans known as water-fleas, as well as the minute
larve of water-beetles, etc. These are retained until drowned, and when their
bodies decompose, the enriched fluid is absorbed by certain glands for the
benefit of the plant. The French call the plant L’ Utriculaire ; the Germans,
Wasserlauch ; and the Dutch, Neelekruide. In Denmark it is termed Van-
dréllike, and in Norway Vassrdllike. It is sometimes called in country places |
Hooded Milfoil. There is a rare sub-species, U. neglecta, with more slender
stem, smaller leaves, the upper lip of the corolla exceeding the palate, and the
spur more conical.
2. Intermediate Bladderwort (U. intermédia).—Spur conical ; upper
lip twice as long as the inflated palate ; leaves 3-parted ; segments linear and
forked ; perennial. This species is somewhat rare. It is altogether a smaller
plant than the last, and its pale yellow flowers have a much shorter spur and
a longer upper lip; they are also fewer in number, and the flowering stalk is
not more than two or three inches high. The stems are more leafy, but the
bladders are placed on branched stalks, and not on the foliage. Their season
of bloom is July, but the plant seldom flowers, being mostly increased by
buds. Mr. Borrer has observed, however, that at this period the vesicles are
all immersed in the mud, and the leafy shoots float under water. The plant
is found in ditches and pits, and has been recorded from the counties of
Dorset, Hants, and Norfolk, and between Westmoreland and Sutherland, as
well as in Ireland.
3. Lesser Bladderwort (U. minor).—Spur very short, blunt ; upper
lip as long as the palate ; lower lip egg-shaped, flat ; leaves much cut into
forked segments, bladders upon the leaves ; perennial. This is a plant grow-
ing in ditches and deep pools throughout the country. It is a smaller but
rather stronger plant than either of the preceding, bearing from June to
September small pale yellow flowers, with scarcely any spur.
Utricularia bremii, a species resembling U. minor, but of more robust habit
and with more rounded lip, has been recorded from Moray and Nairn, in
Scotland, but as the specimens observed were not in flower, it is not im-
possible that a mistake may have been made.
The Bladderworts can hardly be cultivated, but they grow wild in abund-
ance in the pools and rivers of many countries, being often among the
I11.—9
66 PRIMULACEAL
loveliest of aquatic plants, with their pink, purple, yellow, or white flowers.
The blossoms are so fragile that they scarcely survive the gathering ; nor do
they retain any of their beauty when dried, changing in the herbarium to a
dark, almost black, hue.
Order LXV.—PRIMULACEZ—PRIMROSE TRIBE.
Calyx 5-cleft, rarely 4-cleft, and in 77ientalis 5—9-cleft, regular, not falling
off; corolla of as many lobes as the calyx (wanting in Glauz) ; stamens equal-
ling in number the lobes of the corolla, and opposite to them ; ovary 1-celled ;
style 1; stigma capitate; capsule l-celled, opening with valves; seeds
numerous, attached to a central column. The order consists of herbaceous
plants, chiefly inhabitants of the colder latitudes. It contributes to our
fields and meadows some of the loveliest of wild-flowers, as it includes the
Primrose, Cowslip, Pimpernel, and Water-violet ; while to it the garden owes
some of its earliest blossoms, as the Auricula, Polyanthus, and Cyclamen.
The economical uses, however, of the species are of small importance, and
somewhat of acridity exists in the roots of the Cyclamen and the flowers of
the Pimpernel.
1. WATER-VIOLET (/otténia).—Calyx 5-cleft, almost to the base ; corolla
salver-shaped, with a short tube; stamens 5; capsule opening with 5 teeth.
Named after Professor Hotton, of Leyden.
2. Primrose (Prémula).—Calyx tubular, 5-cleft ; corolla salver or funnel
shaped, with a long cylindrical tube ; stamens 5, enclosed within the tube of
the corolla ; capsule 5-valved, with ten teeth. Name from the Latin primus,
first, from its early bloom.
3. SOW-BREAD (Cyclamen).—Calyx bell-shaped, cleft half-way down into 5
segments ; corolla wheel-shaped, the lobes reflexed ; stamens 5 ; capsule open-
ing with 5 teeth. Name from the Greek kyklos, a circle, from the spiral form
of the fruit-stalks.
4, SEA MitKworr (Glaié«).—Calyx bell-shaped, coloured, of 1 piece,
5-lobed ; corolla none ; stamens 5; capsule 5-valved, with 5—10seeds. Name
in Greek denoting the sea-green colour of the leaves.
5, CHICKWEED WINTER-GREEN (7'rientdlis).—Calyx ‘7-clett to the base ;
corolla wheel-shaped ; stamens 7; capsule opening with valves. Name of
doubtful origin.
6. LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimdchia).—Calyx 5-cleft to the base ; corolla wheel:
shaped ; stamens 5, not hairy ; capsule opening by valves. Name said to be
from King Lysimachus.
7. PIMPERNEL (Anagidllis).—Calyx 5-cleft to the base; corolla wheel-
shaped ; stamens 5, hairy; capsule splitting all round. Name from ana,
again, and agallo, to adorn, from its adorning the wayside every spring.
8. CHAFF-WEED (Centiinculus).—Calyx 5-cleft to the base ; corolla with an
inflated tube ; stamens 4; capsule splitting all round. Name said to have
been given anciently to the nearly-allied genus Pimpernel, and supposed to
be derived from cento, patchwork, from the way in which it covers the
ground.
9. BROOKWEED (Sdmolus).—Calyx 5-cleft, adhering to the lower half of
PRIMROSE TRIBE 67
the capsule, not falling off; corolla salver-shaped, with 5 scales at the mouth
of the tube; stamens 5; capsule opening with 5 reflexed teeth. Supposed
to be named from the island of Samos, where Valerandus in the 16th century
gathered the species since called Samolus valerandi.
1. WATER-VIOLET (fotténia).
Common Water-violet, or Featherfoil (H. palistrc).—Flowers
whorled, on a long cylindrical stalk ; corolla longer than the calyx ; leaves
finely divided ; perennial. This is a very lovely, though not a very common
inhabitant of our English pools, and it is unknown in those of Scotland. Its
pretty feathery leaves, which are all submerged, grow in tufts, only the upper
part of the flower-stalk rising above the water. This stands up about four or
five inches from its surface, and is surrounded in May and June by large
handsome flowers of a lilac and yellow, or pale purple, or sometimes white, hue.
The creeping root is composed of white, thread-like fibres, which penetrate
deeply into the soft soil. The flowers produce honey, and are of two forms
—one with a short style that just reaches to the mouth of the corolla-tube,
around which stand the stamens; the other with the stamens inside the tube
and the pistil projecting far out. Like wood-sorrel, henbit-nettle, and violet,
this species also produces flowers that never open, but which, nevertheless,
produce good seed. The seed-vessel, about the size of a pea, splits into five
valves, but these remain connected at top and bottom.
2, PRIMROSE, OXLIP, CowsLip (Primulc).
1. Common Primrose (P. wilgiris)—Leaves oblong, egg-shaped,
wrinkled, crenate ; flowers in umbels, as throughout the genus, but in this
case the flower-stalk is very short ; calyx tubular, teeth lanceolate, tapering,
very acute ; limb of the corolla flat ; perennial. One variety of the common
Primrose has a stalked umbel of flowers, and this is the origin of the Polyanthus
of our gardens ; while some writers describe the inflorescence of the Common
Primrose as a sessile umbel, because if each stalk bearing the solitary flower is
traced to the base, all the stalks are seen to grow in an umbelliferous form.
To none familiar with wood or garden need we descant on the beauty of
the Primrose tufts, which are in spring among their loveliest ornaments. In‘
April and May we may wander among the woods or by the hedge-banks
secure of finding them, contrasting with the violet and other favourite
flowers. But he who loves the woods at an earlier season—who is not scared
by deep-sounding blasts, who can find a music in the voices of the winds and
a grace in the motion of the leafless boughs—he may perchance discover, two
or three months earlier, a Primrose-bud peeping up from amid the withered
leaves which had sheltered it securely from nipping frosts. Such a rambler
would probably bethink him of Milton’s description, ‘The rathe Primrose,”
for though the old word “rathe” is hardly so significant in our days as in
those of the poet, yet he is reminded that it is the origin of our common word
“yather,” or sooner, and feels how justly it alludes to the Primrose. Linnzeus
in the imaginative mood which so often characterized his nomenclature,
termed these flowers the Preciw. Our old writers called the species Prymrole,
which, like our common name, seems to be a corruption of Prima rosa ; and
9—2
68 PRIMULACEA
the French Primevere, the Italian Primd-vera, the Spanish Primula, and the
German Friihlings-blume, all tell how men have welcomed the early flower,
welcomed it all the more because they could find it by vale or hill, by wood
or river.
‘The humble Primrose’ bonnie face, ‘* Where’er the green-wing’d linnet sings,
I meet it everywhere ; The Primrose bloometh lone ;
Where other flowers disdain to bloom, And love it wins, deep love from all,
It comes and nestles there ; _Who gaze its sweetness on :
Like God’s own light—on every place, On field-paths narrow, and in woods,
In glory it doth fall, We meet thee far and near ;
And wheresoe’er its dwelling-place, Till thou becomest prized and loved,
It straightway hallows all. As things familiar are.”
Bacon, with that strange mixture of knowledge and ignorance which is to
be found in his “Sylva Sylvarum,” attempts to account for the early
appearance of the spring flowers. ‘There be,” he says, “some flowers,
blossoms, grains, and fruits, which come early, and others which come more
late in the year. The flowers that come early with us are Prime-roses,
violets, anemonies, water-daffadillies, crocus vernus, and some early tulippas ;
and they are all cold plants, which therefore (as it should seem) have a
quicker perception of the heat of the sun increasing, than the hot herbs have;
as a cold hand will sooner find a little warmth than a hot. And those that
come next after are wallflowers, cowslips, hyacinths, rosemary flowers, etc. ;
and after them pinks, roses, and flower de luces; and the latest are gilly-
flowers, hollyocks, larksfoot, etc. The earliest blossoms are the blossoms of
peaches, almonds, cornelians, and mezereons, and they are of such trees as
have much moisture, either watery or oily ; and therefore crocus vernus also
being an herb that hath an oily juice, putteth forth early, for those also find
the sun sooner than the drier trees.” Notwithstanding this and similar
opinions and disquisitions of the old writers, however, the cause is yet
unknown why the Primrose is found amid the flowers of spring, and the rose
is the glory of Midsummer, though we can all agree in the opinion of this
writer as to the cause of the early bloom of the fruit-trees. ‘‘It,” he says,
' “seemeth to be a work of Providence, that they blossom so soon, for other-
wise they could not have the sun long enough to ripen.”
The Rev. C. A. Johns remarks in his “Flowers of the Field,” respecting
the Primrose, “The colour of the flowers is such as to have a name of
its own; artists maintain that primrose-colour is a delicate green.” Our
old writers, too, like Spenser, call it the “greene Primrose,” and Parkinson
treats of green Cowslips. He says: ‘“ And first of Primroses and Cowslips,
whereof there are many prettye varieties, some better knowne in the west
part of this kingdom, others in the north, than in any other, until of late
being observed by some curious lovers of varieties, they have been planted
diversely, and so made more common ; for although we have had formerly in
these parts about London greene Primroses usually, yet we never saw or
heard of greene Cowslips, both single and double, but of late daies ; and so
likewise for Primroses too, both single and double, from one roote, and divers
upon one stalke of divers fashions, I am sure is not usual: all which deserve
better to be planted under some hedge or fence, and in the shade than sun-
shine.” The “greene Cowslips” of tis old writer were probably Oxlips.
ty
WATER VIOLET
Hottonia palustris
COMMON PRIMROSE
Prrovala vulgaris
JACQUINS OXLIP
P. slatior
Pie
COWSLIP
p
veris
BIRDS EYE PRIMROSE
SCOT TTSH
P
P
rE
larimosa
scotica
PRIMROSE TRIBE 69
Almost all our old poets refer to the Primrose. Spenser has some elegiac
verses, in which he says—
‘“She is the rose, the glory of the day,
And mine the Primrose in the lowly shade.”
And Shakspeare likened Fidele’s face to the “pale Primrose.” The Prim-
rose is so common a wild flower, that all men know it. Well does it tell of
ingland’s soil to her distant sons ; and Dr. Stephen Ward mentioned to the
Royal Institution, as an instance of the successful conveyance of plants in
glass cases, that a Primrose so transported had arrived in full bloom, and
that when it reached Australia the sensation excited by it as a reminiscence
of fatherland was so great, that it was necessary to protect it by a guard.
Mrs. Abdy has written some interesting verses on this touching incident :—
**The strong and toiling man, intent on grasping worldly store,
Who from the hidden caves of earth wrests forth the precious ore,
Recalls with joy his childish glee when Primrose tufts he found,
And deem’d no richer treasures could be proffer’d by the grouncl.
‘*The gentle girl, contending with a rough and chequer’d lot,
Thinks of the glens and coppices around her father’s cot,
From whence the early Primroses she oft rejoiced to bring,
Greeting their blooming promise as a herald of the spring.
‘All love upon the English flower to rest their wearied eyes,
Reading therein a history of dear and sever'd ties,
Communion with their absent friends in fancy they attain,
And go refresh’d and solaced on their busy course again.
** A ‘Primrose on the river’s brim’ hath won the poet’s lays,
But surely thou, sweet Primrose, hast a higher claim to praise ;
Thou in the vaunted realms of gold hast cheer’d an exile band,
And soothed their toil with pleasant thoughts of Home and Native Land !”
Lovely as our native Primroses are, they are not equal in beauty to those
of the tribe which deck the mountains. This is pre-eminently an Alpine genus
of plants ; and far away on the heights of Switzerland and Spain, on Alps or
Pyrenees, the Primroses peep up to remind the traveller of the English
garden. Amid the cold blasts of some of these dreary regions, where ice and
snow thicken during the winter over impassable chasms and inaccessible
mountain peaks, the little Primrose is lying secure beneath the fleecy mantle,
and waiting for some gleam of sunshine to melt a small patch of snow, when
it will smile forth upon the loneliness. Not merely the sulphur-coloured, but
still more often Primroses of a white, yellow, violet, lilac, and sky-blue colour,
expand there; and the purple auricula, with its white centre and powdery
cup, sheds its peculiar perfume.
It is not on the lofty mountains of Europe only that the Primrose tribe
grow in great profusion and beauty. Sir Joseph Hooker, when in the
Himalayas, was often delighted with these flowers, which he saw growing
with the saxifrages, tufted wormwood, whitlow-grass, and others, close to the
snow, while grasses, and sedges, and green moss, were all around. In more
fertile spots the rhododendrons took the most prominent place on the scene,
clothing the mountain-slopes with a deep-green mantle, and glowing with
bells of different colours, every bush being laden with flowers. Primroses
came next, both in beauty and abundance, accompanied by Cowslips with
70 PRIMULACEAA
stalks of the wondrous height of three feet; and purple polyanthuses and
pink dwarf Primroses nestled among the rocks ; while one exquisite species,
blue as sapphires, sparkled like these gems among the turf; then came
gentians, and a large species of rhubarb, which waved its graceful pyramid of
white flowers above them all.
But we are wandering far from the flower of our woodlands, which, with
wrinkled leaves, opens with the budding trees. The leaf is very similar to
that of the Cowslip, but the observer will perceive the difference between the
two in the gradual narrowing of the Primrose leaf towards the base, while
that of the Cowslip suddenly narrows just below the middle, forming a foot-
stalk. The leaves of both flowers are agreeable to silkworms, and the roots
possess an emetic property, and were of old much used medicinally. The
blossoms are still in country places made into a pretty pale yellow ointment,
which we have ourselves often applied to the wounds made by briars and
thorns, but which probably owes its chief efficacy to some other of the various
ingredients of which it is composed. The Auricula of our gardens
(P. auricula), which grows in abundance on the Lower Alps of Switzerland,
was in much repute among our old writers on plants. It was called Bear’s-
ears, and among other wonderful cures effected by it, it received much
praise for its use in curing diseases caused by having “inadvertently eaten
the sea hare.” This poor little harmless animal, so frequent on our shores,
seems to have been held in the greatest dread, and even its touch deemed dele-
terious. How it could be ‘eaten inadvertently ” isa maryel, but a large variety
of plants are strongly recommended to be used against its various injuries.
Michael Drayton, describing the wedding-garlands of his day, enumerates
several of this genus among many well-known flowers :—
**To sort which flowers some sit ; some making garlands were,
The Primrose placing first, because that in the spring
It is the first appears then only flourishing ;
The azured harebell next with them they neatly mix’d,
To allay whose luscious smell they woodbind placed betwixt ;
Amongst those things of scent, then prick they in the lilly,
And next to that again her sister daffadilly ;
To sort these flowers of show with the others that were sweet,
The Cowslip then they couch, and the Oxlip for her meet:
The columbine amongst, they sparingly do set,
The yellow king-cup wrought in many a curious fret,
And now and then among of eglantine a spray,
By which again a course of lady-smocks they lay ;
The crow-flower, and thereby the clover-flower, they stick
The daisy over all those sundry sweets so thick
As Nature doth herself ; to imitate her right,
Who seems in that her part so greatly to delight,
That every plain therewith she powdreth to behold ;
The crimson darnel-flower, the blue-bottle and gold,
Which though esteem’d but weeds, yet for their dainty hues,
And for their scent not ill, they for this purpose choose.”
Many more flowers were added to the list ; so many, that one is ready
to pity the bride or her maidens, who must have been overloaded with these
sweets. But spare your pity, gentle reader, for never did all these flowers
bloom together at one season ; a circumstance to which the older poets rarely
paid the slightest attention in their narratives or allusions.
PRIMROSE TRIBE 71
_ Our sulphur-coloured Primrose is found in most European countries,
growing in woods, copses, and partially-shaded banks, thriving most luxuri-
antly on clay soils, but never occurring, like the Cowslip, in the midst of the
meadow. Varieties, slightly tinted with red, often grow in our woods, but
’
‘*The polyanthus of unnumber’d dyes’
has been changed by culture to most of the various tints.
2. Common Oxlip, or Jacquin’s Oxlip (P. eldtior).—Leaves ege-
shaped, contracted below, wrinkled, slightly toothed; stalks umbellate,
many-flowered ; calyx tubular, teeth lanceolate and acute ; limb of corolla
concave, segments oblong, heart-shaped ; tube not contracted at the mouth,
and without scales or folds; perennial. The Oxlip is not a generally-dis-
tributed flower, though varieties between the Primrose and Cowslip are often
very similar, the chief difference in structure being that these varieties have
more or less a slightly inflated calyx, and a somewhat contracted mouth, and
folds and plaits in the throat. As this distinct species is rare, except in woods
and meadows in the eastern counties of England, the common variety of the
Primrose, the Primrose Oxlip, is evidently the flower mentioned by our poets,
and this is not infrequent. Many of us may say with Shakspeare—
‘*T know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where Oxlip and the nodding violet grows.”
The Oxlip is of the same colour as the Primrose, its calyx, however, being
tubular, and not bell-shaped.
3. Common Cowslip (P. véris).—Leaves egg-shaped, contracted below
the middle, crenate, toothed, and wrinkled; flowers in umbels, drooping ;
calyx fubular, and bell-shaped, teeth or ; limb of the corolla concave ;
tube with a circle of scale-like folds at the slightly contracted mouth ; peren-
nial. Rare as the Cowslip is in the meads of Scotland, it is plentiful enough
in the clayey pastures of England, affording to many a merry group of
children a sweet wild nosegay, and an innocent source of pastime. Some-
times their hats are adorned with the flowers, sometimes these are by laborious
ingenuity made up into cowslip-balls, or large numbers of the blossoms are
gathered by poor women and children, and carried into towns for sale.
In some places the Cowslip is commonly called Paigle ; we have heard it
so called in Cambridgeshire, but never in Kent, but it is a very old English.
name of the flower, as is that of Petty Mullein. English herbalists commonly
term it Palsy-wort ; and Herbe & paralysie is a very ancient French name for
the Cowslip ; while the medical writers of old times, who made much use of
these flowers, called them Arthritice and Herbe Paralysis. In France the
flower is now called Primerole, or it shares with others the familiar name of
Fleur de Coucou. Our word Cowslip is of very old use, and is the Saxon
Cuslippe, having probably a reference to the soft texture of the corolla, or to
the odour, which might seem similar to that of the breath of cows. The
blossom is usually of rich yellow, with five crimson spots round the mouth of
the tube, and appears in April and May.
A decoction of the flowers was said by old medical writers not only to
cure tremblings, but was believed to be generally efficacious in strengthening
the brain and nerves, and the leaves were considered a useful application to
72 PRIMULACE
wounds. The flowers were, after being well dried in the sun, made into a
conserve with sugar. An old writer, who says that this preserve was in
great fashion in his time, in Sussex, gives lengthened directions for preparing
it. The flowers are still in use in villages for making a cosmetic ; and
Parkinson says of their juice, that it is “commended to cleanse spots or
marks on the face, whereof some gentlewomen have found good experience.”
Though the leaves have little flavour, they were described as serving well
for a salad. The plant would probably afford all the benefits which Chaucer
describes the maidens as bestowing :—
‘* And after that of herbes that there grew
They made, for blisters of the sun breuning,
Ointments very good, wholsom, and trewe,
Where that they yede the sick fast anointing,
And after that they yede about gadering
Pleasant salides, which they made them ete,
For to refresh their gret unkindly heat.”
The leaves undoubtedly possess sedative properties, though not to the
same degree as those of the lettuce; and the root, when first drawn from
the ground, has an odour of anise. Country people sometimes mix the
blossoms with tea, considering them both wholesome and refreshing. Cow-
slip wine is not uncommon in Warwickshire, though it is not so frequently
made in this country as it was by housewives half a century since. It is
very pleasant in flavour, and an excellent sedative.
The Cowslip may be propagated by dividing the roots in autumn, and by
culture very handsome clumps of this flower may be produced, of much
larger size and richer hue than when growing wild. Old writers on gardens
call some of the varieties thus produced Curled Cowslips and Galligaskins.
They had, too, their feathered Cowslips, which were probably some kind of
fringed polyanthus ; their Red Bird’s-eye Cowslips, Green Cowslips, Rose
Cowslips, and Jackanapes on Horseback ; while one unfortunate flower was
called the Franticke or Foolish Cowslip. Cattle are not fond of Cowslips,
nor, indeed, of any of the Primrose tribe, but swine eat them.
4, Bird’s-eye Primrose (P. farinésa).—Leaves inversely egg-shaped
and lanceolate, mealy, crenate ; calyx oblong, egg-shaped, teeth linear ; limb
of corolla flat; segments inversely heart-shaped, rounded below, distant,
as long as the tube; perennial. This is a most lovely little flower, something
like a miniature auricula. It blooms in July, and is of a pale lilac, purple,
or sometimes almost white, with a yellow centre. It is not unfrequent on
the mountainous pastures of the north of England, though on some less
elevated localities, long known to the botanist in Yorkshire, and other
counties, it has been eradicated to make room for the railway. It is rarely
found in Scotland. Sir Joseph Hooker mentions in his “ Flora Antarctica,”
when referring to the Falkland Isles, that the heaths of grassy land were
spotted with a white Primrose nearly identical with this flower, and hardly
to be distinguished from it.
5. Scottish Primrose (P. scética).—Leaves inversely egg-shaped and
lanceolate, toothed, mealy ; calyx bladder-like ; limb of the corolla flat, its
mouth glandular, the segments inversely heart-shaped, half the length of
the tube; perennial. This is the loveliest of our native Primroses. It is
PRIMROSE TRIBE 73
about half the size of the last species, stouter, shorter, and with smaller
flowers, which are of a deep bluish-purple, with yellow centre. It is frequent
in pastures on the north coast of Sutherland, at Caithness, and on the sandy
shores of the Orkney Islands, flowering from June to September.
3, SOW-BREAD (Cijclamen).
Sow-bread (C. hederefilium).—Leaves heart-shaped, angular, finely
toothed, their ribs and footstalks somewhat rough; tube of the corolla
globose ; mouth with five teeth ; perennial. This plant, though not indigenous
to our soil, occurs in several places in profusion, as near Sandhurst and
Goudhurst, in Kent. In July, its white or pink flowers, with their lobes
turned backward, are nodding on long stalks ; and even as late as September
they are yet open on warm, wooded spots. The plant has a dark brown,
tuberous, highly acrid root-stock ; its leaves are, as their name would imply,
shaped something like those of the ivy, and the flowers have a delicate
perfume. As the fruit ripens, the flower-stalks twist spirally into numerous
coils, inclosing the capsule in the centre, and this they gradually bury in the
earth. The Sow-bread is a pretty flower, and would doubtless be often
cultivated, were it not that more beautiful species are brought from other
countries, some of which have long been reared in our gardens.
The Cyclamen genus is one of southern and eastern lands. All the
species have large acrid tubers; and the acrid principle is said by Professor
Burnett to be peculiar to these plants: it has been called Arthanitine. The
fondness of swine for the roots originated the English as well as some of the
continental names of the plant. Swine-bread is an old name for it; and the
French call it Pain de Porceau, or, as it is provincially termed, fate de pur.
Our old medical writers called the plants Tuber terre or Terre rapum. In
Italy it is called Ground-bread (Pane terreno), as well as Pane porcino ; and in
that country, as in Sicily, where it is abundant, it is the chief food of large
herds of swine, and has been much used medicinally. The Germans an it
ELrdscheibe ; the Dutch, Varkensbrood ; and the Swedes, Svinbréd.
4, SEA MILKWort (Glaiiz).
Sea Milkwort, or Black Saltwort (4. maritima).—Stem generally
procumbent ; leaves opposite, egg-shaped, smooth, entire ; flowers axillary,
sessile ; perennial. This is a little succulent plant, from three to six inches
high, erowing in masses among the grass of the salt-marsh, on the mud of
the penehote ; or among the radke just above high water, often in great
abundance, its thick, tough rootstock wedged and flattened beeen! the
layers of rock. If kept moist, it will also grow very well inland in garden
pots, and looks very pretty on rock-work. an bears, from May to Anienct
little flesh-tinted flowers, dotted with crimson ; and its thick smooth leaves
are of a greyish-green hue. The blossoms are destitute of a corolla, but the
calyx is coloured instead. The stamen-filaments are coloured a deep crimson,
and they lengthen after the flower opens. This plant is sometimes called
Newton’s Kunst: -grass. The French call it Glauce; the Germans, Milchkraut ;
the Dutch, Melkruid ; and the Danes, Melkiirt.
111.—10
74 PRIMULACE
5, CHICKWEED WINTER-GREEN (7vrientdlis)
European Chickweed Winter-green (7. ewropwa).—Leaves rigid,
oblong, egg-shaped, shining; perennial. This pretty little plant was a great
favourite with Linnzus. It is found occasionally in the north of England,
and is abundant in the Scottish Highlands. The stem is without branches,
from four to six inches high, having a few large leaves near its top, and two
or three small distant scales below. From among the terminal, whorled
larger leaves arise from one to four slender stalks, each bearing a small white
flower with a yellowring. The number of stamens varies from seven to nine,
and the seeds have a beautiful covering, like a delicate lace-work. Its
creeping thread-like stem is somewhat acrid in taste. The plant is rare, and
confined to the north of this kingdom. It occurs on Hambleton Hills, Swill
Hill, near Halifax, and on the moors about Teesdale. It is not found in
Ireland. The French call this plant 7rientale ; the Germans, Sternbliimchen ;
and the Dutch, Vintergrin. It flowers in June.
6.. LoOSESTRIFE (Lysimdchia).
1. Great Yellow Loosestrife (L. vulgdris).—Stem erect, panicles
compound, terminal, and axillary ; leaves egg-shaped, or egg-shaped and lan-
ceolate, nearly sessile, opposite, or three or four in a whorl; segments of
corolla entire; stamens five, combined for half their length ; perennial.
This very handsome flower of our stream sides, though frequent in some
places, is rather local in its haunts. Its branched upright stem is two or
three feet in height, and its large yellow panicle has slender bracts growing
among the blossoms. The foliage is smooth or somewhat downy beneath,
and of rather dull green, and the flowers appear in July and August. This
species was much used in former days medicinally. Lysimachus, the king of
Sicily, according to Pliny, first discovered its medicinal virtues. It had
besides, in the opinion of the old writers, the power of quieting the restive
oxen, if laid beneath their yokes. It is sometimes called Yellow Willow-herb.
The French term it Lisimaque ; the Germans, Gelbe weiderich ; the Dutch,
Weiderick ; the Italians and Spaniards, Lisimachia.
The Ciliated Loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata) has been found near Ser-
bergham, Cumberland ; but though naturalized on this spot, it is a North
American species. It has an erect stem; its yellow flowers are stalked, and
either in whorls or somewhat racemed ; its leaves are egg-shaped, lanceolate
and heart-shaped, with fringed footstalks; the lobes of the corolla are
crenate, and it has ten filaments, all distinct, five of which are sterile.
Some specimens of the Westphalian Loosestrife (Z. punctata) have also been
found near Newcastle. It differs from Z. vulgaris in having solitary axillary
pale yellow flowers, and a corolla fringed with glandular hairs.
2. Tufted Loosestrife (L. thyrsifléra).— Stem erect, unbranched ;
leaves opposite, lanceolate, sessile, upper dotted with black; racemes dense,
many-flowered, stalked, axillary ; segments of the corolla very narrow, and
separated by minute teeth; perennial. This plant is rare in England,
occurring on marshes in some parts of Yorkshire and Notts, but it is more
frequent in Scotland. It is one or two feet high, and the small yellow
SOW
BREAI 2 SEA MILKWOR'
Cyc lamen hederxfolium Gl
3 CHICKWEED WINTER GREEN
rientalis europx2a
Pl, 173,
nthe)
.
v 7
PRIMROSE TRIBE 75
blossoms grow in a thick cluster at the top of the stem, and are, as well as
the calyx, spotted with orange. They expand in July.
3. Yellow Pimpernel, or Wood Loosestrife (L. némorum).—Leaves
opposite, egg-shaped, acute, shortly stalked; stem prostrate; stalks one-
flowered, axillary, longer than the leaves; filaments smooth, distinct ;
perennial. This species well deserves its name of Yellow Pimpernel, for its
leaf both in form and hue, and its blossom in shape, at once suggest the
resemblance to the Scarlet Pimpernel. It is somewhat straggling in habit,
its weak stem and branches trailing over the ground to a length of a couple
of feet. The flowers are of bright yellow, and may be found in the woods
from May to July.
4. Creeping Loosestrife, Moneywort, or Herb Twopence
(L. nummuldéria).—Leaves opposite, somewhat heart-shaped or egg-shaped,
blunt, shortly stalked; stem prostrate, creeping; stalks one-flowered,
axillary, solitary, shorter than the leaves; filaments glandular, connected at
the base; perennial. This species is so frequently cultivated on artificial
rock-work, or on the borders of fountains in gardens, that it is well known.
Nor is it uncommon as a wild plant, growing often about ruins or in damp
woods, hanging down the sides of mossy slopes, its branches trailing a foot
or more in length, well clad with roundish shining deep-green leaves, and
bearing in June and July its numerous handsome flowers of bright yellow.
It multiplies rapidly by the root and stems, but though a very hardy plant
it rarely, if ever, produces seed in this country. It was formerly considered
an excellent wound-herb, decoctions of the plant made with wine or water
being drunk by the sufferer, while lotions prepared from its juices were used
externally. It probably possesses some slightly astringent properties. Like
most of the Primrose tribe, it is unpleasing to cattle.
