BRITISH WILD FLOWERS FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XVIII I. Wood Anemone (Anemone neinorosa, L.). 2. Goldielocks (Ranunculus aiiricomiis, L. ). 3. Green Hellebore (Helleborus viridis, L. ). 4. Columbine (Aquilegia vidgaris, L. ). 5. Sweet Violet ( Viola odorata, L. ). 6. Red Campion (Lychnis dioica, L.). f KEY TO PLATE XVIII A Wod A (Anemone nemofosa, L.) fa Achetfe.,. or friiit^&JR of ptetfc, yfahf. rbracts at base of pedunde, petaloid Goldielocks lus mtricomus^ L.) swer, with po^ysepVl- ous calyx, 2 petals, Orte (the fifth) tyften reduced, want- ing asW rule. or fruit.\! c, l leaveot bracts, lantl with /leaves, bracts, 2 perfectyfwwers, one shtiwiiig \\dgA!yK, //the thi numerous sjtRmens. a, F|qwer,shbwingbetaloid sepals^nd follicles. >' ^,vPrart of |>lant with cauline leaves, r flower half-expanded, and I open, showing sfiort tubufaV petals,' and stam ' ' (Aq f yl^Kin/^sr^Plaftrwith divided leaves, WCFS^ in_ ^various stages ^-^-^ se spucred ouu. Also a flower showing 5 petals, with orange and white roat, also lines or honey- guides, and capsule with per- sistent linear sepaJsV^V \ A BRITISH FLORA BRITISH WILD FLOWERS IN THEIR NATURAL HAUNTS "Described by A. R. HORWOOD With Sixty-four "Plates in Colour Representing 350 "Different "Plants From "Drawings by J. N. FITCH and ^Many Illustrations from "Photographs VOLUME III 'iTHE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY, LTD. 66 CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS VOLUME III PAGE SECTION V.-FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES - i WOOD ANEMONE OR WIND FLOWER (Anemone nemorosa, L.) - - 8 GOLDIELOCKS (Ranunculus auricomiis, L.) n GREEN HELLEBORE (Helleborus -viridis, L.) - - - - 13 COLUMBINE (Aquilegia -vulgaris, L.) - - X5 SWEET VIOLET (Viola odorata, L.) *7 RED CAMPION (Lychnis dioica, L.)- - - - - - - ai LIME OR LINDEN (Tilia vulgaris, Hayne) - 24 WOOD SORREL (Oxalis Acetosella, L.) - 27 HOLLY (Ilex Aquifolium, L.) - - 3° WILD CHERRY (Primus Cerasus, L.) - - - - - - 33 WILD STRAWBERRY (Fragaria vesca, L.) - - - - - 36 WHITE BEAM (Pyrus Aria, Ehrh.) 39 MOUNTAIN ASH (Pyrus Aucuparia, Ehrh.) ----- 41 ROSEBAY (Epilobium angustifolium, L.) - - - - - -46 ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE (Circcea Lutetiana, L.) - - - - 49 SANICLE (Sanicula europcea, L.) - - - - - - "51 ANGELICA (Angelica sylvestris, L.) -53 IVY (Hedera Helix, L.) 55 WAYFARING TREE (Viburnum Lantana, L.) 60 HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera Periclymenum, L.) - - - - 62 WOODRUFF (Asperula odorata, L.) -65 PRIMROSE (Primula -vulgaris, Huds.) 67 WOOD LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimachia nemorum, L.) - - - - 7° SMALL PERIWINKLE (Vinca minor, L.) 72 LUNGWORT (Pulmonaria officinalis, L.) - - - - 74 vi CONTENTS PAGE WOOD FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis sylvatica, Hoffm.) - ... 77 FOXGLOVE (Digitalis purpurea, L.)- - - - - - -79 MARJORAM (Origanum vulgar e, L. ) - - - - - - -83 WOOD BETONY (Stachys qfficinalis, Trev.) 85 YELLOW ARCHANGEL (Lamium Galeobdolon, Crantz) 87 WOOD SAGE (Teucriwn Scorodonia, L.)- - - - - -89 WOOD SPURGE (Euphorbia amygdaloides, L.} - - - - 91 DOG'S MERCURY (Mercurialis perennis, L.) 93 WYCH ELM (Ulmus glabra, Huds. montana, Stokes) 95 OAK (Quercus Robur, L.) 98 BEECH (Fugns sylvattca, L.)- - - - - - - - 102 ASPEN (Populus tremula, L.) 105 TWAY-BLADE (Listera ovata, Br.) 108 BEE ORCHIS (Ophrys apt/era, Huds.) - - - - - - no SNOWDROP (Galanthus nivalis, L.) - - - - - - -112 LILY-OF-THE- VALLEY (Convallaria majalis, L.) - - - - - 115 GARLIC (A Ilium ursinum, L.) 117 BLUEBELL (Scilla non-scripta, Hoffm. and Link.) - - - - 120 SECTION VI.— FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 123 TRAVELLER'S JOY (Clematis Vitalba, L.) 128 BARBERRY (Berberis vulgaris, L.)- - - - - - -130 WINTER CRESS (Barbarea vulgaris, Ait.) - - - - - - 133 HEDGE MUSTARD (Sisymbrium qfficinale, Scop.) - - - 135 SAUCE ALONE (Sisymbrium Alliaria, Scop.) - - - - - 137 GREATER STITCH WORT (Stellaria Holostea, L.) - - - - - 139 PERFORATE ST. JOHN'S WORT (Hypericum perforatum, L.) - - 142 HERB ROBERT (Geranium robertiainun, L.) - - - - -145 SPINDLE WOOD (Euonymus etiropceus, L.) 148 TUFTED VETCH (Vicia Cracca, L.) 152 MEADOW VETCHLING (Lathyrus pratensis, L.) 154 BLACKTHORN (Primus spinosa, L.)- - - - - - -J57 BRAMBLE (Rubus fniticosus (= rusttcanus, Merc.)) - - - - 160 BARREN STRAWBERRY (Potentilla sterilis, Garcke) - - - - 165 DOG ROSE (Rosa cam'na, L.) 166 CRAB APPLE (Pyrus Mains, L.) - - - - - - -172 HAWTHORN (Cratcegus Oxyacantha, L.) - 176 BRYONY (Bryonia dioica, Jacq.) 180 HEM-LOCK (Contum maculatum, L.) - - - - - - - 183 CONTENTS vii PAGE COW-PARSNIP (Heracleum Sphondylium, L.) - - - - 186 HEDGE PARSLEY (Caucalis Anlhriscus, Huds.) 188 DOGWOOD OR CORNEL (Cornus sanguinea, L.) - - - - -191 MOSCHATEL (Adoxa Moschatellina, L.) - 193 ELDER (Sambucus nigra, L.)- - - - - - - - 195 CLEAVERS (Galium Aparine, L.) - - 199 TEASEL (Dipsacus sylveslris, Huds.) ------- 202 HOARY RAGWORT (Senecio erucifolius, L.) - - - - - 204 NIPPLEWORT (Lapsana communis, L.) - - - - - - 206 ASH (Fraxinus excelsior, L.)- - - - - - - - 208 GREAT BINDWEED (Calystegia septum, Br.) - 212 RED BARTSIA (Barlsia Odonliles, Huds.) - - - - - -214 WOOD BASIL (Clinopodium -vulgare, L.) - - - - - -216 GROUND IVY (Nepeta hederacea, Trev.) 219 BUGLE (Ajuga reptans, L.) - - - 221 SPURGE LAUREL (Daphne Laureola, L. ) - - - - - - 224 COMMON ELM (Ulmus campestris, L. = U. saliva, Mill. = U. surculosa, Stokes) 226 NETTLE (Uriica dioica, L.) - - - - - - - - 230 BLACK BRYONY (Tamus communis, L.) 233 LORDS AND LADIES (Arum maculalum, L.) - - - - 235 SOME GENERAL HINTS AND NOTES 239 SECTION V: WOODS AND COPSES 239 SECTION VI: ROADSIDES AND HEDGES - - - - = - 251 PLATES IN COLOUR FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE PAGE XVIII. WOOD ANEMONE; GOLDIELOCKS; GREEN HELLEBORE; COLUMBINE; SWEET VIOLET; RED CAMPION ...... 8 XIX. LIME; WILD STRAWBERRY; HOLLY; WILD CHERRY; WOOD SORREL; WHITE BEAM ----24 XX. MOUNTAIN ASH; ROSEBAY; ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE; SANICLE; ANGELICA; IVY 44 XXI. WAYFARING TREE ; HONEYSUCKLE; WOODRUFF; PRIMROSE; WOOD LOOSESTRIFE; SMALL PERIWINKLE 60 XXII. LUNGWORT; WOOD FORGET-ME-NOT; FOXGLOVE; MARJORAM; WOOD BETONY; YELLOW ARCHANGEL - - - 74 XXIII. WOOD SAGE; WOOD SPURGE; DOG'S MERCURY; WYCH ELM; OAK; BEECH ---90 XXIV. ASPEN; TWAY-BLADE; BEE ORCHIS; SNOWDROP; LILY-OF-THE- VALLEY; GARLIC; BLUEBELL - 106 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES XXV. TRAVELLER'S JOY; BARBERRY; WINTER CRESS; HEDGE MUSTARD; SAUCE ALONE; GREATER STITCH WORT - - - - - 128 XXVI. PERFORATE ST. JOHN'S WORT; HERB ROBERT; SPINDLE WOOD; TUFTED VETCH; MEADOW VETCHLING; BLACKTHORN - - 142 XXVII. BRAMBLE; BARREN STRAWBERRY; DOG ROSE; CRAB APPLE; HAW- THORN; BRYONY 160 x PLATES IN COLOUR PLATE PAGE XXVIII. HEMLOCK; COW-PARSNIP; HEDGE PARSLEY; DOGWOOD; MOSCHATEL; ELDER 184 XXIX. CLEAVERS; TEASEL; HOARY RAGWORT; NIPPLEWORT; ASH; GREAT BINDWEED 200 XXX. RED BARTSIA; WOOD BASIL; GROUND IVY; BUGLE; SPURGE LAUREL; COMMON ELM- - -214 XXXI. NETTLE; BLACK BRYONY; LORDS AND LADIES - ... 230 PLATES IN BLACK-AND-WHITE WOODLAND, WITH HAZEL COPPICE - = = -----5 MOUNTAIN ASH (Pyrus Aucuparia, Ehrh.) ------ 43 IVY (Hcdera Helix, L.) - - 57 FOXGLOVE {Digitalis purpurea, L.)- - - - - - - - 81 SPINDLE WOOD (Euonymns europeeus, L.) - - - - - - *49 ELDER (Sam'bucus nigra, L.)- - - - ° = = - - *97 Section V FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 31 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES In this section we have a group of shade-loving- plants or Hylo- phytes. Each plant is influenced by the juxtaposition of other plants, and so the woodland plants are bound together. In extended form a wood with scattered trees tends to assume the character of a meadow of the type included in Section II. The hedgerows which divide fields and roadways give shelter to a few such woodland plants. The wood- land plants are Mesophytes with regard to water requirements. Several alterations in the surrounding conditions are brought about by the association of trees, which influence — Light (woods are shaded and dark), Warmth (woods are cold and dank), Moisture (woods are moist and attract moisture). In a wood, moreover, plants are exposed to greater enemies, such as: — (1) Fungi. (2) Animal pests. There are several types of woodland which may be briefly re- ferred to. First of all there is what we may call bushland. This is not the result of a low temperature, as in Polar tracts, but of cultivation. There are numerous districts where the borders of virgin forest are repeatedly cut down and treated as plantations with saplings, which are meso- phytic bushland. Then wherever fox coverts as in the shires are planted, or coverts for game are made, there is usually a mixture of bush, deciduous wood, and coniferous woodland put down artificially which may answer to this type. Here we find Sloe, Hawthorn, Brier, Dogwood, Barberry, Bramble, &c., which sometimes form locally a distinct feature. They may also be the normal result, as in Blackthorn coverts, of leaving country to return to a wild state. There is a characteristic ground flora of meadow or pratal species depending on altitude. 4 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES True forests in the Temperate regions (excluding conifers) are mainly made up of deciduous trees, the regions of winter following the fall of the leaf. The leaves, their texture, form, and position are all adapted to meet the necessary conditions of light. Below the tall trees are shrubs and bush, and below these a characteristic ground flora of plants with broad, flat, smooth leaves, as in Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemone, \Vood Balsam, Enchanter's Nightshade, Moschatel, Dog's Mercury, Lily-of-the- Valley, &c. Woods are especially characterized by the predominance of some one species which grows there at its best, e.g. Beech, Cak, and Birch. The Beech wood forms a dark wood where the ground is bare or strewn with leaves, and the soil may be mild humus or sour humus. In the first one finds \Voodruff, Wood Sorrel, \Vood Anemone, Sw-eet Violet, Dog's Mercury, Melic Grass, Millet, Ivy, Great Stitchwort, Lungwort, Sedges, Poa nemoralis, Winter Aconite, Moschatel, \Vound- wort, Enchanter's Nightshade, Herb Paris, Lily-of-the- Valley, Solo- mon's Seal, Helleborines, Twayblade, Bird's Nest Orchid, also Coral Root, Monotropa, Epipogum, &c., Gagea, &c. On a sour humus one finds Deschampsia flexuosa, Trientalis, May Flower, Cow Wheat, Ling, Whortleberry, and so on. The Oak forest or wood lets in more light between its branches and neighbouring trunks. Amongst the oaks are found Lime, Maple, Aspen, Elm, Ash, and Hornbeam. The ground flora is abundant, and there are numerous shrubs forming a bush of Hazel, Hawthorn, Maple, Sloe, Hornbeam, Spindle Tree, Willow, Guelder Rose, Bramble, Honeysuckle. Amongst the ground flora are the Wood Anemone, Violets, Vetches, Meadow Vetchling, St. John's Wort, Cinquefoil, Bluebell, Milfoil. The Common Brake Fern forms dense brakes here (hence the name). True Birch forests are not prevalent in Britain, being found in higher latitudes, and they are often planted here. Ashwoods occur on limestone and chalk soils. The Sylvestral, or Septal plants as they are also called, are a large section of the British flora numbering some 300, including some dry- soil heath plants which survive from a former woodland association. We have included some 42 of the woodland plants here, some of which are common to Beech, some to Oak woods, some found on ordinary humus, some on sour humus, and so on. In the shaded depths and open clearings amongst hazels and sallows the shy and delicate Wind Flower finds a shelter in the woods. Here, too, Goldielocks lurks in the shade, seldom having all WOODLAND, WITH HAZEL COPPICE FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 7 its petals intact. In hazel copses in the south we shall find with good fortune the Green Hellebore. An oak wood carpeted with Bluebells in spring, and clad in a rich russet coat of bracken in autumn, where rocky knolls abound, is the place for the Columbine. A shade-lover, the Sweet Violet adds richly to the heavy perfume of the woods, aromatic already with the smell of humus, leaf-mould, and resin, per- chance, from the pines. A new setting is conveyed by the bright pink masses of Red Campion blooms which give a bright colour to the green depths around. The Linden, when summer is at its zenith, is like attar of roses to the bees which hover amid its boughs on honey intent. Wood Sorrel is here the sensitive plant of the woods, by some called Shamrock. It luxuriates in the sides of a mossy leafy dell. Holly makes thick coverts for the pheasants on stony banks. The Wild Cherry dangles its " whitehearts " in the wooded seclusion, fit treasures for the birds. Open banks in the glades are spread with luscious fruits of the Wild Strawberry by Midsummer Eve. The grey undersides of the leaves in the well-roofed shelters of White Beam flicker in the breeze, thus revealing themselves. Close by Mountain Ash spreads wide mealy panicles of white flowers, ready for the autumn's promise of a rich red feast for the woodland tribes. On the open rocky slopes in the woods the rose-purple clumps of bloom of the Rosebay enliven the grey-clad stony banks. Beneath the dripping oaks the lowly Enchanter's Nightshade and Sanicle hide with retiring modesty. Along the pathways through the woods rise the noble umbels of Angelica, with spreading foliage. Ivy clings to the Oak like a parasite upon some scion of a noble house. Wayfaring- Tree fills the damp hollows forming dense coverts by the decoys. Clambering up the stem of Hawthorn, or bole of Oak or Ash, the Honeysuckle or Sweet Eglantine disperses sweet perfume in the night. Woodruff, too, in the daytime makes the air heavy with the odour of new-mown hay. A sulphur hue is lent by the sweet-tinted Primrose, which finds shade and safety in the woodland depths. Wood Loosestrife or Yellow Pimpernel trails delicately over the damper soil. The Small Peri- winkle brings again to the woods the colours of the deep-blue skies, and the versicolorous Lungwort is as gay here as in the long borders in the garden. In sheltered, open glades a wide patch of Wood Forget-me-not makes the woods blue, and so choice a beauty is not so soon forgot. The tall spikes, with spotted blooms of the Foxglove into which the humble bees come and take their toll, stand gracefully on the 8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES stony slopes of the valleys, and Marjoram gives a rich perfume to the downs in the south and elsewhere. Wood Betony lingers by the sides of the pathways or out on the open heaths. Under the deep shades of the hazels in early May the yellow helmets spotted with crimson of the Archangel make wide patches over which bees linger lovingly. Rich- scented the Wood Sage covers the rubbly flanks of the hillsides. In the south the Wood Spurge hides in the undergrowth or below the hedge. Everywhere in the shade are beds of Dog's Mercury, so common in woods. Tall monarchs of the forest rise here and there in the shape of the Wych Elm, Oak, Birch, and now and again the shivering Aspen. Under the ash-trees the Twayblade hides, and rarely the Snowdrop, Bee Orchis, Lily-of-the-Valley, and Ramsoms are found amid the sylvan depths. Wood Anemone or Wind Flower (Anemone nemorosa, L.) So far this has not been found in any deposit earlier than the recent. It is a plant of the Arctic and Cold Temperate Zones, found in Arctic Europe generally, W. Siberia, and in North America. It is general in England and Wales, except S. Lines, Mid Lanes, where it is absent. It does not occur in Scotland in Sutherland, Caithness, or any of the Northern Isles, but ascends in the Highlands to the height of 2800 ft., and is found in Ireland. In the spring every wood and copse is carpeted with the dainty Wind Flower, which delights the poet, the swain, and the townsman alike. It prefers the sheltered flat expanses which are protected over- head from the sun's heat, and at the side by clustering shrubs or undergrowth. It is perhaps more fond of a dry than a wet soil, and some humus; but is found alike where the Lesser Celandine and Bluebell grow. In some secluded spots the woods are as white with Wood Anemones as a damask sheet, just as the same sylvan depths are blue in spring with the Bluebell or yellow with the Lesser Celandine. They are mesophytes, adapted to a moderate supply of moisture. The Wood Anemone, unlike most other plants, can flourish beneath the shade in a beech wood. The Wood Anemone is a tuberous-rooted plant, or plant with subterranean fleshy shoots or creeping underground stem, which can be propagated by division of the roots which grow deep in the soil. It is a tender, fragile plant, which in the shade stands erect, with flowers wide open, but in the open, under a strong sun, it closes its WOOD ANEMONE 9 flower and droops its head. This drooping of the flower is a character by which to recognize it. The Wood Anemone is more or less prostrate in habit, with ascend- ing or erect scapes. The rootstock or rhizome is woody and horizontal, giving rise to leaves and scapes. The leaves are few, radical, distant from the scapes, ternate or quinate, 3- or 5-lobecl, stalked, the leaflets narrow, lobecl and cut, or deeply divided, nearly stalkless, and the involucral bracts are the same. The scape or flower-stalk bears no leaves but bracts, forming an WOOD ANEMONE (Anemone nemorosa, L.) involucre. The flowers are solitary, with 6 or 5-9 oblong, hairless, spreading sepals, which replace the petals, and are white, rose, or rarely purple. The stamens are all perfect. The achenes are downy, as long as the style, keeled not awned. The styles are short and straight. The Wood Anemone grows to a height of 3-4 in. Flowers may be seen from March to May. The plant is perennial. As a rule there is no honey in the flower, but Van Tieghem found plants containing honey. Insects, moreover, may be seen trying to bite through the bottom (or top, as it is drooping and the bottom is at the top) of the flower, presumably to get at sweet sap, by aid of which they moisten the pollen, which is abundant, to facilitate its being carried away. The anthers and stigma are ripe at the same time. The flowers are erect when they first open, when it is sunny. They bend io FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES over in a drooping position at night and when rain falls. This protects the pollen or the honey in all such drooping flowers. The sepals do duty for the petals. The stigmas are covered up in bud, and the stamens lie over them, but when the flowers open both are mature, and insects can touch either. They alight in the centre or on the sepals, and may touch anthers or stigma first, causing self- or cross-pollination. The drooping character of the flower also causes pollen to fall on the stigma. Bees pierce the base of the flower and lick the pollen. The visitors are Hymenoptera of the genera Halictiis, Osmia, Apis; Diptera, Scatophaga\ Coleoptera, Meligethes. The Wind Flower has the achenes dispersed by the wind, by the hairs, or by processes developed as a long awn or appendage, but not feathery, as in the Pasque Flower, to aid in dispersal by the wind. The Wild Anemone, which dwells in woods, is fond of humus, requiring a humus soil which is partly peat, partly humus. It is not addicted to a lime soil as a rule. A fungus, Urocystis anemones, forms irregular swellings on the stems and midribs of the leaves. Puccinia fusca also forms small blackish pustules on the leaves. The Anemone Sclerotinia, Sclero- tinia tiiberosa, Plasmopora pygm(?a> and dELcidium leucospermum also infest it. The Scarlet Tiger, Callimorpha dominula and Adela degeerella are moths that feed on it. Anemone was the name given it by Dioscorides, from the Greek anemos, wind, and the Latin nemorosa means "of the woodland". The English names in vogue are Bow Bells, Cowslip, Wood Crowfoot, Cuckoo-flower, Cuckoo-spit, Darn-grass, Drops of Snow, Enemy, Granny's Nightcap, Wild Jessamine, Moonflower, Neminies, Smell Foxes, Smell Smock, Soldiers, Undergrounds, Wind Flower. " Doon i' the wild enemies." TENNYSON, Northern Farmer (Old Style). The plant is called Darn-grass in Scotland because it is said to give rise to a disease called Darn or black water, causing dysentery among cattle, a notion also held in Sweden. Their fragile blossoms were said to give shelter to fairies in wet weather, closing up. In Greece Anemones were used as garlands. The Chinese planted them over their graves. " The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long, Which owe to winds their name in Grecian song." GOLDIELOCKS 1 1 This is in allusion to their brief flowering period. The Wind Flower was held sacred to Venus. In some countries people have an aversion to them, the air being said to be tainted with them, those inhaling it being said to be sick on this account. The species of Anemone are all acrid. The Pasque Flower, an allied species, was till recently retained in the Pharmacopoeia, but it has no such remedies as described by Gerarde and Culpeper. It is usually sold by weight, the roots, like ginger, being employed. It was held by the older writers to be injurious to cattle. A species in Kamschatka was utilized to poison the tips of arrows, the juice being applied proving fatal. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 3. Anemone nemorosa, L. — Sepals 4-20, petaloid, involucre of three leaves or bracts, carpels tipped with persistent styles, keeled, rootstock creeping, achenes downy. Goldielocks (Ranunculus auricomus, L.) No deposits have as yet yielded achenes of this plant. It is dis- tributed over the Arctic and Cool Temperate Zones, in Arctic Europe, N. and W. Asia, to the Himalayas. Goldielocks is absent from Monmouth, and in Wales only occurs in Glamorgan, Denbigh, and Anglesea. It is absent from S. Lines and the Isle of Man. In Scot- land it is not found in any of the following counties: — Dumfries, Wigtown, Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow, Banff, Elgin, Westerness, Main Argyll, W. Highlands or N. Highlands, or Northern Isles. In the Highlands it is found at an altitude of 1600 ft., and in S. and W. Ireland it is rare. The Goldielocks is a shade-loving hedgerow and woodland plant, which appears to delight in sandy soil where also some humus is present, and clusters in patches of a yard square beneath the shelter of a bank. There it forms a rich contrast with the surroundings with its yellow (rarely perfect) petals and delicate foliage. It is fond of ground where there are inequalities of the surface, as well as banks, on which it often grows. This is one of the terrestrial Crowfoots, with a smooth, shiny stem, with divided leaves, having the lower leaves broadly lobed and the upper more divided, with an erect flowering stem, the flowers being central, and the general shape is pyramidal, as in most plants with radical leaves on long stalks, rounded or kidney -shaped, and more or less leafless flowering stems. A feature of this species is the variation in the type of the leaves at the base. 12 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES The petals are usually imperfect, and the honey-gland has no scale. The sepals are constantly as yellow as the petals. The carpels, seated on raised points of the receptacle, are downy. Unlike some other Crowfoots the root is fibrous. The stem is i ft. to 15 in. in height. Goldielocks flowers from April to May, before the trees are in bud or leaf. The plant is perennial, deciduous, and herbaceous. The nectary assumes a great variety of forms. The corolla is seldom regular, and some petals are usually wanting or functionless, GOLDIELOCKS (Ranunculus auricomns, L.) some or all being stunted, while the sepals have a bright yellow flat portion, and partly or wholly take the place of petals. The sepals may be fringed. The honey-glands are at the base of the modified petals. Some petals are reduced to honey -secreting cavities, as in Winter Aconite, and all sorts of transitions to this stage may be found. In the more perfect petals the underside of the triangular base of the petal has a thickened border each side, which fuses below and forms a pit for the honey where they meet. In the more perfect petals, too, honey is secreted by two small pits, to the right and left, on the broader thickened margin. In very stunted petals on the inner side of the base of the two laminae or blades two honey canals, separated by a fold, are deeply sunk. There are two types of pollen. In some intermediate forms no honey is secreted. Hymenoptera (Apidse, Formicidse), Diptera (Syrphidse, Muscidse), Thysanoptera (Tkrips) visit it. GREEN HELLEBORE 13 The fruits of Goldielocks are dispersed by the wind, and the achenes are downy and adapted for wind dispersal. This plant is partly a humus-loving plant requiring a humus soil, derived from ordinary humus, and grows best in peaty loam, being found on Precambrian, Carboniferous, Triassic, and Liassic rock soils. Peronospora ficaria is a fungus which infests this plant. It flowers early, and no insects feed on it. The name auriconius is from the Latin aurum, gold, and coma, hair. Goldielocks is called Buttercup, Wood Crow-foot, Goldylocks. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 7. Ranunculus auricomus, L. — Leaves divided, radical leaves reni- form, 3-7-partite, flowers yellow, petals 3-7, usually imperfect, petals with nectary without a scale smooth, carpels downy, receptacle tuber- culate. Green Hellebore (Helleborus viridis, L.) No seeds of the Green Hellebore have been found in a fossil con- dition. It is a plant of the Warm Temperate Zone of W. and Central Europe, ranging from Holland southwards, but is not found in Russia. It has been introduced into the United States of America. It is found in South England, in S. and N. Somerset, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, East Kent, Surrey, Essex, Herts, Bucks, Carnarvon, Flint, Gloucs, W. Lanes, York, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmorland. Else- where it is regarded as only introduced. It is often naturalized. Watson calls it a denizen. The Bear's Foot or Green Hellebore is a woodland plant, being fond of copses of hazel, and other types of thicket in the south and east of England, chiefly on chalk soil, which it prefers. It is largely a xerophile, though it may be found on humus within the chalk areas. Its associates are the Wood Spurge, Herb Paris, Melic Grass, amongst common plants. Doubtless its reputed use (vide below) has been responsible for its introduction in other southern, eastern, or midland districts. Except that the stem is purple and usually single, or divided into two nearly to the base, this plant has much the habit of Marsh Mari- gold. It stands erect, and with spreading divisions of the leaves, which spring from a foot-stalk directly, and with the sheathing bases of its stalkless stem-leaves it looks palm-like when not in flower. The leaves are hard and leathery, finger-shaped or nearly stalkless, and with lobes radiating from the centre on the stem. The calyx is spreading, and the 5 green sepals are oblong, longer ft. It flowers from March to i4 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES than the 8-10 petals, which are tubular and bilobed, and are shorter than the stamens, which are numerous, curved, and veined one side. The leaves also have prominent veins below. The honey-glands are half as long as the stamens. The few fruits are i -celled fruits with many seeds, with an erect style. The plant grows to a height of 2 April and is perennial and deciduous. The stigma is ripe first. The petals are minute but secrete honey. The 3-4 yellowish - green flowers open widely, and there is abundant honey, but the inconspicuous character of the flower causes it to be less visited than would be expected. Owing to the pendulous nature of the flower it is protected from the rain and from some classes of insects. The styles turn outwards and then are just beneath the nectar-bearing petals. Afterwards they turn up- wards. By this time the anthers are ripe and take their place. The flower is visited by bees and humble bees. Hellebore is aided in dispersal by the wind. The follicle which opens above contains many seeds, which are blown out of the ripe fruit by the wind. This plant is more or less a lime-lover, frequenting chalk or lime- stone districts, but is also fond of humus, requiring the humus soil of a woodland habitat in which there is also a lime soil mixed. A fungus, Phyllosticta helleborella, is parasitic upon this plant, and on the Continent Phytomyza hellebori attacks it. The generic name is the Latinized form of the Greek name, while viridis is the Latin for green. The English names for this plant are: Bear's-foot, Boar's Foot, Photo. Messrs. Flatters & G GREEN HELLEBORE (Helleborus viridis, L.) COLUMBINE 15 Fellon-grass, Green Hellebore, Bastard Hellebore, Peg-roots, Setter- wort. It was said to guard the home from ill, and to be a powerful anti- dote against madness. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says: " Borage and hellebore fill two scenes, Sovereign plants to purge the veins Of melancholy, and cheer the heart Of those black fumes, which make it smart. To clear the brain of misty fogs, Which dull one's senses and soul clogs, The best medicine that e'er God made For this malady, if well assay'd." Floors were strewn with it formerly, but instead of being beneficial it only introduced evil odours into the house. The plant has been used as a cure for worms since Hippocrates' time (fourth century). It was retained in the British Pharmacopoeia up till 1851, but is now discarded. It was used in the same way as Black Hellebore, but in any form is very dangerous. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 12. Helleborus viridis, L. — Stem few-flowered, leaves digitate or pedate, veins below prominent, cauline leaves sessile, sepals petaloid, spreading, yellowish -green, petals small, shorter than the stamens, tubular. Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris, L.) This beautiful plant has not been found in any early deposits. It ranges throughout the Northern Warm Temperate Zone in Europe, Morocco, the Canaries, Siberia, and Asia as far as the west part of the Himalayas. It is absent from Hunts, Brecon, Radnor, Mont- gomery, S. Lines, S.E. Yorks. In Scotland it is found in Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, doubtfully elsewhere. In Yorkshire it is found at 1000 ft., and is common to the N.E. and W. of Ireland. The Wild Columbine is one of those plants which, though con- spicuous enough, elude the grasp of all but the more diligent botanists and plant-hunters. Such plants, when discovered, serve to mark a red- letter day in the annals of the collector. It is fond of rocky knolls in woods, where it secures shelter from heat and wind. Nestled amid such fastnesses on a small scale it presents one of the most pleasing pictures in a woodland scene, standing erect and graceful in a natural clearing in the oakwood amid wide patches of bracken or the bluebell, relieved by graceful hanging panicles of Millet Grass. 1 6 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Accustomed as we are to this plant in the garden we know its tall, graceful habit, with large, drooping, blue flowers in a raceme or group, and leafy stem below. In habit it resembles Meadow Rue, but differs from it and all other flowers of the Buttercup group in many particulars. The inbent hollow bottom of the petal in the corolla gave it the name Aquilegia, in allusion to the incurved talons of an eagle's claws. Columbine, again, refers to the flower's shape, like a dove's nest. The flat part of the petal of the flower is blunt and shorter than the stamens. The five sepals are petaloid. There are five follicles, which are erect, open above. The seeds are black and shining, minutely granular. This plant is often 2 ft. high or even 3 ft. It is in flower from May to July and is perennial. The five petals are large and conspicuous, each one hollowed from the claw upwards, to form a hollow spur or horn-shaped cavity, 15-22 mm. long, with a cup-like mouth, admitting a humble bee's head, and the narrow tubular part is curved inwards and dowrnwards above, containing the honey secreted by a fleshy thickening in the spur. Bees with a long proboscis hold on to the flower below, clutching hold of the base of the spur with their fore legs, and with their mid and hind legs they clasp the stamens and pistil, which project obliquely downwards in the middle. They introduce the head into the aperture of the spur where the outer wall touches the end of the proboscis following the curve of the spur. In younger flowers the hind part of the bee's body touches the anthers, closely surrounding the carpels covered outside with pollen, and in older flowers the same parts touch the carpels which have become elongate, and spread the stigmas farther apart. So cross-pollination follows. The visitors are Bomtnis hortoriim, B. terrestris, B, agrorwn, Halictus. B. terrestris cannot reach the honey and bites a hole at the base of the spur in order to obtain it. Holes may frequently be seen and are due to this cause. The Columbine is adapted to wind dispersal, the numerous seeds being shaken out of the follicle, open above, when the latter is ripe. It is a rock plant, choosing a rock soil, which may be granitic, schistose, or even a sand rock with some humus. SEcidium a^iilegitf is a cluster- cup fungus which lives on this plant. The moths, Gray Chi, Polia c/n, Anistoma ulmaria, Small Ranunculus, Hecatera dysodea, Pterophorns cosnwdactylus, the Homop- teron, Hyalopteris trirhoda, and the fly, Phytomyza aquilegice, fre- quent it. SWEET VIOLET 17 Columbine is from the Latin columba, pigeon, in allusion to the shape of the flower. Aquilegia, a name given by Tragus, is from aqiiila, an eagle, the spur of the corolla being like an eagle's claw. Vulgaris means common, though it is rather rare. Its English names are Blue Starry, Boots -and -shoes, Capon's -feather, Capon's -tail, Cock's -foot, Colourbine, Cullavine, Culverkeys, Culverwort, Curran- bine, Dove's-foot, Granny's Night-cap, Hawk's-feet, Hen and Chickens, Lady's Shoes, Lady's Slippers, Snapdragon, Sowdwort, Two Faces under a Hat. Culverkeys is given in allusion to the shape, like a cloor or culver, culver being columbe, and the little flowerets little keys (compare also Cul- verwort). It was once known as Herba leonis, and believed to be the lion's favourite plant. In the fourteenth century it was recommended as a remedy for quinsy. Then a tincture of it was employed to strengthen the gums. The plant has long been cultivated in the garden, and is a de- lightful flower. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 13. Aquilegia V2ilgaris, L. — Stem with few leaves, leaf biternate, lobed, flower blue or white, 5 sepals petaloid, spur of petal incurved containing honey, limb shorter than stamens, capsule a follicle, hairy. COLUMBINE (Aquilegia vulgaris, L.) Sweet Violet (Viola odorata, L.) This plant has not been discovered in any ancient deposits in which seeds of living plants are preserved. At the present day it is found in Europe, North Africa, North and West Asia, as far as the Himalayas. In Great Britain it is absent from Radnor, Cardigan, in S. Wales; in N. Wales it occurs only in Carnarvon, Flint, Denbigh, and Anglesea; in the Mersey province it is absent in Mid Lanes; and is found also in Scotland in Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Renfrew, Peebles, Selkirk, Rox- VOL. III. 32 1 8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES burgh, Linlithgow, Mid and North Perth. In some of these it was doubtless introduced. It is wild in the east and south of England, and perhaps also in the east of Ireland. It occurs in the Channel Islands. The Sweet Violet is the very breath of the woods in early spring, and banks of violets with deep -blue flowers carpet the woods and thickets over the greater part of the country. One may pick the Lesser Celandine with the sweet-scented Violet growing side by side. Besides the shaded woods the Sweet Violet lurks under hedges along the shadier lanes or in the fields. Its existence near houses and villages has cast doubt on its being native everywhere. The Sweet Violet is generally social in habit, many plants being produced around an older one yearly by the loose procumbent stems which are put forth from the axils of the terminal rosettes, the runners being long and creeping. It is thus a prostrate plant, which extends itself laterally. The habit is the loose rosette or prostrate habit. The under- ground stems are thick, scaly, with rooting stolons. The plant does not flower the first year. The stipules are broad, lance-shaped, glandular, fringed with hairs, shortly pointed. The normal leaves are shining, heart-shaped to kidney-shaped, as broad as long, smooth or with few hairs. The sestival leaves have the lamina and leaf-stalks slightly hairy, with depressed hairs, the lamina longer than broad, with an open sinus. Some or no leaves persist till next spring. The flowers are dark bluish-purple, fragrant. The flower-stalks are hairless, the bracts usually above the middle. The sepals are oval, blunt. The petals are egg-shaped, deep violet inside with a bluish- white base, dark blue outside with a deep violet spur. The green cleistogamic summer flowers are fertile, as are the spring flowers. The capsule is round, bluntly 3-angled, downy, often purplish. The Sweet Violet is rarely more than 6 in. high. May is the latest month in which it flowers, beginning in March. It is perennial. The flowers, though concealed by the leaves, are sweet-scented. The end of the pistil which bears the stigma is not globular, but like a bird's head, standing a little distance from the lower petal, though close to and bent down into a hook, and fills the mouth of the flower. The pistil is pushed up by a visitor inserting its head below the stigma. The insect parts the ring of anthers and its proboscis is covered with pollen. The base of the pistil secretes a fluid which moistens the insect's proboscis, and causes the pollen, which is dry, to adhere to it. The pollen is dry so that it may fall into the cavity, otherwise the insect would not touch it. SWEET VIOLET 19 The insects visiting it are Hymenoptera (Apidae), Diptera (Bomby- KcUe), Lepidoptera (Small Tortoise-shell Butterfly, Vanessa urtica, Brimstone, Rkodocera rhamn'i). To prevent rain reaching the honey the flower is borne on a long stalk, and the pollen is by this means allowed to fall and to be secreted between the free ends of the stamens and the pistil, i.e. not at their base. The pollen is loose and dry, assisting it to remain between the anthers and the pistil. The style is thin below, for insects to bend it, and is curved. The Photo. J. H. Crabtr SWEET VIOLET {Viola odorata, L.) membranous extremity of the upper anther-stalks overlaps the ends of the two middle stigmas, so that the bee can move the pistil and get at the pollen more easily by setting it free. There are lines on the carpels which serve as honey-guides. There are two kinds of flowers, one large and much visited by insects; the other smaller ones are not so much visited, as they have no scent or honey, and the corolla is absent or rudimentary. They are called cleistogamic flowers, and secure pollination with little effort. The anthers have little pollen. They are at first like ordinary buds, the carpels occupying the middle. The spring flowers are coloured, the others have no corolla in the 20 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES autumn and look like buds, but later appear to be capsules. These have more numerous seeds than those of the spring flowers. They hang clown upon the ground, and when ripe the capsule bursts and the seeds are sown around the plant in the ground. Often if the soil is loose the capsule is buried before the seed is mature. The seeds are dispersed by ants, the elaiosomes possessing nutritive matter, or are jerked out by the wind. The capsule when ripe splits open. The Sweet Violet is infested by the fungi Peronospora viola, Phyllosticta viola, Ascockyta viola (Violet leaf blotch), Cercospora viola (Violet leaf spot), Alternaria viola (Violet spot disease), and Puccinia viola, Urocystis viola grow upon it. Argyunis adippc, the High Brown Fritillary, lives on it. Pliny gave the name Viola, Latin for Violet. Theophrastus called it Ion, because it was first presented to Jove by Ionic nymphs, or because when lo was changed into a cow the earth brought forth the Violet. The second Latin name refers to its sweet-scented character. The Violet is called Appel-leaf, Bairnwort, Banwort, Blaver, Bessy Banwood, Fine-leaf, Vilip, Violet (Blue-, English-, March-, Sweet- Violet). Shakespeare, in referring to the metempsychosis or transfer of souls in the form of flowers, in Hamlet, makes Laertes wish violets may spring from Ophelia's grave: " Lay her in the earth, And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring." This may be compared with Persius, Satires'. " E tumulo fortunataque favilla Nascentur violae ". Tennyson also writes: " And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land ". To dream of the violet was said to mean advancement in life. It was used in garlands and spring bridal bouquets in ancient Greece. In spite of its association with early death, it is the emblem of constancy. " Violet is for faithfulness, Which in me shall abide, Hoping likewise that from your heart You will not let it hide." RED CAMPION 21 The Violet was dedicatee! to Venus. In Greece violets were worn in the chaplet because it was imagined they dispelled the fumes of wine and drove away headaches. Its sweet scent is employed in perfumery. The petals are used in syrup given to children. It had many fanciful qualities in mediaeval times. Thus, "stamped with water it casts out a broken uone ". The root is emetic, being employed as a substitute for ipecacuanha. The syrup is used by chemists as a test for acids or alkalies, being cultivated at Stratford-on-Avon for that purpose. The Violet is laxative. Sherbet is supposed to have violet syrup as one of its constituents. The Koran praises it, holding it, like the Prophet high over men, superior to all other flowers. When dried the flowers are used in bonbons, being candied. The seeds are diuretic, and pow- dered were used for gravel and stone. The species is cultivated, and white and blue forms are equally sweet-scented, while both single and double forms are produced. This plant was used as a beautifier to render the eye lustrous, enlarging the pupil. The Grecian women colour their eyelids blue with it, and make a preparation of it for the eyes. The Violet is a humus-loving plant requiring a humus soil, which is obtained in woods and under hedge banks. It grows on a variety of subsoils formed by different geological formations, both arenaceous and oolitic. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 42. Viola odorata, L. — Stem with stoles from axils of terminal rosettes, creeping, leaves cordate, crenate, downy, flowers blue or white, scented, spur straight, lance-shapecl sepals obtuse, bracts above middle of peduncles. Red Campion (Lychnis dioica, L.) This plant has been found in Interglacial, late Glacial, Neolithic, and lacustrine deposits. To-day it is found in the Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe to the Caucasus, Siberia up to Lake Baikal, and Greenland. It is found in every part of Great Britain, except Hunts, Stirling, Main Argyll, and Caithness. In most of our English counties we look for the Red Campion in early spring, with its pink blooms, springing up from the moist soil of ditch or hedge bank. But there are in some districts wide areas where it is entirely absent, and these same districts also lack its usual associates elsewhere — Dog's Mercury, and Lords-and- Ladies or 22 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Cuckoo Pint. Woodlands of this common but beautiful English wild flower, which helps with Hedge Garlic and Greater Stitchwort to beautify also the country lanes, are a lovely sight in spring. The Red Campion is a tall, erect plant, with several stems with thickened joints, often bent, round, branched, the upper ones dividing. The radical leaves are blunt above, stalked, the stem -leaves linear lance-shaped, tapering. The whole plant is clothed with hairs. The stems often have a purple tinge. Numbers of plants grow together, and a bed of Red Campion in bloom is a thing to be remem- bered. The plant grows in tufts with many leafy shoots. The flowers grow on dichotomous panicles, regularly dividing into two, and the plants are dioecious. The petals are divided into two nearly to the base, with narrow, spreading lobes. The calyx- teeth are triangular. The capsule is nearly rounded, with ten teeth, the latter bent back. The seeds are black, and have rows of points arranged lengthwise. Red Campion is often 3 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom in June and July. The plant is perennial, and may be propagated by division. The flowers are female or pistillate, and male or staminate, and though flowering by day (diurnal) they have much the same character as Lychnis alba, but are conspicuous and large, and adapted to visits by insects with a fairly long proboscis. Reel Campion is dioecious, and the pistillate plant is more robust. A black or brown powder is pro- duced by a fungus, Ustilago anthcrorum, which attacks the stamens in this and L. alba, and the spores are dispersed like pollen by insects. The seeds are adapted to wind dispersal. The capsule has a wide RED CAMPION (Lychnis dioica, L.) RED CAMPION 23 mouth, and the seeds are scattered far and wide by the wind or by passers-by. The soil required is a humus soil, and it is therefore a humus-loving plant, ranging over many different formations. This plant is attacked by the fungus Ustilago violacea. A beetle, Phytonomus plantaginis, Lepidoptera, such as Tawny Sheers (Dianthoscia carpophagct}, The Lychnis D. capsincola, Netneo- phila plantaginis, Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineatd], Rivulet (Emmelesia affinitata}, Sandy Carpet (£. decolorata), Gelechia vis- cariella, Lygris flavofasciata, Netted Pug (Eupithecia venosatai), feed on it. The second name, dioica, refers to the dioecious habit. Red Campion is called Adder's-flower, Bachelor's Buttons, Billy Buttons, Bird's-eye, Brassety Buttons, Brid-een, Bull's Eye, Cock- robin, Crows-ope, Devil's Flower, Flea-bites, Geuky Flower, Gramfer- Greygles, Hare's Eye, Lousy Beds, Mother- Dee, Plum-puddings, Ragged Robin, Red Butcher, Red Lack, Red Robin, Robin-in-the- hose, Robin-i'-the-hedge, Round Robin, Scalded Apple. As to the name Bachelor's Buttons, Johnson says: "The similitude that these flowers have to the jagged cloath buttons anciently worne in this kingdome gave occasion to our Gentlewomen and other lovers of flowers in those times to call them Batchelor's Buttons". Another name Lousy Soldier's Buttons refers to the dislike to gather them when covered with small insects (Aphidse). The plant is called Dee (or Die), and a superstition exists amongst Cumberland children to the effect that if they pluck the flower, some misfortune will happen to their parents. It was supposed to exert a charm over the fortunes of lovers. It was called " Great Candlestick " because that was lighted up on St. John the Baptist's Day. When it is cultivated it sometimes becomes double. A white- flowered form exists in a wild state. The flower is visited by the small Elephant Hawk Moth in the evening, being partly crepuscular. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 49. Lychnis dioica, L. — Dioecious, stem tall, erect, leaves lanceolate, flowers pink, calyx teeth triangular, peduncle downy, capsule globular, with 10 recurved teeth. 24 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Lime or Linden (Tilia vulgaris, Hayne) This tree has not been found fossil in Britain, but in the Pine and Oak Zones in S. Sweden. It is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe and the Caucasus. The Common Lime, as is suggested by its absence from any deposits where fossil seeds and fruits have been discovered, as well as by its history, is not truly aboriginal, and its distribution is dependent upon planting. It is, however, well dispersed. LIME (Tilia vulgaris, L.) SHOWING DROOPING FOLIAGE The Common Lime has been requisitioned for forming plantations for many centuries, but was doubtless introduced here. Where it is not found forming plantations it is planted in and around gardens and in parks to create a landscape effect, and may be found in most country districts, as well as in towrns, where it thrives, but it is often superseded by other species of Lime. The Lime has the tree habit. The trunk may exceptionally reach a height of 120 ft. The bole is thick. The branches are spreading, hanging down at the extremities. The twigs are hairless. The leaf buds are drooping at first; if horizontal, they would be more exposed to cold. The leaves are thin, membranous, light transparent green, twice as long as the leaf-stalks, rounded to heart-shaped, unequal at the base, hairless, except at the branching of the veins below where there are KEY TO PLATE XIX <-*"' No. i. Lhjie (Tilia vulgarts, Hayne) «, Part of flowering branch with leaf, inflorescence arus- ing from large foliose bract, and pendulous flowers in bud and one open, with petals, anthers, and central pistil, b, Part of cyme, with hairy capsules before dehiscing. No. 2. Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca, L.) a, Vertical section of flower (enlarged), showing sepals(in- ferior), petals alternating with them, young fniit on the gradually convex receptacle, and stamens. £, Plant, with root, runner, tuft of leaves, and flower-stalk with flowers and aebenes embedded in the 'jfleshy, ;?eceplikcle. No. 3. Holly (Ilex Aquifolium, L.) a, Group of flowers in cyme, with parts in four, 4 sepals, 4 petals, 4 stamens, -and cen- tral pistil, with subtending leaves showing spines at the end of the veins, b, Berries, red when ripe, c, Berry cut in section, a 4-celIed stone or drupe with 4 J\ (Primus C'erasus, L.) a, Vertical section of flower, showing sepals, petals, and perigybous stamens, and cen- trat-pistil with long style. }bj Fascicle jof flowers, showing fugaciotis notched petals, and tujTied-back sepals of. the gamosepalous calyx, c, A drupe, with~a~leaf, showing smooth under surface. L XA\\ ^> ,^ No. 5; Wood Sorrel y (&&tz's Acptosella, L.) n, Five-angled capsule, ijyfth 2 seed> in one cell exposed. ; b, Plant showing root, scales, ) leaves, some "Asleep", 'and- - 2 ; /flowers, with 5 petals,;; wi^I) veins.^r honey-guides^\; anthers, and stigma. T ^ l i ^rl i -^JJp. 6. Wbite Beam (Pyrus Aria, Ehrh.) ;vw Aria, Ehih.). LIME 25 woolly tufts, smooth above. The young leaves have stellate hairs. The stipules are large, crimson or ruby. On the under surface, where the nerves are spreading, are triangular areas, enclosed by the walls of the nerves and a fringe of long hairs. Lindstrom regards these as domatia or abodes of mites, which lay their eggs in the fruit in special cavities. The mites remain in the domatia by day, coming out at night, and are thought to live on the spores of fungi which may be found on the leaves. Where the mites LIME (Tilia vulgaris, L.) FROM BELOW are abundant at any rate the leaves are healthy. These domatia are found also in the Oak, Elm, Alder, Holly. The mites do not leave the domatia in the day, but at night travel over the leaves. The flowers are sweet-scented, pale whitish-green, in a naked cyme, which has a lance-shaped leaflike bract at the base of the droop- ing flower-stalk, which bears many flowers. There are 5 deciduous sepals, 5 petals. The stamens are numerous, free or united. The ovary is round, 5-celled, the cells 2-seeded. The fruit is i -celled, leathery, woody, not ribbed, downy. The tree is often 50 ft. high. It flowers in June, July, and August. It is a deciduous tree. The flowers of this Lime are exceptionally sweet, and smell like 26 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES honey. The scent is strongest at a distance of 30 yd., as in the case of the Vine, and the flowers are much visited therefore by bees — though the flowers are not conspicuous — for the abundant honey which is held in the sepals at the base, and short-lipped insects can reach it. The flowers are drooping and thus protected from the rain, and the leaves above and the bract-like appendage also shelter them above. The stamens are numerous, and before the stigma is mature they shed their pollen, so that the flower cannot pollinate itself. It is proterandrous, the anthers ripening first. The stamens are taller than the sepals or petals, and curve outwards. Insects are bound to settle on the space between the anthers and stigmas, or on either of them. The stamens are bent out, away from the pistil, which occupies the axis, and self-pollination is precluded. The seed rarely ripens, it is said, in Britain, but it does so more than is generally supposed. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidae, Sphegidae) and Diptera (Syrphidae, Muscidae, Tabanidae). The Lime is adapted to wind dispersal like most trees; the stalk bearing the cluster of nuts, which hang down below a wide scale-like bract or leaflike organ, acts as a sort of aeroplane, and carries the seeds to a distance, the fruit not opening. This tree is a sand-lover or rock-lover, requiring a sand or rock soil. The Lime is infested by many fungi. A common fungus is Polyporus sulpkureus. Eriophyes tilia forms nail-like outgrowths on the leaves. Cecidomyia tilicola forms galls in the flower-stalks. Fungi of the genera Nectria, Psilocybe, Hypholoma, Flamnmla, Pleurotus, Collybia, Gleosporium, and Exosporium infest it also. The beetles Rhyme kites betuleti, Dorcus parallelepipedus, the Hymenopterous Eriocampa, the Lepidoptera Camberwell Beauty (Vanessa antiopa], Lime Hawk-moth (Smerinthus tilice}, Pale Promi- nent (Notodonta palpina], Marvel du Jour (Miselia aprilimis}, the Hemipterous Phytocoris tilitz, the Homoptera Pterocolus tilice, As- pidiotus tilif?, and the Diptera Cecidoviyia tilic?, Sciura tilicola are found on the Lime. Tiha, Pliny, is the Latin for lime tree, and vulgaris denotes its universal occurrence. Lime is a variant of the old English lind, which is a Teutonic root. The Lime is called Lenten, Lime Tree, Lin, Linde, Line, Teili, Til, Tile or Tilet Tree, or Tillet or Tillet-tree, White Wood. " ' Now tell me thy name, good fellow,' said he, Under the leaves of lyne." WOOD SORREL 27 This tree was held in veneration, and superstitious people might formerly often be seen carrying sickly children to a forest for the purpose of dragging them through the holes so commonly to be found in this tree. Garlands of flowers were tied with bark of the lime at banquets in the old days to prevent intoxication. " Nay, nay, my boy, 't is not for me This studious pomp of Eastern luxury. Give me no various garlands fine With linden twine, Nor seek where latest lingering flows The solitary rose." The inner bark or bast is used for matting in the garden, and, imported from Archangel, it is called Russian. The wood was used formerly in the days of wood engraving for wood blocks, and Holbein's work is said to have been done with lime blocks. The box is now very largely used in its place. Honey made by insects from this tree is said to be the best honey. The wood is used for turned bowls and dishes and pill -boxes. Baskets and cradles are made from the twigs. The bark was once used for writing tablets, and also rope. Formerly leather was cut on planks of the lime. The Lime was formerly used largely in wood carving. Gibbons executed much good work in it, to be seen in churches and else- where, e.g. St. Paul's, Trinity College library, Cambridge, Chatsworth Hall. Sugar is made from the sap. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 65. Tilia vnlgaris, Hayne. — Tall tree, leaves large, glabrous, with woolly tufts in axils of veins beneath, flowers yellow, in a cyme, with an oblong, leafy bract, fruit not ribbed, downy. Wood Sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella, L.) Seeds have been found in late Glacial beds at Edinburgh, and in Neolithic beds there and in Essex. The North and Arctic Temperate Zones describe its limit, the plant occurring in Arctic Europe, North Africa, N. and W. Asia to the Himalayas, and N. America. It is found in most parts of Great Britain, but not in Hunts, Cardigan, South Lines, Mid Lanes, Shetlands, elsewhere as far north as the Orkneys. It ascends to nearly 4000 ft. in the Highlands. It is found in Ireland and in the Channel Islands. 28 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Woods, where there is little or no undergrowth to outgrow this tender little wild flower, are the places in which to look for Wood Sorrel. It is a shade-loving plant which may be found growing on the sloping banks of little tree-sheltered ravines removed from woods, but is most luxuriant and widespread in the latter. This delicate, pretty, bulbous plant has no aerial stem. The leaves are ternate or divided into 3, and consist of 3 leaflets, hairy, stalked, three-nerved, the leaf-stalks not winged. The root is toothed and creeping. The scape or flowering stem is longer than the leaves, with two bracts or leaflike organs at the top, and is single-flowered. The flowers are white with purple veins, and of two kinds, the smaller being cleistogamic, like the Violet. When flowering is over the scape or flowering stem bends clown, and when the seed is ripe it becomes erect. When ripe the fruits may be opened at the angles, and the seeds are thrown to a distance. The capsule is divided into five chambers, with two black, smooth seeds in each attached to the central pillar. Three inches is the greatest height of this lowly, graceful flower, which blooms in April and May. It is perennial, increasing by offsets. Wood Sorrel is dimorphic, i.e. there are two or more forms, and the flowers are cleistogamic, like those of the Violet. Here the smaller ones are cleistogamic and bury the capsules in the ground, and the larger ones are normal and conspicuous. The anthers and stigma mature together. In the rain the flowers bend over. There are five fleshy nectaries or knobs at the base of the petals. The flowers open between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The dimorphic characteristics, with the variations between long- and short-styled forms, affords greater chance of cross- pollination. Wood Sorrel disperses its seeds immediately around it. When the capsule is mature it is stretched, and this causes it to split open and eject the seeds, by a catapult motion, to some distance. Really the seeds eject themselves. The cells of the inner layer are small and swollen. The coat splits down one side, and the inner cells expand, turn the coat inside out, the inner and outer coat changing place. This plant is a lover of humus, and requires a humus soil, being also to a certain extent a clay-lover, requiring a clayey soil. The Wood Sorrel is infested by no fungi or insect pests. Oxalis, Pliny, is derived from the Greek oxus, sharp, acicl, and aceto- sella is from Latin acetum, sour wine, vinegar; Sorrel is derived from sour. WOOD SORREL Wood Sorrel is known by many names: Alleluia, Allolida, Bird's Bread-and-Cheese, Bread-and-Cheese, Bird's Clover, Sorrell, Cuckoo's, Gowk's, or Sour Clover, Cuckoo's Bread-and-cheese, Cuckoo-flower, Cuckoo -spice, Cuckoo's Victuals, Sour Grass, Green Sauce, God A'mighty's Bread and Cheese, Gowk Meat, Hallelujah, Hare's Meat, Hearts, Lady's Cakes, Lady's Clover, Lady's Meat, Laverocks, Lu- jula, Rabbit Meat, Sham- rock, Sheep Sorrel, Sleep- ing- Beauty, Sleeping- Clover, French or Wood Sorrel, Sour Clover, Sour Sals, Stabwort, Stob- wort, Stopwort, Stub- wort, Wood-sour, Wood- sower. Wood Sorrel was called Stabwort because it was said to be good for wounds, punctures, stabs, &c., and Stub- wort, from growing at the roots of old trees. The name Alleluia is explained, "By reason when it springeth forth and ilowereth Alle- luia was wont to be sung in churches " (i.e. between Easter and Pentecost). The name Hearts is from the shape of the leaves. The flowers were formerly called fairy bells, and it was thought that the fairies were summoned to their moonlight revels by these bells. \Vood Sorrel was called St. Cecilia's Flower, St. Cecilia's Day being celebrated 22nd November, on account of the trumpet-like form of the leaves. Another legend attributes the spotting of the leaves to their being blood-drops from the Cross. The foliage is extremely sharp and acid, hence some of its names. It contains a binoxalate of potash. The juice is expressed and evaporates, and the crystals are produced from which we obtain salts of lemon. This is used for removing ink stains. It is poisonous and Photo. J. H. Crabtree WOOD SORREL (Oxalis Acetosella, L.) 3o FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES must be used with caution. Wood Sorrel was used as a salad. It has been endowed with cooling, antiscorbutic (remedy for skin diseases), and diuretic properties. An infusion was given in cases of fever. The leaves expand in wet weather and droop in dry weather, and are sensitive also to the touch. They change their position in relation to the light in four ways: the whole leaf may move, it may change its angle, the chlorophyll granules in the cells may rearrange themselves, as in Duckweed, or the grains may alter their form. The leaves close and droop in the sun and at night. The short stalks effect these two movements, absorption and transpiration enabling this sensitive- ness to show itself in action. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 70. Oxalis Acetosella, L. — Stem a rhizome, rhizome toothed, leaves ternate, hairy, radical, leaflets obcorclate, peduncles i-Howered, flower white with purple veins, 2 bracts in middle of scape. Holly (Ilex Aquifolium, L.) Interglacial beds in Sussex, Neolithic beds in Essex have yielded evidence of the antiquity of the Holly. It is found in the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe from South Norway to Turkey and the Caucasus and Western Asia. It is found in 105 vice-counties of Great Britain, but in some districts is mainly planted, and ranges from Caithness southward, ascending to 1000 ft. in the Highlands. It is also common to Ireland and the Channel Islands. In some districts whole woods are filled with an undergrowth of Holly, while in other districts there is little or none. In most hilly tracts it occurs sporadically lining the hedgerows at intervals along the roadside, and in the fields, whilst in these last a few may form a small coppice by themselves, just as Hawthorns do when allowed to grow up from seed. Holly is a tall tree or shrub, 10-40 feet high, with a single, upright, main stem, branched above, or with several stems growing out together from a common base. The young shoots are downy. The bark is smooth, ashen-grey or black. The foliage is dense, dark, shiny, smooth. The leaves are egg-shaped, acute, wavy, with prickly points below, losing them higher up the tree. The borders are cartilaginous. These spines are usually held to be a protection against browsing cattle, but are probably adaptations (as in the Cactus) to dry -soil conditions. The cuticle is thick, which is another feature of dry -soil types, and a protection against cold. The smoothness of the leaf and HOLLY 31 its twisted form may serve to prevent the leaves being weighted with snow, a character common to many deciduous trees and shrubs. The tree is compact, and often makes dense bushes. There are black, minute, leaflike organs, pointed, and functionless. The flowers are in umbel-like cymes, many-flowered, on short stalks, which are in the axils. The flowers are white or cream colour. Though frequently the flowers are complete the plants may be some- HOLLY (Ilex Aquifolium, L.) times more or less dioecious, and are variable in the structure of the flower. The sepals are egg-shaped, downy, 4— 5-lobed, and do not fall. The corolla is wheel-shaped, with petals united below or distinct, inversely egg-shaped, hollow above. There are 4 stigmas which are stalkless, free or united. The 4 stamens are attached to the corolla with awl -like stalks and oblong anthers. The ovary is 4-6-celled. The drupe or berry is round, and contains a 4-5-celled stone or 4 stones. They are orange or scarlet when ripe. The seeds have a membranous outer coat. From i o to 30 ft. is the usual height of the tree. Flowers may be 32 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES found between May and August. The Holly is an evergreen tree, increased by suckers and seed. The flowers are small and often polygamous. The stigmas are liable to be self-pollinated, being stalkless or nearly so, and the awl- shaped anther-stalks therefore hang above them, and self-pollination can easily ensue. Moreover, the male and female flowers are in other cases on different trees or generally so, and in the larger female flowers the sterile stamens are so large that the plant might be both male and female, examples of which type actually exist. The male flowers have a rudimentary pistil. There is little honey, which is exposed. The Holly is dispersed by animals. The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. The soil required is a humus soil, the tree being a humus-lover, but it is also a rock plant, and will grow on very barren formations on dry soil. The leaves are mined by larvae of Phytomyza ilicis. The beetles Lucanus cervus, Sinodendron cylindricum, Trip lax tenea, and Epiircea angustula visit it. It is also infested by Aspidiotus britannicus, Pce- disca ophthalmicana, Chromatomyia ilicis. The Privet Hawk -moth feeds upon it, also the Azure Blue Butterfly, and the moth Steganop- tycha ncevana. Ilex, Pliny, is Latin for Holm Oak; and aquifolium, Pliny, alludes to the sharp-pointed leaf. Holly is A.S. holcgn. Holly goes by the name of Aunt Mary's Tree, Christmas, Croco- dile, Free Holly, He Holly, Helver, Holieverd, Hollin, Hollond, Holyn, Holly, She Holly, Holm, Hull, Hulver, Poison berry, Prick Hollin, Spark Holm. He and She Holly are names given to trees with or without prickles. In connection with Holly there is a Holly Dance at Holly time or Christmas, when the Holly-bough is a decoration. Formerly in Northumberland Holly leaves were used in divining. They were plucked late on a Friday by persons who keep silence from the time they go out till dawn next day, the leaves were collected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and nine were selected when brought home, tied with nine knots in the handkerchief, and placed under the pillow. Good dreams accompany the observance of this rite. " Get ivye and hull, woman deck up thyne house." And " Save hulver and thorne thereof flaile for to make", In the time of Pliny, Holly was planted near houses to ward off WILD CHERRY 33 lightning. The name so resembles holy that it was said to cause witches to be afraid of the tree. It was thought to possess virtues as a dream plant, and was used on Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, Midsummer, and Hallowe'en. An anxious lover would place three pails of water in her bedchamber and pin three leaves of Holly to her nightdress, near the heart, and then go to sleep. She thinks she will be roused from sleep by three yells, as though from three bears, and three hoarse laughs. When they have died away her future husband appears and changes the position of the pails. Wreaths of Holly were sent for congratulation at a wedding in Rome. The ancients regarded it as a sign of the life which preserved nature, through winter, and it was brought into temples to comfort sylvan spirits. A cure for chilblains is to thresh them with Holly. It was held that its flowers formed water and drove off lightning. According to an old tradition if a Holly stick is thrown at an animal, even without hitting it, it would return and lie down by it. It has been used in feasts of purification of savage people. In Germany it was the Christ thorn. It is universally grown as an ornamental shrub, and hedges are made of it and kept clipped like box. Bird-lime is prepared by boiling it. The bark is used in place of cinchona. In the Black Forest the natives use it to make tea. Paraguay tea or mate is derived from an Ilex (/. paraguayensis). Tunbridge ware is made from Holly,, The wood is white and hard, and used for inlay work. Holly is very long-lived, and is ubiquitous, preferring a dry soil, but is slow-growing, and never reaches a great size. Evelyn had a hedge at Deptford 400 ft. long, 9 ft. high, and 15 ft. broad. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 72. Ilex Aquifoliiim, L. — Tree, with ovate leaves, spinose below, evergreen, shining, glabrous, peduncles many-flowered, flowers white, umbelled corolla rotate, berry red, poisonous. Wild Cherry (Prunus Cerasus, L.) There is no trace of this in early Glacial beds. It is found in the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, eastward to the Himalayas, in the Azores, and Canaries. In Great Britain it is found in Cornwall, Somerset, N. Devon, Wilts, Dorset, Isle of WTight, West Sussex, throughout the Thames province except West Kent, in Anglia every- 34 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES where except in East Norfolk, Hunts, and only in Hereford, Warwick, and Salop in the Severn district; in Wales in Brecon, Pembroke, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Denbigh, and Anglesea. Elsewhere it is found in Leicester, Chester, Mid, West, and N.W. Yorks, Westmorland, and Cumberland. It is wild or well-established south of Yorkshire. It is rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Watson regards this with some hesitation as indigenous. The Wild Cherry, however, is a feature in some woodlands, notably in the south, where it occurs with other sylvan trees, such as Lime, Holly, White Beam, Mountain Ash, Way- faring Tree, Elm, Oak, Beech, Aspen, and others. This is an erect, branched tree, with shortly stalked, egg-shaped, lancelike leaves, which are smooth, dark bluish-green, spreading in two series in bud, scalloped, and toothed. The flowers are in shortly stalked umbels or clusters, the buds having rough outer margins, white, the petals blunt above, nearly erect, and the corolla is cup- shaped, the calyx-tube not narrowed from side to side. The petals have a short claw, and have a slight notch at the end. The fruit is globose, black or red, acidic and staining. The Wild Cherry Tree is distinguished by its lesser stature. The height is rarely more than 5-8 ft. The tree flowers in April and May. It is a deciduous tree, increased by grafting. It is evergreen in Ceylon, and in S. Europe retains its leaves some time. Anthers and stigmas ripen together, and spread far apart away from the centre of the flower. The stigmas overtop the inner stamens, but are only on a level with the outer stamens. In some plants the anthers are ripe first. The flowers last a week. If insects touch the stigmas and anthers with different parts of the body when they seek for honey cross-pollination may result. Insects collecting or feeding on pollen or honey indiscriminately cross- or self-pollinate the plant. When the flowers are oblique pollen may fall from the taller stamens upon the stigma. The Wild Cherry is visited by the Honey Bee, Bombus, Osmia rufa, Andrena, Rkingia, Eristalis, and Lepidoptera, such as Large White (Pieris brassic Sheath- ing petiole and part of del- toid leaf, e, Umbel (terminal) with flowers and fruit, and •umbel in fruit below in axil No. 6. (Hedera a, Vertical section flower, with ovary, and ovoid seed in cell, 2 petals reflexed, and 3 of the 5 stamens, and the swollen disk and short stigma. , t>, pru'pe with/disk, and fcemamfe of\ stvfk, L<: Five-lobed climbing leaves and adhesive aerial rootlets. d, Terminal panicle of flow^rS e intimbel, and buds on axillary • . .;; vo; FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XX I. Mountain Ash (Py/its Aucnparia, Elirh.). 2. Rosebay (Epilobimn angustifoliuni, L. ). 3. Enchanter's Night- shade ( Circcea Lutetiana, L. ). 4. Sanicle (Sanicula europcea, L. ). 5. Angelica (Angelica sylvestris, L. )• 6. Ivy (Hedera Helix, L.). MOUNTAIN ASH 45 drunks, Keer, Quickbeam, Quicken, Rantree, Ranty Berries, Rawn, Roantree, Roddin Tree, Wicken or Wicen Tree, Wickey, Wiggin, VVitchwood, Witchen or Witchin, Witty-tree, Wychen, Rowan, Rown- tree, Roynetree, Sap-tree, Wild Service, Ouickband, Twickbine, Whicken, Whistle Wood, White Ash, Whitty-tree. The Rowan was called Witchwood from a virtue it was supposed to possess against witchcraft. It is named Mountain Ash from a resemblance between its leaves and those of the Ash. It was called Cock-drunks because it was supposed to intoxicate fowls. The name Fowler's Service was given because the berries were used to bait blackbirds. This tree is said in Iceland to spring up when the innocent are put to death. It was thought to be a powerful check on the works of darkness. "The spells were vain, the hag returned To the green in sorrowful mood, Crying that witches have no power Where there is a rown tree wood." People even carry a twig of Rowan in the pocket in Yorkshire as a sort of talisman. A tale runs as follows: — " A woman was lately in my shop, and pulling out her purse brought out also a piece of stick a few inches long. I asked her why she carried that in her pocket. ' Oh!' she replied, ' I must not lose that or I shall be done for.' 'Why so?' I enquired. 'Well,' she answered, ' I carry that to keep off the witches; while I have that about me they cannot hurt me.' On my adding that there were no witches nowadays, she instantly replied: 'Oh, yes, there are thirteen at this very time in the town, but so long as I have my rowan tree safe in my pocket they cannot hurt me.' " If a dairymaid could not quickly make butter she stirred the churn with a rowan twig, and beat the cow with another to break tne witch's spell. Herd boys also drive cattle with a mountain ash twig. Rowans often grow near houses. In Norway and Sweden branches were put over the stable to drive away witches. "Many rains, many rowans; Many rowans, many yawns." An ash leaf was invoked for good luck in Cornwall. The Iceland people think it the enemy of the juniper. This plant was held to be the embodiment of lightning, from which it was supposed to have sprung. The scarlet berries have added to its mystic charm, red being sacred to Thor. 46 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 06. Pyrus Aucuparia, Ehrh. — Tree, leaflets pinnate, serrate, hairy below, green, 6-8 pairs, flowers white, in corymb, berries red, sub- globose. Rosebay (Epilobium angustifolium, L.) The charming Rosebay, known in our gardens as well as the fields, is found in the Temperate and Arctic parts of Europe at the present day (there are no earlier records), in N. and W. Asia, as far east as the Himalayas, and in America. In Great Britain it has not been found in Cornwall, but in the rest of the Peninsula, and the whole of the Channel and Thames provinces. In Anglia it is not found in West Suffolk and Cambridge nor in Hunts or Northants, but throughout the Severn province; in Wales only in Glamorgan, Brecon, Cardigan, Merioneth, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea, and Flint. It is not found in S. Lines or Notts in the Trent province, but throughout the Mersey and Humber provinces except in S.E. Yorks, and throughout the Tyne and Lakes provinces. In Scotland it is found throughout the W. Lowlands, except in Wigtown and Renfrew; in the S. Lowlands, except in Peebles, Selkirk, Hadclington; the whole of E. Highlands, West Highlands, except Mid Ebudes; and in the North Highlands everywhere except in E. Sutherland. It is found in the Highlands at 2700 ft., and in X. and E. Ireland. The Rosebay is a woodland plant, delighting in a rocky upland clearing, but growing as frequently on the loose rubble of a quarry side or wherever natural scars and crags are exposed, in the neighbourhood of woods. One of our handsomest wild flowers, held also in admira- tion in the garden, Rosebay is tall, erect, much branched, with numerous long, narrow, lance-shaped, veined, scattered leaves, alter- nate, with a white midrib and whitish under side, the margin minutely and finely toothed. The stems are downy. The bracts or leaf-like organs are like the leaves connected with the flower. The second Latin name explains the shape of the leaves. The first Latin name refers to the inferior position of the ovary below the perianth, the flowers apparently resting on a lobe or pod (later). The flowers are purple, unequal or irregular, in a spike. The calyx is spreading and free, the stigma is bent. The plant is 3-4 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. It is perennial, increasing by division, and often cultivated. Sprengel, as long ago as 1790, showed that the flowers, which open soon after sunrise, are proterandrous, i.e. the anthers ripen first, though ROSEBAY 47 in some the stigma is ripe first, and self-pollination would occur if insects did not visit them. The flowers are large and purple, in a tall, conspicuous spike, and are much visited by insects. Honey is secreted by the green, fleshy upper surface of the ovary, and is easily reached by insects, but pro- tected from the rain, as it then bends over. The expanded, flattened lower ends of the fila- ments or anther-stalks form a hollow cone, which encloses the base of the style and the honey surround- ing it, protecting the latter ; and where the style issues at the apex of the cone hairs prevent the en- trance of rain, while insects can gain access through the anther- stalks. In young flowers pollen covers the stamens above, and they project, but the style is short and bent over, with the stigmas folded together; but in older flowers the empty stamens are bent down and turn outward, and the style is longer and projects forward, with 4 stigmas outspread and recurved taking the place of the stamens. The insects can alight, suck, and collect pollen easily. Cross-pollination is secured, and self-pollination is impossible. The flowers are visited by Apis, Bombus, Sphecodes, Nomada, Cerceris, Crabro, Ammophila, Tenthredo, Empis, Syrphus, I no statices. The seeds are provided with a tuft of hairs, which aid them in their dispersal by the wind after the pods or long narrow capsules have split open to release them. The pods split from above downwards ROSEBAY (Epilobium aiigusfifolimii, L. ) 48 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES between the valves and along the centre, the seeds being attached to the axis. They are very small, oblong, brown, with a tuft of long, white, silky hairs at the upper end, which serve as a parachute. Rosebay is a rock-loving plant, growing on barren stony hillsides, or it may be a sand-loving plant, growing on a sand soil, such as the sandy beds of the Lias or Keuper Marl. The fungus which infests the Rosebay is called Melampsora pustidata. The Rosebay is galled by Hormomyia fasciata, Laverna decorella. The beetles Cercus bipustulatus, Haltica lythri, H . cleracea, H. pusilla ; the Hymenopterous insect Tenthredo colon; the Lepidoptera, The Mouse, Amphipyra tragopogonis, Small Phcenix Moth, Cidaria sila- ceata, Laverna substrigillata\ the Homoptera Cidadula dahlbomii, Aphalara nebulosa; and the Heteropterous insect Dicyphus Epilobii feed on the Rosebay in one way or another. Epilobium, Gesner, is from the Greek epi, on, lobos, a pod, because the flower apparently grows upon a lobe, and the second Latin name refers to the narrow leaves. This plant is known by the name of Rosebay, Bay-willow, Blood Vine, Blooming Sally, Cat's Eyes, Persian Willow, Tame Withy, Blooming, French, and Rosebay Willow, Bay Willow Herb. Rosebay was called Tame Withy because it was frequently grown in gardens, and because of its willow-like leaves. This handsome plant is called Rosebay because the leaves are like laurel and the flowers purple like a rose. It was named Blood Vine because the whole plant has a red appearance. In Ireland, " Sally " in the name Blooming Sally is a corruption for the Latin Salix. The Rosebay finds a place in the garden, the established plant differing from the wild one. It used to be employed to adulterate tea, and was boiled also as a vegetable, the young shoots being eaten as asparagus. They are fermented to make beer in Kamschatka, and made especially intoxicating with a toadstool, Agaricus muscarius, the Fly Agaric. The down has been mixed with cotton and fur to make stockings and other clothing. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 1 8. Epilobium angiistifolium, L.- — Stem tall, erect, terete, leaves scattered, lanceolate, acute, alternate, flowers rose-pink, in a raceme, irregular, stamens and style bending ultimately. ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE 49 Enchanter's Nightshade (Circaea Lutetiana, L.) This woodland wild flower is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, Western Asia as far east as the Himalayas, and in temperate America, and there are no earlier records. In Great Britain it is general in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; and in S. Wales generally except in Radnor and Car- marthen; in N. Wales gene- rally except in Montgomery and Merioneth; in the Trent province everywhere except in S. Lines, throughout the Mersey, H umber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces. It is com- mon in the West Lowlands and in E. Lowlands, except in Peebles, Selkirk, and Lin- lithgow; in the E. High- lands, except in Stirling, Banff, and Elgin; in the West Highlands, except in Mid Ebudes; and in the N. Highlands, except in E. Sutherland. In Yorkshire it ascends to 1200 ft. Enchanter's Nightshade is a familiar denizen of woods and copses, preferring the dark depths of shade beneath the outspreading branches of woodland trees, or else the comparative light diffused in the rides which intersect a wood, where it grows amid the wet herbage which grows rank and rife, untouched by browsing animals or the scythe. Occasionally it turns up in the garden or on waste ground. This plant has a characteristic habit, the central stem being nearly or suberect, with wide-spreading nearly patent branches, i.e. almost at right angles. It is purple in colour and downy. The leaves are egg-shaped at the base to heart-shaped, on long, nearly round or sub- rotund leaf-stalks, glandular, pale green underneath, and alternate. ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE (Circcea Lutetiana, L.) 50 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES The small flowers are white in terminal loose racemes, with a hairy calyx, and petals equalling them in length, blunt, with a median point and spreading. The stigrna is bright red. The ovary is inferior or below the perianth. The fruit or capsule is pear-shaped, persistent, with hooked bristles, borne on flower-stalks turned back when ripe. The Enchanter's Nightshade is about i foot in height usually. Flowers are in bloom from June to August. The plant is perennial, and reproduces by division. The flowers are small and contain honey. There are only two stamens. The Enchanter's Nightshade is pollinated very much in the same way as Veronica Ckamcedrys. A single style projects, with the stamens spreading away from the centre of the corolla, which is erect. Together they form with the stamens a platform by which insects may reach the abundant honey secreted by the fleshy ring surrounding the style. The latter stands lower than the stamens, slightly forward, and forms a resting-place. When an insect settles it touches the stigmatic knobs at the end with its abdomen. It stretches across the stamens, and grasps the anthers, which are at first distant but are drawn down, so that the insect's fore feet are dusted by the pollen from them. If the insect alights on one of the stamens as it bends down, it grasps the base of the stamen and style at their base with its fore feet, and if the style touches the ventral surface with the stigma it touches the side opposite that which the anther touches at the same time. Thus the plant is cross-pollinated if the insect has come from another flower. The flowers wither rapidly, unless self-pollination follows in the absence of insects, as it may do when the stamens bend over and touch the stigma. The plant is visited by Baccha elongata, Ascia podagrica, Melanostoma mellina, Anthomyia, and other Musciclae and Syrphidae, as well as by Musca domestica. The single-seeded fruits catch in the coats of animals or passers- by, and are thus dispersed. Enchanter's Nightshade is a humus-loving plant requiring an ordinary humus soil, such as that to be found in a wood, or under a hedgebank, or in a shrubbery. The two fungi Melampsora circtecz and Puccinia circles attack it. The beetles Graptidera oleracea, Psylliodes chalcomera, the Hymen- opterous insect Tenthredo colon, the Lepidoptera, Elephant Hawk Moth, Chcerocampa elpenor, Asychna terminella, Anybia langiella, and the Hemipterous insect Metatropis rufescens feed upon En- chanter's Nightshade in some shape or form. SANICLE 51 Circtea, Dioscorides, is from Circe, the enchantress, who from her knowledge of herbs would procure love, and Lutetiana from Paris, Lutetia being the old name for it. The plant is called Mandrake, Bindweed, Enchanter's Nightshade. Of the name Enchanter's Nightshade, Gerarde says: "The error of some who have taken Mandragoras for Circsea, in which error they have still persisted unto this daie, attributing unto Circsea the virtues of Mandragora . . ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 120. Circcea Lutetiana, L. — Stem erect, branched, downy, leaves ovate, acute, dentate, flowers white, in a raceme, calyx 2-cleft, hairy, stamens pink, fruit with hooked bristles. Sanicle (Sanicula europaea, L.) Wood Sanicle is widely dispersed, its recent distribution being Europe and N. Africa. It is found in all the counties of Great Britain except Peebles, the Orkney and Shetland Islands. In the North of England it has been found to ascend to altitudes of con- siderably over 1000 ft. Sanicle is a clay-loving plant, foncl of the shade of woods, and growing under trees in the moist depths of a wood, or the more open shelter of copses on the side of a hill. In such places it is accom- panied by Wood Anemone, Goldielocks, Wood-sorrel, Primrose, Wood Forget-me-not, Bluebell, and many other umbrageous species. There is scarcely anything, but its umbels of flowers and seed, to suggest the umbelliferous affinity of this plant. It is an erect, not very tall, plant, with leaves divided into lobes to the middle, 3- or 5-lobed, with numerous fine -pointed teeth. Most of the leaves arise from the base of the stem, in the manner of celery, but are more widely spreading. The leaves are dark green and glossy, with a dark-brown or reddish tinge. The flowers are pink or white, and are arranged not strictly in an umbel but a panicle, the female florets being unstalked, the outer male stalked. The umbels are irregular with few rays. The fruit is sur- rounded by turned-back hooked bristles, the styles being persistent. The plant is about i foot in height. Flowers can be found in June and July. Sanicle is a perennial plant capable of division by the roots. The plant is andromoncecious, i.e. the flower is hermaphrodite, and there are also male flowers. There are 1-3 proterandrous herma- 52 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES phrodite florets in the centre of each umbel, which are surrounded by 10-20 male florets which develop later. Male flowers were found in the centre of the umbels by Schulze. The complete flowers are pro- terogynous, the stigma ripening first. The older flowers in the centre are complete. The long stigmas touch the anthers of the surrounding florets. Both resemble Astrantia major. Where the umbels are simple, the florets form so closely packed a surface that the petals re- main rolled up in the middle of the flower and hairs protect the honey from the rain. They make the flower less easily reached by insects and less conspicu- ous. Flies and beetles are the chief visitors. The fruits are hooked, and as- sisted in their dis- persal by catching in the wool or hair of passing animals. Sanicle is a clay - loving plant addicted to a clay soil, growing in woods and shady places or hollows where clay is formed on granitic, volcanic, and later Liassic and other rock soils. A fungus Puccinia Sanicula commonly attacks it. No insects are known to feed upon it. Sanicula, Brunfels, is from the Latin samis, healthy, because of the healing properties formerly attributed to the plant. The second Latin name is merely Latin for European, referring to its range. SANICLE (Sanicula etiropcea, L.) ANGELICA 53 This plant is called Wood March, Sanicle, Wood Sanicle, Self- Heal Sanicle. Sanicle used to be regarded as a powerful vulnerary, and is very acrimonious like all Umbellifene, but it is not employed as a drug to-day. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 123. Sanicitla eiiropcea, L. — Stem erect, smooth, shiny, radical leaves petiolate, palmate, glossy, lobed, trificl, serrate, flowers pinkish- white, in a panicle, fruit ovate, with hooked bristles. Angelica (Angelica sylvestris, L.) At West Wittering in Sussex this plant has been found in beds of Interglacial age, when the rigour of the Glacial period was much modified by a milder interlude. It is found to-clay in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Siberia, up to Dahuria, and West Asia. In Great Britain it is widespread and common, existing at the high altitude of 2700 ft. in the Highlands. Angelica is almost entirely a plant of low-lying ground, that is, where there is continual moisture and shade, growing in woods at a low elevation, or on moist mountain heights, where the conditions are sufficiently humid. It may also be found on the borders of streams and in marshes, but always where there is more or less shelter from the sun. The plant is erect in habit. The stem is stout, tall, rather downy above, near the umbels, but otherwise hairless, green or purplish, hollow, furrowed. The leaves are triangular in outline, much divided, that is ternately. The leaflets are large, bipinnate, equally toothed, stalked, obliquely oblong to egg-shaped, lance-shaped, equal, or cut, and not running clown the stem. They may be rather heart-shaped at the base. The lateral leaflets are somewhat unequal below. The sheaths are large. The flower-heads are pinkish-white, in large, ter- minal compound umbels, with 30-40 rays. There are no, or few (1-2), bracts which fall. But there are a few awl-like, persistent, small bracteoles. The calyx-lobes are small or wanting. The petals are slightly hooded. The florets are nearly regular. The fruit is egg- shaped, flattened along the back, the carpels ridged, winged. The slender styles are bent over. Angelica is often as much as 5-6 ft. high. The flowering season is from June to August. The plant is a deciduous, herbaceous perennial, reproduced by division. It ought to be cultivated in our gardens. 54 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES The flowers are numerous, white or purplish, and more or less conspicuous. The pollen is abundant. There is also honey. The flowers are complete, and the anthers mature first. On some the anthers are rudimentary. The styles are turned back, and the plant is sweet-scented and attracts many insects to it, so that it has more chance of being cross- than self-pollinated. The insects that visit it are Syritla pipiens, Helopliilus, Eristalis, Pipizella, Tachina, Echi- noinyia, Mesembrina, Scatopkaga, Luc ilia, Sarcophaga, Anthre- nus, Trichius, Tele- phorus, Coccinella, Meligethcs, Athalia, Tenthredo, Ichneu- mons, Crabro, Philan- this, Odyneriis, Vespa, Andrena, Argynnis, and a Neuropterous insect Panorpa. The fruit, being flat- tened and margined, is blown away with ease by the wind. The fruits are semi-detached on ripening, and they may also be knocked off by passing animals. This plant is a humus-loving plant re- quiring a soil in which there is a fair amount of humus. The fungi Plasmopora nivca and Protomyces macrosporus infest it. A beetle Lixus turbatus, the Lepidoptera, Swallow Tail ButtcrnY (Papilio uiachaoji}, Triple Spot Pug (Eupithecia trisignata], Depressaria angelicella feed on it, and also Depressaria ciliella and G^cophora flaviniaciilella. Angelica, Brunfels, is Latin for angelic, the reference being to supposed properties of a magical kind, and the second Latin name refers to its woodland habitat. Angelica is called Ait-skeiters, Ground Ash, Ground Elder, Hem- Axe ELICA (Angelica sylvcstris, L.) IVY 55 lock, Jack -jump-about, Jeelico, Keck, Kecks, Keks, Kex, Trumpet Keck, Kelk-Kecksy, Water Kesh, Kewsies Kesk, Skytes. The first name is for oat-shooters. Children shoot oats through the hollow stems as peas are shot through a pea-shooter. Parkinson says: "In Sussex they call the wilde kincle (of Angelica) Kex, and the weavers winde their yarne on the dead stalks". It is called Trumpet Keck because the hollow stems of this plant are made by boys into trumpets. " Trumpet-kecks are passed unheeded by Whose hollow stalks inspired such eager joy." This plant was considered especially noisome to witches. It was called Herb of the Holy Ghost from the angel-like properties therein being considered good "against poisons, pestilent agues, or the pesti- lence ". Angelica was used as a cure for bites of dogs and hydro- phobia, as well as an antidote for poisons. A yellow dye of a good colour is derived from it. The stems are candied with sugar and used as sweetmeats or put in cakes. The root and the fruit have been utilized as a tonic, and are aromatic and stimulant. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 130. Angelica sylvestms, L. — Stem tall, ribbed, hollow, purple, downy, leaves bipinnate, leaflets ovate, serrate, flowers in large umbels, whitish-pink, carpels 5-ribbed. Ivy (Hedera Helix, L.) This is an ancient plant found in Interglacial and Neolithic beds. The present distribution is Europe, N. Africa, W. Asia as far east as the Himalayas, in the North Temperate Zone. Ivy is found in every part of Great Britain, and ascends to 1500 ft. in Yorkshire. There are two forms of Ivy which favour different habitats. The trailing "Ground Ivy" is fond of growing upon banks, under hedges, or in woods and thickets, where it covers the ground like a carpet and occasionally finds an upright support, and may be seen to merge into the other type. This is essentially a climbing plant, and is found by the roadside encircling in parasitic fashion the trunk of an ash or elm, or in the open fields or in woods. It is especially common in gardens, and is very often found on walls and houses. One irresistibly connects Ivy with a climbing habit, and such is its most marked feature. It may attain the dimensions of a tree, with thick cracked bark, and be provided on the inner side with fibres, 56 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES which turn away from the light, of a rootlike character or holdfasts, which assist it to climb. The young branches are green or purple. At the base the stem is thick, and may branch above in equal forks, and then twine around the trunk or climb up the wall, with numerous further branchings or ramifications. The leaves are undivided or 3-lobed, when the plant is merely Ground Ivy, or 5-lobed. This di- morphism may be clue to the demand for light and air, the oval leaves crowing round the stem in woods being an advantage, whilst the divided leaves growing on the surface are arranged to fit into each Photo. B. Hanley IVY (Hedera Helix, L.) other and to cover as much space as possible. The flowering branches also grow erect. In the climbing plant the leaf is oval, heart-shaped, thick, entire in the flowering branches, with white or red veins. The flowers are in simple, erect, paniclecl, raceme-like umbels, more or less rounded, with stellate hairs. The bracts are small and hollow. The flower-stalks are fairly long. The flowers are yellowish-green. The calyx-teeth are triangular, the calyx superior with 5 teeth. The 5 petals do not unite above, and are triangular to egg-shaped. There are 5 stamens. The disc is swollen. The ovary is 5 -celled. The styles are short, united at the base, with terminal stigmas. The berry is more or less round, black or yellow, 5-celled, 5-seeded, crowned with the calyx. The seeds are egg-shapecl, 5 in a berry. The plant may be as much as 40 ft. high. The flowers are the latest to bloom, i.e. in October and November. Ivy is an evergreen, woody creeper, or climber, and may be increased by layers. IVY (Hedera Helix, L.) IVY 59 The flowers are polygamous, and the anthers are mature first, though some plants are homogamous, the stigma and anthers ripening together. The petals are fugacious or drop, and the flower is yellowish - green. Beetles visit it as well as flies and wasps. The stamens equal the corolla, and are turned back. The anthers are divided into two nearly halfway below, and incumbent or lying down. The style is short, the stigma simple, terminal. There is abundant honey. The flowers are sterile to their own pollen. The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. It remains dormant during the winter, not ripening till the spring. Ivy is usually a woodland climber, and is a humus-lover, requiring humus soil. Ivy is a food plant for the beetles Ochina kcdera, Grammoptera ruficornis, Anobium striatum, Leptiirus testaceus, Pogonocluprus den- tatus, the Lepidoptera Holly Blue (Polyommat^ls argiolus], Old Lady (Mania nwira], Gothic (Ntznia typica), Swallow-tailed Moth (Urop- teryx sambucata], Tortrix forsteriana, the Homoptera Thamnotettix splendidnla, Zygina tilicc, the Heteroptera Schirns bicoior, Derepkysia foliacc2is, Ploiaria I'agabunda. Hcdcra, Pliny, is Latin for Ivy, and Helix, Pliny, was another Latin name for it. Ivy is called Benewith-tree, Bentwood, Bindwood, Eevy, Ground Ivy, Hyven, Ivin, Ivory, Ivy, Barren, Black, Creeping, Small Ivy, Wood-bind. It was called Bindwood possibly because of the hold it takes. The small-leaved form growing on banks, &c., does not flower, hence the name Barren Ivy. This plant was said to reveal witches. "To pipe in an ivy leaf" is to engage in a futile pursuit. " An owl in an ivy bush " denotes union of wisdom with conviviality. An ivy bush was a common tavern sign, giving rise to the saying, "Good wine needs no bush". It was sacred to Bacchus. In language it is the emblem of confiding love and fidelity. According to Cornish tradition the beautiful Iseult, unable to endure the loss of the brave Tristan, cliecl of a broken heart, and was buried in the same church, but by order of the king the two graves were placed at a distance from each other. Soon, however, there burst forth from the tomb of Tristan a branch of ivy and another from the grave of Iseult, these shoots gradually growing upwards, until at last the lovers, represented by the clinging ivy, were again united beneath the vaulted roof of heaven. It is larcrelv used in Christmas decorations. It is useful for orna- 60 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES mental work in gardens and for covering buildings, lending a picturesque appearance. The berries furnish food for birds at a time when there is little else for them to feed upon. Cattle are fond of its foliage. It was said to be a remedy for warts. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 134. Hedera Helix, L. — Stem climbing, with rooting fibres, leaves cordate, shiny, lobed, on flowering branches, ovate-lanceolate, flowers green, in an umbel or raceme, fruit a berry, black. Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum Lantana, L.) This small tree is represented in early deposits in Interglacial beds at West Wittering in Sussex. Its recent distribution is limited to the North Temperate Zone from Belgium southwards, and North Africa. In Great Britain it is absent from North Devon in the Peninsula province, but occurs in the Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces, except in Stafford and Salop; and only in Glamorgan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke in Wales. It is found also in N. Lines, Leicester, Notts, N.E. and S.W. Yorks. It is naturalized elsewhere. The Wayfaring Tree is a woodland species especially common on chalk or limestone tracts, where it is associated with Alder Buckthorn, \Vhite Beam, Wild Cherry, and other trees and shrubs. It grows in hedges also by the roadside, preferring a habitat well characterized by open light conditions and access to the sun. The pliability of the twigs of this shrub-like plant is implied in both Latin names, which are derived from words meaning to tie. The stems are numerous, with white mealy branches. The leaves are leathery, entire, heart-shaped, oblong, toothed, wrinkled below when young, stellately hairy, and downy beneath. The leaf-stalks, shoots, and young leaves are densely covered with down. This may help to preserve the plant from the attacks of insects. The flowers are creamy-white, in perfect terminal cymes, which are flat, with strong rays. There are 2 small bracts or leaf- like organs. The corolla is funnel-shaped. The flat, egg-shaped drupe or berry-like fruit is black or purple ultimately, at first scarlet. The seeds have a ventral groove. The tree is usually about 8-10 ft. in height. The flowers, which in our experience are very soon picked, are to be found in May and June. The Wayfaring Tree is a deciduous shrub, which can be multi- plied by layers, and is worth cultivating. In this genus the flower secretes honey, which is concealed or open KEY TO PLATE XXI L.) #, Vertical section of a flower, showing sepals, 3 petals of the rotate corolla, 3 out of 5 stamejis, i ovule in the ovary, b, Three drupes. c, Flowering stem, with ob- long stem -Jeaves anfd a corymb wit Flower fri vertical sec- tion, showing gamosepalous calyx, 'funnel-shaped corolla, long epipetalous/ ' ^unens, v ana long stigrpa. b^ Head or ^ymi^ jwitti ^/ipt ^cadet fruits (berries). 'isy Flowering stem, with opposite sessile leaves, and inflorescence, with flowers in ifferent a, Vertical section of flower, showing bell-shaped corolla, epipetalous stamens, 2 styles, and 2-celled ^)fary. b, Sec- tion of fruit, showing hooke^l — • an(j ovuies -v***"v dicotvlous cmbr fe pl^N^h^ , l^ves in' Whorls, and axiHary cynips. with 4-fid 4. Primrose (Primula vulgaris, Huds.) \ a, Vertical section of long styled flower, with epipetaj- ous /stamens half-way dowri the calyx, b, Vertical section of short-styled form, .stamens at the same level as s^tyle in longrSjyled form t, Hadical leaf, shidM^fRg de- current lamina. V, Flower, showing broad notched co- i-olla-lobes and orange honey- guides in the throat, on a long peduncle. 5. Wood Loosestrife^ (Lysimackia ncmorum, L.) a, Vertical section of flower, showing lobes of 5 -partite ? calyjc,3 lobes of Rotate corolla, 3 itetamens, aiid rounded - cyvary, with filiform stigma ', P^arrt. growing opposite pairs of leaves, axillary flowers on long stalk, • with nzirrow, -/calyx /lobfcs, \^adnd L istea/ flo\V(pt'^talk, \vrth J>Vo\nd^ *23pjbfe and per/" t style, 5-valved a, yertical section of isoli- tary / flowery showing seg- ments of 5-partite calyx, tube of salver-shaped\ corolla, epi- petalous stamen^ >ith/'S,hort inbent filaments jahd bearded anfhers, \with the cup-snaped style and\club-shaped hairy siigma. - '\*, Two follicles opening arong/ 0ie sutures showing the seeds. .'(Fruit is rarely forrhejir.} "" ^, Flow eririg stem, ;with opposite, paired, .short -{stalked, eliipti- ovate ln I XX 3TAJ1 OT Y3X. FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XXI I. Wayfaring Tree ( Viburnum Lantana, L. ). 2. Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclyt/iemtm, L.). 3- Woodruff (As- perula odorata, L. )• 4- Primrose (Primula vulgaris, Huds.). 5- Wood Loosestrife (I.ysimachla nemontm, L.). 6. Small Periwinkle (Vinca minor, L.)- WAYFARING TREE 61 to all insects. The flowers are gathered into a head, and the outer flowers have a slightly more enlarged corolla, which in the Guelder Rose is developed at the expense of both stamens and pistil, and though not providing pollen nor seeds is useful to man. The stigma matures first. The flowers are complete in the Wayfaring Tree. The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. This is a lime- loving plant, addicted to a lime soil on chalk or oolite, and is also found in hedgerows along macadamized roads. A gall-fly, Eriopkyes tetanothrbc, infests it, and Aphis viburni lives on it. Two beetles, Galeruca viburni, Eus- phalera primula, and the moths Peronea ruffana, Lithocolletis lantanella, Coleophora paripennella feed on it. Viburnum, Varro, is the Latin name for the plant. Lantana, Dodonaeus, may be from the Latin verb lento, \ make flexible. This shrub is called Cottoner, Cotton -tree, Coventree, Lithevvort, Mealy-tree, Twist- wood, Wayfaring Tree, Whip- crop, Whitewood. 1 1 was called Twist- wood be- cause ploughboys twisted it into handles for whips, called "twists". Gerarde invented the name Wayfaring Tree. The name Cotton-tree is from its soft foliage. It is called Mealy Tree because its leaves are white, mealy, soft, and tomentose, or clothed with cotton, and downy. It was dedicated to the festival on Whitsuntide. The twigs are used for making bird-lime. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 138. Viburnum Lantana, L. — Shrub, with mealy, flexible, branched stems, leaves hoary below, asperous, ovate-serrate, flowers white, in a cyme, perfect, berries scarlet, then black. Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings WAYFARING TREE {Viburnum Lantana, L.) 62 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum, L.) This aromatic, sweet-flowered climber is found in Europe, in recent beds, not earlier, and N. Africa, its distribution being confined to the North Temperate Zone of to-day. It is found in every part of Great Britain, ascending to 1500 feet in Durham. Honeysuckle is a well-known, woodland, climbing plant, which loves the darkest depths of the forest, wood, or copse, seeking support from a neighbouring sapling or older tree, or clambering up the over- hanging branches of hawthorn, blackthorn, or other forms of under- growth. By the roadside, too, it nestles amidst briers and thorns, casting around a rich fragrant odour for the passer-by, and attracting the long-tongued moths at night. The climbing habit of this plant is one of its principal features. It twines round and round the stems of thick or thin, strong or supple trees and other plants, often forming an arbour when climbing and scrambling irregularly in the hedgerow. The leaves are not united at the base, and are deciduous or fall in autumn; when old, shiny and dark green, rather light when young, and hairy. The leaves are egg- shaped, oblong, stalkless above, and shortly stalked below. They are bluish-white beneath. The flowers are cream-colour, gaping, in terminal whorls on long flower-stalks, and are reddish in colour outside. The calyx-teeth do not fall, the corolla is glandular and smoothly downy. The berries are red when ripe. Honeysuckle may be as much as 20 ft. in length. Its flowers are in bloom from May to July. It is a deciduous shrub, and can be multi- plied by cuttings. The stigma and the anthers are mature together. It is like L. Caprifolium in flower but the tube is shorter, in this it is 22-25 mm- In L, Caprifoliuni the tube is 30 mm. long, 1-2 mm. wide, a large part being occupied by the style, but it is often half-full of honey. Honey is accessible (being at the surface or in a cup at the bottom of the tube), when collected, to many bees, e.g. Bombus hortorum, but bees are only accidental visitors. The pollination is crepuscular, i.e. effected principally by nocturnal moths. The flowers, at first erect, open first at 7 p.m. and give off a strong scent. Soon after they turn down and become horizontal. At first the stamens project in front, and the stigma is turned down beyond the anthers. Later, after insect visits, the pollen is exhausted, the stamens HONEYSUCKLE 63 turn down and the stigma rises in their place. Thus an insect would on the first night become covered with pollen, and on the second touch the stigma. Meantime the tube becomes arched and the under and upper lip roll up, and the flower turns yellow, a feature noticeable in Forget-me-not, &c. The white flowers with pollen are visited first, later the yellow. Still later the flower becomes darker orange, rolls up and loses its scent. There is abundant pollen, but humble bees cannot obtain the honey. Honeysuckle is pollinated by Hawk- moths, Convolvulus Hawk- HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera Peridymenum, L.) moth (Sphinx convolvuli\ Privet Hawk-moth (S. ligustri), S. pinastri, Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor}, Small Elephant Hawk-moth (D.porcelhis\ Lime Hawk-moth (Smerinthus tili&\ Shark (Dianthoecia cap sin co la], Lychnis (Cuciillia umbraticd}, Silver Y (Plusia gamma], Puss Moth (Dasychira piidibunda). When no insects visit the flower it may be self-pollinated. The fruit is edible and the seeds are dispersed by animals, chiefly birds, e.g. the Blackbird and Thrush. Honeysuckle is strictly sylvan in habitat, and is found where humus abounds on various soils, being prevalent on clay soils or a sandy loam, and is practically a clay-loving plant. 64 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Upon the leaves one finds ^Ecidium periclymeni and Microsphoera lonicera, and it is galled by Siphocoryne xylostei. A beetle, Orchestes lonicera, and various Lepidoptera, White Ad- miral (Liinenitis sibyllti), Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Sesia fuci- formis), Silver Y (Plusia iota), Boarmia repandata, Alucita polydactyla, and many others, and a fly, Chromatomyia obscurella, frequent Honey- suckle. Lonicera, Linnaeus, is from a botanist, Lonicer, and Periclymenum, Dioscorides, was the Greek name of honeysuckle or a similar shrub. Honeysuckle is from the A.S. hunigsuge, which was, however, applied to the privet. Honeysuckle is called Bearbind, Benewith Tree, Benwytre, Bind, Bindweed, Bindwood, Binnwood, Bynde, Caprifole, Cernoyle, Chervell, Eglantine, Goat's Leaves, Goat-tree, Hinnisickle, Honey bind, Honey- suckle, Honeysuck, Irish Vine, Lady's Fingers, Lily-among-thorns, Mel-silvestre', Ood bine, Servoile, Suckle-bush, Suckling, Sycamine, Trumpet Flower, Wiclbin, Woodbine, Woodbind. Widbin is Scotch for Woodbine. " The ro\vn-tree in (and) the widd-bin Hand the witches on cum in." Chervell is a contraction of ckevre feuille, an old French name for it, and Goat-tree is a translation of it, so also is Goat leaves. In one version of the story of Tristan and Ysoncle we have: " From his grave there grew an eglantine which twined about the statue, a marvel for all men to see, and though three times they cut it down, it grew again and ever wound its arms about the image of fair Ysoncle." Consumptive patients were passed three times "through a circular wreath of woodbine, cut during the increase of the March moon, and let down over the body from head to foot ". Honeysuckle is grown in the garden, and utilized as a climber and for its sweet scent. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 139. Lonicera Periclymenum, L. — Stem climbing, twining, woody, leaves ovate, all distinct, upper sessile, flowers cream and red, ringent, in terminal head, berries crimson, juicy. WOODRUFF Woodruff (Asperula odorata, L.) This charming flower spreads its sweet odour of new-mown hay over the countries of the North Temperate Zone, in Europe, North Africa, Siberia, and Western Asia. It is not known earlier than the present day so far. In Great Britain Woodruff occurs generally, but Photo. Flatters & Garnett WOODRUFF (Asperula odora/a, L.) not in Hunts, Mid Lanes, Isle of Man, Stirling, Mid Perth, N. Perth, the Hebrides, or the Orkneys. In Scotland it is found at a height of 1200 ft. Woodruff is entirely a woodland species, luxuriating in the shade under thickly-clustered trees or peeping from between them in the open pathways or rides. With it we may find Sweet Violet, Wood Sorrel, Strawberry, Honeysuckle, Primrose, Wood Loosestrife, Lung- wort, Wood Forget-me-not, and many other plants of the woods. 66 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Like other Rubiaceae, this choice flower has its leaves (these are sensitive to light, green in the shade, turning yellow in the strong light in the open) arranged in verticels or whorls, the upper whorls con- taining 6-9, the lower 2-6 leaves, which are lance-shaped, abrupt, with a point, with rough margins, the prickles directed forward. The rough character is indicated in the first Latin name, the scent in the second. The stems are more or less simple, square, erect, furrowed, and smooth. The flowers are fairly large and sweet-scented, in terminal corymbs, devoid of leaves, depressed, and conspicuous. The fruits are borne on flower-stalks, are small, roughly hairy, with hooked hairs which catch in the wool of animals and are spine-like in character. Woodruff is usually not more than i foot high. The flowers begin to scent the woods in May continuing right up to June. It is a perennial herbaceous plant propagated by division. The flowers resemble those of A. cynanchica (Squinancy Wort), in the floral arrangement and the length of the tube. Woodruff is visited by the hive bee, as well as by beetles, flies, and moths. Being con- spicuous and sweet- smelling its sylvan habitat is thus counteracted by other advantages. The fruits are roughly hairy, and dispersed by animals, or fall around the parent plant. This is a woodland plant, and a humus-loving plant growing in humus soil, of which there is a thick covering in the form of mould in most woods. The plant is infested by Peronospora calotheca, Pseudopeziza re- panda, Puccinia galii. The moths Speckled Footman (Eurydice cribrum], Flame (Cidaria rubidata] feed upon it. Asperula, Dodonaeus, is from the Latin asper, rough, and the second name (Latin) refers to its smell. The latter part of the name Woodruff is supposed to represent a root meaning fragrant. The plant is called Sweet Grass, Scented or Sweet Hair-hoof, Hay Plant, Mug- wet, Petty Mugwet, Rock-wood, Star Grass, Woodrip, Woodrowe, Woodruff. The name Star Grass is applied on account of the whorled leaves. It was used for decorating churches on St. Barnabas's Day. It was said to have formed the Virgin's bed. The name was written and spelt as a couplet — woodde rowffe. PRIMROSE 67 Woodruff was used in Chaucer's day, but had no real curative properties. It was also employed to flavour wine and as a perfume for clothes. It was used for the liver and bile, epilepsy and palsy. It is very acidic. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 143. Asperula odorata, L. — Stem erect, upper leaves 6-9, in whorl, lower whorls of 2-6 leaves, lanceolate, margins ciliate, flowers white, in terminal panicle, stalked, fruit with rough bristles. Primrose (Primula vulgaris, Huds.) A general favourite, common and widespread, its universal popu- larity bids fair to cause its entire disappearance from some districts, thanks to hawkers. It may be an ancient plant, but only its present distribution is known, which is throughout the Northern Temperate Zone, in Europe, except the north-east, and N. Africa. In Great Britain it is found in all parts except Peebles, and it grows at a height of 1600 ft. in Yorkshire. The Primrose — now much less widespread, as noted, than formerly, thanks also to the vandalism of the collector, the thoughtlessness of the householder — is or was a common plant which formerly adorned the glades in the woods, the meadows surrounding them, and the leafy lanes and banks of many secluded districts, especially in the south and west districts of England, where the climate is mild and moist. But in some of these spots it is now extinct. Everyone knows the Primrose. It has no stem, except the flower- ing stalk or scape. The leaves are all radical leaves. The Primrose has the rosette habit. The rootstock is stout. The leaves are more or less without a stalk (as are the umbels), inversely egg-shaped, spoon-shaped, or oblong, tapering downwards, softly hairy below, wrinkled, scalloped. The young leaves are rough, netted. The flowers are pale yellow, rarely pale lilac or purplish, drying green, in an umbel which is stalkless, so that the flower-stalks look like scapes as long as the leaves. The bracts are linear. The flowers are spreading or more or less erect. The radical flower-stalks are softly hairy, and bear one flower only. The limb of the corolla is flat, with a ring of scale-like folds at the mouth, which is narrow. The corolla lobes are rounded, notched. The calyx is softly hairy, slightly inflated, tubular, 5 -angled, the teeth awl-like to lance-shaped, acute, long-pointed. The capsule is as long, or half as long, as the calyx, egg-shaped, the long, straight teeth of the fruiting calyx meeting above on prostrate 68 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES flower-stalks. The capsule is 5-valved, with 10 teeth, and many- seeded. The Primrose is about 6 in. high in flower. It blooms early in March up to May. It is perennial, and propagated by division of the roots. It is much scarcer than formerly. The pollination of the Primrose is familiar from the researches of Knight and Darwin. The flowers secrete honey at the base of the ovary. All the species are dimorphic. In some the stigma extends Photo. J. H. Crabtr PRIMROSE {Primula vtilgriris, Huds.) to the top of the tube, and these are termed long-styled forms, when the stamens lie half-way clown the tube. There are other flowers in which the stamens are inserted near the top of the tube, and where the style is half as long as the tube. The flower is thus heterostylic. The pin-eyed and thrum-eyed forms of children are the corresponding long- and short-styled forms. The possession of such differences is of importance to the plant in ensuring cross-pollination. For an insect that visits a long-styled form would thus dust its proboscis with pollen from the stamens half-way down, at a point which, when it visited the short-styled form, would correspond with the position of the stigma in that form, and so lead to crossing of the two types; and in visiting a short-styled form its pro- boscis would be dusted farther from the mouth of the flower, and this PRIMROSE 69 part, when the insect next visited a long-styled form, would scarcely fail to come in contact with the stigma at the same level. The stigma in the long-styled form is round and rough, and the pollen also is small, — in. in diameter, whilst in the short-styled 7000 form the stigma is smoother and depressed, and the pollen larger, in. The flowers produce more fertile seed if the pollen of one 7000 form is placed on the stigma of the other form than if a flower is pollinated by pollen of the same form, even if from a different plant. The styles of the same form may slightly vary in length, but as a rule the styles are all of the same length. The two forms are not found on the same plant, but there are about equal proportions of each; and long-styled flowers are pollinated with pollen from a short-styled flower, and vice versa. In such a case pollination is termed legitimate, and better and more abundant seed is formed than by self-pollination (which may occur in the absence of insects) in the short-styled form, or illegitimate crossing of 2 short-styled or 2 long-styled forms. The capsule consists of 5 carpels and opens by 10 valves, the outer cells contracting, and when dry they are the more resisting; and the seeds, which are numerous, are shaken out when the valves open by the wind. The Primrose is a humus-loving plant, growing in humus soil, but is also clay-loving, and needs a clay soil as well. The leaves are attacked by Peronospora Candida and Puccinia primula. Two beetles, Euspkalerum primula, Otiorhynchus sulcatus, a Thy- sanopterous insect, Thrips primula, and several moths, Nemeobius lucina, Clouded-bordered Brindle (Xylophasia rurea), Lesser Broad- border ( Tryphcena janthind], Lesser Yellow Underwing (T. orbond), Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (T.firnbrid), Silver Ground Carpet (Melanippe montanatd], Polia polymita, visit it. Primula, Matthiolus, is from the Latin primus, first, referring to the early flowering, and Primrose from the earlier name Primerole. The second name denotes its common occurrence, i.e. formerly. The Primrose is known by several common names: Beef-and- Greens, Butter Rose, Jack-in-Box, Jack-in-the-Green, King-Charles- in-the-Oak, Lady's Frills, Milk Maid, Petty Mullein, Oxlip, Plimrose, Plimrocks, Primet, Primrose, Primorole, St. Peter's Wort, Summeren, Spink, May Spink, Spring Flower, Summerlocks. A legend relates how Bertha enticed a child by means of primroses to the door of an enchanted castle, and the "key-flower" touching it 7o FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES opened the door. The child entered a room covered with primroses where gold and jewels were deposited, and when they had been taken the primroses had to be put back or else the favoured person would be followed by a " black dog ". The Primrose is described as a flower which "maidens as a true- love in their bosoms place ". The Primrose was used in the bridal bouquet. It was the famous "key-flower" which revealed hidden recesses in mountains where treasure was concealed. It is necessary to give a full handful of primroses and violets as a gift, or the chickens and ducklings will be affected, according to ancient superstition. The Primrose has been used as an emetic. In Chaucer's time it was one of the components of the all-powerful " save ". With Water- Violet and the Avens it was supposed to be a remedy in liver com- plaints, for " schaking of hede and of handes ", and for a person "who cannot speak well ". It has long been cultivated as a garden flower, and many varieties have been derived from it differing in colour and form. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 199. Primula vulgaris, Huds. — Flowering stem a scape, leaves ovate, oblong, dentate, wrinkled, flowers yellow, calyx tubular, with subulate teeth, capsule ovate, calyx exceeding it by a half, corolla limb flat. Wood Loosestrife (Lysimachia nemorum, L.) This little woodland flower is local but widespread, and known throughout the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, but not in Prussia, Greece, and Turkey. No early records are extant. The Wood Loosestrife grows in every part of Great Britain except Hunts, S. Lines, and the Shetlands. In the Highlands it ascends to 2500 ft. Watson regards it as a frequent but not quite common plant, and possibly occurring everywhere except in Huntingdon, being local in Bedford and Cambridge. Thus it is not common in the more low- lying damp districts of the central plain. Generally it occurs in woods, loving a shady habitat, and under hedges in wooded districts. The stems of the Wood Loosestrife are usually lying on the ground, numerous, furrowed each side, reddish, rooting at intervals. The leaves are opposite, stalked, egg-shaped, acute, glossy, yellowish-green, with marked veins. The flowers are yellow, small, on flower-stalks in the axils, longer than the leaves, i -flowered and slender. The calyx is deeply divided into 5 or 6 segments, which are narrow and awl-like, sub-triangular, and do not fall. The corolla, which is wheel-shaped, WOOD LOOSESTRIFE 71 has no limb, and is divided into 5 or 6 egg-shaped segments, with small yellow glands in the mouth, between the anther-stalks, which are distinct, not united, and smooth. The capsule is 5-valved, globular, and contains numerous round, flat seeds. The plant is rarely more than 3 in. in height. The flowers are in bloom from May till July. Wood Loosestrife is a perennial, which can be propagated by division, and is worth cultivating. In this the stamens and style are included, as in Yellow Loosestrife. The yellow monopetalous or tubular corolla has no limb, but glands Photo. J. H. Crabtree WOOD LOOSESTRIFE (Lyshnachia nemorum, L.) between the anther-stalks at the base, where it is brighter yellow. The stamens are erect and thicker in the middle, the anthers are oblong and rather prostrate, rising up at the end, the whole flower is less campanulate or bell-shaped, and more like that of a pimpernel. The style is club-shaped and threadlike, and the stigmas simple. Growing in woods it is little visited by insects, as there is no honey, and if so it is easily accessible, while self-pollination can readily occur without insects. The capsule splits open by 5 valves, and the seeds are numerous, and dispersed by the shaking of the capsule by the wind. This is a clay-loving plant, and addicted to a clayey soil, but it also requires some amount of humus. The first botanical name is the Greek for loosestrife, and the second Latin name refers to its habitat in groves or woods. The only English name is Yellow Pimpernel. 72 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 203. Lysimachia nemorum, L. — Stem prostrate, spreading, leaves ovate-acute, opposite, flowers yellow, small, axillary, on i -flowered peduncles, filaments free, glabrous. Small Periwinkle (Vinca minor, L.) The blue flowers of this choice plant adorn the countryside in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, South of Denmark generally, but not in Greece, and W. Asia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, and Anglia provinces, except in Hunts; Northants, in the Severn province; in S. Wales, only in Glamorgan, Pembroke, Carmarthen, Anglesea; in the Trent province, in S. Lines or Derby; throughout the Mersey, Humber, and Tyne provinces; in Cumberland and the Isle of Man; in the W. Lowlands, not in Wig- town; in the E. Lowlands, only in Berwick, Edinburgh, Linlithgow; in the E. Highlands, in Perth, Forfar, S. Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, and E. Sutherland. It is often only naturalized. Watson regards it as a denizen, and says he has not seen it in a certainly native state, though quasi-wild in many counties. The Small Periwinkle, suspected as it is of running wild from gardens, &c., is found in all parts of the country in woodlands, espe- cially small plantations of no considerable antiquity, where it grows amongst herbage and trees in tangled profusion, but certainly it usually suggests that originally it was planted. The trailing habit of this pretty wild flower causes it to be over- looked. The stems are lying down, rooting, simple, smooth. The leaves are opposite, stalked, like Privet, oval, acute, with a smooth margin. The flowers are a beautiful blue colour, at length falling, borne on erect flower-stalks, with a white eye, inclined to be double. The smooth calyx is only about a third as long as the corolla and does not fall. The corolla is cup-like with the tube spreading above, below cylindrical. The plant is 4 ft. in length when luxuriant. It is in flower between March and September. It is an evergreen trailer, propa- gated by seed. Sprengel supposed it was pollinated by Thrips transferring pollen from the anthers to the stigma by creeping in and out, but it was observed by Darwin that an insect inserting a long thin proboscis SMALL PERIWINKLE 73 would become smeared with a sticky substance to which pollen would adhere, and this would be transferred in the next flower to the stig- matic disk. The flowers are conspicuous. There is abundant honey, which attracts numerous insects when it is fine. The tube of the corolla is 1 1 mm. long, but enlarged so that insects can insert their heads as far as the anther-hairs. The two yellow nectaries at the base of the ovary are 8 mm. below, and protected from rain by the hairs at the entrance. SMALL PERIWINKLE (Vinca minor, L.) B. Hanley The stamens are bent, attached half-way up the tube. The anthers project above the stigma, which is conical, enlarged above with a flat plate at the top, sticky along the rim, hairy above. The pollen falls above the latter. Insects sipping the honey carry off the pollen to fresh stigmas. The Lesser Periwinkle is visited by Bombus, Anthophora, Osmta, Bomby Hits discolor, Thysanoptera, Thrips. The fruit is a follicle, which is rare. It is adapted for dispersal of the seeds by the wind, the seeds being compressed, winged, and pro- vided with hairs. This plant is a humus-loving plant, growing in a humus soil, in or near woods. Two moths, Daphnia nerii (Oleander Hawk-moth), Clouded Bordered Brindle ( Triphcsna janthina), feed upon it. 74 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Vinca is the Pervinca of Pliny, and Periwinkle comes from this, the second Latin name denoting that it is smaller than the other Periwinkle. The plant is called Blue Buttons, Dicky Dilver, Ground Ivy, Peri- winkle, Sen Green. It was supposed to inspire love, and called Death's flower, being scattered over the graves of children in Italy and Tuscany. It was said to signify early recollections or pleasures of memory. Rousseau was struck with their appearance in a hedge when going to Charmattes, and thirty years afterwards, in company with Mme De Stael he saw the flower, and it reminded him of the occasion again. It is much cultivated in gardens and shrubberies. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 208. Vinca minor, L. — Stem procumbent, wiry, with erect leafy shoots, leaves lanceolate, margins smooth, flowers blue, solitary. Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis, L.) Not being native in this country, Lungwort is not found in any early deposits. It is a member of the Northern Temperate Flora of Europe. It is not an indigenous plant, and is regarded by Watson as an introduction in the thirty odd counties in which it occurs in S. Scot- land and England. Everywhere it is rare and merely naturalized, having escaped from cultivation in the garden, and it is usually found in copses and similar woodland habitats close to houses, by the owners of which, in the first instance, it has been dispersed by planting with other plants, such as Periwinkle, Spurge Laurel, and some others equally under suspicion. The name Lungwort, translated from the first Latin name, refers to a character of the leaves, which have a spotted appearance. It is an erect, hairy, slender-stemmed plant with alternate leaves, the radical- leaves being egg-shaped or heart-shaped, rough, the stem-leaves stalk- less and egg-shaped. The leaves are spotted with pale-green patches about a quarter of an inch across. The flowers are pale purple or pink, and of two forms, long- and short-styled, the short-styled form having larger flowers. The flower- stalks are simple and the flowers in terminal forked cymes. The calyx is as long as the straight tube of the corolla. The corolla, first pink (like others), turns blue later, hence the flowers present a variegated appearance. The stem is i foot high. The Lungwort flowers in May and June. KEY TO PLATE XXII Nfc . i\ LAmg^qrt ^ (Puhnonaria ojficinalis, L.) z, Vertical section of short- Styled flower, with funnel- shaped corolla, and epipetal- ous stanjens near the throat, and 3 of the segments of the corolla, small ovary, d, Long-styled fdfrrn with long style, and stjamens half-way down the corolla. f, Flower- ing stem, with'aliernate hairy sessile leaver/and terminal cyme with!) j gamosepahius caiyx xand Vprsicoiorous co- rollas, and flowers in diffe stages, open ant* " {Myosciis sylvatica, Ho ^<^ Vertical section of flower, tubty of funnel- r, shjrt style and epipetalous included anthers. 6, Flower- ing stem with sfcpsite oblong iigulate hairy Ifcaves, dicho- tornous inflorescence with scoitoioid cymes, and flowers in vVious /stages, with flat corol la-limb and white throat (Digitalis, ^itrjittrea, L.) InJjM'^sc^e a terminal raceme, with flowers (bell- shaped), in'jaxils of bracts, drboping, the inside with honey -guides or spots with white ring ancKdark centres, alsx) showing the 5-partite calyx, atid ./ipenfed ovary or capsule «xppsed, with lofyg style and bmd, stigma, after corolla ^a'sj fallen, when the ari No. 4. Marjoram (Origwiwn vulgar e, L. ; a, I'lower, enlarged, show ing more or less bell-shaped j gamosepalous caiyx, and the 2-lipped labiate corolla, with exserted stamens -and style. f>, Flowering stem, showing square stem, decussate I ;, fiiai^ed leayes op'po/site/aitef-- nate pairs^ at righj angles, and corymbose cyme, with bracts and flowers in various a, Vertical section oflabiate flower With cylindric' tube, lateral lobes, and lower lip cut in half, also 2 long and 2 short epipetalous' stamens in the throat^ ; 0, Persistent bell-shaped calyx enclosing ; nutlets, with long persistent ' style and bifid stigma. <:, Flowering stem'% wfth square stem, witrV iveflexed hairs/ opposite, shortly stalked, notche^ leave^ and /flowers 4n'xi ip^niflal ^cenMW^n 3^ who^/ljs, • showing f^jrn\, "of ' cdifoll&j/and flbWdrs-in v^rrous 9«es open/ section of flower, ; showing helmet (ike upper lip, ajnd spotted laterals art^l lower lip, and fringe of hairs and 4 epipeialous stamens. -^, per- sistent bell T^hataed \ calyx with 5 tcetli, enclosing nut^ lets, and long style and bifid stigrnay :'c, flpwe^ring' stem, w/th brac:tsVand Jflowers in .whorls, show^n^ hairy galeate Mpget'jip. and Ipwer lip serv- rng\ais al lahdingrplace for insect visitors^ vvith the spots serving FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XXII I. Lungwort (1'nliiioiiaria ojficinalis, L. ). 2. Wood Furgel-iiie-iiot ( i\Iyoso!is sylralica, Iloffm.). 3. Foxglove (Digitalis fitrf'iirea, L. ). 4. Marjoram (Origaniii/i vulgare, L. ). 5. Wood Betony (Slafhys pjficinalis, Trev.). 