7. PIMPERNEL (Anagillis).
1. Scarlet Pimpernel (4. arvénsis).—Stem ascending or somewhat
prostrate ; leaves opposite or in threes, egg-shaped, sessile, dotted beneath ;
flower-stalks longer than the leaves ; calyx nearly as long as the wheel-shaped
corolla; annual. The normal form of this flower has a scarlet corolla, often
fringed with minute glandular hairs. In another form, in which the margins.
of the corolla are toothed and scarcely at all glandulose, the colour is bright
blue. This is the 4. cwrulea of some writers. Another variety is white, or
white with a purple eye, and is the var. pallida of botanists. The names of
Shepherd’s Barometer and Poor Man’s Weather-glass, by which the Scarlet
Pimpernel has long been known, are very appropriate—with limitations. The
flower never opens on a rainy day, and long before the shower is coming it
is conscious of its approach, and closes up its petals. Several of our wild-
flowers close, like the convolvulus, before rain, but none are such good
barometers as this. It was early noticed by naturalists. Derham, in his
“ Physico-Theology,” says: ‘‘ The flowers of Pimpernel, the opening and shut-
ting of which are the countryman’s weather-wiser ; whereby, Gerarde saith, he
foretelleth what weather shall follow the next day; for, saith he, if the
flowers be close shut up it betokeneth rain and foul weather ; contrary wise,
10—2
76 PRIMULACEA
if they be spread abroad, fair weather.” Lord Bacon, too, who calls it
Winco-pipe, noticed this peculiarity. Leyden thus alludes to the flower :—
‘Such is the science to the peasant dear,
Which guides his labour through the varying year,
While he, ambitious ’mid his brother swains
To shine the pride and wonder of the plains,
Can in the Pimpernel’s red-tinted flowers,
As close their petals, read the measured hours,”
Not only does the Pimpernel shut up its blossoms during rainy and cloudy
weather, but it is one of the best of the Florw Horologice, opening its petals in our
latitude at about ten minutes past seven in the morning, and closing them a
few minutes after two in the afternoon. ‘Therefore it is futile to consult the
Pimpernel as a barometer after 2 p.m. It is interesting to remark the regu-
larity with which some of the plants of our woods and fields fold or unfold
their blossoms. Who ever saw a goat’s-beard open on a summer afternoon ?
Long before that part of the day it had gone to its daily sleep. Nor in
other climates are these peculiarities less frequent, for Dr. Seemann, the
naturalist, who accompanied Kellett’s Arctic Expedition, mentions as a
curious fact the regular closing of the flowers during the long day of an
Arctic summer. ‘ Although,” he says, “the sun never sets while it lasts, the
plants make no mistake about the time, when if it be not night it ought to
be; but regularly as the evening hours approach, and when a midnight sun
is several degrees above the horizon, they droop their leaves, and sleep even
as they do at sunset in more favoured climes.” This naturalist adds, that if
ever man sbould reach the Pole, and be undecided which way to turn when
his compass has become sluggish and his timepiece out of order, the plants
which he may happen to meet with will show him the way ; their sleeping
leaves tell him that midnight is at hand, and that at that time the sun is
standing in the north.
Constant as are the flowers under their accustomed circumstances, yet
there are certainly cases in which, if unusual darkness come upon them, they
do, as Dr. Seemann expresses it, make ‘“‘a mistake.” Some years since, when
an eclipse of the sun brought darkness at mid-day, the author of these pages
went out to examine the flowers and leaves. Both were folded up just as at
midnight. Various species of garden convolvulus, the pheasant’s-eye, and
several other flowers were quite closed, and daisies and marigolds had “ gone
to bed with the sun.” The leaves of lupins, and laburnums, and robinias all
hung drooping as at night-time, and as the darkness gradually disappeared, so
the flowers and leaves opened, and stood erect, as if to meet the dawn.
The Pimpernel is bright scarlet, with a purple eye, and it is, with the
exception of the poppies, our only scarlet wild-flower. The leaves are of a
somewhat sea-green hue, quite smooth, often marked on the under side with
small black specks, and the stems are square, and very brittle. These are
about three cr four inches long, and often lie close to the soil. The flowers
may be seen from May to November. ‘The white variety, with a purple eye,
is a very pretty little flower. Mr. Dillwyn Llewellyn found it at Pennllogan,
in South Wales ; and we have several times found it near Chatham, in Kent,
both as a garden weed and in the cornfield. The Blue Pimpernel is of a rich
’
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PRIMROSE TRIBE 17
blue colour. Tt occurs commonly in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden ; and
in this kingdom is frequent in Devonshire and Gloucestershire, and found
also in some parts of Surrey, Cambridgeshire, and other counties. ‘The
varieties are by some good botanists thought to be probably distinct species,
but Professor Henslow’s experiments on the flower would lead to a different
conclusion. This botanist, who received specimens and seeds of Anagallis
cerulea from Yorkshire, raised from the seeds about a dozen plants, nine of
which had blue and three red flowers. He received also a pale pinkish
variety from Higham, in Kent, and seeds from Yorkshire of the white variety
with a purple eye. From these seeds he raised seven plants, one of which
produced red, and the other six white blossoms, tinged more or less with
light pink, and having a bright pink eye. Mr. Borrer suspects that the
Pimpernel in each variety has sometimes blue and sometimes red flowers.
Our Common Pimpernel grows everywhere—on sunny bank, on gravelly
or sandy heath, in the furrow of the field, or on the bed of the garden.
Dioscorides and Pliny had much to say of its excellence as a medicine in liver
complaint ; and from its use inremoving the dispirited feelings so consequent
on that malady, they tell how it gained its scientific name from anagalao, to
laugh ; but the name is more likely to be, as Sir W. J. Hooker considered it,
from the Greek words signifying “again” and to “adorn,” because it comes
every summer to grace our pathways. Our fathers’ idea of its efficacy was
greatly overrated. “It is,” says an old writer, “a gallant solar herb, of a
cleansing, attractive quality, whereby it draweth forth thorns and splinters,
or other such like things gotten into the flesh.” This power of drawing
forth, not only thorns, but even “arrows which were broken in the flesh,”
was universally ascribed to the plant, and led some botanists to think that
the genus was named from anago, to extract, which, however, is scarcely
probable. The bruised leaves formed the application in these cases, and were
believed also to cure persons bitten by a mad dog. The distilled juice was
said by an old herbalist to be much esteemed “by French dames to cleanse
the skin from any roughness, deformity, or discolourings thereof.” Gerarde
affirmed that “it helped them that are dim-sighted.” The Greeks and
tomans used the juices of the plant, mixed with honey, for complaints in the
eyes ; and so many were the cures effected by this little plant that an old
proverb, once in familiar use among our fathers, is thought by John Ray
probably to refer to the imputed virtues of the Pimpernel :—
‘“The dasnel daweock sits among the doctors.”
Several old medical writers of good repute had great confidence in cures
which they had wrought in diseases of the brain by means of the juices of
this flower; and we might cite half a dozen well-known authors who, like
Ettmiiller, highly extol its efficacy in hypochondriasis and similar maladies.
Professor Lindley says, “It has had some reputation in cases of madness,
and appears to possess energetic powers, for Orfila destroyed a dog by making
him swallow three drachms of extract of the plant.”
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PERSICARIA TRIBE 111
apples, were much used in making verjuice ; for the cook in the olden times
used verjuice in the preparation of numerous dishes. The milkmaid in
Isaac Walton’s “ Angler” tells her guests, “If you come this way a-fishing
two months hence, a grace of God, I'll give you a syllabub of new verjuice
in a new made haycock ; and my Maudlin shall sing you one of her best
ballads.” Then, too, the juice of the Sorrel was often expressed and used
medicinally, and doubtless would prove a good fever drink. It is recom-
mended by all the old herbalists in ‘hot diseases,” and deemed efficacious
also in agues, jaundice, and pestilential maladies, as well as to quench thirst
and renew appetite in weak digestions. It is decidedly antiscorbutic in its
properties. It grows in the Arctic regions; and Dr. Sutherland, in his
Journal of a Voyage to Baffin’s Bay in the years 1850 and 1851, men-
tions the growth of this Sorrel on the cold shores which they had to
reach by walking over the ice. As the voyagers approached the beach, they
delighted in the beautiful yellow poppies which grew among its stones,
throwing a charm over the spot. “If the traveller,” says Dr. Sutherland,
“wished to amuse his palate, he might feed ad libitum upon the leaves of
cruciferous plants in full bloom, on Sorrel and scurvy-grass. Of these plants,
especially the former, I believe persons labouring under scorbutus ought to
obtain a sufficient quantity to effect a beneficial change in the disease. It
often occurred to me that the resources of the climate, in the way of plants,
might be made available to prevent scurvy. Although a basketful could not
be obtained in one or even two hours by one person, handfuls could; and
this operation extended over several hours, by an increased number of men,
might go far to appease the insatiable craving for vegetable food.” In some
parts of Sweden, where barley and rye can scarcely be raised, the poor are
often kept from starvation by eating bark-bread, and a bread which they
described to Dr. E. D. Clarke as made of grass. This traveller found on
examination that this grass was our Common Sorrel, and adds, that the
bread made from it was far more salutary than that made from the fir-bark.
The root of this Sorrel yields a good red dye.
The French Garden Sorrel (£. scutatus) has been found in waste places
near Edinburgh, and elsewhere, but is merely an escape from gardens, and
cannot be considered as naturalized in this kingdom.
13. Sheep’s Sorrel (fh. acetosélla).—Sepals ascending, inner ones «
scarcely enlarged, egg-shaped, without tubercles; lower leaves lanceolate
and halberd-shaped, with entire lobes ; perennial. This little Sorrel grows
commonly on dry heaths and downs. It is always a smaller and more
slender plant than the last species, and is rarely a foot high. It is, however,
very variable both in size and in the form of its leaves. On some plants,
the root-leaves aione are halberd-shaped, on others the stem-leaves also are
of this form ; the other leaves are stalked and lanceolate. It bears its small
red flowers from May to August, and in autumn its foliage is much tinged
with red. Wherever this Sorrel is abundant, it indicates a dry, barren soil.
3. MOUNTAIN SORREL (Oxyria).
Kidney-shaped Mountain Sorrel (0. reniférmis).—Stems naked, or
with one leaf; root-leaves kidney-shaped; perennial. This is truly a
112 THYMELEAL
mountain plant, growing at great elevations near waterfalls and rivulets ;
and it is very common on the wet mossy rocks in such places from North
Wales northwards. It is in appearance somewhat like our Common Sorrel,
and possesses a similar acidity, but is a much shorter and stouter plant, and its
root-leaves, which are kidney-shaped and fleshy, are on long stalks. The
flowers grow, from June to August, in clustered spikes, and are of a greenish
colour. ‘The stems are from eight to ten inches high, and are usually leaf-
less. It is also known as 0, digyna.
Order LXXII. THYMELEA—DAPHNE TRIBE,
Perianth tubular, often coloured, 4 rarely 5 cleft, occasionally having
scales in its mouth ; stamens 8, 4, or 2, inserted in the tube of the perianth ;
ovary 1-celled, style 1; stigma undivided; fruit a 1-seeded nut or drupe.
The order consists of shrubs with undivided leaves, and remarkably tough
and caustic bark. In some cases the berries are poisonous.
MEZEREON AND SPuRGE LAUREL (Ddphne).— Perianth single, often
coloured, 4-cleft ; stamens 8; fruit a berry. Named from the Nymph
Daphne, who was changed into a Laurel, many of the species having laurel-
like leaves.
MEZEREON AND SPURGE LAUREL (Dédphne).
1. Common Mezereon (JD. mezéreum).—F lowers lateral and sessile,
mostly in threes; tube hairy ; segments egg-shaped and acute; leaves
lanceolate, shed in autumn; perennial. The Mezereon is a small shrub,
found, though rarely, in English woods, as in some of Sussex, Suffolk, and
Hampshire. In some places, doubtless, it is either the outcast of the neigh-
bouring garden, or was borne thence into the woods by birds; but it is
thought by the authors of the “ British Flora” to be probably wild in Hamp-
shire. We are all familiar with it, however, as a garden shrub, for its bright
purplish or occasionally white fragrant flowers are welcome there in February
and March, when the crocuses and snowdrops are almost its sole companions.
The leaves begin to appear about the time at which the flowers are fully
expanded, and they are of a most delicate green tint, while in autumn the
bright red berries cluster in numbers among the foliage, the hue of which
has gradually deepened to a full green. It is a bushy shrub, about two or
three feet high, and it grows well beneath the shade of trees. It is found in
all European countries, and is a very common plant in the woods of Germany,
where it overshadows the bright blue hepaticas, which in spring gleam from
among the fallen leaves of winter. It does not seem to have been known to
our earliest writers as a British plant, for Turner does not mention it ; but
Gerarde says of it, “This plant groweth naturally in the moyst and shadowie
woods of most of the East countries, especially about Elbing, which we call
Meluin in Polande, from whence I have had great plentie thereof for my
3. KIDNEY-SHAPED MOUNTAIN S
Oxyria ren forms
4 SPURGE LAUREL
Daphne jaureola
i COMMON SORRELL ,
Rumex acetosa
2 SHEEPS S
R. acetosella
Pi, 191.
DAPHNE TRIBE 113
garden, where they flower, flourish, and bring forth fruit to maturitie.” He
says of it that it is called Dutch Mezereon, but that he would rather call it
Chamelea Germanica. He also gives it the name of Spurge Flaxe or Dwarffe
Bay. Parkinson, who calls it Flowering Spurge, says that this species grows
wild in Germany, but that the Spurge Laurel grows wild in England ; and
the best botanist of early days, John Ray, never discovered it among our
wild plants. The Germans call the plant Gemeiner Seidelbast, or Kellerbalz ;
the Italians term it Laureola femina, Biondella, or Camelia ; and the French,
besides its common name of Laureole femelle, give it that also of Bois gentil,
Mézéreon, and Bois joli. The name of Mezereon seems to be from its Persian
name of Madzaryoun.
The roots of the plant are large and very acrid, and have long been a
popular remedy for toothache ; but they should never be used in a fresh
state, as they are likely to produce considerable inflammation in the mouth.
The bark, which is also powerfully acrid, is frequently applied in France to
raise a blister on the skin, and the plant is extensively used in medicine on
the Continent. In Germany large quantities of this bark are in spring
stripped from the branches, and being folded in small bundles, are dried for
use ; its taste is at first sweet, but its acrimony is soon perceptible. The
berries are highly poisonous, and are employed in Sweden to destroy wolves
and foxes. Linneus records a case in which a dose of these berries proved
fatal to a man; and Dr. Thornton mentions that his sister died in childhood
from having swallowed a small number of them. Gerarde says, “If a
drunkard doe eat one graine or berrie of it he cannot be allowed to drinke
at that time, such will be the heate of his mouth and choking in the throte.”
If children taste these berries accidentally, oil, fresh butter, or milk should
immediately be given. In Dauphiny, as well as in Siberia, these fruits are,
however, of a less noxious character than in our climate; and they are com-
monly used medicinally, thirty berries forming a dose. In Siberia, where
they are called Wild Pepper, they are given to children in whooping-cough.
The Russian ladies are said to rub their cheeks with the fruits of the
Mezereon, to heighten their colour by a slight irritation. A decoction of
the plant is mingled with other ingredients in the Lisbon diet drink, and this
decoction is considered alterative and similar to sarsaparilla. The robin feeds
eagerly on Mezereon berries, and they are also much relished by other birds.
Several foreign species of Daphne have a most tenacious bark, and from the
bark of one of them, D. bholua, a fine soft paper is manufactured. Sir
Joseph Hooker says that the books in the convent of Yangma, in Nepal, were
of the usual Tibetan form, an oblong square, and that they consisted of
several leaves of paper made of the bark of a Daphne, bound together by
silk cords, and placed between ornamental wooden boards. The vegetable
lace of Jamaica is the inner bark of Lagetta lintedria, a plant very nearly
allied to the Daphne ; the lace looks like the product of art, forming a silky
web. A frill, cravat, and ruffles were made of this material for Charles II.
Several species of Daphne are found in our gardens, and one which is not
unfrequent there, the Neapolitan Mezereon, is an evergreen, and grows on
the hills and open places of some parts of Italy as freely as the furze grows
on our moorlands.
Ets
114 SANTALACEA—SANDAL-WOOD TRIBE
2. Common Spurge Laurel (D. lauréola).—Leaves lanceolate, narrow-
ing at the base, evergreen, thick, and glossy; flowers each with a short
bract, in axillary drooping clusters, which are shorter than the leaves ;
perennial. This evergreen plant is very common in the woods of England,
but is rare, and, perhaps, not truly wild in Scotland. It has a stout stem, .
from one to three feet high, with scarcely any leaves at the lower part, but
bearing at the summit of its stem and branches tufts of bright glossy laurel-
like leaves, which, however, soon twist and turn brown if too much exposed
to the sun. The flowers hang from January to May among the leaves,
looking as if cut out of pale green wax, and being about five in a cluster.
The berries are oval, at first green, but becoming black when ripe ; and they
are believed to be poisonous to all animals except birds. The plant thrives
best among trees, and is often grown in shrubberies. Its properties are
similar to those of the Mezereon, and it is used for similar purposes, but both
plants are so acrid that persons employed in pounding them often suffer con-
siderable inconvenience from the irritation caused by the particles rising from
them. i
S . ferruginea
Sahx.smithiana .
LONG LEAVED SALLOW oo COMMON =.
3S). acumunata >. cmerea
Pi. 206.
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 163
25. Soft Shaggy-flowered Willow (S. holoscricea).—Leaves lanceo-
late, taper-pointed, serrate, smooth above, pale, downy, and strongly veined
beneath ; catkins cylindrical ; scales black, very shaggy. This Willow grows
wild about Lewes, in Sussex, flowering in April and May. Its sessile and
pale-coloured stigmas, and its leaves, green and wrinkled above and strongly
veined beneath, distinguish it from S. aewminidita, to which it is nearly allied,
both being regarded as varieties of S. viminalis.
26. Great Round-leaved Sallow or Goat Willow (S. capréa).—
Stem erect or drooping ; leaves roundish, egg-shaped, pointed, at first entire,
downy above, woolly beneath, autumnal ones serrated, waved, nearly smooth
above, downy beneath ; stipules somewhat kidney-shaped, toothed ; style
very short or none. The Willow sometimes called S. sphacelata, from the
discoloured points of its leaves, is a sub-Alpine form of this; and S. pendula,
the Kilmarnock Willow, is a variety with broad glossy leaves and drooping
branches. The Goat Willow is truly beautiful in springtime, when, long
before a leaf unfolds, thousands of its catkins, like golden balls, are
gleaming upon the naked boughs. How the early bees cluster about them,
won by their fragrance to neglect the opening bluebells and primroses ; and
how merrily the chiff-chaff, scarcely larger or less bright than themselves,
utters his cry of welcome as he flits about them! Bishop Mant says of
{hem :—
* But cautious of their germs, protrude
The brethren of the copse and wood ;
For flower or leaf conspicuous most
The watery Willows’ spray, embost
With oval knobs of silky down,
Which soon in form of papal crown
Shall decorate the rustic stem,
With many a golden diadem.”
Children and country people call the boughs, when covered with their cat-
kins, “palms,” and many a country child goes forth to gather them, as we
have often done, during the week preceding Palm Sunday, with some vague
fancy that these Willow-boughs were strewed by the joyful children who
shouted the loud hosannas to the Saviour when He entered Jerusalem. This
palm-gathering is a remnant of an old Catholic superstition, a relic of times
when the pilgrim bore from the Holy Land a palm-branch, to prove that he
had won rightly the name of Palmer, and had wandered over the very spots
once trodden by our Lord and His disciples. In later years Willow-branches
were blessed by the priests ; but why, in this country, the Willow—and this
particular species—should have been chosen to represent the palm-branch,
is not very obvious, though it is certainly not from any resemblance between
the two trees. The chief reason, perhaps, was that the two plants were
associated together in the direction given to the Israelites, when desired to
make booths for that out-of-door rejoicing, so suited to a bright climate, and
to the joyous spirits which such a climate induces. When they celebrated
the Feast of Tabernacles, they were to gather “the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palms, and the boughs of thick trees and Willows of the brook,
and to rejoice before the Lord their God seven days.”
The Goat Willow was so called because goats are said to be fond of its
21—2
164 AMENTACEA
catkins. It is a somewhat small tree, with spreading branches, of purplish-
brown colour, which when young are covered with soft down. The leaves
are two or three inches long, and are among the broadest of any of the genus.
They are, on the upper surface, of rich bright-green, and are beneath either
of pale sea-green or quite white, with soft white cottony down, and they
have waved margins and soft downy stalks. In March and April the leaf-
less boughs are laden with the abundant yellow, almost globular, fragrant
catkins.
This is a useful Willow, for its tough white wood is employed in making
handles for agricultural implements, and for hurdles and other rustic purposes ;
and when burnt it yields good charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder.
It is thought to furnish one of the best underwoods for coppices, and good
fences are made of it, which will grow well either in wet or dry soils ; though
the tree, when wild, is usually found in woods and dry pastures, and seldom
occurs near rivers. ‘The bark affords an excellent tonic medicine, and it is
also used by the Highlanders to tan leather.
The (xoat Willow, or Grey Willow, or Saugh, as it is often called, would
probably be preferred to the other Willows too, because of its beauty at the
season when country people go palming or palmsing, as it is termed. In
some parts of Kent this practice is still very common, and men and boys
come in from the country to the towns, on Palm Sunday, wearing the
golden catkins in their hats, and carrying the blooming wands in their hands.
The custom was much more general a few years since, than it is now, near
the Metropolis, and the Willow-boughs were usually exposed for sale in
Covent Garden Market on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. In some
parts of Germany, as about Munich, the peasants on Palm Sunday may be
seen on the road approaching the town, bearing in their hands the branches
of Willow-catkins, mingled with holly and mistletoe ; for the latter plant is,
in Germany, connected with usages of religion. The catkins are blessed by
the priest, and are termed by German children, as by English ones, Palms.
As Goethe says—
‘“In Rome upon Palm Sunday,
They bear true palms ;
The Cardinals bow reverently,
And sing old psalms :
Elsewhere their psalms are sung
*Mid olive-branches :
The holly-bough supplies their places
Among the avalanches :
More northern climes must be content
With the sad Willow.”
The idea of the sadness of the Willow is a very old one, and we find it
alluded to by our prose writers and poets long before the introduction into
this country of the tree called the Weeping Willow. It probably originated
in a Scriptural association, and has come down to us from those times when
captive Israel hung their harps on the Willows, and wept because asked to
sing “the Lord’s song in a strange land.” It is a touching episode in their
history, and one which has appealed to the hearts of all who have loving
memories of their home, their country, and their God. So general is the
idea of the sadness of the Willow, that to “wear the Willow” has become a
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 165
familiar proverb. Old Fuller, referring to the Willow, says: “A sad tree,
whereof such as have lost their love make their mourning garlands; and we
know that exiles hung their harps on such doleful supporters.” He adds,
that it grows so incredibly fast that there was a “byeword in Buckingham-
shire, that the profit by Willows will buy their owner a horse, before that
any other tree will pay for his saddle.” “Let me add,” he says, “that if
greene ash may burne before a queene, withered Willows may be allowed
to burn before a lady.” Chatterton has a song, of which the burden runs
thus :—
‘* Mie love ys dedde,
Gon’ to his deathe-bedde
Al under the Wyllowe-tree,”
Herrick, too, says of the Willow :—
“‘Thou art to all lost love the best,
The only true plant found,
Wherewith young men and maids, distrest
And left of love, are crown’d.
‘* When once the lover’s rose is dead,
Or laid aside forlorn,
Then willow-garlands round the head
Bedew’d with tears are worn.”
Most of the Willows are fertilized by the agency of the wind as a pollen
carrier (anemophilous), but the Goat Willow and its varieties are fertilized by
bees and moths.
The very beautiful variety of this tree, the Kilmarnock Willow, has of
late years much interested botanists. It received its name, not because
peculiar to the place, but because reared in the nursery-garden there. An
enthusiastic botanist of Ayr, Mr. James Smith, sent to Mr. Lang of Kilmar-
nock, about fifty years since, a plant of this beautiful tree. He did not
state on what spot he found it, and as he died shortly afterwards, the locality
in which it grew remained unknown; though, as the Goat Willow is a com-
mon plant all over Scotland, he, in all probability, found the variety growing
wild. Mr. Lang, at a later season, had procured from Mr. Smith a few more
plants, which he has since been engaged in propagating ; and, in 1852, nearly
a thousand plants of this beautiful Willow were purchased from him by
Sir W. J. Hooker, for the Botanic Gardens of Kew. ;
This variety of the Willow has broad, glossy, deep-green leaves, and it
by ers very irecly in spring. Its branches are stouter than those of the
eeping Willow (S. babylonica), but it is a true weeping species, its branches
always bending gracefully down; and it is the only native Willow which
really deserves to he so called, for the Willows so often overhanging streams
in gardens and parks are species introduced from other lands. The Weeping
Willow (S. babylonica) was probably brought into this country by Tournefort
though often said to have been first planted by Pope at his villa at Twicken-
ham. ; This graceful tree is grown now in all European countries, as well as
in Asia and Africa. The Chinese greatly esteem it in their ornamental
scenery, as we may see by their pictures and porcelain ; and in Arabia, on
festive occasions, a sprig of this Willow is placed among the bouquets of
166 AMENTACE.X
lilies and orange-flowers, and is the favourite symbol of a graceful woman.
It is somewhat doubtful whether this is the species on which the Israelites
hung their silenced harps, for the Euphrates is bordered by many pale grey-
green osiers; but Celsius believes this to be especially the ‘ Willow by the
brook,” intended by the patriarch Job, when he says of Behemoth: “The
shady trees cover him with their shadows; the Willows of the brook compass
him about.” A variety of this tree, called Nap leon’s Willow, from its
growth near the tomb of that hero at St. Helena, is often seen in gardens ;
and we have also an American Weeping Willow.
27. Grey Sallow (\S. cinérea).—Leaves inversely ege-shaped-lanceolate,
autumnal ones pointed, even, serrated, netted with prominent veins, nearly
smooth and glaucous beneath, with the margins sometimes rolled under ;
stipules rounded, toothed, upper ones cften half heart-shaped ; style very
short or wanting. Varieties differing in the form and texture of their
autumnal leaves have been described as S. aquitica and S. oleifélia. This is
avery common Willow in our wet hedgerows, and on the river brink, some-
times bordering the stream for a long distance with its bushy growths, being
rarely more than seven or eight feet high. At other times, however, this
Sallow rises into an erect tree, twenty or thirty feet in height, and its
branches are either spreading or they droop down, and almost touch the
water—
‘* Where hangeth down the old accustom’d Willow,
Hiding the silver underneath each leaf,
So drops the long hair from some maiden’s pillow
When midnight heareth the else silent grief ;
There floats the water-lily like a sovereign,
Whose lonely empire is a fairy world,
The purple dragon-fly above it hovering,
As when its fragile ivory uncurl’d.”
We cannot, however, praise the beauty of this tree; neither is it one of
the useful species, though its branches are woven into coarse wicker-work.
It is distinguished from the other common Sallows by the rusty glittering
hue of its foliage. “This,” Sir J. E. Smith says, “lies more perhaps in the
fine veins of its leaves than in the pubescence sprinkled over them, which
consists of minute prominent shining hairs, totally unlike the depressed silki-
ness of some other Willows.” The rusty colour, indeed, increases after the
specimens have been long dried, but is visible in some degree in the growing
plant, especially towards the autumn.
The leaves of this Sallow are from an inch to an inch and a half in length,
and they are sometimes blotched and variegated. The variety termed
aquatica has much broader and thinner leaves, of uniform dull grey hue, and
without the rusty tint which distinguishes the ordinary form. Its branches
and twigs are also very brittle. In the plant called the Olive-leaved Sallow,
the leaves, which are, when young, densely hoary, gradually become green,
and acquire the rusty hue ; and they are throughout their growth of leathery
texture, and not pliant as in the other varieties. The branche’ are rounded,
and more or less hoary when young.
28. Round-eared or Sallow Trailing Sallow (8. aurita).—Leaves
inversely egg-shaped, with spreading teeth, wrinkled with veins, more or
DARK-LEAVED §&
1 ROUND -EARED SALLOW
Salix aurita.
GREATER ROUND-EARED S$ 4
5S. caprea
S. méricans
INTERMEDIATE WILLOW
8. lanrma
Pi, 207.
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 167
less downy, very downy beneath, blunt with a small hooked point ; stipules
roundish ; style very short. This, too, is a common Sallow in our moist
woods and thickets; and Mr. Borrer observes, that “it is one of the least
equivocal species.” Its large-stalked stipules and its foliage, blistered like a
cabbage-leaf, form a marked character, although its leaves vary in size, and
in the form of the outline. It sometimes becomes a bushy tree, but is more
commonly a shrub, about three or four feet high, having branches which
trail to a great length along the ground, and entangle themselves among the
neighbouring bushes. ‘The leaves are on short downy footstalks, and are one
or two inches long, and more or less contracted towards the base ; the upper
side is of dark green, the under paler and somewhat glaucous.
Group XI. PHYLICIFOLLE®, NIGRICANTES, AND BICOLORES.—Borr.
Stamens 2; capsules stalked ; style long; catkins lateral and sessile, or
on short bracteated stalks; leaves toothed or serrated ; stipules with glands
inside, or at the base. Shrubs or small trees.
29. Dark-leaved Sallow (S. négricans).—Young shoots thickly downy
or hairy towards the summit; leaves usually dull green, glaucous beneath,
and becoming black when dry. Several varieties of this Willow, differing
in having prostrate or erect stems, in the downiness of the branches, in the
smoothness or silkiness of the ovaries, and somewhat in the outline of the
leaf, have been described as S. cotinifolia, S. forsteruina, S. rupéstris, S. hirta,
S. andersiniana, S. damascéna, or S. petrea. Sir William Hooker and
Dr. Arnott remark that there are, besides, numerous intermediate forms in
this most variable species of Willow ; but add, that in all native specimens,
whether cultivated or wild, the foliage constantly turns black when pressed
and dried, however carefully done.
The Dark-leaved Willow is a large bushy shrub, scarcely ever attaining
the height or form of a tree. Its branches are round and usually rather
brittle, except in the variety with trailing stems, sometimes termed S. rupestris,
in which the branches are tough. The catkins appear in April. The plant
is not one of our useful or ornamental Willows. It is common on mountains,
chiefly in the north of England and Scotland, and grows also in osier-grounds,
and on riversides and moist lands.
30. Intermediate Willow (S. laiivina).—Young shoots and leaves
densely downy or hairy towards the summit ; leaves finally becoming smooth,
glaucous beneath, dull green above; after drying, the young ones only
becoming sometimes slightly black. Several forms of this species occur,
differing in the degree of hairiness of the ovaries, and the shape and hairi-
ness of the leaves. These have been described as S. propinqua, S. ténuwior,
S. bicolor, or S. tenuifolia. This Willow has much the same dull appearance
as the last, and its leaves are thin. It is a shrub, or sometimes a small tree,
occurring in woods and thickets, or by riversides, in several parts of the
kingdom, especially in England.
31. Tea-leaved Willow (S. phylicifélia).—Leaves and shoots soon
quite smooth, the latter dark green, rigid, glossy above and glaucous beneath,
not black when dried; stigmas entire or 2-cleft. This Willow is, in each of
168 AMENTACEA
its forms, a twiggy bush. A very large number of plants now included
under the same name were formerly considered distinct species; they differ
in the form and relative length of the stigma and style, in the degree of
silkiness of the ovaries, and in the exact shape of the leaves. They have
been termed S. radicans, S. davalliina, S. weigelidna, S. amena, S. nitens,
S. crowedna, S. dicksinia, S. laxiflora, S. tetrdpla, S. borreriina, and S. phyllyrei-
jolia. They grow chiefly in valleys in mountainous districts, attaining in
some cases, as in the variety which has been termed S. borreridna, the height
of ten feet ; but in general they are quite low shrubs. The leaves vary in
length and outline, not only in the different varieties, but they are said, by
the authors of the “British Flora,” to vary even on the same bush. The
catkins appear in April and May.
Group XII. VACCINIIFOLIA.—Borr.
Stamens 2; ovaries densely downy, nearly sessile ; style as long as the
stigma ; catkins compact, appearing with the leaves, terminal or on short
few-leaved lateral shoots ; leaves more or less veiny above ; stipules none or
minute. Small, erect, or spreading, rarely prostrate shrubs ; stems above
‘ground.
32. Small Tree Willow (8. arbiscula).—Leaves lanceolate-egg-shaped,
or broadly or roundish egg-shaped, finely serrated. In one variety opaque
above, and of a sea-green hue beneath ; in another, prominently veined above,
green, but scarcely shining on both sides. The forms included in this
description are those which have been termed by various writers S. myrsinites,
S. vacciniifolia, S. venuldésa, S. carindta, and S. prunifélia. They differ in the
outline, in the degree of silkiness of the leaves, and in the more erect or
prostrate growth of the stem. The Small Tree Willow is not infrequent on
Highland mountains, and is usually a very low shrub, with red or green
branches, more or less trailing, but sometimes erect. The leaves are often
folded so as to form a keel; in other cases they are flat and narrow. The
catkins appear in June and July.
Group XIII. Myrsinires.—Borr.
Stamens 2; ovaries silky, stalked ; catkins appearing with the full green
leaves, terminal on lateral or terminal leafy shoots, soon becoming lax ; leaves
veiny, never glaucous beneath; stipules egg-shaped or lanceolate. Small
much-branched shrub ; stems above ground.
33. Green Whortle-leaved Willow (S. myrsinites).—Leaves waved,
serrated with very prominent veins, often hairy, at length shining ; blackish
when dried ; in one variety roundish or elliptical, or inversely egg-shaped ;
in another, smaller and somewhat heart-shaped at the base ; in another, egg-
shaped or oblong and acute. This description includes the variety which
has been described as S. arbutifolia. ‘This is a low shrub, occurring but rarely
on the Highland mountains. Its leaves are of a bright and glossy green,
varying both in form and size, and the short catkins appear in June. The
whole plant is very black when dry.
34. Smooth-leaved Alpine Willow (S. procumbens).—Leaves oval,
rarely acute, obscurely serrated, shining, quite smooth, not black when dried ;
TEA-LEAVED WILLOW Z SMALL TREE W
S
Salix phylicifola arbaosecnla .
GREEN WHORTLE-LEAVED W
S$. myrsinites
PL 208.
: :
1h) Soe ty
puw
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 169
catkins long ; style cloven to the middle or below it, as long as the stigmas.
This Willow, which is the S. retdsa or the S. levis of some writers, is a low
shrubby plant of the Scottish Highlands, its short round downy branches
being of a greenish hue. Mr. Forbes describes its leaves as from one inch
to an inch and a half long and upwards of an inch broad, hollowed out, or
somewhat heart-shaped at the base, serrated, bright green, shining, and
always perfectly smooth. It bears its large long catkins in June. It has for
many years been cultivated in gardens, where it is a very ornamental shrub.
Group XIV. HERBACE®.—Borr.
Stamens 2; ovaries shortly stalked ; style as long as the stigma; catkins
appearing with the full-grown leaves, terminal, few-flowered ; leaves roundish,
serrated, with prominent veins, smooth but not glaucous. Dwarf alpine
prostrate shrubs, the stems creeping below the surface.
35. Least Willow (S. herbdcea).—Leaves roundish, serrated, smooth,
shining, veined; ovaries smooth. This little plant is interesting for its
beauty, as well as because it is the smallest, not only of its tribe, but of all
our native trees. It grows on Snowdon and other Welsh mountains, being
abundant on those of the Highlands of Scotland, and is found in many parts
of Europe and North America. In Great Britain, it is the last plant with a
woody stem which greets the traveller who ascends mountains, and few of
our heights of eight or nine hundred yards’ elevation are without it. It is
usually about four inches high; but as Sir W. J. Hooker remarks, it is not
quite so small as is usually supposed, for its stems divide, and creep below
the surface of the earth. As Dr. E. D. Clarke said of it, it is a perfect tree
in miniature; and root, trunk, and branches may all be laid between the
leaves of a pocket-book. M. De Candolle observes that, in Switzerland,
“Some species of Willow spread over the uneven surface of the soil ; and
as their branches are often covered with the earth which the heavy rains
wash over them, they present the singular phenomenon of trees which are
more or less subterranean. The extremities of these branches form some-
times a kind of turf; and the astonished traveller finds himself, as we may
say, walking on the top of atree.” Itis the S. herbdcea which most frequently
presents this appearance, as it often grows on steep slopes of loose soil, which
are readily penetrated by the melting snow and rain. This Willow is used
by the Laplanders in tanning leather.
Group XV. Hasrata —Borr.
Stamens mostly 2; anthers permanently yellow ; ovaries smooth ; style
long ; stigmas entire or 2-cleft ; catkins appearing before the leaves, sessile,
terminal and lateral, large, blunt, with very shaggy and silky scales ; leaves
large, glaucous beneath; stipules large on the autumnal shoots. Shrubs,
with numerous irregular, crooked branches, and hairy young shoots.
36. Apple-leaved Willow (S. hastata).— Leaves egg-shaped, acute,
serrated, waved, crackling, smooth, heart-shaped at the base, glaucous beneath ;
stipules unequally heart-shaped, longer than the broad footstalks ; catkins
very woolly; ovaries distinctly stalked. Although this Willow is usually
classed with the British species, yet it can hardly be considered as even
Ii. —22
170 AMENTACEA
naturalized in the few spots on which it has been seen. It was discovered
by Mr. F. Drummond beside a small stream that passes through the sands of
Barrie near Dundee, but the record has not been confirmed. The authors of
the “British Flora” remark: “It is most improbable that this plant, which
is truly alpine on the Continent, growing in Switzerland only at great eleva-
tions, should be naturalized on the sands of Barrie, and the Norfolk station
is entirely hypothetical and extremely unlikely.”
This species, which is sometimes termed S. malifvlia, has shining leaves,
three inches long and about half as wide, and blackish branches, and has
more the appearance of an apple-tree than a Willow. Its stem, in its wild
state, is usually one or two feet high ; but when cultivated, the plant becomes
a small spreading tree, about six feet in height. It bears, in May, very com-
pact shaggy catkins, densely covered with silvery hairs, and about an inch
and a half long.
37. Woolly Broad-leaved Willow (8. landita).—Leaves broadly oval,
pointed, entire, shaggy ; stipules oval, pointed, entire ; barren catkins covered
with yellow silky hairs ; ovaries almost sessile. This species is sometimes
ealled the Golden Willow (S. chrysantha), on account of the beautiful golden
catkins which in May and June ornament its boughs, while the young leaves
are just expanding. Wahlenberg says of this Willow, that it is the most
beautiful one in Sweden, if not in the whole world. “The splendid golden
catkins,” he remarks, “at the ends of the young branches, light up, as it
were, the whole shrub, and are accompanied by the tender foliage, sparkling
with gold and silver.” The stem is about three or four feet high, with
numerous irregular branches, which, while young, are downy. Its leaves are
wavy at the edge, from an inch and a half to two inches and a half long,
very grey, and almost white with the long, soft, silky hairs, which entirely
cover the upper surface, while the sea-green-tinted under surface is beautifully
netted with veins. The catkins are thought to yield more honey than those
of any other species, and perhaps they would serve the same purpose as
those of the celebrated little Willow called in the East Calaf, from whose
blossoms a medicinal and fragrant water is distilled. The Woolly Broad-
leaved Willow is a rare plant of the Scottish mountains.
38. Sadler’s Willow (S. sadleri).—Leaves broadly egg-shaped, some-
times heart-shaped at base, entire, smooth and cottony above, netted and
naked beneath; stipules absent; catkins cylindric at the tips of leafy
branches, woolly, turning dark brown ; capsules naked, on slender stalks,
styles persistent. This species has hitherto occurred only on rocky ledges
in Glen Callater, at an altitude of 2,500 feet.
5. Popiar (Pépulus).
1. Great White Poplar or Abele (2. alba).—Leaves roundish, heart-
shaped, lobed, and angularly toothed, cottony and perfectly white beneath,
those of the young shoots heart-shaped, 5-lobed ; leaf-buds downy ; scales of
the catkins notched at the end. This handsome species is a doubtful native
of this kingdom, though in many a mountain wood
‘The Poplar, that with silver lines his leaf,”
APPLE-LEAVED W
1 SMOOTH LEAVED ALPINE WILLOW . 3
Sahx procumbens S. hastata
i WoOOITLY BROAD LEAVED Ww
S. lanata.
N
LEAST W
S. herbacea
Pl. 209.
a, 2 : y »
Poe See
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CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE We!
may be seen towering above the other trees, attaining the greatest luxuriance
where the soil is moist. In many places it is planted for the contrast afforded
by its dark-green foliage, varied with the white under surface ; and having
the old Dutch name of Abele, it was probably brought into this country from
Holland. It is of very rapid growth, making, in favourable situations, shoots
three inches in diameter, and sixteen feet long, in a single season; and is
sometimes eighty or ninety feet high. Bailey has referred to the tall Poplars
which overtop their leafy companions :—
“«The black yew hedge, like a beleaguering host,
Round some fair garden province ; here and there
The cloud-like laurel-clumps sleep soft and fast,
Pillow’d by their own shadows ; and beyond,
The ripe and ruddy fruitage ; the sharp firs
Fringe like an eyelash on the faint blue west ;
The oaks which spread their broad arms to the wind,
And bid storms come and welcome—there they stand,
To whom a summer passes like a smile ;
O’er all, the giant Poplars, which maintain
Equality with clouds half-way up heaven,
Which whisper with the winds none else can see,
And bow to angels as they wing by them.”
In April we may see the fertile catkins of this Poplar, which are about
three inches long, and the shorter barren ones appear soon after. In a few
weeks the seeds ripen, and they with their cottony tufts he scattered around
the tree, accounting for the Arab name of the White Poplar, Shairat-al-bak
(the Gnat, or Fly-tree). The young shoots of this Poplar have a purplish
tinge, and are thickly invested with the downy covering ; and the full-grown
leaves are on footstalks, about an inch long, and, when old, sometimes smooth
on both sides.
The characteristic name of White Poplar, referring to the hue both of
the seed-tufts and the leaves, has its synonym in various parts of the world.
In France, the tree is called Blane de Hollande, and Peuplier blane ; and in
Germany, /Vcisse Pappel, Silber Pappel, Weisseaspe, and Weissalber Baum ;
while it is the Abeel-boom of the Dutch, from which latter name our Abele is
probably derived. Large numbers of these trees grow on the borders of the
Tigris and Euphrates, and some commentators have thought this Poplar to
be the Abeel-shittim of Scripture, from which the shittim-wood was obtained. |
There is good reason, however, for believing that this was the wood of the
Acacia seyel, a plant fragrant enough to be suitably associated with the other
odoriferous shrubs in that glorious promise yet to be fulfilled, when God
has declared that He will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah, the
myrtle, and the oil-tree. Dr. Royle thinks that our White Poplar is, in all
probability, the plant referred to by the Prophet Hosea, when he says,
“They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the
hills under oaks and Poplars.” The Septuagint renders the latter “ White
Poplars,” and our Abele is a common tree in many of the countries mentioned
in Scripture history. Belon remarked that the White and Black Poplars,
with some fruit-bearing trees, render the plain of Damascus like a forest ;
while the white species is frequent about Aleppo and Tripoli, and is still
OKI ED)
~
172 AMENTACEZE
called by one of its ancient Arabic names, Mawr or Hor, which is the word
used in the Arabic translation of the passage in Hosea.
Whether this Poplar is, or is not, truly indigenous to this country, it
is now very generally distributed. It is a native of most European countries,
and is usually found in woods and thickets in which the soil is somewhat
moist. Turner, writing in 1568, says that the White Aspe is plentiful in
Germany and Italy, but that he does not remember ever seeing it in England;
but Gerarde, who published his Herbal about thirty years after, remarked
that it grew in a few places in the kingdom ; and Evelyn says that the tree
had of late been much transplanted from Holland. It does not flower in
Scotland.
This Poplar is in some country places called Rattler, from the quick
movement of its leaves. Its young buds have in spring-time a very pleasant
balsamic odour, and afford a resinous substance resembling storax ; but this
is yielded in far greater quantity by the Canadian Balsam Poplar, and is
used medicinally. Several attempts have been made to manufacture paper
from the white cottony seed-tufts, and cloth has been made from it. Pallas
endeavoured to prove that the cotton was of equal worth to that of the
cotton-plant, but it is far inferior. Thin slips of Poplar-wood, called in
France Sparterre, are woven into those delicate bonnets so commonly worn
on bridal occasions, and known as chip bonnets by ladies. The leaves of the
tree are, in Sweden, eaten by cattle.
The ancients believed that amber was formed of the clammy substance
which dropped from the Poplars into the river. Hence our old poets refer
to this idea ; and Prior says :—
“For thee the Poplar shall its amber drain.”
Ancient poets also described Hercules as wearing a wreath of White Poplar,
and those who offered sacrifices to this hero placed its leaves around their
brows. The tree is much used on the Continent for planting by the sides
of roads, for its foliage does net prevent the access of light and air, while it
is very ornamental when mingling with the dark-leaved Black Poplar and
the grey tint of the Willows. In some parts of France it also grows wild
in forests, so abundantly as to give a peculiar character to the scenery. Its
wood, like that of all the Poplars, is well suited for heating ovens, and it is
largely so used in France, where the Parisian baker knows it as his bois blanc.
The wood of this species is not so hard as that of the Grey Poplar, and is
chiefly used for coarser work, or in the manufacture of children’s toys.
2. Grey Poplar (P. canéscens).—Leaf-buds downy, but not clammy ;
leaves roundish, deeply waved, toothed, lobed only when young, hoary and
downy beneath, old ones sometimes smooth; stigmas 8, purple; scales of
catkins deeply cut. ‘This tree, though a doubtful native, is common in
several parts of this kingdom, especially in Norfolk, in wet meadows, and
also on dry heathy places. The authors of the ‘ British Flora” remark, that
it is usually confounded with the last on account of its downy leaves, though
Dr. Bromfield regards it as a variety of the Aspen. It is a tall and hand-
some tree, with the usual graceful motion of the tribe when stirred by the
wind ; the under surface of its leaves is of a greyish tint, and not quite of
iS]
to
GREAT WHITE
GREY P
POPLAR
Populus alba .
P. canescens.
Pl. 210.
As
TREME LING
BLACK P,
P
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ASTPEN
P. tremula.
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CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 173
the snowy whiteness of the foliage of the Abele. It is of slower growth
than any other of our Poplars, and yields the best wood of them all. The
boarded floors which still, in Norfolk, retain their old Norman name of
planchers, are commonly made of it; and it is thought, for many purposes,
to be scarcely inferior to the wood of the Norway fir. Sir J. E. Smith says
that it will not readily take fire like resinous woods. It is regarded as a
sub-species of P. alba, or a hybrid between that and P. tremula.
3. Aspen or Trembling Poplar (P. trémula).—Young branchlets
hairy ; leaves roundish, toothed, downy when young ; footstalks flattened.
Who of us, accustomed to notice plants, has not on a summer-day, at some
time or other, looked up wonderingly into the Aspen-tree, when it was
quivering and rustling into gentle music, and marvelled where was the breeze
which bade it answer to its touch? It must indeed be a dead calm, when
Thomson’s description could be true :—
** A perfect calm ; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves
Of Aspen tall.”
How often, as we have looked upon its tall, slender canopy of drooping
branches, rustling so tremulously, has the mind recurred to the old associa-
tions connected with the tree! The ancients are said to have called the
Poplar Populus, the Tree of the People, because its readily-moved and ever-
stirring leaves were, like the ever-restless multitude, quickened into action
by the slightest breath ; and a Poplar of one species or another has always
been regarded in modern times as the Tree of the People. It may not have
been the Aspen Poplar especially to which the ancients referred, though this
is the most easily moved by the zephyrs of any of the species; but there is
good reason for believing that this is the plant intended by the Scripture
writer of a passage of David’s history, though rendered by our translators
by another name. “Let it be,” said the great Jehovah to the Israelitish
warrior, “when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-
trees, that thou shouldst bestir thyself;’ but it was perchance to the
quivering Aspen, which adorns so plentifully the ravines of Palestine, that
David looked for the indication. The ancients, too, said of the foliage, that
it might be likened to the unceasing course of time. Pliny remarks, “ As for
the Aspen-tree, or White Poplar, it maketh little or no shade at all, the
leaves keep such a wagging and trembling.” Old Gerarde, too, with little
gallantry, refers to the restless leaves, and says, “It may be called Tremble,
after the French name, considering it is the matter whereof women’s tongues
were made ;” but he takes care to shield himself from some replying woman’s
tongue by adding, that, “as the poets and some others report, these seldom
cease wagging.” Our earliest poets, as well as the moderns, refer to it.
Chaucer says—
‘* And quake as doth the leaf of Aspen green ;”
while Spenser tells of one
‘* Whose hand did quake
Ard tremble like the leaf of Aspen greene.”
174 AMENTACE At
Indeed, to “shake like an Aspen” is one of our oldest English proverbs. In
our own days, many poets allude to its movement. Leyden says :—
** Again beside this silver riv let’s shore,
With green and yellow moss-flowers mottled o’er,
Beneath a shivering canopy reclined
Of Aspen-leaves, that wave without a wind,
I love to lie when lulling breezes stir
The spiny cones that tremble on the fir.”
Miss Jewsbury, too, looked on the Aspen to draw a lesson from its restless-
ness, which we might well take to our hearts :—
‘*T would not be
A leaf on yonder Aspen-tree,
In every fickle breeze to play
So wildly, weakly, idly gay,
So feebly framed, so lightly hung,
By the wings of an insect stirr’d and swung ;
Thrilling even to a redbreast’s note,
Drooping, if only a light mist float ;
Brighten’d and dimm’ “d like a varying glass
As shadow or sunshine chance to pass.
* *
Spirit, ee spirit, ponder thy state,
If thine the leaf’s lightness, not thine the leaf’s fate :
It may flutter and alitter, aad wither and die,
And heed not our pity, and ask not our sigh ;
But for thee, the immortal, no winter may throw
Eternal repose on thy joy or thy woe;
Thou must live—live for ever, in glory or gloom
Beyond the world’s precincts, bey yond the dark tomb ;
Look to thyself, then, ere past is Hope’s reign,
And looking and longing alike are in vain ;
Lest thou deem it a bliss to have been, or to be,
But a fluttering leaf of yon Aspen-tree.”
There is a tradition among the Highlanders that the Cross was made of
the wood of this Poplar; and Mr. De Quincey says that the legend is
“European, or rather co-extensive with Christendom, that it shivers
mystically in sympathy with that mother tree, which was compelled to
furnish the materials for the Cross.” Yet an old notion was once very
prevalent that the Cross was formed of four pieces of wood, signifying the
four quarters of the globe; and the palm, cedar, olive, and cypress were
believed by some to be the olesen trees, while others substituted the pine
and box for the cedar and palm. Our fathers certainly ought to have known
of what wood it was made, if portions of this sacred relic were as common in
other places as they were at Bury St. Edmunds, where the visitors who went
to examine into the state of the monastery, at the time of the Reformation,
found “peces of the Holy Cross, enough to make a hole crosse.”
But we are wandering away from the Aspen, which grows very rapidly,
and when at its full height is a middle-sized. tree, with a trunk free from
branches, and covered with a smooth grey bark, which cracks as it grows
older. The young tough and pliant shoots are of a reddish-green colour,
and when the Aspen is old its branches often droop. ‘The leaves are of a
paler green beneath, and a bright glossy green above, varying much in ont-
line. The margin is somewhat waved, and the footstalk often longer than
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 175
the leaf itself. This footstalk is flattened vertically at the upper part, and
by this form counteracts the ordinary waving motion of leaves in the wind,
and hence the quivering movement. This is the earliest flowering Poplar,
its catkins appearing in March. It will, in dry soils, live many years, but it
never attains the size of the Abele. The roots le very near the surface of
the soil, and were considered by Dr. Withering so to impoverish the land as
to prevent other plants from thriving near it ; and he thought, too, that the
leaves destroyed the grass. The foliage of the Aspen is, however, in countries
where it is abundant, of much value as food for cattle, and both in France
and Germany it is used for this purpose, both when green and dried. Many
owners of these trees cut regularly, every two years, the leaves and spray ;
and sheep are so fond of this food that the foliage sometimes constitutes the
chief worth of the Aspens. The tendency of the wood of this tree to crack
and split lessens its value, but it may be employed in buildings in dry places,
and is well fitted for heating ovens; while, being white and tender, it is
used by turners, and the white pails which hold the whiter milk of the dairy
are often made of Aspen-wood. It serves for clogs and sabots, and is of old
repute as the best wood for the making of Heaton This last manufacture
has, for some years past, been on the decline, for pattens are now but of
rustic use, though, even at the commencement of the present century, they
were commonly worn in wet weather by ladies. But in past times pattens
formed part of a gentleman’s daily costume ; and Camden, in his “‘ Remains,”
tells how “their shoes and pattens are snowted and piked, more than a finger
long upwards.” The Church of St. Mary’s-at-Hill, whose old records still
bear evidence of many a long-discarded usage, has its item, in 1491, for
“jj paire of pattens for the priest.” Mr. Albert Way mentions that, in 1464,
the craft of “ patyn-makers” petitioned the Crown that the statute of the 4th
of Henry V., which forbade them to use the wood of the Aspen-tree, as being
that which was used by the fletchers, might be repealed—representing that
“at was the best and lightest timber to mee of patyns and clogges.”
The bark of the Sener is somewhat astringent, and, as well as that of the
White and Black Poplars, has been used for tanning. In the Highlands of
Scotland it is sometimes burned for torches. When powdered, the bark
is given as a medicine to domestic animals; and in Russia, where the tree
is frequent, this bark is commonly prescribed by the physician to his patient.
The Aspen grows in high latitudes, and is found near the Frozen Ocean ;
while it is abundant also throughout Southern Europe and in Asia Minor,
usually preferring low soils, but found on some of the highest mountains of
Scotland. It is called by the French, Le Tremble, and by the Italians, La
Tremella, as well as L’ Alberallo and L’ Alberetto. The Germans term it Zitter-
happel, and Espe ; and the last name is probably the origin of our Aspen
and Aspe. In Norfolk, the tree is commonly called Ebble. It is thought
by most botanists to be the only species of Poplar indigenous to this
kingdom.
4. Black Poplar (P. néyru).—Leaves triangular, narrowing to a point,
serrated and smooth on both sides ; stipules egg-shaped and pointed ; stigmas
4, simple, spreading ; scales of the catkins ae into segments nearly to the
middle. Ifwe happen to glance from the Abele, when the wind turns up
176 AMENTACEA#
its white leaves, and then look at the Black Poplar, we are ready to admit
the appropriateness of the name of the latter tree. The bark, which is at
first of a dim ash-colour, deepens into black as it becomes older, and the
leaves are dark green, and form a striking contrast to the whitened under-
surface of those of the Abele. Its leaves, like those of all the Poplars, are
very tremulous, and they served Homer, as well as many a modern bard, for
a simile :—
‘Like Poplar-leaves when zephyrs fan the grove.”
Wilcox thus describes the calmness of summer noonday :—
**O’er all the woods the topmost leaves are still ;
F’en the wild Poplar-leaves, that, pendent hung
By stems elastic, quiver at a breath,
Rest in the general calm. The thistledown
Seen high and thick by gazing up, beside
Some shading object, in a silver shower
Plumb down and slower than the slowest snow
Through all the sleepy atmosphere descends ;
And when it lights, though on the steepest roof,
Or smallest spire of grass, remains unmoved.”
This tree is not erect and spiry, like the Lombardy or Italian Poplar (P.
fustigiata), which is believed to be but a variety of it. It has wide-spreading
branches, forming a good extent of leafage, and is a very large tree, some-
times larger even than the Abele. It has been known in this country to
reach the height of ninety feet, and may often be seen seventy or eighty feet
high. Though it is not likely that this Poplar is indigenous, it is now very
common by river-banks and on other moist lands. It well answers the
purpose of the planter, for it is of rapid growth, bears lopping, and both in
France and Italy it is commonly pollarded, and used as a support to the
trailing vines. It looks very well in the spring, as its catkins, which are to
be seen in March and April on the leafless branches, are of a dark rich red
colour, and are very welcome to the insect race; and in May, the foliage is
beginning to clothe the boughs. By the end of this month the catkins have
ripened their seeds, and away they float on the winds, or lie whitening the
ground beneath by the cottony down with which they are invested, and
which has been used in the manufacture of paper, and is wrought, in Germany,
into a kind of wadding as well as into hats. It is, however, borne away so
readily by the breeze, that it requires much pains to collect enough for any
useful purpose. The leaves and young shoots are eaten by the beaver ; and
in Russia the bark is powdered, and given as food to sheep; while, both in
that and this country, it has been used in tanning leather. The poor in
Norway and Kamtschatka often make their bread of the dried bark of the
Poplar. The wood is yellow, soft, and fibrous, and furnishes the materials
for some light articles, as clogs and bowls. The tree is comparatively short-
lived.
The crushed buds of this Poplar yield a pleasantly fragrant substance,
which burns like wax, and which wa’ believed by our old herbalists to be a
vegetable remedy of great power in various diseases. The young shoots are
used in wicker-work ; or, stripped of their leaves, serve the housewife for
brooms. )
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 177
This Poplar has in summer large drops of clear water lying upon its leaves,
and these only need some stirring wind to send them trickling down to
earth, and to remind us of Spenser’s description :-—
‘The Poplar never dry.”
The ancient poets fabled that these drops were the tears of the sisters of
Phaethon, who, wandering by the sides of the Po, were changed into trees :—
‘** And eke those trees in whose transforméd hue
The Sun’s sad daughters wail’d the rash decay
Of Phaethon, whose limbs with lightning rent,
They gathering up with sweet tears did lament.”
6. BEECH (Fdqus).
Common Beech (Ff. sylvitica). — Leaves egg-shaped, smooth, very
slightly toothed, and fringed at the margin. A green and full shadow is
afforded to the country rambler by the crowded and usually straight
branches of the Beech-tree, covered in summer with a profusion of thin
leaves, among which many a gay bird is fluttering. Its boughs have long
been celebrated for the shelter which they have given to heroes, to poets, and
shepherds ; and the classic reader would, in some moods of mind, agree with
Cowper—
“* Heroes and their feats
Fatigued me, never weary of the pipe
Of Tityrus, assembling as he sang
The rustic throng beneath his favourite Beech.”
As Campbell had his valued Beech-tree, which he had watched for
“twenty summers,” so Virgil loved one, too, for the abundant shadow which
it gave him. Many are the single or grouped trees which have been celebrated
for interesting associations, like the Burnham Beeches, beneath which Gray
wandered, to be soothed in his musings by the gentle whisperings of the
‘nodding beeches,” and which, he says, “are always dreaming out their old
stories to the winds.” Then there are Saccharissa’s Beeches, at Penshurst in
Kent, the trees which Waller apostrophised in the inflated language so
remote from the utterances of feeling, that it awakens no sympathy for his
unrequited affection :—
“Ye lofty Beeches, tell this matchless dame,
That if together ye fed all one flame,
Ye could not equalize the hundredth part
Of what her eyes have kindled in my heart.”
The Purley Beeches, believed to have grown in the time of the Conquest,
are interesting trees, as is that venerable tree of Windsor Forest, which Strutt
has engraved in his “Sylva Britannica,” and which, older still, is supposed
to have reared its head in the time of the Saxon kings. Camden describes
it as “growing on a high hill (Sunning Hill), and overlooking a vale lying
out far and wide, garnished with corn-fields, flourishing with meadows,
decked with groves on either side, and watered with the Thames.” This tree
I1.—23
”
178 AMENTACEAX
was found to measure thirty-six feet in circumference, at thirty feet from the
ground. The tree called Pontey’s Beech, at Woburn Abbey, is a hundred
feet high ; and instances are recorded of noble trees exceeding even this in
magnitude. If we may believe Fuller, Buckinghamshire takes its name
from the abundance of the Beech, which was called by the Anglo-Saxons
Buchen ; and “Buchen ham,” the home or land of Beeches, was then appro-
priate. The Germans call the tree Buche; and in France it is termed
Heétre.
Some writers have thought that the Beech was not an indigenous tree,
because Cesar says that he did not find it in Britain. Commentators have
questioned whether the Fagus of the Romans was our Beech; but the con-
clusion seems to be general that it was so, and that the great Roman, never
having penetrated probably to those parts of the country where it is abundant,
was unacquainted with it as a tree of this island.
The Beech grows in the temperate countries of Europe, from the south
of Norway to the Mediterranean Sea, and also in Asia Minor and Japan.
Either this species, or a variety, is common in the American forests ; and
Bryant, describing a winter day, refers to
‘*The snow-bird twittering on the beechen bough ;”
and adds—
‘* From his hollow tree
The squirrel was abroad, gathering the nuts
Just fallen, that asked the winter cold, and sway
Of winter blast, to shake them from their hold.”
The Beech is generally in full green by the end of May, when the flowers
appear among the delicately-fringed leaves. The barren flowers form
drooping tassel-like heads, and soon fall off; and the brown, fertile, solitary
flower is on a slender stalk, and is gradually developed into the nut or mast
of the Beech. Children well know these nuts, which burst out when ripe
from their triangular prickly envelopes, and which have a flavour very similar
to that of the almond. To a large number of animals these nuts afford a
good store of food. The thrush, blackbird, and many another gladsome
songster delight in them, as do the partridge and pheasant; and the little
dormouse makes his autumn meal on the mast, and sinks to sleep till the
next spring leaves are coming. As to the squirrel, he sits among the boughs,
and takes his meal of them, scatters numbers in waste, or carries them with
him to some neighbouring tree :—
‘©The sun is higher in the morning sky,
His beams embrace the mossy-trunkéd trees,
Yonder the squirrel, on the elm so high,
Frisketh about in the cool morning breeze ;
Down peeps his diamond eyes—amazed he sees
A stranger in his solitary home :
And now he hides beneath the oaken-trees,
And now he forth upon a branch will come,
To crack his Beechen nuts, and watch me as I roam.”
An old herbalist said, ‘The nuts do much nourish such beasts as feed
thereon ;” and the deer search for them beneath the trees, while country
people, in the neighbourhoods of Beech-woods, send the swine to feed on the
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE Vio
mast. The nuts are very oily, and in France an oil, scarcely inferior to that
of the olive, is expressed from them, and forms a very important article of
domestic use, being fitted both for cookery and for burning in lamps. In
some French provinces the mast (La Faine of the French) is roasted for
coffee. Du Hamel says that the forests of Eu and of Crécy, in the depart-
ment of the Oise, have yielded in a single season more than two million
bushels of mast; and Michaux mentions that in 1770 the forests of Com-
piegne, near Verberie, furnished oil enough to supply the wants of the
district for half a century. Beech-nuts are said to cause headache, if eaten
in too great numbers.
Some of our best writers on forest trees consider the Beech as a tree
which is not very picturesque ; to us it seems beautiful. Its tall thick trunk,
covered with smooth dark grey rind, its immumerable boughs, often bending
downwards, and clad in summer with glossy green foliage, which in autumn
is most richly tinted with russet yellow, render it attractive. Often innumer-
able stems arise from one root ; and no tree has its tint of trunk and bough
more varied by mosses, lichens, and handsome species of fungus. The
youngling Beech keeps its shrivelled leaves through the winter ; and the
bole of the older tree often exhibits knobs about as large as a hazel-nut,
which fall off at a blow.
We have, perhaps, no native tree which has so great a variety of uses as
the Beech, though its wood is not well fitted for house or ship building. It
is very useful, however, for keels of vessels, floodgates, piles, and other
waterworks ; and much household furniture is made of it, especially in con-
tinental countries—it being often stained to represent mahogany or ebony.
Sabots are often cut of this wood, and the chips of Beech are much used in
clarifying wine; while, in Scotland, the branches are valued for the pyro-
ligneous acid which is procured from them. One interesting fact respecting
this tree is, that to its German name, Biche, we owe our English word “book”
—the sides of thick books having been made of beech-boards. The wood is
said to make the very best oars for galleys; and, in France, small boats are
formed of the hollowed trunk of this tree. In Germany, where wood is so
much used for fires, a large amount of Beech is consumed as fuel. Beech-
hedges, formed of several trees placed near together and kept cut, are also
often to be seen in Beech countries.
Classic readers will readily recall references made by ancient poets to the
“Beechen bowl ;” and Milton, Cowley, and others of our English bards,
allude to it. In the words of the latter :—
‘* He sings the Bacchus, patron of the vine,
The Beechen bow] foams with a flood of wine.”
And, in another place, he says :—
“If thou, without a sigh or golden wish,
Canst look upon the Beechen bowl and dish ;
If in thy mind such power and greatness be,
The Persian king’s a slave compared with thee.”
Beech-leaves make an excellent material for filling mattresses ; and it is
23—2
180 AMENTACEAA
to be regretted that they are not more generally used in country places by
the poor, and that there are not more ladies like Miss Tyler, the aunt of
Southey, who, he says, ‘effected a wholesome and curious innovation ” in
the poor-house, by persuading the managers to use beds stuffed with Beech-
leaves. The practice of thus using them is very ancient, as the oft-quoted
line of Juvenal testifies :—
‘«The wood an house, the leaves a bed.”
Evelyn says, that being gathered about the fall, and somewhat before
they are frostbitten, they ‘‘afford the best and easicst mattresses in the world
to lay under our quilts, instead of straw ; because, besides their tenderness
and loose lying together, they continue sweet for seven or eight years, long
before which time straw becomes musty and hard.” He adds, “I have often
lain upon them, to my great refreshment.” Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, though
used to the better beds of our times, still highly praises the Beech-leaf
mattresses, as forming a most luxurious couch, having a fragrant odour like
that of green tea.
Our old herbalists believed Beech-leaves to possess valuable medicinal
properties. “They are,” says an old writer, ‘cooling and binding, and
therefore good to be applied to hot swellings to discuss them.” He recom-
mends a salve made of these leaves ; and says, that the water found in the
hollowed places in the Beech-trunk is very efficacious in complaints of the
skin. The catkins, which fall from the tree in spring, are sometimes collected
for filling pillows and cushions, and also for packing fruit. The smooth
bark is frequently inscribed by the rustic lover now with the name of his
mistress, as it was in the days of Virgil :—
‘Or shall I rather the sad verse repeat,
Which on the Beech’s bark I lately writ ?”
A writer in an American journal stated, a few years since, that the Beech
was a non-conductor of lightning. It is a well-known fact that the Indians,
in the prospect of a thunderstorm, take refuge beneath its boughs. Dr.
Beeton, ina letter to Dr. Mitchell, stated that the Beech-tree is never known
to be struck by lightning, when other trees are shattered into splinters.
7. CHESTNUT (Castanea).
Spanish Chestnut or Sweet Chestnut (C. vulgdris).—Leaves oblong-
lanceolate, tapering to a point, serrated, with a small spine on each serrature,
smooth on both sides. In many woods of the south and south-west of
England, magnificent Chestnut-trees are to be seen, apparently growing wild;
and those who have spent their early days in their neighbourhood may,
perhaps, recall with what glee they searched, in the month of October, for
the fruits which fell from the boughs. The Chestnut-tree often adorns, too,
the parks and pleasure-grounds of various parts of the kingdom ; and though
a naturalized and not a ative plant, it was probably introduced here at a
very early period by the Romans. They called the tree Castinea, from a
town of Magnesia, in Thessaly, where it grew in great abundance, and from
which place they are believed to have obtained it. The fruit was also by
COMMON BEECH
Fagus sylvatica
NoT
SPANISH CHES
is
Castanea vulgaris
R
Pl, 211.
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 181
early writers called the Sardian Nut, and afterwards Jupiter’s Nut, and
Husked Nut, which last name refers to the husk inclosing it.
The Chestnut is a stately and beautiful tree, rivalling the oak in size and
length of years, though never quite so lofty or with such wide-spreading
boughs as that monarch of the woods. Its tall trunk is like a column, and
the bark is rifted and rent into innumerable clefts. The leaves are, during
the month of June, of a most beautiful glossy green, of a lighter colour
beneath, and edged with sharp spinous serratures. They are very handsome
in their verdant mass, and very elegant, too, is each leaf—often half a foot
long, sometimes twice that length, and three or four inches broad, marked
with strong veins, and of thin and flexible texture. Long after many trees
have dropped their foliage, the Chestnut has its boughs well covered with a
rich golden leafage, and is as beautiful as in the full rich green of spring.
From May to July, long and graceful spikes of greenish-yellow flowers are
to be seen hanging among the leaves, and looking almost like uncurled
tendrils. The barren flowers at the upper part of this spike are somewhat
drooping, and have spreading stamens ; they soon wither and fall off. The
fertile flowers are fewer and grow on stalks, which finally lengthen as they
support the fruit.
Some of the oldest Chestnut-trees of this country stood, probably, in
youthful vigour, nearly a thousand years ago, and are yet undecayed ; and
many an avenue, planted centuries since, reminds us of the trees of Weston
Underwood, which Cowper so prized :—
** Not distant far a length of coionnade
Invites us ; monument of ancient taste
Now scorn’d, but worthy of a better fate ;
Our fathers knew the value of a screen
From sultry suns ; and in these shaded walks,
And long protracted bowers, enjoyed at noon
The gloom and coolness of declining day.
Thanks to Benevyolus, he spares me yet
These Chestnuts ranged in corresponding lines,
And though himself so polished, still repricves
The obsolete prolixity of shade.”
The oldest Chestnut, and, with the exception of some yews, perhaps the
oldest tree in the kingdom, is the well-known tree which, as early as the
time of King John, was known as the Great Chestnut of Tortworth. It is
supposed to have been 300 years old in the days of that monarch, and it
stands yet in picturesque grandeur, covered at its season with graceful leaves.
Many a solitary wanderer has sat beneath its shadow, musing on its past
history and future length of days, as many a one sits yet, knowing that when
he is laid in his last resting-place, the wind will still stir its branches and the
April shower patter on its leaves. It was formerly much compressed by the
wall of the garden on which it stood; but the late Earl Ducie, in whose
grounds it stood, removed this, and placed fresh soil about its base ; and the
old tree re-awakened to a more vigorous life. At a height of five feet above
the ground the diameter of its trunk was then twelve feet, and its cireum-
ference fifty-two feet; yet this must have appeared a mere sapling when
compared with one which grew not many years since on the slope of Mount
n
182 AMENTACEAi
Etna. This, we are told, had a circumference of 204 feet, and had foolishly
been hollowed out to form a house.
Trees nearly as old as that of Tortworth are scattered up and down
the kingdom. Some very magnificent ones are in Kensington Gardens and
Greenwich Park; those in the latter place were planted by Evelyn. He
remarks: ‘The Chestnut is, next to the oak, one of the most sought after
by the carpenter and joiner. It hath formerly built a good part of our
ancient houses in the City of London, as does yet appear. I had once a
very large barn framed of this timber.” It was generally believed, until
recently, that the roof of Westminster Hall, as well as that of several
cathedrals in France, was made of Chestnut timber. Hence Bishop Mant.
says—
‘* Whence a rich store our fathers drew
The spacious barn to raise, or crown
In castled fort or tower’d town,
With open-rafted roof, the wall
Of hallow’d church or scutcheon’d hall ;
Hence London saw, of antique guise,
His framed and panell’d dwellings rise ;
Stage above stage projecting more
And more, each fresh successive floor, —
Hence thou beheld’st thy palace rear
Its hall, Imperial Westminster.”
It is not, however, now believed that the Chestnut was used so exten-
sively in building as was formerly thought; and it has been fully shown,
that neither the timber of Westminster Hall, nor of John Evelyn’s barn,
was of Chestnut—they being found to be of Durmast Oak (Quercus sessili-
flora). Chestnut timber does not prove valuable for buildings, having a
liability to crack, and to be much injured by time. But for many purposes,
as for hop-poles and vine-props, it is of great service ; and one of its uses is
indicated by the poet :—
‘** With close-grained chestnut-wood of sovereign use,
For casking up the grape’s most powerful juice.”
It is also made into water-pipes ; and its bark is valued by the tanner.
The leaves of the Chestnut have been used, like those of the beech, for
filling beds ; but Evelyn remarks that they make a crackling noise when the
sleeper moves. Both in this country and in France they are used as a litter
for cattle. Chestnuts, roasted or boiled, may often be seen at our tables, as
Milton describes :—
*¢ While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear,
And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there.”
And the crackling sound is well known to children, who gather around the
Christmas hearth to roast these fruits. Some of those chestnuts in common
use are gathered from native trees ; but the superior fruits of the trees in
Spain are largely imported hither. Evelyn regretted that chestnuts were
not more eaten in this country ; as, in some parts of the Continent, the trees
are planted entirely for this produce, where they constitute a large proportion
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 183
of the popular food. He says: ‘‘ We give that food to our swine in England
which is amongst the delicacies of princes in other countries ; and being a
large nut, is a lusty and masculine food for rusticks at all times, and of better
nourishment for husbandmen than cold and rusty bacon, yea, and beans to
boot ; instead of which they boil them, in Italy, with their bacon ; and, in
Virgil’s time, they ate them with milk or cheese. The bread made of the
flour is exceedingly nutritive ; it is a robust food, and makes women well-
complexioned, as I have read in a good author. They also make fritters
with chestnut-flour, which they wet with rose-water, and sprinkle with
grated parmigiano, and so fry them in fresh butter for a delicate. How we
use chestnuts in stewed meats and beatille pies, our French cooks teach us ;
and this is, in truth, their very best use, and commendable.” The old
French writers, though considering this fruit as well suited to the robust and
active, yet object to it, with good reason, for those whose lives are sedentary,
as being difficult of digestion. They recommend its external application, in
the form of cataplasms, for a variety of disorders. Our own authors said
that, if eaten overmuch, these nuts ‘made the blood thick, and caused head-
ache.” One of them remarks: “If you dry chestnuts—only the kernels, I
mean, both the barks being taken away—beat them into powder, and make
the powder up into an electuary with honey; so have you an admirable
remedy for the cough and spitting of blood.”
Martial said, many centuries ago, —
‘* For chestnuts roas.ed by a gentle heat,
No city can the learned Naples beat :”
and the chestnut is yet roasted daily there, as well as in many other parts of
Italy. In the South of France, too, they form the common vegetable food
of the peasantry, and are a substitute for the bread and potatoes of the
British meal. The planting of trees, and the gathering and preparing chest-
nuts for use, form the livelihood of large numbers of people; and the fruits
are preserved by drying either in sand or in akiln. They are, when ground
to powder, mixed with milk and salt, and made into cakes or a kind of
porridge. In France they are usually prepared by boiling, and flavoured
with seasoning herbs, or they are roasted. Sugar and starch have been
procured from them; and they have been, after roasting, put into beer.
instead of malt.
While hanging on the tree, the nuts are covered with the enlarged outer
skin of the ovary, which is thickly beset with prickles.
Several places in this kingdom seem to have derived their names from
the growth of these trees, as Norwood Chesteney, in the parish of Milton in
Kent, and Chestnut Hill, near it. “In Hertfordshire,” says Sir Thomas
Dick Lauder, ‘‘is a town called, in old writings, Cheston, Cheshunte, Shester-
hunte, Cestrehunte ; and Philpot, who wrote in 1659, says—‘There is a
manor called Northwood Chestenus, which name complies with the situation;
for it stands in a wood where Chestnut-trees formerly grew in great abund-
ance.’” The French call the tree Chdtaignier ; the Germans, Kastanienbaum ;
the Dutch, Kastanjeboom ; the Italians, Castagno ; and the Russians, Keschtan.
The word rendered by our translators of the Scripture by Chestnut, is
184 AMENTACE
believed to have signified the Plane-tree, so abundant in Palestine and the
other lands of Scripture.
8. British OAK (Quércus).
Common Oak (Q. robur).—Leaves oblong, usually on short stalks,
deeply cut at the edges with blunt lobes; acorns generally single, in twos or
threes ; fruit-stalks long, and of reddish green, but in intermediate varieties
short or almost wanting ; buds small and not prominent ; branches tortuous
and spreading. A form of Oak sometimes regarded as distinct, but now very
generally considered as a variety, is termed either the Bay, Chestnut, Red,
or Durmast Oak. Its acorns usually grow in clusters on very short stalks.
The leaves are glossy and shining, broader, rounder, and less deeply cut than
those of the Common Oak; their footstalks very long and of a yellowish-
green colour; the buds large and prominent; the branches more upright.
We have often thought, as we looked upon the Oak, that neither botanist
nor poet has ever better described it than does Shakspere, who calls it—
**The unwedgeable and gnarled oak.”
The Oak puts forth its foliage of tender green, sometimes tinged with
crimson, in April and May ; at which season the long, loose pendulous green
catkins are also to be seen. In winter the leaves have a reddish-brown tint,
though the younger Oaks wear, sometimes even in the dreariest season, a
branch of golden foliage. Far away in the woodlands, too, we may see
them contrasting with the other trees, by the large mass of withered leaves
which the rough winds yet leave to them. The leaves of the Oak grow in
tufts, and are unlike in form to those of any other native tree. It often puts
forth shoots in autumn ; and instances are on record of a yet later growth of
new leaves.
As we gaze on its massive base and ponderous trunk, or its knotty, wide-
spread branches, covered with their umbrageous leafage, we instinctively
recognise it as the monarch of the vegetable kingdom. We feel, too, that it
is a peculiarly British tree; and the thought is awakened of the “walls of
Old England,” and the “hearts of oak” that have beaten bravely within
them. Many a fact of English history is associated with the tree. The
mind reverts to the Druids, who took their name from the Celtic derw (Oak),
and who wore its wreaths of leaves around their brow; to the round oak-
table of Prince Arthur; to the arrow of Walter Tyrrel, which struck against
its stout trunk, on its way to the heart of the Second William; to the king
who took shelter beneath its boughs; or to the brave William Wallace, who
slept nightly in the hollow of the Oak of Torwood. Parliaments have held
council beneath its shadow; and often has a sight of the tree served to
recall the old idea of the Greeks, that it was an emblem of hospitality ; or
the fancy of the Arcadians, that it was the first-created of trees. Its old
name, too, the “Father of ships,” is felt to be an appropriate one. Its
timbers have borne on the ocean the brave and the free, have brought us
the wealth of other climes, have carried liberty to the captive, and taken the
blessings of Gospel light to those who sat in darkness. The child frolics
beneath its shadow, or the weary man buries his dead under it, and knows
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CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 185
it henceforth as the “Oak of weeping.” The house which is his home, the
church in which he worships his God, owe much to its compact, sturdy wood ;
and the boughs which shelter his cattle bear, too, the acorns which shall
spring up to serve his successors. Bernard Barton expressed the feelings of
many, when he wrote -—
*«Tts stem,though rough, is stout and strong, ‘‘ Type of an honest English heart,
Its giant branches throw It opens not at breath ;
Their arms in shady blessings round, But having open’d, plays its part,
O’er man and beast below. Until it sinks in death.
‘*Tts leaf, though late in spring it shares ‘* Not early one, by gleam of sun,
The zephyr’s gentle sigh, Its beauties to unfold,
As late and long in autumn wears One of the last, in skies o’ercast,
A deeper, richer dye. To lose its faithful hold.
‘*On earth the forest’s honour’d king,
Man’s castle on the sea:
Who will, another tree may sing, —
Old England’s Oak for me.”
To see fully the characteristic and picturesque beauty of the Oak, we
should gaze on one which grows singly, and not on that surrounded by a
group. It has in its solitary state more crooked branches, and altogether a
more gnarled appearance. The branches of the Oak often spread out to an
extent which forms a head broader than the height of the tree. The colour
of its bark is pale grey ; but one hardly sees its bark, amid that mass of grey
and yellow lichens which encrust it, mingling with the emerald mosses which,
especially at its base, form a smooth and verdant cushion, while brown and
green mosses gather on every bough. Whether its twisted irregular boughs,
always spreading horizontally, are clad with the bright green of spring, or
the golden hue of autumn, its tint 1s ever rich, and its majestic form is far
more varied in outline than elm or ash, or tall poplar, or drooping birch, or
silvery willow. Not even the most casual observer can confound the Oak
with any other tree ; nor is there any other British tree which casts so broad
a shadow. The Oak may be said to be, generally, from sixty to eighty feet
in height ; but, in some rare instances, it attains to that of a hundred feet.
It always grows slowly ; and, after it has lived for a century, makes little
increase of size for many years; but it becomes more picturesque in age,
than in youth; and even when the passing away of centuries has left it
nothing but a leafless, branchless trunk, it looks as if it would yet outlive
many generations of men. It is protected from the action of storms by the
form of its trunk, which is larger just above the earth than at a few feet
higher, as well as by the underground roots, which bear twisting branches
beneath the soil, much like those on which the sunbeams gleam so gladly,
and on which the birds sit to sing.
Although the Oak is decidedly an indigenous tree, and a flourishing one
too, yet it is somewhat sparing of its fruit; nor is it at all certain, at any
season, that a most thriving Oak will bear acorns, or that, if they appear,
they will be at all numerous. Little do we in this day realize the immense
importance which these acorns bore in other years. Old writers called this
fruit accorne, or, as Turner wrote it, eykorne ; that is, says this herbalist, “ye
Il1.—-24
186 AMENTACEAA
corne, or fruit of an eike ”—corn and kernel being common names for seeds.
In the Anglo-Latin Dictionary, the “ Promptorium,” we find ocorn, and also
accorne, or archarde, “fruite of the oke, glans.” Mr. Albert Way, quoting
from a MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, says, “In the curious
inventory of the effects of Sir Simon Burley, who was beheaded in 1388, are
enumerated ‘deux paires des paternostres de aumbre blanc, l'un contrefait
des atchernes, l’autre rounde.’” Chaucer, also, tells of some who were
‘“wonte lightlie to slaken hir hunger at even, with akehornes of okes.”
Whether the ancient Britons ever fed upon acorns may be doubted ; nor
would it be easy to prove that their swine ate them ; but when the Saxons
swayed this kingdom, they, who had come from the vast Oak forests of
Germany, knew well the worth of this “fruite of the oke.? Swine’s flesh
has been generally the principal animal food of nations in the earlier stages
of civilization ; and the Saxon swineherd was a very useful member of the
community. In times when swine were fattened in the forest by the acorns
which strewed the ground, these forests became so important, that King
Ina, in the close of the seventh century, enacted, for their preservation, the
Pannage Laws, which regulated the right of feeding swine in the woods.
The fruit of the Oak was then deemed a fitting gift for a king to receive,
and the right of pannage formed part of the dowry of the daughters of
Saxon kings: while a failure of these fruits would have proved a grand cause
of famine. The anger felt by the people when the Norman Conqueror turned
the forest into the hunting-ground, was greatly caused by the loss of the
food for swine afforded by the Oak-trees; and so bitter was the feeling
engendered by the grievance, that the old historians seem to have great
satisfaction in recording the retributive justice to the king, by which the
New Forest proved fatal to more than one of his family. This destruction
of the food for swine was one of the wrongs for which, in the latter days of
King John, the voice of the nation loudly demanded redress. Even till
within the last few years, the New Forest furnished food for large numbers
of swine; and the swineherd might be seen plying his ancient vocation
beneath the Hampshire Oaks—-those Oaks of which the people of that county
are said to be so proud. Long after wheat, oats, and rye were waving their
green blades or ripened grain over the fields of Britain, and in some measure
rendered the acorns of less importance, considerable value was still attached
to these fruits by the nation. In the Saxon Chronicle, the year 1116 is
described as a very “heavy-timed, vexatious, and destructive year”; and
the failure of the acorns in that season is particularly mentioned. “This
year also was so deficient in mast (acorns), that there never was heard such
in all this land or in Wales.” The acorns to which the classic authors refer,
as causing the fatness of the primitive people of Greece, were the edible
fruits of other trees, as the Q. balldta, the Q. ilex, and particularly the Q. esculus
—the fruits of the latter being still as much eaten in Syria as chestnuts are
in other countries.
From Britain’s early days the timber of the Oak was used for various
purposes, and Alfred’s navy, which fought with the sea-kings, went forth in
ships built, doubtless, of their native Oak ; while the conjecture is probable
that the boats which composed the fleet of Edgar were framed of this wood.
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 187
The timber found in our oldest buildings is of Oak. The door of the inner
chapel of Westminster Abbey, and the shrine of Edward the Confessor, are
of Oak; and one of those coronation-chairs, yet so interesting to visitors of
the Abbey, and made of Oak, has been there between five and six hundred
years; while the round Oak-table of Prince Arthur, in Winchester Castle,
yet remains to tell of the durability of this wood. Professor Burnet remarks,
that the great number of Oak forests formerly in England is shown by the
names of several places: ‘For one Ashford, Beech-hill, Elm-hurst, or Poplar,
we find a host of Oaks—Oakleys, Actons, Acklands, Akenhams, Acringtons,
and so forth. The Saxon ac, aec, aac, and the later ok, okes, oak, have been
most curiously and variously corrupted. Thus, we find ac, ae, degenerating
into ak, aike, acks, when az, exe, were often also aspirated into hac, hace, and
hacks. In like manner, we have oak, oke, ok, oc, ock, oeck, ocke, oks, ocks, ockes,
running into oax, ox, oves, for ox, oxs, with their further corruptions, auck, uck,
huck, hoke, and wok, as a corruption of the last extreme.” The town Oaking-
ham is at this day called and spelt, indifferently, Oakingham, Okingham, or
Wokingham. Oakesley, or Oxessey, are two common ways of writing the
name of one identical: place, and a parallel is found in the name of a Surrey
hamlet, Okeshott or Oxshot.
The two kinds of Oak described at the head of this chapter have received
much attention from our most eminent botanists, and there is reason to
believe that more is yet to be learned respecting them. To the distinctive
differences already given, we may add that the Common or White Oak
assumes a rather set and unhealthy appearance ; while the Durmast Oak is
a healthy, robust-looking tree, and the medullary rays of its wood are thin,
compared to the broad, large rays of the Common Oak. Some remarkable
facts relating to the timber of both these Oaks were subjected to the inves-
tigation of the Royal Horticultural Society some years since, three subjects
being offered for consideration. These were, that these Oaks may be dis-
tinguished by their timber as well as by other marks ; that Durmast timber
is, at least, as good as that of the Common Oak ; and that the belief in its
want of durability is altogether erroneous.
Professor Lindley, remarking on this subject, says: ‘The large size of
the medullary rays is well known to afford the means of distinguishing the
timber, so that a practised eye can hardly fail to recognise the one or the «
other, in cases where fair specimens can be examined. It is the large size of
these processes which makes it so easy to rend the Common Oak, while the
Durmast refuses to submit to the operation. When genuine Durmast is con-
trasted with genuine Common Oak, the distinctions are obvious ; but in the
opinion of all woodmen of experience, there are varieties, or, as some say,
hybrids, of each, which partake of an intermediate character in the foliage
and acorns, and which may therefore be supposed to offer an intermediate
condition of the wood. Of this we have an example now before us, in a
specimen from the county of Norfolk, which, because the acorns are on a
very short stalk, has been supposed to be Durmast, although other circum-
stances show it to be merely a sessile-fruited variety of the Common Oak,
the only species we ever saw in the eastern counties.”
An experiment as to the value of Durmast was made some years since in
24—2
188 AMENTACEA&
Portsmouth Dockyard, on timber taken out of the Vindictive, a ship into
which some marked specimens had been purposely introduced. When tested
as to strength, it was found that while Common Oak from the same ship
broke, on an average, under a weight of 931 Ibs., only bending 44 inches, the
Durmast sustained, on an average, the weight of 1,032 lbs., and was bent
52 inches before breaking. The experiment served to convince the dockyard
authorities that they were wrong in rejecting the Durmast; and this Oak is
now in great request in the New Forest. All writers admit that this grows
faster than the Common Oak ; but Professor Lindley observes that there is
no reason for believing that timber of slow growth is invariably preferable
to that which has grown more quickly.
For the purpose of showing that the prevailing belief of the want of
durability in Durmast was a mistake, a number of specimens of the timber,
still in good preservation, were exhibited to the Society. ‘The durability
of the Common Oak,” says Professor Lindley, “hardly requires proof: it
was nevertheless illustrated by pieces of timber taken out of Windsor Castle
when under repairs, and by portions of an ancient canoe, or coracle, which
had been discovered about ten feet deep, at the bottom of the ‘slopes’ of
Windsor Castle, by some workmen employed in digging a foundation for a
bridge ; with it were found deer’s horns, hazelnuts, etc. The age of this
relic, although unascertainable, must be very great, inasmuch as it was
probably left where it was found at some period when the Thames, or a
branch of it, reached the foot of the slopes—a time, no doubt, far more
remote than when ‘Cowy stakes’ were driven into the bed of the Thames.”
Other specimens of old Oak were also exhibited. Among the specimens of
ancient Durmast compared with these, were the following interesting relics :
Some timber from Glasgow Cathedral; part of a beam from West Boldon
Church, in Durham, of A.pD. 1300; pieces of the roof of Westminster Hall ;
part of the timber of the Hospitium of St. Mary’s Abbey, York, of about
A.D. 1400; a portion of a Saxon log-coffin—this and several other similar
coffins having been found in excavating for new houses in Parliament Street,
York ; and from the same city was sent part of a huge boss from the centre
of the roof of the choir of York Minster, built at the close of the fourteenth
century, and rescued from the fire in 1829. This half-burnt timber was in
as sound a state as when introduced into the building, as was also that of a
beam from Heslington Hall, which was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
There is no doubt from these proofs that the Durmast timber is as durable
as that of the Common Oak. Professor Lindley adds: “There, however,
still remains the unanswered question—viz., How far the quality of the Oak
timber, of either one species or the other, is dependent upon soil or climate.
It is certain that the Scotch foresters condemn the modern Durmast, as they
find it with them; it is equally certain that the woodmen of Dean Forest
and the New Forest hold an opposite opinion. It is possible that the Dur-
mast, which is the common French species, requires a better climate than
that of Scotland.”
Many venerable Oak-trees yet stand in strength and beauty in various
parts of the land. The Leaden Oak, in Ampthill Park, was, even in the
time of Cromwell, thought too old for naval timber, and had, in a survey
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 189
made at that period, a piece of lead nailed to it to indicate this opinion.
Our limits will scarcely allow of more than a reference to the large Oak of
Wootton, in Buckinghamshire—that most magnificent of trees, whose great
branches cover an area of 150 feet in diameter ; to the Chenies Oak, older
than the Norman Conquest; to the grand old Combermere Oaks, near
Nantwich, or those venerable trees which have for centuries borne the blasts
which rush over bleak Dartmoor. The noble old Fairlop Oak, spreading over
a space whose diameter is 300 feet; Sir Philip Sidney’s Oak at Penshurst ;
Pope’s Oak in Windsor Forest ; the grand Cowthorpe Oak, with its trunk
sixty feet in circumference, and its boughs spreading over an area of half an
acre, and many another tree, have all served as themes to painters, engravers,
historians, poets, and lovers of Nature; and the Oak at Yardley Chase,
which is said to be as old as the period of the Conqueror, suggested to
Cowper such thoughts as might have been suggested by many an aged
compeer :—
‘* Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all
That once lived here, thy brethren ; at my birth,
(Since which I number threescore winters past, )
A shatter’d veteran, hollow-trunk’d perhaps,
As now, and with excoriate forks deform ;
Relic of ages! could a mind, imbued
With truth from Heaven, created things adore,
I might with reverence kneel and worship thee.
‘Thou wast a bauble once, a cup and ball
Which babes might play with: and the thievish jay,
Secking his food, with ease might have purloin’d
The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down
Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs,
And all thine embryo vastness at a gulp.
** Who lived when thou wast such? Oh, couldst thou speak,
As in Dodona once thy kindred trees
Oracular! I would not, curious, ask
The future, best unknown, but at thy mouth,
Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past.”
Various kinds of gall are found on the Oak, and are caused by several
species of Cynips. These insects puncture the leaf bud, or stem, in order to
place their eggs within its substance ; and introducing at the same time a
liquid which is noxious to the vegetable, and disturbs its circulation,
originate spongy, shining, or woolly excrescences. Sometimes the bud is
thus transformed into a hoplike object ; sometimes little glossy round balls,
or flat circular red patches, stud the leaves; clusters of strange-looking
objects, resembling barnacles, appear on the bark ; or the brown spongy oak-
apples, like balls of leather, stand upon the boughs. Those long-celebrated
Bitter Apples of Sodom, which look beautiful in their violet tint but turn to
dust when crushed, are now found to be galls growing on the dwarf Oaks of
different countries. Josephus, as well as other ancient writers, refers to
them; and most, from their very childhood, have learned to listen with
wonder to the accounts of —
‘“‘Those Dead Sea fruits which please the eye,
And turn to ashes on the lips.”
It is not many years since the Oaks in the west of England were found
190 AMENTACE
to be infested to an alarming extent by a species of Cynips, which appears to
have been previously unnoticed. Instead of attacking the leaves or fower-
stalks, as is the habit of most other species of gall-fly, it lays its eggs in the
young twigs ; and the consequence is, that when the leaves have fallen, the
tree is found to be laden with globular galls, each about the size of a cherry,
some single, but more frequently in clusters. When the grubs which they
contain have reached maturity, they eat their way out, leaving the bald
bullet-galls on the twigs; so that, all the winter, the Oak simulates a fruit-
tree, bearing a crop, however, most pernicious to itself, as the extremities of
all the twigs are found to have perished from exhaustion. Experiments have
been tried to discover whether the galls can be applied with profit to
manufacturing purposes.
M. Duplat, a chemist attached to a military hospital, has lately succeeded
in procuring oil, and producing alcohol by distillation, from acorns growing
in the Oak-forests which cover Mount Atlas. Both the oil and alcohol have
been found to be perfectly suited for chemical purposes.
9. HAZEL (Corylus).
Common Hazel (U. wvelldéna).—Leaves roundish, heart-shaped, pointed,
downy beneath ; stipules oblong, blunt ; involucre of the fruit bell-shaped,
torn at the margin. What English reader, country born and country reared,
is not familiar with the Hazel-ttree—the tree whose pale, greenish yellow
catkins (Lambs’-tails as we called them) hung among the nosegays of blue-
bells and primroses, gathered in the spring of life and the springtime of the
year? Earlier still in the season, and while the frosts of January were
sparkling on the hedges, we have found the little crimson clusters of
brilliant stigmas in the scaly buds of the pistil-bearing flowers rewarding
our search, and unrivalled in brightness by any surrounding object, save
where, on some fallen bough, the fungus-cups were clustering, rich in their
lining of scarlet or crimson. In spring-time how many have found, like
Clare—
** Dead leaves of Oak and Hazel-tree,
The constant covering of all woody land ;
With tiny violets creeping plenteously,
That one by one enticed the patient hand
(7?
But it is not alone in spring that the Hazel-tree has its store of pleasures.
Well do the frisking squirrel and the creeping cheerful nut-hatch prize
the fruits of the Hazel—fruits which well deserve a place at the dessert,
though the cultivated filberts or the nuts of Spain are oftener seen there !
Our Hazel-nut was called by the Anglo-Saxons haselnutu—tfrom hasel, a cup,
and knutu, a nut. In later days nuts were spelt, as Chaucer wrote them,
“notes ;’ and a prescription, written before our earliest bard had traced a
line, gives the same orthography. Fora cold in the head, the patient was
directed—‘ Take small note kenneyls, and roost hem, and ete hem with a
lytyl powder of pepyr when thou gost to bed.” Culpepper, who refers to
the use of nuts as a remedy for colds, quaintly says: “Why should the
vulgar so familiarly affirm that eating nuts causes shortness of breath, than
which nothing is falser? For how can that which strengthens the lungs
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 162)
cause shortness of breath? I confess the opinion is far older than I am; [
knew tradition was a friend to error before, but never that he was the father
of slander: Or are men’s tongues so given to slandering one another, that
they must slander nuts too, to keep their tongues in use?” He adds:
“And so thus I have made an apology for nuts, which cannot speak for
themselves.” Besides being used medicinally, chocolate, and even bread,
have been made of nuts; and they were prized in former times for the oil
which they yielded, the Hazel being cultivated for this produce.
The pale-green catkins shed their pollen and fall, but the red stigmas
ripen into fruits; and clustering nuts, embrowned by Autumn’s touch, have
welcomed thousands, who, like Wordsworth, have gone forth with bounding
spirits to seek them.
*¢ Among the woods,
And o’er the pathless rocks, I forced my way
Until, at length, I came to one dear nook
Unyisited, where not a broken bough
Droop’d with its wither’d leaves, ungracious sign
Of devastation, but the Hazels rose
Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung,
A virgin scene! A little while I stood,
Breathing with such suppression of the heart
As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint
Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed
The banquet.
Then up I rose
And drage’d to earth both branch and bough, with crash
And merciless ravage ; and the shady nook
Of Hazels, and the green and mossy bower,
Deform’d and sullied, patiently gave up
Their quiet being: and unless I now
Confound my present feelings with the past,
Even then, when from the bower I turn’d away
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees and the intruding sky.”
Mr. T. Hudson Turner quotes a M.S., written apparently by Sir Walter
de Henlée, “chevalier,” in the early part of the fourteenth century, which
states that one quarter of nuts ought to yield four gallons of oil; but the
particular sort of nut is not specified. But though the Hazel may have been
early cultivated here, the tree is undoubtedly indigenous, and the nuts are
often found in the bogs of this kingdom. Mr. Hugh Miller describes some °
of the bogs about Cromarty, thickset with silvery willows, while they are
full of the remains of enormous oaks and elms, now black as the coal itself.
Here, this writer tells us, he found handfuls of Hazel-nuts of the ordinary
size, but black as jet, with the cups of acorns and twigs of birch—the latter
still retaining almost unchanged its silvery crust, while its woody interior
had become a mere pulp. “TI have even,” he says, “laid open in layers of a
sort of unctuous clay, resembling fuller’s-earth, leaves of oak, birch and
Hazel, which had fluttered in the winds thousands of years before.”
We have begun our account of the Hazel with that of its nut, for this
has peculiar claims on our notice, because it is one of the few British fruits
which are really worth eating :—sloes, blackberries, service-berries, wild
cherries, and crab-apples being pleasing only to childhood’s taste, though
wild raspberries and strawberries are sweeter even than cultivated ones.
192 AMENTACEA
But besides yielding its store of nuts, the Hazel has many other uses ; and
its undergrowth of wood is so serviceable that it might have suggested the
old saying, “An acre of coppice-wood is as good as an acre of wheat-land, if
not better.” Though the wood of the tree is never large enough to afford
timber for building, yet it is used in cabinet-making, and for a variety of
small and delicate articles of manufacture ; while its exceedingly tough and
flexible shoots serve for hoops, crates, hurdles, walking-sticks, fishing-rods,
rustic baskets, and fences. In the Vale of Derwent, Hazels are grown
especially for the uses of the root-shoots; and the roots of the tree, when
large, afford curiously-veined pieces, used in veneering and for small articles
of domestic use ; and many a country oven is heated with the fagot of Hazel-
wood.
That interesting and venerable church, one of the first reared in this land,
the church belonging to the Abbey of Glastonbury, is believed to have had
the walls of its earliest building made of Hazel-boughs interwoven among
stakes ; and walls of this kind, plastered over with mortar, are yet in use
for outhouses in country places. Some religious associations appear, too, to
have been connected with the Hazel-wood ; and it is supposed by antiquaries
to have formed, like the scallop-shell, a token of certain pilgrimages. In
several places staves of the Hazel have been found in the graves of ecclesi-
astics. A writer in the Archeological Journal states that, when the tomb of
Richard, Bishop of Chichester, was restored, and the effigy and stone table
removed, the grave of stone courses beneath was found in perfect repair, but
the earth which covered the remains had sunk to the depth of several inches.
On the surface lay several fragments of Hazel-wands, probably such as
pilgrims had cut down by the way, and which they suspended at the shrine
as devout offerings. This Bishop died between the years 1245 and 1253.
Similar Hazel-branches have been found in Hereford Cathedral ; and such a
Hazel-wand, roughly trimmed as if cut by the wayside, lay in the tomb of
Richard Mayo, Bishop of Hereford, with several sea-shells—tokens, it is
supposed, of a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James. This was probably
made when that prelate was sent to escort Catharine of Aragon, the affianced
bride of Prince Arthur, on her arrival in England. The use of the forked
Hazel-twig as a divining-rod, to indicate the place where metal lies beneath
the surface of the earth, is yet frequent in mining districts. It is said to
have been thus employed in this kingdom as early as the days of Agricola,
and is probably the remains of a custom used in still older periods, when the
Prophet Hosea declared of the ancient Israelites, ‘‘My people ask counsel at
their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.” As Evelyn said, “It is
certainly next to a miracle, and requires a strong faith ;’ but even in recent
days, mines have been sunk in Cornwall, under the beliet that the presence
of metal is indicated by the bending of the Hazel-twig.
The tint of the foliage of the Hazel-tree is a somewhat sober green ; and it
never wears the light hue of the oak or beech, though the young leaves at
the top of the twigs, and sometimes also the larger leaves, are often purplish-
red. The leaves are stalked, rough, strongly veined, and have, when young,
oblong stipules at their base; the bark on the trunk is ash-coloured, and on
the branches light brown, spotted with white. The Hazel, when allowed to
CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 193
reach the dimensions of a tree, attains a height of about twenty feet.
Leyden, in his verses on Spring, says :—
“*T see the Hazel’s rough-notch’d leaves,
Each morning wide and wider spread,
While every sigh that zephyr leaves
Sprinkles the dewdrops round my head,
‘*The yellow moss in scaly rings
Creeps round the hawthorn’s prickly bough ;
The speckled linnet pecks and sings,
While snowy blossoms round me bow.
‘*The gales sing softly through the trees,
When boughs in green waves heave and swell ;
The azure violet scents the breeze,
Which shakes the yellow crowfoot’s bell.”
And the Hazel is a continual subject of allusion among the troubadours and
old French poets.
This tree retains its leaves till the first severe frosts; and they are in
autumn of a russet brown, which finally changes to a rich yellow tint. The
branches being picturesque, the tree is used in France for arbours and walks.
It is said by the growers to thrive best in Hazel-mould—that is, a mould of
a reddish-brown hue; but it will flourish on any soil that is not too moist.
Many Old-English names of places and persons are derived from this plant,
as Haslemere and Hazelbury. It grows sometimes in the North at a great
elevation, and it is a tree of all the temperate climates of Europe and Asia.
The French call it Coudrier ; the Germans, Haselstrauch ; and the Italians,
Avellano and Nocciola.
The two varieties of the Hazel which are most commonly cultivated for
the nuts are the Cob and Filbert trees. The latter differ from the ordinary
form of the tree in the larger nuts with their handsomer green coverings.
They are grown plentifully in Kent, especially in the neighbourhood of
Maidstone.
10. HORNBEAM (Carpinus).
Common Hornbeam (C. bétulus).—Leaves egg-shaped, acute, sharply
and doubly serrated, plaited when young ; scales of the fruit 3-parted. The
Hornbeam is a common tree of poor damp soils in several parts of England,
forming a chief portion of some of the old forests about London, as of that
of Epping. Gerarde, who speaks of it as growing in his time very plenti-
fully in Northamptonshire, and about Gravesend in Kent, thus describes it :—
“Tt grows great and very like unto the elme or witch hasell-tree, having a
great body, the wood or timber whereof is better for arrows and shafts,
pulleys for mills, and such like devices, than elm or witch hasell; for in
time it waxeth so hard that the toughness and hardness of it may be rather
compared unto horn than unto wood; and, therefore, it was called Horne-
beam, or hard-beame. The leaves of it are like the elme, saving that they be
tenderer ; among these hang certaine triangled things, upon which are found
knaps or little buds of the thickness of ciches (vetches), in which is contained
the fruit or seede: the roote is strong and thicke.”
Like most of the descriptions given by our old herbalists, this is sufficiently
graphic ; and the tree is doubtless often mistaken for the elm from the simi-
120
194 AMENTACEA.—CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE
larity of its leaves, which, however, are smoother, and have transverse hairy
ribs, and which are, in the early stage, very prettily folded into plaits. The
Hornbeam may be occasionally seen fifty feet high ; but it is usually a small
and not a very ornamental tree. The trunk is slender, somewhat flattened,
straight, and but little roughened, and the flowers appear among the foliage
in May. The barren catkins are of a pale yellowish-green, lax and scaly,
two or three inches long ; and those which are fertile are much smaller, and
are succeeded in due season by small angular nuts, each seated within a leafy
cup. No other British catkins are like these ; so that this tree is, during its
flowering season, readily distinguished by them.
The Hornbeam was formerly sometimes called Horse-Beech ; and it was
once much in use for alcoves, labyrinths, and hedges, as it bears cutting
exceedingly well. Indeed, the great excellency of the tree appears to be in
its adaptation for hedges. Evelyn praises it with scarcely less enthusiasm
than that with which he refers to his favourite holly-hedge ; and says of the
Hornbeam that it makes the “noblest and stateliest hedges for long walks
in gardens and parks of any hedge whatsoever.” ‘The plant is much used in
France for this purpose, and the hedges, called Charmilles, are greatly valued.
On some spots of our own land, we might yet say with the poet :—
‘Here Hornbeam hedges regularly grow ;
Here hawthorn whitens and wild roses blow.”
But the two latter plants are far more commonly to be seen in our hedgerows
than the former.
The Hornbeam retains its leaves in winter. Its wood is white, tough,
and close-grained, but will not take a good polish. It is adapted, however,
especially when young, for many country uses, and is of service to the
carpenter and wheelwright, and the very best of wood for fuel. A twig will
burn like a candle, and continue burning for a long time ; and in France the
wood is much liked for the steady bright light which it diffuses in the apart-
ment. Its charcoal is excellent; and the French use the dried foliage for
fodder. The tree is called in French Le Charme ; the Germans call it Die
Hagebuche. Its catkins are said to be sometimes fraudulently mingled with
hops.
Order LXXXI. CONIFERAZ—FIR TRIBE.
Stamens and pistils on separate flowers, and, in some cases, on different
trees; stamens arranged in sets around a common stalk; fertile flowers
usually in cones, sometimes solitary, destitute of styles or stigmas; fruit
either a seed seated in a fleshy covering, or a cone composed of hardened
scales or bracts, bearing at the base of each naked seeds, which are often
winged ; leaves rigid.
1. Fir (Pinus).—Barren flowers in clustered spirally-arranged scaly cat-
kins, the upper scales bearing sessile anthers ; fertile flowers in an egg-shaped
catkin, which finally becomes a woody cone; seeds winged. Name, the
Jatin name of the tree,
CONIFERAIA—FIR TRIBE 195
2. JUNIPER (Juniperus).—Barren flowers in smaller scaly catkins, anthers
attached to the base of the scales; fertile flowers in small catkins of a few
united scales, which finally become fleshy and form a berry, with three hard
seeds. Name, the Latin name of the tree.
3. YEW (7déxus).—Barren flowers in oval catkins, scaly at the base ;
stamens numerous ; fertile flowers solitary, with a few scales at the base ;
seed solitary, hard, contained in a fleshy cup. Name, from éozon, a bow, from
the old use of its wood.
1. Fir (Pinus).
Scotch Fir (P. sylvéstris),—Leaves long, slender, and rigid, in pairs
round the branch ; young cones stalked, generally two together ; wing thrice
as long as the seed. Of the tall dark Firs and Pines which thicken in the
vast forests of Northern Europe, one alone grows wild in Britain. This, the
Scotch Fir, is, however, one of the most important and widely distributed of
the European species, and one which furnishes several varieties of stately
trees. In Wiltshire and some other parts of England, this Fir is to be found
covering large tracts of land; and those who wander there might bethink
them of the words of Coleridge :—
** A rock, methought, fast by a grove of Firs,
Whose thready leaves to the low-breathing gale
Made a soft sound, most like the distant ocean.”
These Firs were sown there by means of these murmuring gales, which waft
the winged seeds around the spot ; or were planted by the squirrel or bird,
which eats its meal from the Fir-cone, and scatters some of the numerous
seeds.
But it is not in England that we find the numerous Pine-forests, which
form so characteristic a feature of Highland scenery, darkening the slopes
and summits of mountains, swaying their boughs hither and thither, and
uttering such sounds
‘* As the rough winds of autumn mak», when they
Pass o’er the forest and bend down the Pines.”
Amid their shadow, clumps of purple heather arise in beauty ; and many a
lovely flower and brilliant fungus, if not absolutely peculiar to the Pine;
wood, yet especially loves its shelter ; while a delicious and resinous fra-
grance reaches the sense, long ere the eye can discern their forms in the blue
distance. And how well are the trees adapted to these their haunts! Their
roots, running immediately under the surface, require but little depth of
soil; their evergreen, rigid leaves are not easily torn by the bleak winds
which sweep over the hill-tops, and are so slender that they will not long
hold the mass of snow; while, by their resinous juices, they are protected
from the rigour of the cold air. Nor do the Fir-forests present that uniformity
of aspect which, it might be supposed, would be consequent on the little
variety of the trees. Every visitor to the Highlands of Scotland is charmed
by their beauty and magnificence. ‘Every movement we make,” says Sir
T. D. Lauder, “exposes to our view fresh objects of excitement, and dis-
closes new scenes produced by the infinite variety of the surface. At one
25—-2
196 CONIFERA
time we find ourselves wandering along some natural level, under the deep
and sublime shade of the heaving pine foliage, upheld high overhead by the
tall and massive columnar stems, which appear to form an endless colonnade ;
the ground dry as a floor beneath our footsteps, the very sound of which is
muffled by the thick deposition of decayed spines, with which the seasons
of more than one century have strewed it ; hardly conscious that the sun is
up, save from the fragrant resinous odour which its influence is exhaling, and
the continued hum of the clouds of insects that are dancing in its beams, over
the tops of the trees.”
This writer describes with graphic power the changes of scenery which
ensue, when the ground swells into hillocks, and the vast continuity of shade
is broken by the light which streams down on some single huge tree, and on
the purple heath-bells and tufts of ferns ; and how the silence is interrupted
by the proud movements of the troops of red-deer, or by the roar of the
cataract, whose white sheet of water dashes down the rock into some deep
ravine, shaking the very tallest of the Pine-trees, and bidding them quiver,
as by the touch of a giant hand.
Extensive tracts of Highland Pine-forests have been thinned by the hand
of man ; and in some places, where once the trees grew in masses, they are
but few and scattered. Sometimes the Firs have been burned down in order
to extirpate the wolves ; sometimes because, in time of war, they afforded a
hiding-place to the enemy ; and many a lofty tree has been felled
‘To be the mast of some great ammiral.”
Hugh Miller, referring to the Forest of Corrybhalgan, says :—“ It was
but a shred of its former self, but the venerable trees still rose thick and tall
in some of the more inaccessible hollows ; and it was interesting to mark,
when they encroached on the open waste, how thoroughly they lost the
ordinary character of the Scotch Fir, and how, sending out their short
gnarled boles and immense branches two or three feet over the soil, they
somewhat resembled, in their squat dense proportions and rounded contours,
gigantic beehives.” In other spots, masses of mossy land were covered with
short stumps of trees, mingled with noble Pines, which have risen or are
rising up from the
‘* Fir-trees all around,
Aye dropping their hard fruit upon the ground.”
The Scotch Fir is probably a native of England as well as of Scotland.
Gerarde tells how the tree once grew in great plenty in Cheshire, Stafford-
shire, and Lancashire, ‘as is reported, before Noah’s flood ; but being over-
flowed and overwhelmed, they have been found since in the mossie and
waterie moorish ground, very sound and fresh until this day, and so full of
a resinous substance that they burne like a torch or linke, and the inhabitants
of those countries doe call it Firre-woodde and Fire-woodde unto this day.”
The bogs of Ireland prove, too, that the Fir was once abundant in that
country.
A well-grown Scotch Fir is a beautiful tree, with its reddish-brown trunk
looking sometimes as if cut out of copper, and its spiry pyramidal head of
foliage. It has a common variety in which the branches spread out horizon-
af SCOTCH PINE Zz. JUNIPER
Pinus sylvestris Juniperus communis .
OG
Taxus baceata
Pl. 213.
FIR TRIBE LOT
tally, or bend downwards, while the bark is of a more yellowish hue, and
the foliage of a sea-green tint. The leaves of the Scotch Fir are in pairs all
round the branches, and in young trees are sheathed at the base, and two or
three inches long, being shorter in older trees. They are slightly convex
beneath, their edges minutely notched, and at first they are glaucous on the
lower side, but as they become older of a deeper green. ‘The tree bears its
flowers in April and May. The barren flowers are placed in whorls around
the extremities of last year’s shoots, and are laden with an abundance of
pollen. The fertile catkins grow chiefly in pairs, towards the ends of the
new shoots, and gradually harden into brown rugged cones, which taper at
the point. In the autumn of the second year these burst open and discharge
their seeds, which are small and furnished with a membranous wing. This
Fir is often sixty to a hundred feet in height.
The Scotch Fir is a most valuable tree when it grows wild and on a con-
genial soil, furnishing either red or yellow deal. The trunk of Pine-trees is
straighter than that of most others: hence, both in naval and civil architec-
ture, its durable wood is used for many important purposes, and that of the
Scotch Fir is prized beyond all others of the genus. The resinous juice,
which either exudes naturally or may be procured by incision, is used in
preparing tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine ; and in the north of Europe, the
outer bark of the tree is employed for covering and lining huts, while the
inner bark, ground to powder, and in some cases mingled with flour, is made
into a coarse black bread. Mr. Lang describes cakes made of these materials,
and cooked in a frying-pan or on a griddle, as very good food. The leaves
and branches of the tree serve as fodder for cattle and sheep during severe
weather, Pine-chips are substituted for hops in brewing, and the young
shoots of the tree are eaten with avidity by peasant-children. The log-
houses of Northern Europe are made almost entirely of Scotch Fir; and in
Russia roads are formed of its trunks, while the pine-torch is in common use
in many parts of Europe. M. Lamartine, describing an excursion over the
mountains in search of eagles, tells us how these torches are made. He says
that having cut down some young Firs, they split the trunks lengthwise
into little laths of wood, leaving the lower part uncut, so that it might form
a handle by which to carry the torch. The bundle of laths was held together
by bands of wire, which were placed at equal distances. They then dried
them in an oven, after the bread had been removed. “Those little trees,” -
says this writer, “thus prepared, calcined by the heat of the oven, and full
of the natural resin of the Pine, constitute excellent torches, which burn
slowly, which nothing can extinguish, and which, when lighted, give out a
flame of dazzling brightness on being exposed to the slightest breeze.”
A few years since, M. Panewitz succeeded in preparing, by chemical
decomposition, from the leaves of the Scotch Fir, a hemp-like fibre called in
Germany Wald-wolle, a word best rendered into English by Wood-wool.
This substance is now extensively employed for filling pillows, cushions, and
mattresses, or for the purposes of wadding. In the prairie of Humboldt,
near Breslau in Silesia, are two remarkable establishments—one for the
purpose of making the Pine-leaves into this cotton or wool, the other for
affording baths to invalids, made of the water resulting from the fabrication
198 CONIFERAS
of this material, both being superintended by the inventor of the process.
The leaves of Firs are usually composed of bundles of strong fibres, held
together by a resinous substance, and those of the Scotch Fir are generally
preferred, as being the longest ; nor is the tree injured by stripping off the
foliage, as if those leaves are left which grow at the extremities of the
branches, the others are readily renewed, and the leaf-gathering gives employ-
ment to many among the poor. In 1842, the directors of the Hospital of
Vienna adopted this wool instead of cotton wadding in quilted cover-
ings. The aromatic odour which these diffused was found both agreeable
and healthful, while it proved obnoxious to insects. Since this period the
pine-wool, or wood-wool, has been used in various public institutions in
Germany, as well as in cushions for railway carriages ; and blankets, paste-
board, and various other articles are made of the fibre; while rheumatism,
nervous affections, and several other maladies have been stated, on good
authority, to be greatly benefited by the resinous water procured from it.
A prize-medal was awarded at our Great Exhibition of 1851 for materials
made from the Pine-needle-wool, prepared from the needles or leaves of the
Pine-tree. The bark of the Scotch Fir has been also used in tanning.
Some legends doubtless were once in existence respecting the Fir, as one
of the titles given in honour of the Virgin, in an old edition of Chaucer's
“Ballad in Commendation of Our Lady,” is ‘“ Benigne Braunchlet of the
Pine-tree.”
2. JUNIPER (Juniperus).
Common Juniper (J. comminis).—Leaves 3 in a whorl, linear and
spine-tipped ; flowers small, in the axils of the leaves. On many a widely-
stretching moorland we may descry the clumps of Juniper, with their greyish-
green branches varying the tints of the landscape. The summer wind passes
lightly over the shrub, bringing with it some faint tokens of its aroma, an
aroma far more powerful if the plant is bruised ; and the winter blasts rush
over it, and the winter frosts congeal upon its branches, but it loses nothing
of its freshness of tint. Mr. Matthew Arnold describes such a spot as that
on which it sometimes grows :—
‘This cirque of open ground,
So light and green : the heather, which all round
Creeps thickly, grows not here, but the pale grass
Is strewn with rocks, and many a shiver’d mass
Of vein’d white-gleaming quartz, and here and there
Dotted with holly and with Juniper.”
This low shrub grows either on fertile or barren soils, on rocky mountains
or on bogs, on hills or in valleys; but chiefly in open and bleak places,
though sometimes in woods. It is common, not in this kingdom only, but in
all the northern parts of Europe. In England it occurs chiefly on open chalky
or sandy places, on hillsides and sea-cliffs; but with us it is of low growth,
seldom attaining a greater height than five feet, although it occasionally
forms a massy trunk, and becomes a small tree, while a dwarf variety trails
over the ground. In days when shrubs and trees were cut into various
figures, the Juniper was much employed for this purpose. The plant seems
to injure the herbage, for the grass about the Juniper is often thin and poor.
FIR TRIBE 199
This shrub sends out a number of tough branches, covered with a smooth
brown or reddish bark, slightly tinged with purple, while the bark of the
trunk is greyish-brown, cracked and scaly. The stiff evergreen leaves grow
in threes round the branches, and are dark bright green beneath, and grey on
the upper surface. Their acute points deserve Spenser's description :—
‘* Swete is the Juniper, but sharpe his bough.”
The small green barren flowers appear in May, in little catkins, among
the axis of the leaves, and are on different plants from the few-flowered
fertile cones. The berries, which are about as large as currants, appear one
summer, and, continuing green until the following season, then ripen into a
dark-purple hue, covered, like the sloe, with a bluish-white powder or bloom.
They are not juicy, but spongy ; they have an aromatic flavour, and contain
three oblong seeds. These fruits are useful, not alone to the wild bird of
moor or fell, but also to man. When crushed, they yield an essential oil ;
and a very pleasant and wholesome beer, called genévrette, is made by cottagers
in some parts of France with barley and Juniper-berries. Hollands and
English gin were formerly flavoured with them, and they once formed an
important article of commerce among the Dutch; but Professor Burnet
remarks of the last-named liquor, that it is “wholly unconscious of their
presence,” the British manufacturers having substituted oil of turpentine.
The berries yield, on boiling, a large amount of sugar ; and Linnzus mentions
that a decoction of these fruits, when fermented, forms a common beverage
among the Swedes, who still eat Juniper-berries at their meals, in the form of
a conserve. Our fathers not only employed them as a spice to their dishes,
but praised their medicinal powers. ‘This admirable solar shrub,” says one
of our old writers, ‘‘is scarce to be paralleled for its virtues. The berries
are hot in the third degree, and dry but in the first, being a most admirable
counter-poison, and as great a resister of the pestilence as any grows: they
are excellent good against the bitings of venomous beasts.” Gerarde also
adds his testimony to their worth, and says, “Divers in Bohemia do take,
instead of other drink, the water wherein these berries have been steeped,
who live in wonderful good health.” The berries were much recommended
by physicians to be eaten ; and ten or a dozen every morning, fasting, was an
old prescription for diseases of the lungs. They doubtless possess stimu-
lating properties. In many Continental countries both the fruits and the
wood of the Juniper are burned in hospitals to render the air wholesome ;
and the ancients were wont to throw the berries on the funeral pile. They
are still used in German villages instead of spices, and for the purpose of
flavouring the sauer kraut ; and so abundant is the shrub on many moorlands
of Germany, that the flesh of the heath-cock is said to be sometimes strongly
flavoured with Juniper, and to be quite distasteful.
The wood of the Juniper is aromatic, and so pleasant is the odour of the
young twigs, that the housewife in Norway strews them over her floor, as
our country people would strew sand. In Evelyn’s time spits for meat, and
spoons, were made of this wood, and were thought to impart a wholesome
property as well as an agreeable flavour to meat. The old notion of the
ancients that the burning of Juniper-wood expelled evil spirits from the
200 CONIFERAG
dwelling probably led to some superstitious practices with the plant in later
days, as we infer from occasional mention by the poets. Thus, in Bishop
Hall’s Satires, we find an allusion of this nature :—
*¢ And with glasse stills, and sticks of Juniper,
Raise the black spright that burns not with the fire :”
while various ceremonies connected with the burning of this wood in some
parts of Scotland, during the prevalence of an epidemic, have led to the
inference that this old practice was a remnant of a Druidical superstition.
The wood is capable of bearing a high polish, and is used by turners in
making many small articles.
3. YEw (deus).
Common Yew (7. baccdta).—Leaves crowded, linear, evergreen ; flowevs
sessile, axillary. One never thinks of a Yew-tree, with its dark-green
foliage, without thinking, too, of its best accompaniment—some village
church, by whose portal, perhaps, it has stood for centuries, seeming yet to
be the “challenger of time.” As in many cases it was green ere those grey
walls or crumbling buttresses were reared, so too it will long survive the
edifice which it now adorns, and utter to coming generations the silent
lessons which it preaches to ours. So old is its aspect, that we can hardly
imagine that it was ever young ; and, venerable and evergreen, we feel how
well fitted it is for a symbol of immortality ; and, sombre as it is, how well
Dryden’s epithet of the ‘““Mourner Yew ” befits the old tree.
The fact that the Christian church was often reared, like that of St. Paul
in London, on the site of an ancient heathen temple, must account for the
great age of some of our old churchyard Yews. Many of them are un-
doubtedly older than the Conquest ; and that celebrated old Yew of Bra-
bourne, in Kent, now so long dead that no living inhabitant of the village
saw its fall or knows its history—that ancient tree is believed to have been
three thousand years old, and to have lived in those days when the shepherds
listened to the glorious anthem sung by angels, “Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” It must, however, be
confessed that the means by which some botanists have believed it possible
to ascertain the age of the Yew are not universally admitted among scientific
men. Evelyn described this tree, in his time, as fifty-eight feet eleven inches
in circumference, having, as he says, measured it himself. Mr. Bowman,
who wrote, some years since, in the Magazine of Natural History, an interest-
ing paper on “The Longevity of the Yew, and its Connexion with Church-
yards,” thinks it probable that our pagan ancestors, on their first arrival
here, considered the Yew as the best substitute for the cypress in decking
the graves ; and this writer refers to some lines of a very ancient Walsh bard,
which are thus translated by Dr. Owen Pugh: “The Minster of Esgor and
that of Hénllan, of celebrity for sheltering Yews.” Hénllan signifies “an
old grove,” thus proving that its church stood where Druidical worship had
been performed.
When Augustine was sent by Gregory the Great to preach Christianity
in Britain, hc was enjoined to purify, and not to destroy, the temples of
FIR TRIBE 201
pagan worship ; and it is not unlikely that the very presence of the venerable
Yew-trees would prove an attraction to these sites. The old pagans, like the
modern heathen, loved to place trees around the place of worship. We
may trace the custom even in those times when Israel, falling into the
idolatries of the surrounding nations, had altars in groves and on high places,
and forsook the God of their fathers, to worship the idol beneath the green
tree.
But many Yews, on which we yet look as we go up to the house of
prayer, have been planted since the Christian faith shed its glorious influence
over the hearts and homes of this land. When the doctrine of the im-
mortality of the body, as well as that of the soul, came to be fully and
generally recognised, the Yew, one of the greenest and longest-lived of trees,
would yet seem an appropriate plant to place by the grave. The association
of this tree with a spot at once dear and solemn would be long ere it lost its
hold on the heart of the Christian ; and the thoughtful man yet likes to sit
beneath its boughs, and think of the times long since passed away, and the
men whose remains it overshadows. Then the convenience of such a tree,
as affording shelter to those who have come over field and hill to the sound
of the bell, and are awaiting the service, would afford another reason for
planting the Yew near the church-porch ; and the practice of placing ever-
greens on the coffin and in the grave would fit it for a further use. No
record seems in existence which tells that the Yew was placed there that it
might furnish the men of the time with wood for the bow; though we
know that the wood of the consecrated Yew of the churchyard was worth
more than the wood of an ordinary tree. Thus, the ancient law of Wales
records: “A consecrated Yew, its value is a pcand ; a Yew-tree not conse-
crated, fifteen pence.”
In the olden times of England, the wood of the Yew was of no incon-
siderable importance ; indeed, it was second only to that of the oak itself,
as an old proverb might remind us, which says—
‘* England were but a fling,
But for the bow and the grey goose-wing.”
And the Yew-wood was far preferred to that of any other tree for the
weapon of the archer. From England’s earliest days, the bow figures in her,
history, and the imagination reverts to the story of King Alfred sitting on
the peasant’s hearth, mending his bows and arrows, and to many a tale of
Robin Hood and his merrie men, in which legend and history are inter-
mingled. Chaucer calls the tree the “Shooter Yew,” and describes his
archer as carrying a “mightie bowe ;” and, many years later, Spenser refers
to the material of which such bows were made—
‘‘ Long he them bore above the subject plaine,
As far as Eughen bowe a shaft may send.”
The churchyard Yews scattered over the kingdom could have furnished
but few of the bows required, though doubtless they, as well as many
other trees, both wild and planted, contributed their due proportion, when,
by a statute of Edward IV., every Englishman and Irishman residing in
IIT.—26
202 CONIFER At
England was commanded to have a bow of his own height, made of Yew,
wych-hazel, or awburne. Foreign Yew was, however, preferred to that of
English growth, and bows of “Outlandish Yew” sold at a high price.
Michael Drayton says,—
‘* All made of Spanish Yew, their bows were wondrous strong.”
Ships trading to Venice were desired to bring ten bow-staves along with
every butt of Malmsey. Several of our British kings fell beneath the power
of the bow, as Harold, William Rufus, and Richard Ceeur-de-Lion. _ It is, too,
the most ancient of weapons, and even by the earliest Greek and Roman
writers the Yew was renowned as the material especially valued by the
archer.
In those cruel battles when our kings laid claim to the succession of the
throne of France, the archers were the chief reliance of Hngland, and many
a noble Yew yielded its wood to the warrior, as Wordsworth has said—
* Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Perey, ere they march’d
To Scotland’s heaths ; or those that cross’d the sea,
And drew their sounding bows at Agincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy or Poictiers.”
So general was the use of the bow, that Grafton relates how, in the reign
of Henry IV., after an affray at Cirencester, fourscore archers of the town
were thanked for their services, among which were “certaine good women.”
Long after the introduction of fire-arms in the fourteenth century, the bow
was used in battle, as in that of Flodden Field ; and even as lately as the
days of Queen Elizabeth, fire-arms were so badly made that an archer is said
to have been able to shoot six arrows in the time required for charging and
discharging a musket. Even after the bow had almost, or quite, fallen into
disuse in battle, yet archery was much practised as an amusement. The
good and learned Roger Ascham not only amused himself with shooting at
the hazel-wands and rose-garlands, then used as marks, but published, in 1554,
his “ Toxophilus, or the Schole and Partitions of Shootinge,” wherein he tells
of the classical nature of the sport and its connexion with Apollo. He praises
the art as “the companion of vertue, the mainteyner of honestie, the encrease
of wealth and wealthinesse, which admitteth nothinge in a maner into his
companye that standeth not with vertue and honestie.” From this old
advocate of the art, as well as from various other writers of those times, we
find how greatly the “Archer Yew” was prized. Ascham says: ‘‘The best
wood is Yew ; the colour should be uniform ; those made of a bough are for
the most part knotty, weak, and seldom wear to a good colour; the plant is
better, but the bole of a tree is best of all.”
The trunk of the Yew-tree is short, thick, straight, and furrowed, and its
wide-spread boughs, well filled with fohage, cast a broad shadow—a shadow
which the ancients believed would be fatal to one who slept beneath it.
When fully grown, the tree is from thirty to forty feet high, and has at first
a brown bark, which soon peels off. Its almost sessile green leaves, placed
in two rows, are of a deep dark green, glossy above and paler beneath. The
flowers are axillary and solitary ; those having stamens are of a light yellowish
hue, from their abundant pollen; and the pistil-bearing ones, surrounded
FIR TRIBE 203
with scales, somewhat resemble minute acorns. They are to be seen in
March, as described by Bishop Mant—
‘* Nor curious less the mountain Yew,
Which, ’mid its leaves of solemn hue,
Its sulphur-coloured anthers now,
In clusters on the dark-green bough,
Here void of cup or blossom fair,
Exhibits ; and at distance, there
Its verdant chalices minute,
The embryos of its scarlet fruit.”
The Yew grows wild in this kingdom in mountainous woods ; and we
may sometimes find a solitary Yew standing on the hill-sides, its deep verdure
contrasting with the brighter tint of the grass. Such have we seen on the
chalky hills of Kent, not far from Druidical remains, though not old enough
or near enough to be connected with them ; and we haye thought of Words-
worth’s lines—
‘* This solitary tree, a living thing,
Produced too slowly ever to decay,
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroy d.”
The Yew was once abundant in the New Forest, but doubtless many of
these trees of olden times have perished by the axe ; and as some of the old
reasons for planting them exist no longer, they are now much fewer than in
past ages. But there are spots in this kingdom where the tree grows in
abundance. The Rey. C. A. Johns, in his “Forest Trees of Britain,” says
“that on cliffs near Coomb Martin, in North Devon, numbers of these trees
grow in places accessible only to birds ;”? and he mentions also that the Yew
Island in Loch Lomond furnished, a few years since, three hundred Yews for
the axe, while several noble trees yet remain there. ‘The most remarkable
assemblage of Yews in Great Britain,” says this writer, “is at a place called
Kingley Bottom, about four miles from Chichester. As to when or by whom
they were planted, or indeed whether they were planted by the hand of man
at all, history is silent. They are about two hundred in number ; one-half
of them form a dense dark grove in the depth of the Bottom ; the remainder,
smaller ones, are scattered over the sides of the valley, intermingled with fine
plants of juniper and holly.” The Yew is frequent in Scotland, and grows
at a great elevation on the limestone rocks of Ireland, though rarely attaining
there any great size. It is indigenous to most European countries, but it
is almost unknown in Sweden and Lapland. Linneus found it in but one
place in the latter country, where the people called it Jd, or Idegran ; and Dr.
E. D. Clarke, when in Sweden, saw it growing wild once only, and then not
larger than a shrub; while it was reared with care, and regarded as a
vegetable treasure, in the botanic garden of Upsal.
The “Baneful Yew,” the epithet of Virgil, was particularly appropriate
in times when men believed the tree to be very noxious. Pliny said, “ It is
unpleasant and fearfull to looke upon, as a cursed tree, without any liquid
substance at all.” The ancients sat not beneath its shadow, nor would touch
of its fruits. They would not allow their beehives to be placed near it, lest
the bee should suck its poison, nor would they have drunk wine from a
26—2
204 CONIFERA—FIR TRIBE
bowl made of its wood. Shakspere calls it the “Double Fatal Yew,” and
even in later days, poets, influenced by their classic associations, have
described it as injurious. Both in ancient and modern times, the plant has
been used medicinally ; and even within the present century, an Italian
physician has stated that Yew-leaves, when administered in small doses,
have a similar power to the Drgitdlis, in reducing the circulation ; and that
its juice, like that of the foxglove, would prove fatal if taken largely.
Plutarch and Pliny both thought the coral fruits poisonous ; and M. Decan-
dolle and some other botanists regard them as dangerous; though Dr.
Lindley considers that the seeds which lie in the scarlet cup are the noxious
part. Sir J. E. Smith says that he has, in boyhood, eaten these sweet and
juicy fruits without experiencing any ill-effects; and the author of these
pages ate them in childhood, year after year, and in great numbers, without
injury ; but the bitter seeds within were of course rejected. ‘The leaves,
especially those of the young shoots, are certainly, under some circumstances,
poisonous to animals. Professor Wiborg, of Copenhagen, is of opinion that
they are so only when eaten without the admixture of any other food ; but
that when eaten with three or four times the quantity of wholesome vege-
tables, they are innocuous. Other botanists believe that they are poisonous
only when in a withered state.
The Yew was formerly much used for hedges, and also for clipping into
various forms, as cones, spires, and pyramids, birds and animals. Even yet
there exist many trees familiar to us from earliest days, as uncouth repre-
sentations of peacocks, while others still show a well-clipped surface, cut into
a globular form. Professor Burnet, writing of two trees of this kind in
Bedfont Churchyard, says they have been thus disfigured for upwards of a
century and a half, by the annual clipping of their shoots; they have no
chance of escape from this condition, some eccentric person having left an
annuity that they may be thus clipped for ever.
Many venerable and picturesque Yews interest us the more, from their
connection with history. Such are the magnificent trees near Fountains
Abbey, beneath whose shadow the monks are said to have taken shelter
while rearing the monastery. One of these trees, which is fifty feet high, is
proved from old records to be upwards of eight hundred years old. Such,
too, is the Ankerwyke Yew, near Staines, supposed to be upwards of a
thousand years of age, on which the assembled barons might have looked
when the Great Charter was signed, and beneath whose shadow Henry VIII.
is believed to have held tryst with the ill-fated Anne Boleyn.
The Yew is a valuable tree. Its wide evergreen foliage is a shelter for
birds, when shelter is scarce, and many birds eat the berries. The wood is
hard, close-grained, elastic, and durable, and forms excellent timber ; while
the Yew-wood table is far more beautiful than that made of mahogany, and
various ornamental articles are cut from the beautifully-veined trunk and
root. As it will outlast almost every other wood, it is well fitted for piles,
posts, and other objects which are exposed to damp and weather ; and it is
a common saying in the New Forest, that ‘a post of yew will last longer
than an iron one.’
CU
HYDROCHARIDACEA.—FROG-BIT TRIBE 20
Cuass II. MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS.
The plants of this class have only a single cotyledon or seed-lobe to
their embryo; first-formed leaves alternate with each other. The stem is
composed of woody fibre, cellular tissue, and spiral vessels ; but there is no
true bark or pith, nor is there any trace of concentric annual layers, but
wood and cellular tissue are mixed together. The stem increases by the
addition of new matter within: hence the term ENDOGENOUS, or Inward
Growers, is often applied to these plants. In our country the Monocoty-
ledons are all herbaceous, and they may, in general, be readily distinguished
by their leaves. These are commonly alternate, sheathing, and, in almost
all cases, their veins run in parallel lines from the base to the point of the
leaf, the principal veins being connected by nearly simple secondary veins,
as in the Orchises and Grasses ; while, in the Dicotyledons, the veins diverge
from the midrib to the margins of the leaves, and are connected by smaller
veins branching in all directions, and forming a network, as in the leaves of
the rose or bramble. The flowers of Monocotyledons have stamens and
pistils—three, or some multiple of three, being the number which pre-
dominates in the parts of fructification—and they are with or without a
perianth. A large number of plants, forming Sub-class II., Glumacex, have
chaffy scales or glumes, instead of sepals and petals. This Sub-class comprises
the true Grasses, and their allies, the Sedges and Sedge-like plants.
Sub-class I. PETALOIDEZ.
Flowers having petals arranged in a circular manner ; or without petals.
Order LXXXII. HYDROCHARIDACEA—FROG-BIT
TRIBE.
Flower-buds enclosed in a sheath; sepals 3, green ; petals 3; stamens 3;
9, 12, or more; ovary inferior, 1 or many-celled; styles 3 or 6; stigmas
3—6 ; fruit dry or juicy, not bursting, 1 or many-celled. The plants of this
order are floating aquatics, possessing no important properties.
1. ANACHARIS.—Stamens and pistils on different plants ; barren flower,
having a 6-parted perianth and 9 stamens ; fertile flower with a long thread-
like tubular spathe, 3 sterile stamens, and 3 stigmas ; capsule 1-celled, few-
seeded. Name said by the authors of the “British Flora” to be from the
Greek ana, like, and charis, an abbreviation of the next genus.
2. Froe-pit (Hydrécharis).— Stamens and pistils on different plants ;
stamens 12, 3 or 6 wanting anthers; ovary 6-celled ; stigmas 6. Name from
the Greek hydor, water, and charis, elegance.
3. WATER SOLDIER (Stratidtes).—Stamens and pistils usually on different
plants; stamens 12, surrounded by many imperfect ones; ovary 6-celled ;
stigmas 6. Name from the Greek word for a soldier, because of its prickly,
sword-shaped leaves.
1. WATER-THYME (Anicharis).
Water-thyme (A. alsinistrum).—Leaves 3 or 4 in a whorl, linear, or
oval oblong, thin, and minutely serrated; perennial. This plant, which is
206 HYDROCHARIDACEAA
of recent introduction into this kingdom, is now generally distributed. Itis
an aquatic, forming thick, entangled, submerged masses of considerable
extent, and so heavy, that when cut, instead of rising, like most water-
plants, to the surface, or floating onwards to the sea, it falls immediately to
the bottom. Its slender whorled leaves are of a rather light green, and as
thin as some of our grass-green seaweeds, growing on a long, brittle, round,
almost transparent stem, which branches in all directions, sending out at
intervals its fibrous roots, and bearing among its whorls of leaves, from May
to September, very small pinkish-green flowers. ‘The whole plant, both in
form and structure, is readily distinguished from every other of our native
aquatics.
The smallest portion of this plant, having the root attached, will, if
broken off, propagate itself immediately ; and the history of the progress of
this weed is now well known, and has become a matter of painful interest to
many in this kingdom, though the mode of its introduction still remains a
mystery. It is identical with the American aquatic termed Udora canadensis
by Nuttall, and Elodea canadensis by other authors, and was originally dis-
covered in this country by the late Dr. George Johnston of Berwick, in 1842,
in the lake of Dunse Castle, Berwickshire, though it had been found in
County Down six years earlier. The attention of several scientific men was
called to the plant, but for several years nothing further was heard of it,
till it was seen again by Miss Kirby, in 1847, in the reservoirs adjoining the
Foxton locks on the canal near Market Harborough, in Leicestershire ; and
as the locks had been cleansed about two years before, there was reason to
believe that its introduction had been recent, although at that time it had
become abundant in the water. Mr. Babington then published an account
of this plant, and Dr. Johnston, on reading it, immediately recognised the
description to be that of the same weed which he had seen some years
before. On examining the loch of Dunse Castle, he found that this water-
weed had not only accumulated there in great profusion, but that, having
made its way out of the loch, it was forming matted patches in several
places down the Whiteadder, in its course to the Tweed. In the same
season it had appeared in the Nene, a tributary to the Trent in Nottingham-
shire ; and propagating itself with its usual rapidity, it soon formed so large
an amount of aquatic herbage, that it threatened to block up one of the two
streams into which the Trent there divides; while in the Trent itself it
afterwards grew in such profusion, that in some parts of the river fishing
became quite impracticable, the fishermen finding their gear unable to com-
pete with this new and formidable vegetable hindrance. ‘This plant was also
found in the Watford locks, in Northamptonshire, growing in numerous and
immense tangled masses.
It was in the summer of 1849 that this troublesome water-weed was first
discovered in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, where it formed, as it were, small
green meadows on the water, both in the Trent and the adjoining canals ; in
1850 it had gathered in profusion near Rugby in Warwickshire, and in the
following year it had appeared in the Cam at Cambridge, behind the colleges,
and by its growth so clogged up the river, that the barges which had to
make their way through its clumps required the aid of extra horses. The
FLOWERED
LON
]
morsuis ~ranée
Hydrocharis
Lisinastaeuiw
)
.coary
An
SOLDIEI
Stratiotes
WATE!
aloides
Ath.
Bt:
FROG-BIT TRIBE 207
collegians were, by its masses, prevented from rowing, as it not only impeded
the course of a boat, but would even overturn it; while the most skilful
swimmer became entangled in its toils. Bathers found it clinging to their
limbs ‘like scratch-weed”; and in more than one case fatal accidents
ensued in consequence of its intertwining branches. It was afterwards
observed at Ely, where it occasioned immense trouble by choking up the
railway-dock; and an engineer found that, in the year 1852, it had so
hindered the drainage in the fenny parts of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon-
shire, that it was equivalent to a rise of one foot in the outlet level. Mr.
Marshall of Ely, who gave great attention to the progress of this weed, and
who, in 1854, published a pamphlet recording his observations, said: “The
specific gravity of this plant is so nearly that of water, that it is more
disposed to sink than float ; and the cut masses may be seen under water,
either on or near the bottom, rolling over and over, like woolpacks, clinging
to everything they meet with, and accumulating in great quantities in locks
and bridges, and grounding in shallow water. Its mode of growth may be
best seen in still and shallow waters, where it seems to spring first from the
two sides and the bottom, meeting at length in the middle, and completely
filling up the watercourse, as I have seen in some cases, almost to the exclu-
sion of the water.”
Since the third discovery of the Anacharis in 1847, the plant has been
found making its progress every season into some new or hitherto unobserved
locality ; and, during the course of the year 1855, it was seen for the first
time growing in abundance in a land-drain at Weybridge and Walton, which
empties itself into the Thames, blooming there in profusion.
None of the theories respecting the introduction of this plant into the
Dunse loch are very satisfactory; but when once the weed reaches the
waters in the centre of England, its dissemination ceases to be a mystery.
Mr. Marshall, in a communication made to the Gardener’s Chronicle, in 1853,
says: ‘In the letter which I published last year on this remarkable plant,
I stated that when once introduced, it would, in a few years, inoculate any
connected water system from one end to the other. I added, that if anyone
would look at a good map of England, it would appear that there was hardly
a spot so well situated as a centre from which to inoculate our English rivers,
as Rugby, or the Watford locks near the Crick railway, where it was found
in profusion. From such a point, situated at an altitude above the sea of
350 feet, and very nearly at the line of water-shed which divides England
into the river-basins of the Severn on the west, the Trent on the north, the
Ouse on the east, and the Thames on the south; a few detached pieces
travelling different ways would enter the Severn through the Avon, by the
way of Rugby and Warwick ; the Thames, through the Cherwell ; the Nene,
above Northampton; the Ouse at Buckingham; the Welland at Market
Harborough ; the Trent by the Anker, Tame, and Soar; from the Soar it
might enter the Witham, through the Grantham Canal, and thence by
Lincoln into the water-courses which drain the fens of North Lincolnshire,
and which now are so full of this weed ; while, at the junction of the Trent
with the Humber, that large river and its tributary streams might have been
visited by this troublesome emigrant.”
208 HYDROCHARIDACE#
In some instances, from an inexperience of the injury done by this water-
weed, it has been intentionally introduced. This was the case in regard to
the river Cam. In 1847 a specimen was brought from the Foxton lock, and
placed in a tub in the botanical garden of Cambridge ; and in the succeeding
year a small portion of the weed was placed there in the conduit stream, the
exact spot being, as usual in such cases, indicated by a small stick. In the
next year the plant had not only quite covered the stick from view, but had
extended itself and spread all over the ditch. Thence it made its way into
the Vicar’s brook ; thence into the Cam. “Thus,” says Mr. Marshall, “we
see proved to demonstration, that the short space of four years has been
sufficient for one small piece of Anacharis to multiply so as to impede both
navigation and drainage.” A story is current that a lecturer on botany, in
Scotland, who was remarking on the peculiarities of this plant, directed his
hearers to look for specimens in a neighbouring canal, in which he assured
them he had, some time since, planted the weed, and where indeed they
found it. In the course of some time the evil thus inadvertently introduced
had so injured some water-works by its masses, that the owner of the water
threatened the lecturer with legal proceedings for having brought it there.
A remarkable circumstance respecting this weed has led to the inference
that all the plants in this country have proceeded from a single piece. The
flowers bearing pistils and stamens occur on different individual plants, and
in every specimen of the Anacharis seen in this kingdom until many years
after, the pistil-bearing flower only was found—and thus it was not, as in the
rivers of America, propagated by seed. In that country an identical or
closely allied species exists in profusion, but in the more rapid waters it is
not injurious, as in the still or slow-moving streams of this kingdom.
Although the Anacharis was at one time so abundant in Dunse loch that
a boat could with difficulty be pulled among it, yet it has now quite dis-
appeared from that place. The same thing has since happened in many
places where it abounded soon after its introduction. A correspondent in
the Berwick Warder attributes its removal to the swans, though these birds,
he says, were accused of having originally brought it there. He remarks
that the swans lived entirely on this plant, throve well, rearing a numerous
family on the quiet waters, till the year 1851, at which period the plant dis-
appeared ; the birds then seemed to pine, and finally all died, save the
original pair. These swans, no longer able to find this favourite food in the
loch, followed the small burns down to the Whiteadder in search of it, and
seemed to be its most relentless persecutors. Swans, as well as ducks, geese,
and other aquatic fowls, will probably aid in its destruction, as they destroy
the weeds which they feed upon; and an observer of their habits remarks,
that “they have been known, when water-weeds were scarce, to eat through
large masses of white lilies, leaving nothing but the stem. Everything less
strong in its growth than the yellow water-flag seems to be destroyed by the
cropping of these birds.”
The Anacharis is called by the fishermen the Water Thyme, from a very
slight resemblance to the foliage of Thyme, in the form of the young branches
clad with leaves.
FROG-BIT TRIBE 209
2. Frog-Bit (Hydrécharis).
Common Frog-bit (H. mérsus-réne).—Leaves stalked, kidney-shaped,
entire ; flowers springing from a membranous sheath ; perennial. The large
white clustering blossoms of this plant float on many ponds and stagnant
waters during July and August. They are thin and crumpled like the
flower of a poppy, but are white and glossy, and sometimes tinged faintly
with pink, their satiny surface looking almost like mother-of-pearl in its
iridescent hues. The long roots proceed at intervals from the horizontal
floating stems, and the glossy green roundish leaves have long stalks, and
show very distinctly the veins which run from the base to the tip. The
fruit is a roundish leathery capsule, containing many seeds. ‘This plant was
called by the old writers Lesser Water Lily. Its name of Frog-bit has its
synonym in several Continental countries. It is the Frosciliss of the
Germans, and the Vorschenbect of the Dutch. The Russians term it
Liaguschnik, and thé French Moréne ; and it ornaments the still waters of
many European lands. It does not occur as a Scottish wild flower, nor is it
one of the most common aquatics in England, though if planted it grows
very readily, and deserves to be more frequently introduced into the
streams and pools of gardens.
3. WATER-SOLDIER (Sfrativtes).
Water-Soldier (S. aloides).—Leaves sword-shaped, triangular, prickly,
from a perennial creeping stem. Except in the fenny parts of Norfolk,
Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire, the Water-Soldier is a rare wild flower,
and it is especially so in the north of the kingdom. It is one which would
immediately attract attention by its dissimilarity from any other native plant,
and its resemblance to an aloe. Its numerous rigid prickly dark-green leaves
rise from the creeping runners, which are embedded in the mud at the base
of the lake or ditch. The flower-stalk is about five or six inches long,
flattened and two-edged. It bears, at its summit, a two-leaved sheath, out
of which arise several very pretty, large, delicate white flowers having
stamens, or one flower only bearing pistils. During the greater part of the
year the plant remains submerged, but it raises itself to light and air during
the flowering season, and then sinks to the bottom. The seeds sometimes’
ripen in the waters, but the plant is chiefly increased by offsets. The joints
of the runners are furnished with small drooping buds on long stalks, these
buds being composed of two scales folded together, between which may be
seen, curiously enfolded, the embryo leaves of the future shoot. The leaves
are much like those of the aloe, but of darker green, and have rigid, pellucid,
sharply-pointed teeth. It appears to have been planted in the Scottish lakes,
as well as in some English pools. It increases so rapidly as to become
troublesome in ornamental pieces of water, and is said to be acrid; and,
when growing in large quantities, to injure the water, and render it un-
wholesome. It is often called Water Aloe. The French term it Aloides ;
and the Germans, WVasserfeder.
W237,
210 ORCHIDEAL
Order LXXXIII. ORCHIDEA2—ORCHID TRIBE.
Perianth of 3 sepals, usually coloured, and 3 petals, the lowest unlike
the others and often spurred; stamens and styles united into a central
column; anther of 2 cells, containing pollen which is either powdery or
granular, but more frequently consists of 2, 4, or 8 waxy masses (pollinia)
sometimes raised on minute stalks; stigma a moist space in front of the
column ; fruit a 3-valved many-seeded capsule. The Orchid tribe consists
of herbaceous perennial plants, those which are fixed in the ground having
usually one, two, or more fleshy knobs attached to the base of the stem,
and bearing very handsome and singular flowers. The tropical species often
grow on trees, in the crevices of the bark, and have twisted and often stem-
like roots. The groups of this order have been arranged by botanists
according to the different condition of the pollen masses ; and the manner in
which these adhere.
1. Boa Orcuts (Maldxis).—Sepals spreading, lip very small, erect, with-
out a spur; 2 side petals turning upwards ; column round and very short,
the anther hinged to its top. Name from the Greek malazis, softness, in
allusion to the delicate texture of the species.
2. Fen Orcuis (Liparis).—Perianth spreading, lip flat, expanded, entire,
turned backwards; column long. Name from the Greek /iparos, unctuous,
in allusion to the surface of the leaves.
3. CoRAL-ROOT (Corallorhiza).—Petals and upper sepal converging, lateral
sepals spreading ; lip turned down at the base, its spur connected with the
ovary, column free; ovary and its stalk straight. Name from the Greek
korallion, coral, and rhiza, a root, from the form of the roots.
4, HELLEBORINE (Epipdctis)—Lip swollen below, the extremity either
entire or 3-lobed, the middle lobe the largest, and contracted in the middle ;
ovary straight, on a twisted stalk. Name given by the Greeks to some
species of Hellebore.
5. Brirp’s-NEST OR 'TWAY-BLADE (Listera). — Perianth spreading ; lip
2-lobed, and turned downwards ; pollen farinaceous. Named in honour of
Dr. Martin Lister.
6. Lapy’s TRESSES (Vedftia).—Perianth incurved, the two lateral sepals
erect ; lip channelled, embracing the wingless column, and uniting below with
its base. Name from the Greek neottia, a bird’s nest.
7. Goopybra.—Perianth ringent, the two lateral sepals placed beneath
the lip, which is swollen at the base, and entire at the extremity ; column
free. Named in honour of Mr. John Goodyer, an English botanist of Queen
Elizabeth’s time.
8. GMELIN’S CoRAL-ROOT (Epipogium).—Perianth somewhat spreading ;
lip uppermost, 3-lobed, shortly spurred ; column short, stigma in front ;
ovary not twisted. Name from the Greek, epz, upon, and pogon, beard or
lip, from the latter being uppermost.
9, OrcHIs.—Perianth ringent, hooded ; lip 3-lobed, spurred. Name from
the Greek, orchis, which was given to plants with double tuberous roots.
10. GYMNADENIA.—Perianth ringent; lip spurred at the base beneath.
BOG
ORCHIS
Malaxis paludosa
TWO LEAVED LIPARIS
Lyparts loeseli
Pi.
3. SPURLESS CORAT. ROOT
Corallorhiza mnata
BROAD- LEAVED HELLEBORINE
Eprpactis latafolia
A
ORCHID TRIBE 211
Name from the Greek, gumnos, naked, and aden, a gland, because the glands
on the stalks of its pollen masses are uncovered, and not, like those of the
Orchis, enclosed in a little pouch ; a circumstance which chiefly distinguishes
this from that genus.
11. Burrerrty Orcuis (Habeniria).—Perianth ringent, hooded; lip
3-lobed or entire, spurred. Name from habena, a thong or strap, from the
shape of the spur.
12. Man Orcuts (Aceras).—Perianth ringent, hooded ; lip 3-lobed with-
out a spur. Name from the Greek, a, without, and eras, a horn, in allusion
to the absence of the spur.
13. Musk Orcuis (Herménium).—Perianth bell-shaped with erect seg-
ments; lip 3-lobed, swollen beneath at the base, without a spur. Name
from the Greek, hermin, the foot of a bed-post, suggested by the tuberous
roots.
14. Opurys.—Perianth spreading ; lip variously lobed, without a spur.
Name from the Greek ophrus, the eyebrow, the plant having been said by
Pliny to be used in staining the eyebrow black; or perhaps from the eye-
brow-like markings of the lip.
15. Lapy’s Siiprer (Cypripédium).—Perianth spreading ; lip large, in
flated ; column with a large terminal dilated lobe, or sterile stamen separating
the two anthers ; two lower lateral sepals often combined. Name from the
Greek, Kupris, Venus, and podion, sock, or slipper.
1. Bog Orcutis (Maldzis).
Bog Orchis (J. paludésa).—Stem with from 3 to 5 leaves, which are
oval and coneave ; lip concave, acute. ‘This rare species, which is the smallest
and least attractive of our native Orchids, grows on spongy bogs in many
parts of the kingdom. It is found among, or rather on, the roots of the
sphagnum-moss common to such places, bearing, from July to September, a
small but long spike of yellowish-green blossoms, on an erect stem from two
to four inches in height. The flowers are very small, the sepals egg-shaped
and spreading, two turning upwards, their bases embracing the base of the
upper lip. The leaves are fringed at the upper part with minute tubercles,
rendering the margin roughish. These tubercles had been believed by
Sir W. J. Hooker to be little bulbous leaf-buds, and were fully ascertained
to be so by Professor Henslow, who examined some of the plants which
grew in great plenty on Gamlingay Heath, in Cambridgeshire. “ Every
specimen which I gathered,” says this botanist, ‘exhibited this fringe in a
greater or less degree, and it required only the assistance of a common lens
to show that it was occasioned by numerous little bulbous germs spreading
from the edge and towards the apex of the leaf. They were of the same
colour as the leaves, green on those which were more exposed to the light,
and quite white on those which were lowest on the stem, and half buried in
the peat and moss. Some of these germs were so far advanced as to have
put forth the rudiments of two or three leaves, and others less so.” This
Orchis often forms little groups of half a dozen or more plants. John Ray
describes it as growing in his time in divers places in Romney Marsh, in
27—2
212 ORCHIDEAL
Kent. It is probable that it is not so rare as is generally thought, its small
size and yellow-green flowers rendering it very inconspicuous.
2. FERN ORCHIS (Liparis).
Two-leaved Fern Orchis (LZ. loesélii).—Leaves 2, broadly lanceolate ;
stem triangular; lip entire, longer than the perianth. This, which is a
much rarer plant than the preceding, is found also on spongy and sandy
bogs in Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire, and Dillwyn
found it in East Kent, growing at Ham Ponds. Its stem is about six inches
high, and its flowers, which expand in July, and are of pale greenish-yellow
colour, grow in the form of a loose spike. ‘The plant is thought by some
writers to grow upon the roots of moss. The genus is by some botanists
termed Stiurmia.
3. CoRAL-ROOT (Corallorhiza).
Spurless Coral-root (C. inndia).—Spur very short, or wanting; root
of thick fleshy fibres. This is a rare plant of boggy woods, found in the
east of Scotland. Its stem is from six to twelve inches high, and it
bears, in July, a few yellowish or olivaceous flowers in a short loose spike.
The sepals are keeled and spreading, lanceolate and acute, and the petals are
shorter, while the oblong whitish lip is waved, and sometimes lobed, at the
margin, and has a few purple spots upon it. The plant has no leaves, and is
distinctly characterized by the intertwining fibres of its underground stem,
which, as our plate will show, resemble a piece of branched coral in form,
though of pale-brown colour. It is a native of boggy soils in the northern
part of the globe, where it feeds upon decaying vegetable matter.
4. HELLEBORINE (Lpipdctis).
1. Broad-leaved Helleborine (H. latifélia).—Leaves oblong or egg-
shaped, many-nerved, embracing the stem, upper ones narrower ; raceme
long and many-flowered, lower bracts longer than the flowers; upper lobe
of the lip broadly egg-shaped, or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, broadest
below the middle, with two protuberances on the disk as long, or nearly as
long, as the sepals, and almost entire. Several varieties of this species occur,
differing in the shape and breadth of the leaves, the colour of the flowers,
and in the size of the terminal lobe of the lip. The Broad-leaved Helleborine
is not infrequent in the woods of mountainous countries, and is found both
in woods and on mountain slopes in some parts of this kingdom. The flowers
appear in July and August, and vary in the different forms from purplish-
green to an intense purple. The stem is from one to three feet high, the
leaves always becoming narrower towards its upper part, and the under-
ground stem creeping with long fibres. The forms generally recognised are :
Sub-species L. latifolia proper; stems not tufted; sepals ovate-oblong ;
tip of lip broader than long ; greenish-purple. The commoner form.
Sub-species H. purpurata ; stems often tufted ; sepals oblong-lance-shaped,
more pointed than in the type; tip of lip only as broad as long. Flowers
violet-purple. Rare, found only in the south of England.
Sub-species E£. utro-rubens ; stems shorter, leaves smaller; tip of lip
1 MARSH HELLE BORINE 3. NARROW-LEAVED WHITE H
Epipactis palustris E. ensifolia
LARGE WHITE Ht 4 PURPLE H
FE. érandiflora E .rubra
ORCHID TRIBE 213
broader than long, rounded. Flowers red-brown, appearing a month earlier
than the others. Found on the limestone cliffs of Orme’s Head (Carnarvon-
shire), in Yorkshire, Sutherland, ete.
2. Marsh Helleborine (£. paliistris).—Leaves lanceolate, embracing
the stem; bracts generally shorter than the flowers ; terminal lobe of the
lip roundish oval, or inversely egg-shaped, broadest at or above the middle,
crenate, very blunt. This, which is a local species, is found on wet lands, in
Britain, and more rarely inIreland. The flowers, which are somewhat droop-
ing, grow in a lax spike, on a wiry stem, about a foot or a foot and a half
high. The stem is sometimes tinged with purple. The sepals are purplish-
green, the petals and lip white, varied with rose colour.
3. Large White Helleborine (£. grandifléra).— Leaves egg-shaped, or
somewhat lanceolate, sessile; bracts longer than the smooth ovary ; sepals
erect, blunt ; terminal lobe of the lip oval, abruptly blunt, shorter than the
rest of the petals ; rootstock creeping. This is a very pretty and conspicuous
plant among trees and bushes, on a chalky soil.
‘*It grows in deep green woods with tangled alleys,
Where hues of sunshine stream athwart the trees,
Where moss the thickest springs in dewy valleys,
Where tassell’d grasses nod upon the breeze ;
Where rambling wreaths delay the rash intruder,
Holding him fast as each would notice claim,
Where siender sapling twigs, a barrier ruder,
Close round hia o’er the path through which he came.”
The flowers grow on the upper part of the stem, in a distant spike, during
May and June. They are of large size, the sepals nearly all equal, including
the small lip marked with raised lines, and which, though white externally,
is yellowish inside. The hue of the flower differs a little in different
specimens ; in some it is pure as snow, in others delicately cream-coloured.
The leaves are broad, and bright green and glossy. Some writers place this
and the following species in a distinct genus, termed Cephalanthera, calling
this C. pallens.
4, Narrow-leaved White Helleborine (£. ensifvlia).—Leaves lanceo-
late ; bracts much shorter than the smooth ovary ; terminal lobe of the lip
blunt; rootstock creeping. This is a rare plant of mountainous woods,
flowering in May and June. Its large blossoms are somewhat spiked, and
are white, the lip marked with several white lines and a yellow spot in front.
The stem is usually more than a foot high.
5. Purple Helleborine (£. riubra).—Leaves lanceolate and acute ;
bracts longer than the downy ovary; terminal lobe of the lip pointed and
marked with raised lines ; rootstock creeping. This is a very rare plant of
limestone woods in Gloucester and Somerset. The flowers are large and
rose-purple, with a white lip, expanding in June and July, and forming a
loose spike on a stem about a foot in height.
These Helleborines are fertilized by wasps and flies, and to accommodate
them the lip is hollowed out, basin fashion. After partaking of the honey,
the wasp is compelled to come in contact with the stigma, and then to carry
away pollen wherewith to fertilize the next Helleborine it visits.
214 ORCHIDEAL
5. Brrp’s-NEST OR TWAY-BLADE (Listera).
1. Common Tway-blade (LZ. ovdta).—Stem downy above, with only
two opposite large egg-shaped leaves; column of fructification with a crest
which includes the anther. This plant, well named ‘Tway-blade, is readily
distinguished from all our native orchids by the two broad, glossy, green,
strongly-nerved leaves, often eight inches long. The plant is from a foot to
a foot and a half high, the flowers small in proportion to leaf and stem, of a
yellowish-green hue, and forming a long loose spike from April to June. It
is found in shady places, in orchards and pastures, and still more commonly
in woods. Its rootstock is composed of numerous long fleshy fibres, connected
in bundles by a main fibre. The two-lobed lip is slightly hollowed at its
base, from which a channel runs down the centre in which honey is secreted.
Flies and beetles follow this up to the end, where their heads come in con-
tact with the tongue-shaped portion (rosfellum) of the column on which the
pollinia stand. At the touch the rostellum exudes a drop of liquid cement
at the base of the pollinia, which therefore become attached to the insect’s
head, and are carried off to fertilize other Tway-blade flowers.
2. Heart-leaved Tway-blade (JL. corddta).—Stem smooth, with two
opposite heart-shaped leaves ; column without a crest ; lip with a tooth on
each side at its base. This is a much smaller species than the last, its stem
rarely exceeding six inches in height, and its smooth leaves being usually
little more than an inch long. It produces a few dull brownish-green flowers,
very small, and forming a loose spike ; these expand from June to August,
and have somewhat spreading sepals and a narrow drooping lip; the root-
stock consists of a few stout fibres. It occurs in mountainous districts and
on turfy moors, with a marked fondness for heather as a protection. It is
rare in Ireland.
3. Common Bird’s-nest (L. nidus-dvis).—Stem leafless, but beset with
sheathing brown scales ; column without any crest ; lip linear-oblong, with
two spreading lobes. This is a very singular plant—stem, scales, and
flowers all being of a dingy brown hue; so that its first appearance is that
of a withered stem, till on examination we observe its succulent nature. Its
sombre aspect and leafless condition, so like that of some of our native
parasitic plants, as well as its growth among the fallen leaves around the
trunks of trees, led to the opinion that this Orchid was parasitical in habit.
Mr. Bowman, who examined the plant with much care, says: “It has long
been doubted whether it is strictly parasitical. Whatever it may be in the
earlier stages of its growth, it certainly is not so in its more advanced state.
If it be carefully got up ina clod, and the soil afterwards washed from
around it, the leaves (that is, the scaly appendages) of the central rootstock,
or caudex, may be seen to terminate in a short curved spur, which tapers to
a fine point, and evidently is not attached to any other vegetable. The
cuticle of the stem and its bracts have no perspiring pores.” It is really a
saprophyte, like coral-root, feeding upon decaying leaves.
This plant received its old name of Bird’s-nest from the short, thick, fleshy
entangling fibres of its roots, which might remind us of the sticks used by
some of our larger birds in the framework of their nests. The young plants
COMMON TWAYBLADE 4
Listera ovata
HEART -LEAVED T
L.cardata
COMMON BIRDS-NEST 6
L mdus-avis
7 CREEPING GOODYERA
Goodyera repens
Pt. 217,
FRAGRANT LADYS
SUMMER L- T
DROOPING IL
TRESSES
Neottia spiralis
N
@stivalis
cernua
ORCHID TRIBE 215
are produced from the extremities of these fibres. The Bird’s-nest Orchis
flowers in June ; its thick fleshy stem is about a foot high, and the scales
which sheath it are very succulent ; the blossoms grow in a long spike. It
should be sought in dark beech-woods. This plant is the original Nedttia of
Linneus, and many botanists separate it into a genus of that name, the
following genus being by them termed Spiranthes.
6. Lapy’s TRESSES (NVedttia).
1. Fragrant Lady’s Tresses (N. spiriilis).—Root-leaves oblong, stem-
leaves like bracts ; spike twisted, the flowers all pointing one way ; root-
stock formed of two or three tubers about as large as a hazel-nut. The
spiral arrangement of the blossoms of this pretty and delicate flower readily
distinguishes this and the next species from our other Orchids. The
blossoms are greenish-white, the upper sepal and the two lateral petals
are combined, and the lip is longer than the rest of the flower, which is
altogether somewhat bell-shaped in form. The spike sometimes twists from
right to left, but at others in the opposite direction. The stem, which is
from four to six inches high, is of a pale, almost sea-green hue, and the stem-
leaves are of the same tint, and slightly downy. The flowers have a sweet
though not powerful fragrance, the odour increasing in the evening. The
leaves around the base are of a bright glossy green, but they do not appear
till the flowers are fully blown. At the time when the flower raises its spike
above the decayed leaves of the last autumn, a new tuft of leaves springs
from just above the root, to prepare for the following season. The Rev. C. A.
Johns remarks that the foliage is so tenacious of life that it continues to
unfold even while subjected to the pressure made by the blotting-paper in
the process of drying. The plant is often called the Autumnal Lady’s
Tresses, as it flowers in September and October. It is not unfrequent on
dry pastures. Also known as Spiranthes autumnalis.
2. Summer Lady’s Tresses (N. estivilis).— Root-leaves oblong-lanceo-
late, those of the stem lanceolate and narrow ; spike twisted ; tubers cylin-
drical. This is a very rare plant of bogs and marshes. Its recorded places
of growth are a bog between Lyndhurst and Christchurch, in the New
Forest, Hants, and St. Ouen’s Pond, Jersey. It has also been found in
Wyre Forest, Worcestershire. The ovaries on the flower-stalks are placed:
regularly one above another, somewhat resembling plaited tresses ; and both
this and the last species are suggestive of various modes of hair-dressing
used by ladies in olden times, and rendered familiar to us by their portraits.
The flowers are greenish-white, in a lax spiral spike, and have a longer lip
than those of the last species.
3. Drooping Lady’s Tresses (NV. cérnua).—Root-leaves linear-lanceo-
late, stem-leaves lanceolate, somewhat triangular; bracts shorter than the
flower ; spike crowded, 3-ranked ; sepals and petals equal; lip blunt, with
shining tubercles at its base; tubers long, cylindrical. This species is the
rarest of ali European Orchids. It was not known to be a British plant until
the year 1810, when it was discovered by Mr. Drummond, at Castletown
Berehaven, County Cork, in Ireland. It then disappeared until the year
1841, when it was rediscovered on the same spot, and sent to Dr. Woods,
216 ORCHIDEA4
of Cork. It is the only known European locality for the plant, though it is
also found in Kamtschatka. The fragrant greenish-white flowers grow, in
August and September, on a somewhat short stem, forming a spike about
half an inch long. The plant is by some writers called Spiranthes gemmtpara,
and S. romanzovidna.
7. GOODYER’S ORCHIS ((oodyéra).
Creeping Goodyera (G. répens).—Lower leaves egg-shaped and stalked;
sepals, petals, and lip egg-shaped, lanceolate ; rootstock creeping. This rare
plant is found in pine forests at the north of this kingdom, especially in the
Scottish Highlands. Its stem is about six inches high ; its leaves are mostly
from the root; and it has narrow leaf-like bracts. The small cream-white
flowers grow during August, in a spiral spike. The whole of the upper part
of the plant is covered with minute glands. Mr. Loudon remarks of its
creeping roots, that unlike those of most Orchids, the plant may be increased
by division.
8. GMELIN’S CoRAL-ROOT (Epipogium).
Gmelin’s Coral-root (£. gmelini).—Lip 3-lobed, somewhat concave,
continued backwards as a short, stout spur; the centre whitish, with rows
of red glands. Sepals and petals somewhat spreading. Rootstock of fleshy,
branched fibres similar to those of Corallorhiza. This is an exceedingly rare
saprophyte, whose sole British locality is Tedstone Delamere, in Hereford-
shire. Its pale yellow-brown stem is about six inches high, its leaves reduced
to one or two small sheathing scales, above which are the 2 to 6 pale yellow
flowers on their short thick ovaries. The sepals and petals are narrow lance-
shaped, with turned-in edges; and the lip, which is uppermost, has small
lateral lobes. The position of the lip is due to the fact that the ovary is not
twisted. The plant grows among dead leaves, and flowers in August.
9. ORCHIS (Orchis).
1. Green-winged Meadow Orchis (0. mério).—Lip 5-lobed, slightly
crenate, middle lobe margined ; sepals and petals blunt, ascending, hooded ;
spur blunt, rather shorter than the germen ; tubers two, globular, undivided.
This is not an infrequent plant of the English or Irish meadow, during the
month of June. It grows among the grass, either hiding amidst its blades
or rising above them, varying in height from half a foot to a foot. The
flowers are few, forming a loose spike, and may be distinguished by their
dull purple sepals, which are marked with green veins, and curved upwards
so as to form a kind of helmet over the rest of the blossom. The lip is
purple, paler in the middle, and marked with purple spots. The leaves are
smaller than those of most members of the genus, and are not spotted.
2. Early Purple Orchis (0. mdscula).—Lip 3-lobed, somewhat crenate,
the middle lobe margined ; sepals acute, the two lateral ones turning up-
wards ; petals converging ; spur blunt, rather longer than the ovary ; tubers
two, egg-shaped. This is the commonest of our native Orchises, and all
who delight to roam in green meadow or leafy woodland, during May, have
GREEN WINGED
EARLY PURPLE
{
MEADOW
)
ORCHIS
Orehis moro
O. maseula
218.
DWARF
GREAT
DARK- WINGED 0
O. usinlata
BROWN-WINGED (¢
QO. fusca
aaa
re
‘
a wt
h \ ak an
ORCHID TRIBE 217
mingled it with their spring flowers. Speaking of this plant, Bishop Mant
Says ;
“In that broad field of springing grass,
First of his lip and hornéd class,
The early-flowering Orchis show’d
His smooth and spotted leaves, and glow’d
With spiky stalk elate, and head
Of spiral blossoms purple red.”
The succulent stem is about a foot high, generally more slender than that of
the last species, and tinged more or less with purple. The upper leaves
mostly clasp the stem ; the lower ones are oval-lanceolate, of a bright glossy
green, generally spotted with dark purple. The flowers form a loose spike,
each flower rising from a somewhat twisted ovary, and having a long spur
turning upwards. Their colour is usually of a rich reddish-purple, but it is
sometimes very pale, the centre of the lip whitish at the base, spotted, and
downy, and the sepals are without veins. The flowers are in the daytime
slightly fragrant ; but in the evening the odour increases, and becomes, if
exhaled in an apartment, most powerfully disagreeable, and reminiscent of
cats.
All the European species of the genus Orchis have underground stems
in the form of tubers, sometimes entire, and sometimes divided, and furnished
with thick fleshy fibres. One of these tubers is destined to outlive the
other ; and on examination, we find one of them plump and vigorous, while
the other is wrinkled and withering, about to be succeeded, however, by a
new one on the opposite side. ‘The plump knob is, in fact, an offset of the
other, and has a new white bud rising on the top of it, from which the stem
of next year is destined to emerge. In consequence of this mode of growth,
the actual position of the Orchis plant is changed about half an inch every
year ; for the new tuber invariably takes its origin from a point in the solid
one exactly opposite to the decayed one, and thus—
**The Orchis takes
Its annual step across the earth ;”
and it will be found, in the course of a dozen years, to have moved several
inches from its original station.
The roots of this and the Green-winged Meadow Orchis furnish the.
substance called ‘“salep,” which was long imported from Turkey and other
parts of the Levant, until it was discovered that our native plants could
supply it. Salep is little used now in this country ; but, less than a century
since, the Saloop-house was much frequented, and the substance was a
favourite repast of porters, coal-heavers, and other hard-working men. It
is said to contain more nutritious matter, in proportion to its bulk, than any
other known root, and an ounce of salep was considered to afford support to
a man for a day; hence, those who travel in uninhabited countries have
greatly prized so portable a vegetable food. It is still much used in Eastern
countries ; and a friend of the author’s, long resident in India, remarks in a
letter: ‘Many a good basin of the thick salab gruel, prepared from the
ground, dried root of an Indian Orchis, have I swallowed, and found highly
nutritious. It is called in Hindustani, Salub-ee-misree ; hence, I suppose,
IlI.—28
218 ORCHIDEAL
)
Salep or Saloop.” Forskhall says that the plant which furnishes this substance
is in Persia called Sahleb. The farinaceous powder is prepared by washing
the tubers, and drying them in an oven; salep, made some years since in
Gloucestershire from the early Purple Orchis, was found to be quite equal
to what was imported. The tuber should be taken up when the plant is in
seed, and the stalk about to fall from it. It is then at its full size, and about
as large as a pigeon’s egg.
With the exception of salep, our British species of Orchis yield no useful
substance. The showy foreign kinds are scarcely more productive. A kind
of cement or glue is obtained from the roots of some exotic species ; and the
vanilla used in flavouring chocolate and other sweetmeats is the dried fruit
of the Vanilla planifolia.
3. Dwarf Dark-winged Orchis (0. wstuldta).—Sepals dark purple,
forming a helmet including the two small petals; lip white, with raised
purple dots; spur and bracts about half as long as the ovary ; tubers egg-
shaped. This Orchis is readily distinguished by its low growth, and dark
brownish-purple colour, in some specimens so dark that, before the flowers
are fully expanded, they look as if they had been blackened by a scorching
flame. The spike is oblong, the flowers small, and usually more crowded
than in the specimen represented by the plate. They expand in May and
June, on a stem about four inches high. The leaves are deep green. The
plant grows on chalky hills and pastures, and is not one of our common
species; though it may be found plentifully in some localities. It has a
faint and delicate odour, like that of boiled cherries.
4, Great Brown-winged Orchis (0. fusca).—Lip 3-lobed, with raised
rough dark-red spots, the lateral lobes linear-oblong, the middle one large,
inversely heart-shaped, crenate, with an intermediate tooth; sepals rather
blunt, hooded, and including the petals; spur blunt, half as long as the
ovary ; tubers egg-shaped. ‘This, which is the largest and tallest of our
Orchids, is commonly one to three feet high. In Kent and Sussex, which
from the chalky soil are famous for Orchids, this plant is, in May, often very
conspicuous in the woodlands and on the bushy hill; and it seems to be
peculiar to those counties. It is often carried into the towns in baskets for
sale, mingling among green 'T'way-blades, and dim brown Bird’s-nests, and
overhung by graceful ferns. Kentish country people call it the Lady Orchis ;
and the reader may see, by glancing at our plate, that though its form is
not very suggestive of its name, yet that there exists some slight similarity
in each blossom to a lady attired in wide-spread gown and close bonnet. .
The leaves are oblong, blunt, bright green, and glossy. The helmet is
brownish-purple and variegated, and the lip of a paler hue. It is also known
as O. purpurea.
5. Military Orchis (0. malitéris).—Lip deeply 3-lobed, with rough
raised points ; the two side lobes linear-oblong, short ; the middle lobe again
divided into two slender segments, with an intermediate tooth; sepals hooded,
including the two petals ; spur blunt, about half as long as the ovary ; bracts
short ; tubers egg-shaped. This plant is very similar to the last in the
structure of its flowers, and is intermediate in this respect between that and
the following species. It is much smaller than the Great Brown-winged
i MILITARY ORCHIS 3 LAX-FLOWERED 0O.
Orchis tmilitams O. Jaxiflora
MONKEY 0. 1 MARSH O
O. tephrosanthos O. Jatifolia
Pl, 219,
ORCHID TRIBE 219
Orchis ; the helmet is of a pale ash colour, the lip deep purple, white in the
middle, and spotted. It occurs on chalky hills in Berkshire, chiefly about
Reading ; and also in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent, and Hertford-
shire, flowering in May.
6. Monkey Orchis (0. fephrosdnthos).—Lip 3-parted; the two side
lobes long and narrow, the middle one deeply cleft with an intermediate
tooth ; sepals pointed, hooded, including the two petals ; spur half as long
as the ovary; bracts very small. This beautiful and curious Orchis is
somewhat slender, and bears in May a spike of pale purple-spotted flowers,
with a lip cut into deep segments of darker purple. Some botanists doubt
if it is truly distinct from the last species. Sir J. D. Hooker regards it as a
sub-species of the Military Orchis under Lamarck’s name of 0. sima. The
chief difference consists in the more slender divisions of the lip and its
more crimson tint. It is found on chalk hills in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and
Kent.
7. Lax-flowered Orchis (0. lazifléra).—Lip 2 or 3-lobed ; lateral lobes
rounded in front, longer than the intermediate lobe, which is sometimes
absent ; spur stout, half as long as the ovary ; lateral sepals turning back-
wards, middle one erect ; petals hooded ; tubers globose. This plant is found
in wet grassy lands in Guernsey and Jersey, and on ballast heaps about
Hartlepool. It is a handsome flower in May and June. Mr. Babington
remarks, that it is allied to 0. médrio ; but that plant has single-nerved bracts,
and all the segments of its perianth, except the lip, are hooded, the short
spur also affording a distinctive character. The stem is one to three feet
high, the flowers of a bright red-purple, the leaves lanceolate or linear-
lanceolate.
8. Marsh Orchis (0. latifélia).—Lip scarcely 3-lobed, its sides slightly
turning under; sepals spreading, the two petals hooded ; spur cylindrical,
shorter than the ovary; bracts as long as the flower, sometimes longer ;
tubers palmate. A very pretty flower is the Marsh Orchis, and a very
frequent one, too, on marshy meadows and damp grassy lands in June and
July, growing among the rich drooping clusters of the waxy pink cross-
leaved heath, and the green or pale and rosy-tinted bog mosses. It is a tall
and somewhat slender plant, with a hollow stem about a foot high, and
oblong, spotted leaves remarkably erect with flat tips. The flowers are
sometimes of a pale pinkish hue, but oftener deep lilac or dull purple, the
lip dotted and streaked with purple; while, on the sands of Barrie, they
have been found perfectly white. The long bracts taper to a point. Also
known as O. palmata.
There is a sub-species (0. incarnata) with lance-shaped, pointed leaves,
broader at the base, unspotted, and with concave tips. This form has larger
flowers. It has been found in Cornwall, Hampshire, and Wiltshire.
9. Spotted Palmate Orchis (0. maculdtu).—Lip flat, 3-lobed ; sepals
spreading, the two petals hooded ; spur as long as or shorter than the ovary ;
bracts varying much in length, sometimes as long as the flower ; upper leaves
linear-lanceolate, lower ones mostly blunt, and spotted with purple ; tubers
palmate. The delicate lilac, or occasionally white, flowers of this Orchis
grow on a solid stem about a foot high in June and July, forming at first a
28—-2
220 ORCHIDEAL
short spike, which afterwards lengthens. The flowers are streaked, and
spotted more or less with purple, especially the lip, which is deeply lobed,
having the side-lobes rounded, and the middle lobe longest. It grows in
abundance on heaths and pastures where the soil is moist. Its leaves are
slender and distant.
10. Pyramidal Orchis (0. pyramiddlis).—Lip with three equal lobes
and two tubercles at the base above ; lobes oblong, blunt as if cut off; sepals
spreading, pointed ; spur very slender and longer than the ovary ; leaves
linear-lanceolate, tapering; tubers globose. This lovely Orchis is not
infrequent on the chalky soils of various parts of England, growing among
grass. Many a fine specimen may be gathered from the cliffs of Dover,
while some grow there on spots inaccessible even to the most adventurous
footsteps ; but, gleaming among the verdure, are conspicuous afar off in their
tint of rich crimson purple— so rich that the artist despairs of imitating it
on paper. The stem is from twelve to eighteen inches high, bearing, in
July, a short, broadly-conical cluster of crowded flowers, spirally arranged, the
spike becoming longer with age. The bulging protuberance of the lip, and
the long slender spur, are marked features of this Orchis. The leaves sheathe
the stem, about five or six growing from the root. The flowers are some-
times white, and in some rare instances double ; and the plant has an odour
which to some is pleasing, though we cannot praise it. Douglas Allport,
in some verses on this flower, tells of the power of the gathered blossom to
recall the scenes amid which it once grew :—
‘‘Thus, when within my sunless room,
Heart-sick and worn with Mammon’s leaven,
Thy pyramids of purple bloom
Blush through its loneliness and gloom,
The spirit bursts its living tomb,
And basks beneath the open heaven.
‘*There, as on some green knoll reclined,
The summer landscape round me glowing,
While gentle ardours fill the mind,
I leave the unquiet world behind,
And hear a voice in every wind
Around my fervid temples blowing.
“Thus, through this woodside plant, the mind
Sweeps the vast range of things created,
And longs, and pants, and fails to find
In earth, and ocean, sky, combined,
Those joys, unfailing and refined,
By which its famine may be sated.”
11. Lizard Orchis (0. hircina).—Uip 3-parted, downy; segments
narrow, middle one very long and curled like a tendril, lateral ones much
shorter ; spur very short. This plant, always very rare on the bushy chalky
hills of Kent and Suffolk and Surrey, has not been seen recently by any
botanist. It flowers in July, and is described as much resembling a lizard
in shape; its calyx green, spotted with purple, its lip purplish-white and
spotted at the base, the middle segment more than an inch long, green, and
the smell of its flowers as most disgusting and goat-like.
Most of the species in this genus are remarkably adapted for cross-
fertilization by insects with long tongues, chiefly bees and. flies. They
SPOTTED PALMATE ORCHIS 3 LIZARD 0
Orechis maculata O. lorema
Z PYRAMIDAL O, + FRAGRANT GYMNADENTA
O. pyramidalis Gymnadema conopsea
Pl, 220,
ORCHID TRIBE 221
produce no honey, but the insects are able to suck a presumably sweet juice
through the inner lining of the spur. To reach this their heads must be
pressed against the viscid base of the pollinia, which are thus glued to their
heads and drawn out of their pouches when the insect retires. The pollinia
then droop to some extent, and assume such position as brings them in
contact with the stigmas of flowers subsequently visited.
10. GYMNADENIA (Gymnadénia).
Fragrant Orchis (Gymmnadénia condpsea).—Lip 3-lobed; lobes nearly
equal, entire, blunt, free from spots ; the two lateral sepals spreading ; the
two lateral petals converging; spur slender, twice as long as the ovary ;
tubers egg-shaped. Several of our native Orchids have a pleasant and
delicate fragrance ; but none in this respect equals the Gymnadenia either
in power or sweetness. The scent is almost too much for a room, though
delicious when borne on the midsummer breeze from the hundreds of
blossoms which sometimes stud the dry grassy plains during June and the
two following months. It is especially common in the mountainous parts of
Scotland ; but it grows, too, on many hill-sides of England, whence we may
gather a large and fragrant nosegay of its flowers from meadows, on which
they stand in conspicuous beauty by thousands. The flowers are of a deep
rose-colour, rarely white, and still more rarely spotted with deeper red. It
is found mostly on dry soils, often in company with the Pyramidal Orchis ;
but Mr. Loudon remarks that it grows sometimes with Epipactis palustris on
bogs, where the foot can hardly tread. The stem is about a foot high, the
leaves oblong-lanceolate, and keeled, and the flowers are arranged on a spike
somewhat dense at first, afterwards more lax. The flowers are distinctly
broader than long. Bentham unites this genus with the next.
11. HABENARIA, BUTTERFLY OrcHIS (Habendria).
1. Green Habenaria (H. viridis).—Spur 2-lobed, very short ; lip 2-cleft,
linear, with an intermediate tooth ; sepals and petals forming a hood ; bracts
much longer than the flower; tubers palmate. This small Orchis is not
uncommon on dry pastures—a solitary specimen often growing on a spot far
from any other, unlike most of our Orchids, which generally grow socially.
Its stem is six or eight inches high, the helmet of the flower green, and the
lip greenish-brown. The blossoms form a lax spike from June to August.
The lower leaves are egg-shaped and blunt; and the stem is from six to
twelve inches high. The plant is sometimes called, though with little
reason, I'rog Orchis.
2. Small White Habenaria (Z. albida).—Lip 3-lobed ; lobes acute,
middle one longest and broadest ; sepals and petals nearly equal, converging ;
spur blunt, shorter than the ovary; rootstock of fleshy fibres. This is a
smaller and prettier Orchis than the last, bearing a long spike of little
yellowish-white fragrant flowers, during June, July, and August. The
lower leaves are oblong and blunt, the upper lanceolate and acute. The
stem is from six to twelve inches high. This Orchis is not infrequent on
mountain pastures, in Sussex, Wales, and to the north of York and
Lancaster.
222 ORCHIDEAR
3. Entire Habenaria (#7. intacta).—Lip 3-lobed, projecting, the lateral
lobes short and slender, petals pointed ; sepals darker than the pinkish petal,
and spotted lip; spur somewhat globose ; tubers egg-shaped, entire. This
rare plant is very similar in general habit to H. albida, but it is smaller,
ranging from four to ten inches in height. The three or four oblong—often
spotted—leaves are arranged in a rosette. The flowers are arranged in a
dense-flowered spike, that is sometimes twisted, and they open in June. The
plant, which is found on limestone pastures in Mayo and Galway only, has
been a veritable shuttlecock for the systematic botanists, Sir Joseph Hooker
remarking that it has been referred to no less than seven genera in suc-
cession.
4. Lesser Butterfly Orchis (H. di/dlia).—Spur twice as long as the
ovary ; petals converging, blunt; lip linear, entire, blunt ; leaves generally
two, elliptical, tubers lobed. This, though a singular and lovely flower,
would scarcely suggest the idea of a broad-winged butterfly, though it might
remind us of a smaller winged insect. The stem, which is slender and
angular, is about a foot high, and the loose spike of white or greenish-white
blossoms is about four or five inches long, expanding from June to August.
The corollas are remarkable for their length of spur, and the strap-shaped
lower lip. The spur is so long and slender that bees find it not worth their
while to visit the flowers, which can only be fertilized by butterflies or moths.
Its white hue suggests, in connection with the foregoing fact, that night-
flying moths alone are wanted, and this is made the more evident by the
flower becoming fragrant at night only. The two broad leaves are bright
green; the bracts are narrow and lanceolate. The plant is common in moist
woods, and on heaths.
5. Great Butterfly Orchis (H. chlordntha).—Spur twice as long as the
ovary, expanded at tip and decurved; petals converging, blunt, larger and
proportionately broader than in H. bifolia ; lip linear, entire, blunt; leaves
elliptical, and usually two; tubers lobed. This plant is very similar to the
last ; and many botanists doubt if it is truly distinct from it. It is both
taller and stouter than the preceding, and its flowers much larger and more
beautiful, expanding at the same season, or slightly later. Its stem is
usually a foot or a foot and a half high; but Mr. F. A. Paley found a
specimen measuring two feet, in a wood near Clifton; and we have observed
it, in copses about Waldershare in Kent, attaining such luxuriance that its
white flowers could be seen by moonlight, growing among bushes and ferns,
as we passed the high road by the wood. The spike is sometimes lax, but
is in some specimens crowded. It is found occasionally on dry pastures and
heaths, but more frequently in moist woods and thickets. Hooker regards
it as a sub-species of H. bifolia.
12. Man Orcuis (4ceras).
Green Man Orchis (ZA. anthropéphora).—Lip 3-parted ; segments linear
and very narrow, middle one 2-cleft; sepals acute, hooded, including the
two small linear blunt petals ; tubers egg-shaped. This is a local plant, that
occurs only in dry chalky wooded or bushy places between Kent, Surrey,
Sussex, and York. It bears in June, on a stem about a foot high, a long
GREEN HABENARTA GREAT BUTTERFLY ORCHIS
Habenaria viridis H chlorantha
SMALL WHITE a GREEN MAN (
A. albida Aceras anthropophora
LESSER BUTTERFLY ORCHIS ( GREEN MUSK ©
i. bitolia Herminivum monearchis
Pl. 221.
ORCHID TRIBE 223
lax spike of yellowish-green flowers, which have a very sweet odour by day,
but which, like several green flowers, have a stronger scent in the evening,
though we cannot describe it as agreeable at that time. The lip of the
blossom has its middle lobe deeply cleft, and margined with purplish-brown ;
but occasionally the lip is crimson, and the green helmet is often marked
with lines of this hue. We have often witnessed the disappointment of those
who looked for the first time on this plant, and could trace little of that
similitude to which it owes its familiar name. On observing it closely, however,
one may detect some resemblance to the human figure, with the head enclosed
in a casque; but for that likeness to animated nature which some of the
Orchids exhibit, we must, among our British flowers, look to the genus
Ophrys. There is no spur to this flower.
13. Musk Orcuis (Hermtnium).
Green Musk Orchis (H. monérchis).—Lip 3-lobed, middle lobe the
longest ; sepals eg z-shaped, shorter than the petals; root-leaves usually two,
lanceolate-oblong, a small leaf on the stem; tubers egg-shaped, far asunder
at the end of thick fibres. This little Orchis bears a slender spike of greenish
flowers in June and July. The stem is from five to ten inches in height, and
very slender. It grows on chalky pastures south of Cambridge, Norfolk,
and Gloucester. ‘The minute flowers produce neither spur nor honey, but at
night they give out the odour of musk, and this attracts a large number of
small fry in the way of tiny beetles and flies which fertilize the flowers.
14. OPHRYS (Ophrys).
1. Bee Orchis (0. apifera).—Lip swollen, 3-cleft, the intermediate lobe
recurved at the margin, with a long awl-shaped reflexed appendage in the
notch ; petals oblong, bluntish, downy; tubers egg-shaped. Anyone who
even glanced at this pretty wild flower might imagine a large velvety bee
was sitting on it. On many chalky fields south of Durham and Lancaster
it is not infrequent; also in the middle and south of Ireland, and in the
Channel Islands. The stem is about a foot high, bearing a few distant
flowers in June and July. The sepals, which look like delicate wings, are
either greenish-white or of a pale or deeper lilac tint; and the little oblong
petals are of the same hue ; while the lip, which represents the body of the ‘
insect, is brown, variegated with yellow, and soft and velvety. The author
has found it near Dover with snow-white blossoms, but fears to indicate the
spot, lest some ruthless collector should extirpate it. Linnzus named this
species 0. insectifera : and certainly this, the Fly Orchis, and in a less degree
the Spider Orchis, bear a resemblance to the insect race. But many foreign
Orchids exhibit similarities, no less striking, to butterflies, spiders, frogs, and
other living creatures. The purpose of this singular resemblance is by no
means clear. It has been suggested that it was to attract bees, and also to
drive them away. It would certainly appear that the visits of bees are not
required, for not only is there no honey and no spur, but the pollinia are
not meant to be removed; they are on long stalks, and ultimately fall
forward upon the stigma, thus securing self-fertilization.
2. Late Spider Orchis (0. arachnites).—Lip somewhat swollen, with
224 ORCHIDEA)—ORCHID TRIBE
four shallow marginal lobes, and a terminal flat heart-shaped appendage,
which is always straight ; sepals coloured; petals angular, downy. This is
a rare plant of the chalky downs in Kent and Surrey. The sepals are
pinkish, a little tinged with purple, and with a green vein down the middle ;
the velvet lip is dark purple, variegated with yellow or green, and the
appendage of light green. The pollinia are said to differ from those of the
Bee Orchis in having stiffer footstalks and not falling over on the stigma.
It appears to be only a sub-species of O. apifera.
3. Spider Orchis (0. aranifera).—Lip swollen, scarcely 3-lobed ; middle
lobe without an appendage, or with a minute point or gland in the notch ;
petals narrow. In one form, tke lip is lobed at the margin; and the petals
are smooth. In the other, sometimes termed 0. fucifera, the lip has no lobes,
but a spreading wavy margin, and the petals are downy. This Orchis is not
infrequent on chalky pastures from Kent to Dorset, and northward to
Northampton and Suffolk. Its sepals are green, and its lip of a deep brown
hue and hairy, having greenish, or more often dull yellow, lines, frequently
resembling the Greek letter II. It is a low-growing Orchis, rarely half a
foot high, the flowers, which are few in number—often not more than three
on a plant—reminding one of spiders. The flowers appear in April, May,
and June.
4. Fly Orchis (0. muscifera).—Lip oblong, 3-cleft, with a broad pale
spot in the centre ; middle lobe long and 2-cleft ; petals thread-like ; tubers
ege-shaped. This common and pretty Orchis grows on downs and copses on
chalk and limestone from Durham and Westmoreland south as far as Kent
and Somerset; also in Mid-Ireland and North Kilkenny. Its flowers are
about the size of the common house-fly, though often larger, and its resem-
blance to that insect is very striking. The green sepals are like wings, and
the lateral petals are very like the antennz of insects ; while the brownish-
purple lip, with a pale blue, somewhat square spot in its centre, resembles
the body of the fly. The little flowers, about nine or ten in number, in
luxuriant specimens, are scattered over the upper half of a slender stem,
about a foot high, and look as if the insects were pausing there to rest on
the stalk. Parkinson says of this plant :—‘‘ The neather parte of the flie is
black, with a list of ashe colour crossing the backe, with a show of legges,
hanging at it; the naturall flie seemeth so to be in love with it, that you
shall seldome come in the heate of the daie but you shall find one sitting
close thereon.” The author of these pages, however, who has been from
childhood much accustomed to watch this flower, has not observed this,
though the bees certainly seem attracted by the Bee Orchis.
[It has been conclusively shown since Miss Pratt wrote that flies do visit
these flowers and fertilize them by pollinia brought from a flower previously
visited. It is not probable that the fly is attracted by the superficial resem-
blance to one of its own class, but by the carrion colour, and by the beads of
moisture which ooze from the surface of the lip. The dry and shining
“eyes” of the floral counterfeit also resemble globules of liquid, and the fly
licks them in that belief. In so doing, its head comes against the pollen
gland, and the pollinia are detached wherewith to fertilize the next flowers
visited. —ED. ]
(eau vt
eor U
IRIDEZ—IRIS TRIBE | 995
Bishop Mant thus alludes to some of these flowers. Comparing them
with the Early Purple Orchis, he says :—
** And few of that most curious race,
Or those that rival them in grace,
Perhaps exceed ; the Ophrys kind
In the advancing season join’d,
Stamp’d with their insect imagery,
Gnat, fly, and butterfly and bee,
To lure us in pursuit to rove
Through winding coombe, through shady grove.”
15. LaDy’s SLIPPER (Cypripédium).
Lady’s Slipper (C. calcéolus).—Stem leafy ; sepals and petals spread-
ing ; lip inflated, slightly compressed, and shorter than the sepals ; rootstock
creeping, not tuberous. Those who have ever seen this lovely and rare
Orchis, cannot fail to regret that it is not a more common woodland flower.
It is the most beautiful of European Orchids, and has a far larger blossom
than any other of our native species. This is usually solitary, though two
flowers sometimes grow together on the leafy downy stem, which is a foot
or a foot and a half high. The sepals are an inch or an inch and a half
long, and the petals are narrow, all being of a deep rich brown colour. The
swollen lip, over an inch in length, is rich yellow, with a network of darker
veins, and elegant slipper-like form. It flowers in May, and grows in some
dense woods in Durham and Yorkshire, and other northern counties, but
appears to be almost extinct. It is not only innocuous, but somewhat
nutritious ; and a decoction of its roots was recommended by Gmelin in
cases of epilepsy ; but Professor Burnett, remarking on this, says that their
influence on the disease “is more than apocryphal.” The French call the
plant Soulier de la Vierge, or Soulier de Notre Dame ; the Germans, Venusschuh ;
and the Portuguese, Calcado de Nuessa Senhora.
This species differs from all the other British Orchids in having two
anthers ; the others have each a single anther with two cells and two or
more pollen masses. In this case the column, instead of being erect, curves
over, and with its anthers almost fills the entrance to the bag-like lip.
Attracted by the fragrance, small bees (Andrena) push in to partake of the
honey they mistakenly suppose to be there. The incurved edges of the lip
prevent return by the way they came, and they have to crawl out by the °
side of the column, first pressing against the stigma, then carrying off some
pollen from one of the anthers.
Order LXXXIV. IRIDEA—IRIS TRIBE.
Perianth 6-parted ; stamens, 3, rising from the base of the sepals ; ovary
inferior, 3-celled ; style 1; stigmas 3, often petal-like; capsule 3-celled,
3-valved ; seeds numerous. The order consists of perennial herbs, often
with very handsome flowers, rising from a spathe or sheath, and having,
except in Trichonema and Crocus, flat sword-shaped sheathing leaves. They
are chiefly natives of warm and temperate climates.
1. Iris.—Perianth with the three outer divisions longer and reflexed ;
I11.—29
226 IkRIDEAs
stigmas 3, resembling petals, and covering the stamens. Name from Jris,
“the rainbow,” from the bright hues of the flowers.
2. CorN-FLAG (Gladéolus).—-Perianth almost 2-lipped, with a short, curved
tube; ovary short, 3-angled; style thread-like; stigmas broad ; capsule
leathery, seeds winged. Name from the Latin, gladiolus, a little sword, in
allusion to the shape of the leaves.
3. TRICHONEMA (Z'vrichonema).—Perianth of equal spreading divisions ;
tube shorter than the limb; stigma deeply 3-cleft, its lobes 2-cleft, slender.
Name from the Greek trix, a hair, and nema, a filament.
4, BLUE-EYED Grass (Sisyrinchium).—Perianth of equal divisions, spread-
ing or half-erect ; tube short; ovary short, 3-angled; style short, stigmas
thread-like; capsule leathery, seeds sub-globose, hard. Name of doubtful origin.
5. Crocus (Crocus).—Perianth of equal, nearly erect, divisions ; tube very
long ; stigma 3-cleft, its lobes inversely wedge-shaped. Name from the Greek
krokos, sattron, and that from kroké, a thread.
Te Lovee: (Iris).
1. Yellow Iris, or Flag (J. psevid-dcorus).—Leaves sword-shaped, sheath-
ing; flower-stem round ; perianth beardlcs;, its inner segments shorter and
more slender than the stigmas ; rootstock thick, creeping. The Yellow Flag
waves its delicate but showy flowers over many a stream, or rears them by
its margin. It is among our most beautiful marsh plants, growing on a
stem sometimes three feet high, amid the leaves which stand up around it
like sharp green sword-blades. It is either of a full or pale yellow, flower-
ing from May to August, amid the floral companions that Clare describes as
attracting the country rambler :
“«Some went searching by the wood,
Peeping ’neath the weaving thorn,
Where the pouch-lipp’¢d cuckoo-bud
From its snug retreat was torn ;
Where the ragged-robin stood
With its piped stem streak’d with jet,
And the crow-flowers, golden hued,
Careless plenty easier met.
‘«Some with many an anxious pain,
Childish wishes to pursue,
From the pond-head gazed in vain,
On the Flag-flower’s yellow hue ;
Smiling in its safety there,
Sleeping o’er its shadow’d bloom,
While the flood’s triumphing care
Crimpled round its guarded home.”
During the antumnal months, the stout stems of this plant are made
remarkable among the sedges, reed-mosses, and other water-plants, by the
long bright-green 3-celled capsules, which droop down among the membranous
withered sheaths that once surrounded the blossom. As two, three, or more
of the Flag-flowers grow on one stem, so there are several of these seed-
vessels crowded with large seeds, placed in regular rows ; and the capsules
are so heavy that they would break a less sturdy stem. They may be found
growing three together, and more than three inches long. The capsule
finally dries into a parchment-like substance ; and the hard, flattened seeds,
IRIS TRIBE 227
looking as if cut out of a piece of deal, fall out into the waters. These
seeds, when roasted, are said to be an excellent substitute for coffee ; but
when their horny covering is removed, they have an acrid taste. The large
horizontal root, or rootstock, contains a farinaceous substance of a most
acrid and bitter flavour; and a portion held between the teeth is said to
cure toothache, and is probably of real service. ‘ But above all,” says
Ettmuller, “which I have hitherto known, the root of the Iris lutea rubbed
upon the tooth that is painful, or the root itself chewed in the mouth, in an
instant, as if by a charm, drives away the pain of the teeth arising from
what cause soever. He that communicated it to me affirmed that he had
tried it forty times, at least, with like success. I myself also have tried it ;
and a great many others have done the same by my persuasion, and I hardly
ever knew it to fail.” Those suffering under so troublesome a malady would
do well to follow the example with some caution ; as, from our experience
of its acridity, we should expect that a blister in the mouth would be likely
to succeed such a use of the root. These rootstocks have also been used
medicinally ; but would require care. An ointment was formerly much
esteemed, which was made by country people from the Flag-flowers ; and
the old herbalists, who said it was “under the dominion of the sun,” distilled
the whole herb, and applied it for inflammation of the eyes and eyelids. The
root is powerfully astringent, and has been used in making ink ; and Gerarde
well describes it as showing, when cut, “the colour of raw fleshe.” Some
kind of preparation of the plant is still, we are told, applied in villages as a
cosmetic ; and this appears to have been of very old use. Mr. Albert Way
gives a very interesting and learned note on this plant, in his edition of the
Anglo-Latin Dictionary. This work has ‘ Gladone herbe, gladiolus, accolus,
iris.” “The name Gladwyn,” says the commentator, “now denotes the Jris
fetidissima ; but probably the more common species, J. pseud-dcorus, may be
here intended. In Mr. Drummond’s ‘ Wisdom of Macer,’ it is said, ‘Gladen
is y-clepid in Englishe, 777s in Latine, for his floure hath a colour like the
rainbowe. Take the rootes of this erbe, and kyt hem in round gobetis, and
ryfe hem upon a threde, so that none of hem touche other if thou wilt dry
hem.’ The virtues of this root are numerous, taken with wine, mead, or
vinegar ; the following is curious as a cosmetic: ‘Do take ij parties of this
poudre of gladen rotys, and the iij part of the pouder of ellebre, that some:
men clepen cloffynge, and medele both these poudres to-gider in honey. A
plaster of this wole purge and clense the face of frekels, also it will resolve
the pockys and whelkys of the face.’ Elyot renders Xiphium, ‘an herbe lyke
the blade of a sworde, gladen ; it is also called Xyris ; and Cotgrave gives
‘Glayeul corne sedge, corn gladen, right gladen, gladen, gladen sword grasse.’”
Our wild flower is still called Yellow Skeggs, in the north of England.
The roots of some species of Iris are very fragrant, and that of the
Florentine Iris is the Sweet Orris root of commerce, so much used in tooth
and hair powder, and formerly laid among clothes to keep them from moth.
The roots of several kinds, too, are edible. Pallas mentions that those of
I. dichotoma are eaten in Siberia, and those of J. edulis are common food
among the Hottentots. These people call them Oendjes ; and as they have,
according to Thunberg, no idea of the beginning or ending of a year, the
29—2
228 IRIDEAt
flowering and decay of the bulbous plants are the only signs of their
almanacks which serve to indicate either the years of their age or the course
of time.
2. Stinking Iris (J. fwtidissima).—Leaves sword-shaped ; perianth beard-
less, its inner segments about as long as the stigmas; rootstock creeping.
This species is not nearly so showy a flower as the Yellow Iris; for its sepals
and petals are of a dull blue, or, in some rare instances, the petals are a
dingy yellow. The plant has a singular odour; and while it is untouched,
this is not disagreeable, reminding one of roasted meat—hence in some
places it is known as “ Roast-beef plant ;” but if we break the stem or crush
a leaf, its scent becomes extremely unpleasant. This Iris is generally a foot
or a foot and a half high; and though a local plant, is common in the west
and south-west of England, having a predilection for limestone. It is
abundant in the woods and thickets of Devonshire, and grows in several
parts of Kent. South of Durham it is believed to be native, but northward
and in Ireland it has become naturalized. It bears its flowers from June to
August, and the soft leaves are so acrid that their juice produces a most
burning sensation on the tongue. These leaves, steeped in beer, are used
by country people as medicine; and all parts of the plant were praised by
the old herbalists, though, as one of them observes, seeing that a decoction
of the plant “somewhat hurts the stomach,” it should not be taken internally
without honey. It was supposed to cure all disorders of the liver; and
coughs, colds, and headache were believed to be speedily dismissed by its
use; while gout and other painful diseases were to be relieved by an oil
which was prepared with the plant, and termed Olewm wrinum.
This and other species of Iris were from early times called “fleur de lis,”
or “flour de luce.” Chaucer apparently refers to a white foreign species :
‘* His nekke was white as is the flour de lis,”
Dr. Turner, in 1568, calls it “flour de lyce ;’ and Gerarde, “ flower de luce ;”
reminding us of Shakspere’s lines :
‘* Lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one.”
Several flowers were called lilies in those days, including both the Iris and
the daffodil; and it is probable that “fleur de luce” was originally “ fleur
de Louis.”
The Iris has an historic interest. Louis the Seventh of France adopted
it as the emblem of his shield during the Crusades, and strewed it on the
mantle of his son, when he caused him to be consecrated at Rheims. After
the battle of Cressy, it was united with the arms of England. Gray refers
to this :
**Great Edward with the lilies on his brow,
From haughty Gallia torn ;”
and it remained emblazoned on the arms of this country till, on the union
with Ireland, it yielded to the Shamrock. It is still the Lily of France; and
it was from earliest ages considered, in Eastern countries, as a symbol of
power. A fleur-de-lis, exactly like that of the emblem of the French
monarchy, was found surmounting a sceptre on a monument of highest
YELLOW W
STIN KING
COLUMNAS
PURPLI
\TER
it
Iris psé ud-a
I
J. feetadissima
HONEMSA
Se DRE
Irichonema \
SPRING
CGROCGL
Pus
lumna
GOLDEN
SAFFRON
NAKED
FLOWEL ING
(
(
TAIN
aureus
nudu Jorus
PT ee Lh) ae a ag ae LP ee mee oe
TRIS TRIBE 929
antiquity at Dendera, in the heart of Egypt. M. Sonnini remarks : “ Hero-
dotus and Strabo relate that the kings of Babylon formerly bore the fleur-
de-lis at the extremity of their sceptre.” Montfaucon also speaks of that
of David, found in the miniature of an engraved manuscript of the tenth
century, which is surmounted by a fleur-de-lis. It is evident that the
ornament called the “lis” was not a symbol peculiar to the crown of France;
and it is not surprising that it composed a part of those which were employed
in the mysterious representations of antique Egypt, since it was in former
times the mark of power with some sovereigns of the country, or of some
adjacent sovereignties. The Iris was placed on the brow of the Sphinx ; and
the ancients regarded the flower as the emblem of eloquence.
The stigma of the Iris flower is not only at some distance from the
anther, but being separated from it by a membrane, the pollen could not
reach its destination but for thé aid of insects. The humble-bee seems the
chief operator in effecting this ; and in order to get at the nectary, the insect
pushes itself in close to the stigma and deposits pollen it may have brought
from another Flag, then rubs against the anther, brushes off the pollen with
its hairy back, and proceeds to enjoy the nectar in the lower part of the
flower. Afterwards it crawls out at the side of the flower below the anther,
and so takes pollen away to the next flower. There is one form of flower
in which the stigma is much closer to the sepal, and this seems an adaptation
to the smaller size of a long-tongued fly (Z’hingia) that is very assiduous in
its attentions to these blossoms.
The seeds of this Iris are very beautiful in winter, when their capsule
shrivels and displays them in all the lustre of brilliant scarlet. The seeds
are numerous, round, and most powerfully acrid.
2. CorRN-FLAG (Gladiolus).
Common Corn-Flag (G. communis).—Leaves sword-shaped, about half
an inch broad and eight inches long, glaucous; scape two or three feet long
bearing spike of from 4 to 8 flowers, which are arranged all on one side
(secund), in lance-shaped spathes; flowers somewhat bell-shaped, crimson-
purple, the three lower segments paler, strongly veined with red-purple ;
rootstock a small corm; seeds with a narrow wing. ‘This rare species occurs
in Britain only in open spaces in the New Forest and in the Isle of Wight,
flowering in June and July.
3. 'TRICHONEMA (Trichonéma).
Columna’s Trichonema (7. coltimnw).—Stalk single-flowered, slightly
drooping ; leaves thread-like, flattened, furrowed, and bending backwards ;
spathe longer than the tube of the corolla; stigmas 2-cleft ; rootstock a
corm. This is a rare plant, growing only on a sandy pasture called the
Warren, at Dawlish, and on the grassy hillocks of Jersey and Guernsey.
Its flower scapes are about four inches high, and the flowers expand in March
and April. These flowers are greenish externally, but within they are whitish
veined with purple, and yellow at the base. It is in some respects similar
to the iris, in some rather resembling the crocus; and Dawlish is thought to
be probably its most northern locality, as it is common as near as Western
230 IRIDEA
France, whence it ranges through Southern Europe to North Africa. It is
also known as Romulea columne.
4, BLUE-EYED GRAss (Sisyrinchium).
Slender-leaved Blue-eyed Grass (S. angustifolium).—Flowers in
umbels of three or four, with somewhat erect lance-shaped bracts, borne on
a flattened two-edged scape ; leaves sword-shaped, sheathing, one-sixth of an
inch wide ; rootstock of stiff fibres. This plant occurs with us only in the
bogs of Kerry and Galway, and is otherwise known only as a native of
North America. The flowers, which are about two-thirds of an inch across,
are coloured blue on the inside only. They appear in July and August, and
are succeeded by somewhat globose leathery capsules.
5. Crocus (Crécus).
1. Purple Spring Crocus (C. vérnus).—Leaves appearing with the
flowers ; spathe simple ; throat of the corolla fringed ; stigmas shortly 3-cleft ;
corm clothed with netted fibres. The flowers are either purple or white,
with pale yellow anthers and toothed stigmas of a deep orange tint. This
beautiful Crocus is very abundant about Nottingham, being most ornamental
to the grassy meadows. It is also found at Mendham in Suffolk, at Inkpen,
Berks, and in parts of Middlesex. It has now been so long naturalized, that
it is regarded as one of our wild flowers, but it is not indigenous. It is said
to have been introduced, at Nottingham, some centuries since, by the Dutch.
It now also empurples several meadows near Ludlow in Shropshire ; but
these are believed to be the site of some old gardens. It is the Safran
printanier of the French gardens.
2. Least Purple Crocus (C. ménimus).—Flower solitary, appearing
before the leaves ; spathe double; stigma erect, longer than the stamens ;
corm with a membranous coat. This syecies, introduced from Corsica early
in the seventeenth century, is found on the site of an old garden in the park
at Barton, in Suffolk, but is not even naturalized. The flowers are of pale
lilac, striped with yellow and purple.
3. Golden Crocus (C. avdreus).—Leaves and flowers appearing at the
same time ; spathe simple ; stigma shorter than the stamens ; segments of
the corolla spreading and bending backward; corm coated with compact
fibres. This beautiful little Crocus is found with the last species, and, like
it, is the outcast of gardens. It flowers in March, its leaves appearing at
the same time. Several beautiful species were, several centuries since,
brought into this kingdom from Greece and the countries of the south of
Europe, where, as Homer wrote—
‘) 2
LILY TRIBE 253
linear, channelled and pointed; bulb egg-shaped. The long raceme of
yellowish-white flowers of this plant, which unfolds in June and July, may
be found in some woods and pastures of England. Though rare, it is
probably more truly wild than either of the other species. The Rev. C. A.
Johns, who remarks that it is very abundant in the neighbourhood of Bath,
says that the spikes of unexpanded flowers are often exposed there for sale
as a pot-herb under the name of French Asparagus. It grows in several
parts of Somersetshire, and also in Berks, Wilts, Sussex, and Bedfordshire.
The stalk is one or two feet high, and the leaves usually wither very early.
2. Common Star of Bethlehem (0. wilbelldtwm).—Flowers forming
a corymb, the lower partial stalks very long; leaves all from the root,
linear, channelled, smooth. The large star-like blossoms of this species
expand in May and June, their snow-white sepals having each a broad,
central line of green on the outside, and each flower having a membranous
bract. The plant is not a native of England, though occurring in meadows
and woods in various places, often near houses. The stem is from eight
inches to a foot high, and the leaves are bright green and smooth. The
species is common in the pastures of France, Switzerland, Germany, and
Southern Europe. It continues to flower during two or three weeks, but
never unfolds except in bright sunshine, and even then not before eleven ;
hence gardeners often call it Eleven-o’clock-Lady, and the French term it
Belle-Vonze-heures, as well as Ornithogale. The Germans call it Vogel-milch,
and the scientific name of the genus is from the Greek words for bird and
milk.
The bulbous roots of this plant were said by Dioscorides to be commonly
roasted or eaten, uncooked, with bread ; and the roots both of this and other
species have been known for centuries past as forming part of the vegetable
food of Italy and the countries of the Levant, and as affording also in
Sweden a resource in times of scarcity. Our species has acquired some
interest from having been thought by Linnzeus, and also by various commen-
tators on Scripture, to be the “doves’ dung,” mentioned as the food of the
famished inhabitants of Samaria, during the siege recorded in the Book of
Kings. It is remarkable that in an abridged Chronicle of the History of
England, it is stated that during the famine which devastated England in
1316, the poor ate “ pigeons’ dung.” Dr. Royle, in a learned dissertation on
this subject, observes that Bochart has shown that the term “ pigeons’ dung”
was applied by the Arabs to different vegetable substances, and mentions a
light substance like moss, and a fleshy-leaved plant like a salsola or fig
marigold, as another. Dr. Royle considers, however, that pulse was most
probably the substance intended by the Scripture writer; but as the
Ornithogalum is abundant in the neighbourhood of Samaria, it is not very
improbable that its bulbs may have been stored and used in time of need.
3. Drooping Star of Bethlehem (0. siitwns).—Flowers in a loose
one-sided raceme, drooping; filaments broad, 3-cleft, the alternate ones
longer and with deeper lobes ; bulb egg-shaped, two inches long. This plant
is a doubtful native, growing rarely in fields and orchards in England. It is
distinguished by its loose cluster of nodding flowers, which are larger than
the common kind, though, like them, white within and externally green. The
254 LILIACEA—LILY TRIBE
stem is from nine inches to a foot high, and the flowers expand in April and
May.
11. GAGEA (Gdgea).
Yellow Gagea (G@. litea).—¥ lowers in an unbranched umbel ; stem
angular ; root-leaves narrow, lanceolate, ribbed, keeled, erect, taller than the
stem ; bulb with leathery coats. This rare wild flower occurs in pastures
and bushy places in several parts of England and the Lowlands of Scotland,
chiefly on the eastern half of the island. Its stem is about half a foot high.
The blossoms, which expand from March till May, but only remain open till
noon, are yellow within, tipped with green, and green externally. The plant
was formerly included in the genus Ornithogalum, and is chiefly distinguished
from it by its yellow flower. It is still mentioned as yellow Star of Beth-
lehem.
12. Luoypra (Lléydia).
Mountain Lloydia (L. serdtina).—Leaves semi-cylindrical, those on
the stem widened at the base; flower solitary ; bulb minute, with many
loose, scaly sheaths. This plant, which was formerly called Mountain Spider-
wort, is very rare, growing on some of the most elevated mountains in Wales.
Its stem is five or six inches high, with several small leaves ; and its flowers,
which expand in June, are erect, white, externally veined with green, and
internally with reddish lines.
13. Tue (Tilipa).
Wild Tulip (7. sylvéstris).—Flower solitary, rather drooping ; stamens
hairy at the base ; leaves linear-lanceolate, smooth ; bulb egg-shaped, covered
with brown scales. This plant has but few British localities. It has been
found in chalk-pits in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, and Somerset. In these
localities it is really wild, but in others it is only naturalized. Its flower is
sufficiently like those of our gay Garden Tulips to enable anyone to identify
it as of the same genus; but the plant has a much smaller blossom than the
cultivated species, and its colour within is bright yellow, and externally
yellowish-green. It is drooping and fragrant, and both anthers and pollen
are yellow. It has very narrow leaves, and a bulb which increases by send-
ing out a runner, at the end of which a new bulb is formed. This Tulip
grows wild in the southern parts of France; and Linneus enumerates it
among the flowers of Sweden. Though no flower affords a greater number
of varieties than the Tulip, yet there are not more than two or three original
species. Wild Tulips ornament the fields of Southern Europe, and are
plentiful in fields about Constantinople, as well as in those of Palestine.
The beautiful varieties in our gardens have been chiefly propagated from the
kind named after Conrad Gesner (Zulipa gesneriana). ‘This naturalist first
made the plant known by a botanical description and figure, he having, in
1559, seen the flower in a garden at Augsburg. The first Tulips planted in
England were sent hither from Vienna about the end of the sixteenth
century ; and by the middle of the seventeenth, the gambling practices con-
nected with Tulipomania, which prevailed especially in the Netherlands, had
filled all Europe with astonishment.
L. SPIKED STAR OF BETHLEHEM , 3 DROOPING $.0O.B
Ornithogalum pyrenaicuat O. mutans
2. COMMON S.0O.B 4 YELLOW GAGEA
Ov. mnbellatum Gagea Intea
Pl, 231.
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MELANTHACEAX—MEADOW SAFFRON TRIBE
14, Fririnuary (£ritilldria).
Common Fritillary, or Snake’s-head (F. meledgris).—Leaves narrow,
pointed, and all alternate ; stem single-flowered ; flower drooping, the points
of the perianth turning inwards ; bulb small, of several swollen scales. It is
not often that we find the large flower of the Fritillary nodding over the
grass of our meadows, though on moist pastures of the east and south of
England it is less infrequent than elsewhere. The author has found it, on
more than one occasion, on grassy places near Higham, in Kent; and many
years since it grew so abundantly in a meadow between Mortlake and Kew,
that the spot long bore the name of Snake’s-head Meadow. It was not until
after the middle of the last century known to be a native flower, but it was
described a century earlier as a garden plant. It was called by the writers
of that period Lilium variegatum, and Chequered Daffodil ; and it had also
the name of Narcissus caparonius, from Noel Capperon, an apothecary of
Orleans, who was one of the victims of the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
This botanist, who collected a large number of curious plants, is said by
Beckmann to have given this flower the name of Fritillaria, from the regular
square reddish or reddish-brown marks which chequer the blossom, and
which remind one of a chess-board. Dodonzus gave it the specific name
because the same marks suggested those on the feathers of the guinea-fowl,
Numidia meleagris, Gerarde calls it Turkey Hen, or Ginny-flower; and
remarks that many plants were sent him from Paris “by the curious and
painful herbalist, John Robin.” He adds, that they were greatly esteemed
“for the beautifying of our gardens and the bosoms of the beautiful.”
The flower of the Fritillary droops from the summit of a stem about a
foot high. Its colours are pale and dark brownish-purple, and it expands in
April. It is sometimes found of a pure white or greenish-white colour.
Of the typical genus Liliwm, from which the order gets its name, we have
no native representatives ; but Lilium martagon has been long naturalized in
one spot at Mickleham, Surrey.
Order LXXXIX. MELANTHACEAE—MEADOW SAFFRON.
TRIBE.
Perianth 6-parted or united below into a tube; stamens 6; anthers
turned outwards; ovary 3-celled; style deeply 3-cleft ; capsule divisible into
3 valves ; seeds each contained in a membranous case ; leaves sheathing at
the base with parallel nerves. This small order of plants contains species
which have very powerful medicinal properties. Some are acrid, narcotic,
and even poisonous.
1. MEADOW SAFFRON (Célchicum).—Perianth of 6 divisions, with a very
long tube rising from a sheath; capsules 3-celled; seeds round, numerous.
Name from Colchis, a country famous for its medicinal plants.
2. ScorrisH ASPHODEL (Tofiéldia).—Perianth of 6 divisions, with a small
3-lobed sheath. Name in honour of Mr. Tofield, an English botanist.
256 MELANTHACEAZ—MEADOW SAFFRON TRIBE
1. MEADOW SAFFRON (Colchicum).
Common Meadow Saffron (C. autuwindle).—Leaves flat, erect,
broadly lanceolate ; corm large, solid. This is not a common flower, though
in some moist meadows, in various parts of England, its leafless large purple
blossoms are very conspicuous during August and September. Blooming at
a late season, when rain and frost prevail rather than sunshine, the ripening
of its seeds is effected by a remarkable process. The flowers, which arise
from the corm on long slender tubes, wither away, without leaving any indi-
cations of the seeds which are to reproduce them ; but the ovary lies con-
cealed within the buried base of the flower tube, and remaining there
through the winter, comes up on a fruit-stalk in the spring-time, to ripen
above the surface of the soil, while at the same period the green leaves of
the plant spring up around it. Bishop Mant thus refers to this wonderful
provision :—
‘“*Or go to Monmouth’s level meads, That holds the embryo fruit is laid ;
Where Wye the gentle Monnow weds ; Thither by their long tube convey’d,
Long brilliant tubes of purple hue Safe from the force of winter skies,
The ground in countless myriads strew. Conceal’d the buried virtue lies,
Anon, but brief the space between, Till spring-time from the fostering earth
No more these countless tubes are seen ; Shall wake the meditated birth,
The meads their verdant cloak resume, The germen on its stalk display’d,
And with that evanescent bloom, And with embracing leaves array’d,
You deem, perhaps, its spirit fled, And when the vernal grasses’ bloom
Abortive, virtueless, and dead. Shall spread the hay-field’s rich perfume,
You deem amiss. Within the breast Bright June mature in timely hour
Secure of parent earth, the chest The seeds of August’s early flower.”
The Meadow Saffron is believed to have taken its botanic name frora
Colchis, a country on the eastern shore of the Euxine, or Black Sea, where it
is said to have grown in abundance among many plants of such powerful
properties as to have led to an allusion of Horace :—
‘* Or tempered every baleful juice
Which poisonous Colchian glebes produce.”
A local name for the flowers, suggested by the absence of leaves, is Naked
Ladies.
The French call the plant Mort au chien, and Tue chien, as well as Colchique
@automne. Although our domestic cattle will not eat it under ordinary
circumstances, and the tall flower often stands up late in the year among the
grass which has been cropped all around it, yet, when turned early into the
spring meadow, they sometimes crop it, when pain and often a great
mortality ensue. Mr. Purton remarks that farmers should be cautious of
turning hungry cattle into pastures where it abounds, as it proved fatal to a
number of calves which were at this season brought into lands where its
leaves formed a large part of the herbage. It is probable that when dried it
loses its acrimony ; for the plant is abundant in the meadows of the Italian
Alps, where it must form a portion of the hay.
The Colchicum was formerly regarded as a most effectual cure for various
complaints ; and an infusion of its bulbs in vinegar, and made, with the
addition of sugar, into a syrup, has been recommended in pulmonary
affections. A similar oxymel is still prepared, and is said to be a useful
ERIOCAULONEAX—PIPEWORT TRIBE 257
pectoral ; it should, however, be employed with caution. The famous Law
médicinale, so praised for its cure of gout, is composed mainly of a tincture of
this plant ; and in Switzerland, where the ancient repute of its medicinal
virtues remains in full power, the peasantry tie the flowers around the necks
of sickly children as a restorative. This may be a safe proceeding ; but
Dr. Hamilton, in his “ Flora Homeeopathica,” says, ‘Garibel, in his ‘ Histoire
des Plantes des Environs d’Aix,’ records that a servant was killed by taking
the flowers for an intermittent fever, for which malady they were said to be
a remedy.”
Dr. Storck, of Vienna, some years since, called the attention of European
practitioners to the value of this plant in cases of rheumatic gout ; and it is
still used both in the ordinary medicines for this complaint, and in the
globules of the homeeopathist. Of its dangerous nature, however, in the
hands of the unskilful, we have not wanted proof ; in the course of the year
1855, two men died in this kingdom in consequence of its use. It appeared,
on examination, that they were two robust labouring men, who, being
troubled with occasional pain, had applied to an empiric for relief, and who
both sank on the following day from prostration. An irritant poison was
found to have caused death ; and a chemical analysis proved that colehicum
had been administered in a powerful form.
The corm of the Meadow Saffron is gathered for use when about the size
of a chestnut ; and its power is supposed to be greatest when it is about a
year old. It is a solid bulb, without scales, and fleshy and white in the
interior, with a milky juice, which has a very acrid and bitter taste.
2. ScorrisH ASPHODEL (Tojidldia).
Mountain Scottish Asphodel (7. palistris).—Flowers in a dense
crowded head, with a bract at the base of the partial flower-stalk ; stem nearly
leafless ; leaves sword-shaped, in 2-rowed tufts; rootstock creeping. This
plant is not infrequent in boggy places on the mountains of Scotland, the
north of England, and Ireland. Its stem is four or five inches high ; and its
short dense spikes of greenish-white flowers appear in August. The narrow
sword-shaped leaves all spring from the root.
Order XC. ERIOCAULONEA-—PIPEWORT TRIBE.
Flowers in heads; perianth chaffy or white, or colourless, 2—6 parted ;
stamens 2—6, if in two rows, the inner row most developed ; ovary free,
with 1 or more cells ; ovules solitary, pendulous ; fruit, a capsule. The order
consists of herbaceous plants or under-shrubs, generally having the stamens
and pistils in different flowers on the same plant.
Preewort (Eriocailon).—Flowers arranged in a compact scaly head ;
barren flowers in the middle ; perianth divided into 4 or 6 segments ; stamens
4—6,; anthers roundish, 2-celled; fertile flowers in the circumference ;
perianth deeply 4-parted ; style very short ; stigmas 2—3; capsule 2—3,
lobed, with as many cells and valves; seeds round, solitary. Name from the
Greek erion, wool, and kaulos, a stem.
IH.—33
258 ERIOCAULONEAX—PIPEWORT TRIBE
PrpEWORT (Lriocailon).
Jointed Pipewort (L. septanguldre).—Stem with several angles, much
longer than the flattened pointed leaves; outer scales without flowers ;
smooth inner scales, and flowers fringed at the extremity ; perennial. This
is a rare and very singular aquatic, found in several lakes in the islands of
the Hebrides, and frequent at Connemara in Ireland. The slender stalk is
sometimes half a foot high, at others twice that height, varying according to
the depth of the water in which it grows; and it bears, in September;
a solitary globular white head of little flowers. The leaves form a’ tuft
around its base, and are two or three inches long and awl-shaped, while the
roots consist of numerous long white jointed fibres. The French call the Pipe-
wort La Joncinelle.
END OF VOL, III.
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