6. Yellow Archangel (Lain nun Calcobdolon, Crantz). LUNGWORT 75 The Lungwort is perennial, increased by division of the root, and is worthy of inclusion in our garden borders. The plant is dimorphic. The flowers are rich in honey, which is secreted by the white base of the ovary in the lower part of the corolla- tube, protected by hairs inside the corolla, and much visited by insects. A ring of hairs in the wider part of the tube shelters the honey from rain and flies. The anthers stand at the mouth of the tube (10-12 mm. long) in the short-styled form, and the long stigma stands half-way up the tube, on a style 5-6 mm. long. In the long-styled forms the style Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings LUNGWORT (Pulmonaria officinalis, L.) is 10 mm. long, and the anther-stalks are very short, 5 mm. from the base of the flower. The corolla has an enlarged mouth, so that a proboscis of a bee 8 mm. long can reach the honey. The longer elements are touched by insects with the head or the base of the proboscis, and the shorter ones with the maxilla, which forms a sheath to the proboscis, and the plant is legitimately cross-pollinated. The flowers are very conspicuous in spring, and, being well supplied with honey at such a season, are much visited. The oldest and terminal flowers are sterile. The long-styled plant legitimately pollinated produces three times as much seed as those described by Hilclebrand. The Lungwort is visited by An- thophora, Halictus, Bombus, Osmia, Diptera, Andrena, Bombylius, Rhingia, Rhodocera, Coleoptera, Omalium florale. Hildebrand pollinated a flower of either form with its pollen or 76 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES pollen from another similar flower, and found it was then sterile. When he pollinated it with pollen from a flower of the other type it was fertile. Darwin found that when it is self-pollinated a few seeds are pro- duced.1 It is usually thus sterile to its own pollen, probably owing to abundance of insect visitors. When pollen from another similar flower of the same form reaches its stigma it is also sterile. The nutlets are dispersed around the parent plant when ripe. This plant is a humus- and clay-loving plant requiring both humus and clay. A moth, Anescychia pusiella, feeds upon it. Pulmonaria, Gesner, is from the Latin pulmo, lung, in allusion to its reputed curative properties, and the second Latin name refers to the same usage. Lungwort is called Adam-and-Eve, Bedlam Cowslip, Beggar's Basket, Bottle-of-all-sorts, Bugloss Cowslip, Children of Israel, Spotted Comfrey, Cowslip, Jerusalem Cowslip, Virgin Mary, Cowslip of Bedlem or Jerusalem, Crayfery, Gooseberry Fool, Honeysuckle, Virgin Mary's Honeysuckle, Joseph and Mary, Lady's Milksile, Our Lady's Milk- wort, Lady's Pincushion, Lungwort, Mary's Tears, Sage of Bethlehem, Sage of Jerusalem, Soldiers -and -Sailors, Spotted Mary, Spotted Virgin, Virgin Mary's Milk-drops. The names Adam-and-Eve, Soldiers -and -Sailors are bestowed because of the versicolorous flowers. As to the name Virgin Mary's Milk-drops there was a tradition that the spots were caused by drops of the Blessed Virgin Mary's milk. An old woman was weeding in a garden when plants of this species were proposed to be turned out, whereupon she said, "Do 'ee know, sir, what they white spots be?" " No, I do not." "Why, they be the Virgin Mary's Milk, so don't 'ee turn 'em out for it would be very unlucky." It was also said that from weeping, one eye which was blue became red, in allusion to the colour of the flowers. Bottle-of-all-sorts and Joseph and Mary refer also to the two colours. Cowslip Bugloss alludes to the resemblance to those flowers. Lady's Milk Sile (or soil or stain) refers to the spotted leaves, as also does Lady's Pincushion. The plant was called Lungwort because the spotting of the leaves, by the Doctrine of Signatures, suggested that the plant was good for lung disease. The plant has long been grown in gardens in a more or less sandy soil. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 215. Pulmonaria officinalis, L. — Stem erect, leaves rough, spotted, 'This happens more usually in the case of the short-styled form, when half the seed produced by legitimate pollination is formed. WOOD FORGET-ME-NOT 77 lower petiolate, lanceolate-ovate, upper sessile, oblong, flower pink and blue or pale purple. Wood Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica, Hoffm.) Though no species of this genus have yet been found in England in ancient deposits, they are known from Gothland, Sweden. In Arctic Europe, the Canaries, Siberia, Dahuria, and West Asia, or the North Temperate and Arctic Zones, this plant is found generally. In Great Britain it is found in N. Wilts, N. Hants, E. Sussex in the Channel province; not in Kent in the Thames province, or Middlesex, Oxford, Bucks. In Anglia it is found only in Suffolk and Norfolk, in the Severn province in East Gloucs, Monmouth, Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, Salop. In Wales it grows only in Carnarvon and Anglesea, in the Trent province it is general, but not in Lines, and not in Mid Lanes in the Mersey province; but it occurs throughout the Humber and Tyne provinces, in Cumberland, in the Lake province, in Dum- fries, Kirkcudbright, W. Lowlands, Berwick, Edinburgh, in E. Low- lands, Stirling, Eorfar, Kincardine, in E. Highlands, and in N. Ebudes. It is found in Yorks at 1200 ft. This species is absent from Ireland. The Wood Forget-me-not is very local in its distribution, and is perhaps most uniformly dispersed in central England, where it is abundant and widespread in woods and copses, so much so as in places to give quite as characteristic an appearance as the Bluebell in spring. This is one of the tallest of Forget-me-nots, growing usually in dense clumps, with a tall, erect stem, branched above, with oblong, lance-shaped leaves on long leaf-stalks, with spreading hairs. The large flowers are a beautiful pale blue like enamel. They are borne on large loose one-sided cymes on long flower-stalks, twice as long as the calyx, which is 5-fid, divided more than half its length, spreading, with unequal segments, which are acute, and is rounded below and closed in fruit. The corolla limb is flat and longer than the tube, which is straight. The nuts are brown, keeled, and attached by the narrow end. The flower is 2 ft. high. It is in bloom in June and July. The Wood Forget-me-not is perennial, increasing by division, and equal to garden forms. The anthers attached to the corolla just above the stigma pro- ject above the corolla when the flower opens, are inclined upwards, and open longitudinally, being covered with pollen inside like a figure-of-eight, .005 m. by .003 m. The flower is homogamous, i.e. 78 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES anthers and stigmas mature together. The flowers are conspicuous, and many insects are attracted to them in fine weather. A fly sucking honey settles for but 2-3 sec. The concealed honey is contained at the base of the ovary in the bottom of the tube, 2-3 mm. long. An insect inserts its proboscis between the stigma and anthers, which can be done from any side, so that a bee or other insect touching the anthers in one will touch the stigma in the next; and as the proboscis is withdrawn and again inserted a fly also self-pollinates it. When WOOD FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis syl-vatica, Hoffm.) self-pollinated it is fertile. The plant is visited largely by bees, An- drena, and flies, Eristalis, Syritta, Rhingia, Scatophaga, Echinomyia, Onesia. The flowers are odorous in the evening. The seeds are hooked, and catch in the wool of animals. The plant is a humus-lover, growing in humus soil. The second Latin name refers to its woodland habitat. The only other name for Wood Forget-me-not is Cat's Eyes. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 217. Myosotis sylvatica, Hoffm. — Stem tall, erect, branched above, with spreading hairs, leaves oblong, lanceolate, stalks of lower leaves dilated, flowers bright blue, limb longer than tube, flat, calyx round below, hairs on calyx hooked. FOXGLOVE 79 Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea, L.) The Foxglove is distributed throughout West Europe in the N. Temperate Zone. It is unknown in early deposits. In Great Britain it is absent in Cambridge, Hunts, Northants, E. Gloucs, S. Lines, Mid Lanes, E. Sutherland, Shetlands, ascending to 2000 ft. in the Highlands. It occurs in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Foxglove is a plant that frequents upland wooded tracts, stony hillsides with scattered clumps of trees. In such places it is common. Elsewhere it is a casual, a few seeds cast adventitiously on sandy ground propagating and spreading in an astonishingly short period of time. It does not frequent as a rule low-lying ground. The stem is tall and handsome, simple, leafy, downy, with spreading hairs, rounded. The lower leaves are stalked, between egg-shaped and lance-shaped, scalloped, toothed, deeply veined, with a marked midrib, downy both sides. The upper stem-leaves are stalkless. The flowers are borne upon a long raceme with flowers all turned one side, on i -flowered flower-stalks, thickened and suberect. The sepals are between egg-shaped and lance-shaped, with nerves, the posterior one small. The corolla is bell -shaped, monopetalous or tubular, purple, with spots within the mouth, gaping behind, and the upper lip is somewhat cloven, the lower one has rounded segments. The erect capsule is 2-valved, the seeds numerous, small, round, and black or reddish-brown, and flattened lengthwise. The stately stem reaches a height of 4 ft. The Foxglove is in flower from June to September. The plant is biennial, reproduced by seeds. It is largely cultivated. The flower is a big clapper-like bell hanging downwards, protecting the honey in a ring at the base of the ovary. It is visited only by humble bees. The anthers mature before the stigma. If insects do not visit it, it pollinates itself. An annular or ring-like ridge at the base of the ovary, which is quite smooth and hairy above, secretes the honey, serving to give a foothold, or to exclude flies, &c. The anthers and stigma near the upper wall of the corolla point downwards. The lower stamens mature before the upper and before the stigma, and the longer first become vertical, then the shorter ones. The 4 anthers open before the lobes of the stigma separate. The pistil lies between the anthers. Insects touch the latter on entering, and may remove all the pollen before the stigma is ripe. If insects do not visit them the anthers are covered with pollen till the lobes of the stigma have spread 80 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES out. When the corolla drops the stigma is smeared with pollen. Even in dull weather the flowers are pollinated. The Hymenoptera, Bombiis, Andrena, Halictus, Coleoptera, Meligethes, Antherophagus, Dasytes visit it. The flower is self-fertile. The flower lasts six days. The capsule opens when ripe, the fruit splitting along the partition, and the seeds fall out automatically or by contraction of their inner layer of cells. The Foxglove is a sand-loving plant, growing on sand soil, or a rock-lover, growing on a variety of rock soil, such as granite or slate. Two beetles, Antherophagus nigricornis, Apteropoda graminis, three moths, Melittis artemis, Small Angle-shades (Euplexia liicipara], Sword-grass (Calocampa exoletct), and a Heteropterous insect, Dicypkus pallidicornis, are found on it. Digitalis, Gesner, is from the Latin in allusion to the finger-like shape of the corolla, and the second Latin name refers to its colour. Foxglove is called Dead Man's Bell, Blob, Bloody Finger, Bloody Man's Fingers, Bluidy Bells, Cottagers, Cowflop, Cowslip, Cowslop, Dead Men's Bellows, Flap or Pop Dock, Flop or Flous Docken, Dog fingers, Dog's-lugs, Dragon's Mouth, Fairies' Petticoats, Fairy Bell, Fairy Cap, Fairy Fingers, Fairy Glove, Lady's Purple, Flap-dock, Flobby Dock, Flop-a-dock, Folk's Glove, Fox-docken, Fox-fingers, Foxglove, Foxter- leaves, Foxtree, Green Pops or Poppies, Goose Flops, King's Elwand, Lady Glove, Lady's Thimble, Lion's Mouth, Lusmore, Scotch Wild Mercury, Pop-glove, Poppers, Poppy, Pops, Rabbit Flower, Snapdragon, Snaps, Snoxuns, Thimble, Fairy Thimble, Witches' Thimble. It is called Pops (and Pop Dock) because children inflate the corolla, and then make it bang like a paper bag. As to the name Snoxuns the forest folk have a saying, " A went a-buz'n away like a dumbley dory in a snoxun ", which they apply to a dull preacher. Snock means a sharp blow, and it may be applied for the same reason as the last. Foxgloves are called Cottagers " because they belong to the poor people ". " In Suffolk and Essex ", a writer says, " they are called Blobs, because the children pull off a flower, and with the fingers of one hand closing up the mouth and giving the other end a slap, it bursts with a noise like the word blob." Gerarde says: " Some do call them finger flowers because they are like unto the fingers of a glove, the ends cut off". In regard to the name Flap Dock, a writer says: " I knew an old countryman once who compared a prosy preacher to a drumble drane (humble bee) upon a flapper dock." Flowster docken means a dock with showy flower, Plioto. B. Hanley FOXGLOVE (Digitalis purpurea, L.) VOL. III. MARJORAM 83 flowster being to flourish, flutter in showy colours. Foxglove is folk (fairies) glove. The plant was called Witches' Bells because witches were sup- posed to wear the flowers on their fingers. So, too, fairies' petticoats were formed of the corolla, and glove and caps also. Fairies used it as a thimble to mend their clothes. The plant was used as a cure for hydrophobia. This plant is poisonous, acting strongly upon the heart, and is used in medicine, the leaves being used as a sedative and diuretic. The pulse can be regulated by a careful administration of this drug. Taken in excess it causes vomiting, purging, delirium, sweating, convulsion, and death. It is emetic and purgative, and has been used for epilepsy, and as an ointment for scrofula, tumours, and ulcers. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 233. Digitalis purpurea, L. — Stem tall, erect, leaves ovate, veined, downy below, lower petioled, flowers purple, spotted, drooping, in terminal raceme, campanulate. Marjoram (Origanum vulgare, L.) As a woodland species of Northern and Arctic regions one would almost expect to find evidence that this plant is an ancient one, but so far it has not been forthcoming. It is found throughout Arctic Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, Dahuria, W. Asia, as far east as the Himalayas, and it has been introduced into North America. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces, and occurs in S. Wales generally, except in Radnor, N. Wales; in the Trent province except in S. Lines; West- morland; W. Lowlands, but not in Dumfries; in E. Highlands, not in Stirling, N. Aberdeen, Easterness; in W. Highlands, only in S. Ebudes; N. Highlands, Caithness. It is rare in Scotland. In York- shire it grows at 1300 ft. It is local in Ireland. Marjoram is one of those sweet-smelling plants which lend such charm to the woodlands when all the flowers are in bloom. It is found in upland districts in woods, copses, and plantations, as well as along the hedgerows, where the soil is dry, or perhaps the surface covered with a small rubble of stones. Marjoram is an erect plant with a slender, tetragonal stem, purple, downy, branched, with opposite ascending branches more slender too. The leaves are opposite, egg-shaped, stalked and toothed, downy beneath. The flowers are in dense, corymbose cymes, with egg-shaped 84 FLOWTERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES purple bracts or leaflike organs larger than the calyx, purple, the heads egg-shaped. The plant is 1-2 ft. high. It is flowering in June up to October in some places. The plant is a deciduous, herbaceous perennial, increased by division. It is worthy of more attention than is given it. Marjoram has large proterandrous hermaphrodite flowers, i.e. with male and female organs on the same flower, and smaller female flowers. It is like Wild Thyme in the position and secretion of the honey, and is MARJORAM (Origanum vulgar e, L.) Photo. G. B. Di: more conspicuous though less sweet-scented. The flowers have lost the power of self-pollination, as the plant is much visited by insects. The tube is 7 mm. long in the large complete flowers, and 4-5 mm. in the small female flowers. A great variety of insects visit it, Bombus, Halictus, Empis, Ascia, Eristalis, Helophilus, Sicns, Myopa, Ocyptera, Prosena, Satyrus janira. The small female flowers are in bloom a week before the larger ones. The nutlets are free and fall around the plant automatically, the plant dispersing them unaided. Marjoram is a lime-lover, and grows especially on lime soil, being found on the chalk, limestone formations, and oolites. WOOD BETONY 85 A fungus, Puccinia mentkce, attacks the leaves. A beetle, Meligethes lugubris, several Lepidoptera, Dark Brocade, Hadena adusta, Tortnx dwnetana, Gelechia subocellea, Pterophorus tetradactylus, Pyrausta punicealis, Purple and Gold Moth, Nothris durdkamella, Coleophora albitarsella, visit it. Origanum, Theophrastus, is from the Greek oros, hill, and ganos, joy, and the second Latin name indicates its general occurrence, which is a mistake, as it is rather local. This plant is named Argans, Marjoram, English Marjoram, Orga- ment, Organ, Organy, Pot Marjoram. The dried leaves have been used for tea and in fomentations. Mar- joram yields an essential oil, which is acrid, caustic, and highly aromatic. Marjoram has been used for toothache. The plant has also been used by farriers. A purple dye for wool has been obtained from it, and linen has been dyed reddish-brown with it. It has a pungent taste, like Thyme. It was put in beer to make it intoxicating. The tea has been used in cases of stomach weakness and breast troubles. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 249. Origanum vulgare, L. — Stem erect, branched, leaves serrate, ovate, purple, bracts exceeding the purple flowers in a crowded panicled cyme. Wood Betony (Stachys officinalis, Trev.) Wood Betony is found throughout the Temperate Northern Zone in Europe, N. Africa, and W. Siberia, but has not been met with in early deposits. In Great Britain it grows in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in S. \Vales generally except in Radnor; in N. Wales generally except in Montgomery, Merioneth; throughout the Trent province, Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes pro- vinces except the Isle of Man; in the West Lowlands except Peebles, Selkirk, Haddington; and in Micl and E. Perth; in E. Highlands, in the N. Ebudes, in the W. Highlands. It ranges thus from Skye and Ross southwards, but it is rare in Scotland and Ireland. In Northumberland it is found at 1200 ft. The name Wood Betony indicates the chief habitat of this species. It certainly loves the shade and is at home in woods, but it is frequent by the roadside, and is also found on heaths and commons with Grassy Stitchwort, Tormentil, Furze, &c. The stem is erect, simple, square, with blunt angles, rough, with rigid bristles, turned back, and bent. The radical leaves are on long 86 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES leaf-stalks, oblong, heart-shaped, scalloped, blunt, sparsely hairy, the stem-leaves opposite, narrower, saw-like, turned back, with a turned- back margin. The flowers are in terminal spikes, oblong, purple, stalkless, in whorls, and the bracts or leaflike organs are as long as the calyx, which is shaggy within, with long teeth. The corolla has a projecting tube, incurved below. The nutlets (4) are three-sided and smooth. Wood Betony is 2 ft. high. The flowers bloom in July and August. The plant is perennial and propagated by division. The flowers are proteran- drous, that is, the anthers ripen first, or they may be homo- gamous, the stigmas ripening at the same time. The pistil is short at first but lengthens when the anthers have opened. The tube of the corolla is 7 mm. long, smooth inside where the honey is secreted, lined above with erect hairs. The corolla, where included in the calyx, is narrow, directed obliquely upwards, but horizontal beyond the calyx, and is constantly 2 mm. wide, the under lip is divided into three half-way, acting as an alighting place, and the tip is narrowed. The tube is short, so that the en- trance is not wide at the mouth, and the tube is curved like a bee's proboscis. The anthers bearing white beads on their surface open when the flower expands, the stigmas are between them and just behind the short anthers. The divisions of the style are widely spreading, and covered with warts. The style lengthens the wider the anthers spread, and overtops the shorter ones in the process, be- coming smeared with pollen, but at length exceeds them, and is first touched by visitors with pollen from another flower, which is prepotent over its own pollen, though it can effectively pollinate itself. The flowers are visited by Volucella bombylans, Eristalis korticola^ Zygcena Ionic e res. Photo. Dr. Son •ille Hastings WOOD BETONY (Stachys officinalis, Trev.) YELLOW ARCHANGEL 87 The blunt-shaped nutlets fall free around the parent plant when ripe. Wood Betony is a humus-loving plant requiring a humus soil, and grows only on heaths or in woods where this is to be obtained. Peronospora lamii and Puccinia betonicce attack Wood Betony. Two moths, Coleophora wocksella, Idcea strigellaria, feed on it. Stachys, Dioscorides, is Greek for spike or ear, and the second name (Latin) refers to its use in medicine. This plant is called Betayne, Betony, Wood Betony, Bidney, Bishopswort, Wild Hop, Vetoyn. According to superstition it averted witchcraft. It was reputed to have great medicinal properties, and there was an old saw which recommended a person to "sell his coat and buy betony ". It was used to cure consumption and lung disease. It has the power of causing intoxication, and when freshly dried the leaves cause sneezing. The roots are bitter and nauseous, cause vomiting and purging. Dye of a fine dark yellow colour for wool has been obtained from Betony. The leaves have a bitter taste. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 256. Stachys officinalis, Trev. — Stem erect, leaves radical, ovate- cordate, below crenate, petiolate, upper lanceolate-acute, subsessile, flowers purple, in a terminal dense spike, calyx subglabrous. The nuts are blunt. Yellow Archangel (Lamium Galeobclolon, Crantz) As with the other Dead Nettles there is no trace of this plant in ancient deposits. It is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe and West Siberia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces, and in S. Wales generally except Radnor and Cardigan. In N. Wales it is found generally except in Montgomery and Anglesea; throughout the Trent province except in S. Lines; in the Mersey and H umber provinces, and in Cumberland. In Scotland it grows in Ayr and Westerness. It is local in the E. of Ireland. Yellow Archangel is common in damp woods under hedges, espe- cially those that overshadow ditches either by the roadside or in open fields. But it is most abundant under the trees in shady woods, copses, or plantations. The stem is simple (or there may be several), erect, slender, square, smooth, with long lance-shaped leaves, coarsely toothed, veined, with 88 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES or without long- leaf-stalks, opposite, the leaves stiffly hairy, the upper egg-shaped, stalkless, the lower heart-shaped. The flowers grow in whorls of from 6 to 12, and are yellow, blotched with red or pink. The calyx is acute and rigid. The corolla has a long, entire helmet, with the lower lip divided into 3 subequal lobes, and entire. The tube is short and swollen at the base below. The lower lip is spotted with red. The plant is i foot high. It flowers in May and June, and is quickly over. It is worth cul- tivating, and is perennial, pro- pagated by division. The anthers and stigma mature simultaneously. The tube of the flower is 8 mm. long, and is expanded above for 2 mm., allowing the entrance of a bee's head. Where the honey is secreted at the base of the ovary it is smooth, but lined with hairs above. The stigma is branched, the lobes wart-like, and they diverge soon after the flower opens, but being mature they do not enlarge, but are more prominent afterwards. The tip of the lower division lies above the lower surface of the anthers. If the bee's back only presses lightly against the anthers, the stigma is not covered with pollen; but if it is a large bee, and presses the anthers firmly, the stigma gets covered with pollen from another flower. Afterwards the end of the lower lobe projects below the anthers, and is first touched by the bee. Pollen falls on the lower lobe of the stigma if bees do not visit it. The plant is visited by Bombiis and honey-bees. The nutlets are free, and when ripe fall to the ground below the parent stem, hence Yellow Archangel grows in wide patches in the woods or hedgerows. This is a clay-loving plant growing on clay soil. Yellow Archangel is liable to be galled by Cecidomyia galeobdolontis. Two beetles, Meligethes symphyti, M. erythropus, are found on it. x Dr. Somerville Hastings YELLOW ARCHANGEL (Lamium Galeobdolon, Crantz) WOOD SAGE 89 Galeobdolon, Dioscorides, is from the Greek gale, weasel, and bdolos, fetid smell. The plant is called Yellow Archangel, Yellow Dead Nettle, Dunny Nettle, Weasel Snout. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 260. Laminm Galeobdolon, Crantz. — Stem erect, leaves ovate, acuminate, serrate, petiolate, flowers yellow, lower lip of corolla trifid, tube curved, fringed with hairs. Wood Sage (Teucrium Scorodonia, L.) This is a recent species, in the absence of ancient records, found in the North Temperate Zone to-day, in Europe generally except in Russia, and in N. Africa. In Great Britain it grows everywhere except in Middlesex, and in the Shetlands, ranging as far north as the Orkneys. It is found in Northumberland at a height of 1500 ft. It grows in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Wood Sage is a common woodland plant growing on slopes in woods, copses, always in natural woodland, where the ground is stony. It is found in the same districts growing more in the open under hedo-es. It is also found on heaths and commons at lower elevations. £5 The stem is erect, square, herbaceous, often consisting of more than one, purplish, hairy. The leaves are heart-shaped, stalked, oblong, scalloped, distant, paired, veined, and wrinkled. The whole plant has a stiff or rigid habit. The leaves are mealy and' glandular below. The flowers are borne in one-sided racemes, and are yellowish, straw-coloured, turned to one side, one terminal longer than the other racemes. The calyx is swollen below (the lip may be absent), egg- shaped, erect, entire, 5-lobed. The lower lip has 4 teeth. The bracts or leaflike organs are egg-shaped, and end in a long point. The tube of the corolla is projecting, gaping, the upper lip deeply divided. The lip is divided into 3 nearly to the base. The nutlets (4) are blackish, shining, in the base of the calyx. Wood Sage is about 18 in. high at most. The flowers bloom in July. The plant is perennial, propagated by cuttings. The flowers are proterandrous, the anthers maturing first. When the flower expands the stigma is not touched by an insect visiting the flower, as it lies behind the stamens, which are projecting, and lie close to the upper wall of the tube, afterwards bending slightly upwards, and the stigma takes their place. The lobes of the style are already spreading. The anthers open inferiorly by a longitudinal slit and 9° FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES shower the pollen on the bee's head. The stamens afterwards bend back, so that bees do not touch the anthers, and the 2 stigmas move forward into the former place and become more spreading. If insects do not visit the flower it is seldom self-pollinated, but insect visits are frequent, though the flowers are not large, but strong- or sweet-scented. In bending backwards the anthers may touch the stigmas. The honey lies in the tissue at the base of the ovary, and fills the tube, which is 9-10 mm. long, to a height of 4 mm. Wood Sage is visited by Bombus, Anthophora, Saropoda, and Eristalis. WOOD SAGE (Teucrium Scorodonia, L. When the lower flowers have reached the female condition those above are still male. Thus a bee first visiting male flowers carries the pollen away to a second plant. The nutlets, as in other Labiates, are free, and when ripe fall out to the ground. Wood Sage is a rock plant growing on rock soil, or a sand-lover and addicted to a sand soil. It is common on granitic, schistose, and slate rocks. The leaves are attacked by a fungus Pnccinia annularis. Beetles have a predilection for Wood Sage, e.g. Apion rubens, Meli- gethes bidens, M. obscurus, Byrrhus pilule, Longitarsiis piilex, L. distin- KEY TO PLATE XXIII No. i. Wood Sage ( Teucrium Scorodonia, L.) a, Flower showing the 2 small lateral lobes and trun- cate upper lip, and large lower lip ; exterior of corolla hairy, and 4 exserted stamens, 2 long, 2 short. £, Calyx, per- sistent, bell-shaped, 5-lobed, with broader upper lip bent back, and persistent bifid stigma, and long style. <:, Inflorescence, with paired stem-leaves below, forming unilateral raceme with nu- merous whorls of 2-3 flowers, and bracts at their base. No. i^Wood Spurge bia amygdaloideS) L,^ Flower with bracts re- ved, showing crescentic stamens, and pistil (drooping), b, Capsule (2- lobed). c, Inflorescence, with stem-leaves at base, and made up of flowerheads with many male and i female flov/ers, subtended by con- nate bracts, in 3 many-rayed umbels, with the cuspidate glands within each involucre No, 3. Dog's Mercury !v (Mercurials perennisy L^ ;" ^ a, Male flower, with 9 stamens, with 3 sepals *"£, Female flower, with central pistil, with 2 hairy ovaries, and long bent-back styles. f, Didymous, hairy capsules. d, Raceme, with male flowers in the axils of bracts on long stalks, e, Flowering stem with lance -shaped leaves, shortly-stalked opposite, de- cussate, and female flowers in f. • short spikes, showing ovaries and stigmas. No. 4. Wych Elm (Ulmu s glabra, Huds.^l a, Staminate flower, show- ing bell-shaped 5-fid calyx, and exserted purple anthers on 'long filaments. £, J-Iori- zontal section of winged fruit, with i seed in the centre of the samara. c, Part of branch, with leaf unequal at the base, with notched margin, and a cluster of lateral fruits, showing the broad wing, and central seed of -the samara; d, Flowering twig, with several clusters of flowers, showing the flowers with anthers exserted, and the scales below which grad- ually drop off. 5. Oak Robur, L.) ,nVwer, wn 8 stamen/, aM dWply di calyx. < / b, P/fstillate flower, with imbricate bracts enilos/' ing pistil, 3 styles aboyje. !c,\ Twig with lobed leaves, with no auricle at .the base, stip- ules, and male flowers in catkins, female flowers in a spike, d, Acorn, or fruit, one developed with cupule, one undeveloped bV iong a, Pistillate flower with ovary, and 3 styles above. s&l -^ Fruit (beech - m **$'' ^r angled, c. Four-fid involucre 01 cujiule of female flower. «£ Twig with long -stalked hairy leaves, scale-like stipule, and staminate tassel-like flowers, with many stamens and overlapping bracts be- low, pendulous capitate. ^ V; FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XXIII . Wood Sage (Tettcriuin Scorodonia, L.). 2. Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides , L.). 3. Dog's Mercury Memirialis pereiiilis, L.). 4. Wych Elm ( Ulinus glabra, Huds.). 5- Oak (Qnenus Robur, L.). 6. Eeech (Fagits sylvatica, L.). WOOD SPURGE 91 ouendus, L. membranaceus, Aphthona abrat^lla, a butterfly, Alelittis ar- temis, a moth, Ebulia verbascalis, and several Homoptera, Tettigometra impressopunctata, Tkamnotettix cruentata, Eitpteryx stachydearum. Teucrinm, Dioscorides, is from Teucer, an ancient king of Troy, reported to have first used this plant as a medicine. Scorodonia, Corclus, is from the Greek, scorodon, garlic. Wood Sage is called Ambrose, Ambroise, Garlick Sage, Wood Germander, Mountain Sage, Rock Mint. The people of Jersey are said to make use ot it in brewing, and call it Ambroise according to Withering. Wood Sage is highly aromatic, and used as a tonic. It imparted too strong a colour to beer to be much used in place of hops. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 261. Te2icriwn Scorodonia, L. — Stem erect, leaves ovate, cordate below, crenate, flowers yellowish-white, in terminal and lateral racemes, upper lip of calyx ovate. Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides, L.) Southern plant as it is, this Spurge is found in Preglacial beds in Norfolk and Suffolk. It ranges to-day in the North Temperate Zone from Holland southwards, and in West Asia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, and Anglia provinces, ex- cept in Hunts; throughout the Severn province; in S. Wales, except in Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke; in N. Wales, in Montgomery, Carnarvon; in the Trent province, except in Lines; in West Yorks, Durham, Cheviotland from Northumberland southward, and is local generally. It is found in Bandon and Donegal in Ireland, and in the Channel Islands. The Wood Spurge is a southern chalk and limestone species, which is most plentiful on such soils, but is fairly widespread in England. It is abundant in some woods and copses, and is also a common wayside flower in the south of England, growing in clusters in the hedgerows. It has an erect habit, with a more or less simple stem, with milky acrid juice, with numerous leaves, which are lance-shaped to egg-shaped or almond-shaped (hence the second Latin name), the lower stalked, the upper stalkless. The stem forms a branched umbel above with 5-10 rays, with a rounded united ring of bracts, nearly round, the flower-stalks slender, with glands tapering to a sudden point. The capsules are smooth, with small warts or tubercles, with smooth seeds. The stem is 1-2 ft. high. The flowers may be found in March and 92 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES June, and the plant is a deciduous undershrub, perennial, propagated by division. The flowerheads are bisexual, i.e. there are stamens and pistil on WOOD SPURGE (Euphorbia amygdaloides, L.) the same flowerhead.1 The honey is exposed, and is sought by flies, beetles, Hymenoptera, and the former especially cause cross-pollin- ation. The cup-like whorl has 4-5 round glands. There are 10-15 1 Several male flowers, with single anthers, surround one female flower. DOG'S MERCURY 93 stamens, jointed, and equal to a stalk bearing a flower reduced to a single stamen. In the centre is a single female flower, with a 3-celled ovary and 3 styles and 2 stigmas. The stigma ripens first. The anthers close in wet weather. The capsule has rounded valves, and contains smooth, nearly round seeds, slightly acute, which are expelled from the capsule by an explosive motion, the carpels opening ventrally and letting the seeds fall out. The capsule opens by partitions and loculi as well. Wood Spurge is a lime-loving plant, found on lime soil, on the chalk, limestone, or oolites. It is attacked by a fungus, Endophyllum Euphorbia. A beetle, Aphtkona venustula, a Hymenopterous insect, Prosopis masoni, and a moth, Sericoris euphorbiana, are found on the Wood Spurge. Euphorbia, Dioscorides, is from Euphorbus, physician to Juba, King of Mauretania, and the second Latin name refers to the almond- shaped leaves. This plant is called Deer's Milk, Devil's Milk, Mare's Tail, and Wood Spurge. It is known as Devil's Milk because it was supposed to be associated with the Evil One. The juice is acrid, causing ulceration wherever applied. It has been applied externally to warts or corns, and to hollow teeth, to remove the pain and destroy the nerve, or in earache behind the ears, causing blistering. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 274. Euphorbia amygdaloides, L. — Stem erect, leafy, glabrous, purple below, leaves obovate, entire, alternate, flowers in umbels, with rounded connate bracts. Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis, L.) This common hedgerow plant is found in Interglacial beds in Sussex, and Neolithic beds in Essex and Edinburgh. To-day it is found in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe and N. Africa. In Great Britain it is absent in Hunts, Cardigan, S. Lines, Mid Lanes, Isle of Man, E. Sutherland, Hebrides, Shetlands, but elsewhere general north- wards to the Orkneys, up to 1700 ft. in the Highlands. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. What exactly are the requirements of this plant are somewhat puzzling, for it is absent in the same district from large areas which possess the same characteristics of shade which it requires; but itk is 94 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES apparently not fond of some sandy districts, but rather of a humus subsoil, which it obtains in the dry woods and hedge-banks, which are its natural habitat. In some districts such surface may be leached out, causing it to disappear. The root-stock is creeping, and from it the stems issue more or less in an erect manner, being simple, with many leaves, but leafless below, rounded, with wings. The leaves vary and may be rough, smooth, or hairy, oval, acute, stalked, with saw -like teeth, in pairs, with white glands on the margin. At the base of the leaf- stalks are 2 small acute stipules or leaflike organs. They form a cup to catch rain, and a rounded ridge in it with a row of hairs occurs and absorbs moisture. The flowers are in loose spikes in the axils of the upper leaves, greenish, with no corolla. The female flowers are hidden among the leaves, more or less stalkless, the male on long flower-stalks very slender, with acute sepals. Male flowers may occur on the female rarely. The capsule is rounded, double, with 2 cavities with white cuticle, and there are 2 carpels. Dog's Mercury is about i ft. in height. It flowers in April and May, and is perennial, as the second name implies, and reproduced by root-division. The plant is dioecious, the stamens and carpels being on different plants, the males in axillary spikes, and the females clustered in a short raceme of 3 flowers. The styles are long and bent back, stigmatic in front. There is no corolla, and 2 carpels. The flowers are pollinated by the wind. The pollen is dust-like. The stigmas are said to be ripe at least two days before the anthers are ripe. On some female plants there may be a few male flowers capable of pollination. When ripe the seeds fall out of the capsule around the parent plant. Dog's Mercury is more or less a humus plant, requiring a humus soil. The fungus Cceoma mercurialis attacks it. Several beetles are found on Dog's Mercury, Hernusophaga mer- curialis, Apion germari, A. pallipes, Trophiphorus merc'itrialis, Meh- gethes kunzei, and a moth, Phlogophora meticulosa. Mercurialis, Pliny, was so called after the god Mercury, who is said to have discovered its virtues, and the second Latin name indicates its perennial character. This plant is called Adder's-meat, Boggard-flower, Bristol-weed, Cheadle, Dog's Mercury, Dog's Cole, Kentish Balsam, Maiden Mer- cury, Wild Mercury, Leaf Mercury, Sapwort, Snake's Bit, Snake Weed, Town-weed. Dog's Mercury is so called to distinguish it not WYCH ELM 95 from the so-called English Mercury, or Goosefoot, but from the French Mercury (M. annua), formerly used in medicine. It is called Kentish Balsam, "from the similarity of the leaf to that of the Garden Balsam", and Town -weed from the growth of the plant in towns and town gardens, though this name may refer to M. annua. The plant is poisonous, and not eaten by animals. When dry it Photo. Flatters & Garnett DOG'S MERCURY (Mercurialis perennis, L.) turns blue, and steeped in water yields a deep blue dye, which is not permanent. It is acrid. The plant has been eaten as a spinach. It is laxative in effect. The male and female plants are not usually found in the same district, and therefore Dog's Mercury does not always produce perfect seed, being largely increased by the root-stock. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 276. Mercurialis perennis, L. — Dicecious, stem erect, simple, leaf- less below, leaves petioled, lanceolate, hispid, male flowers in axillary spikes, female in clusters hidden by leaves. Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra, Huds. (montana, Stokes)) This is an ancient tree, remains being found in the Preglacial beds at Happisburgh, Suffolk, and in Interglacial beds at Grays, Essex. It now occurs in Europe and in Siberia, and is generally distributed in the N. Temperate Zone. 96 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES In Great Britain it does not grow in S. Hants, E. Kent, Hunts, Glamorgan, Pembroke, Flint, N. Lines, Isle of Man, Kirkcudbright, Roxburgh, Orkneys and Shetlands, but elsewhere as far north as Sutherland, and is indigenous and naturalized in many places. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. It is found in Yorks at 1300 ft. The Wych Elm grows commonly in hedgerows and by the sides of highways, where it is doubtless planted, but it is also found in woods where it may well be native. It is frequently utilized in parks and other places to form avenues or rows of timber trees. The general habit of the Wych Elm is drooping, with a twisted bole or base of the trunk. It is a large tree. The bole may be 50 ft. in girth. The bark is corky or not, with thick ribs and deep furrows, horizontal or somewhat spiral. The branches are spreading. The twigs are downy. Suckers are sent up by the roots, especially when cut. The leaves are large, rough above, downy below, egg-shaped to oblong, bluntly pointed, with double or treble teeth, the base unequal or heart-shaped. The stipules soon fall. The flowers are apetalous, 5-7 in a cyme, with a bell-shaped perianth fringed with hairs, with blunt lobes, 4-5-cleft, and persistent. There are 4-6 or 5 stamens, with purple anthers inserted on the perianth tube, opposite the lobes. There are 2 styles. The fruit, a samara oblong or rounded, has the seed in the centre, and is notched above. The Wych Elm is 80-120 ft. in height, and flowers before the leaves expand. It is a deciduous tree, propagating itself from seed, and from suckers sent up by the roots. The flowers are bisexual, the male and female organs being on the same flower as a rule, with 5 anther-stalks, and purple anthers opening outwards, the styles (2) awl-shaped, stigmatic on the inner face. At the base are leaves in the lowest 10-12 axils, flowers above, in dichasial cymes, bearing 2 branches successively reduced to one flower. As with other trees, the flowers of the Wych Elm, which appear before the leaves, are wind -pollinated. The stigmas mature first, before the anthers. The flowers are not in catkins, but in groups. The perianth has 4—6 lobes, and the stamens are the same number. Before the anthers open the anther-stalks lengthen and stand high above the feathery stigma, so that the pollen can be readily blown away. The stigmas are long-lived. As a rule the pollen is blown upward, some settling eventually on stigmas in flowers higher on the tree. WYCH ELM 97 The fruit is a samara, and winged, and the wind carries the seed some distance from the parent tree. The Wych Elm grows on a sand soil or clay soil, or in sandy loam, and is widespread. Many fungi attack the Elm, such as Taphrina, Mycospharella, Psilocybe, Hypholoma, Flammula, Pholiota, Pleurotus, Collybia, Fames, Hydnum, Pleospora, Several insects cause galls or infest it, such as (amongst many WYCH ELM (Ulmus glabra, Huds.) Photo. H. Irving others) Schizoneura ulmi, Pemphigus pallidus (Leopard Moth), Zeuzera sii.-f '« sijjijRl dJiw ,3rfJsqa -£3e riin^rjsq i3it«o rfjiv/ i-.Icttq L.-u-. ,?Jn9in -j 9rft t -as ,< vissf o^il-sad 10 iof-r Ddi :«L tj £ IHIS ;: :.>rL* ,?ieq -io<; 'J.^- <^ -^ ;; J.-'JffoTB to f^ i'*8111 daf bits asK- f?-»woj(f •" U) •••'i.d -;/o .einiUoq i^h, , 9J&OO fa« < .ali«)qqo s! ?!fW •v?P'fJ j r -9d (dHiJ ixifi jnTjoH .It9cl ^0 fiojjD^g iih»iMr'--,u->' -lio'j lo iio:'f)t>f JroifraV ,u Juo -v! yru^orfrf .nUoio-) b^qr>d£ . t»5. -»;}<> e.(Jo!f>Joq/<|9 ,^sn:)oi Loxaft . 2t;f;.. fo'Vool'tl .viBvo babnuai brus ,aoorn ^ bni, /'if -t'jrnfiie -quo lo noiJawi ,-S .cru^iu '.friji!)^. s>lq< ' - "as'H" rioR'j oi -jiuyo ^-som TO S i, ,i ,-)l^a Jfi ie9f<)i •* -r.Tno3 A .^ulujol ,9vod]B Bivootg .: d ^o :jni3'ji;i fijiv/ ,?r(i! CTJ ^-19'iKtfl 10 no ,-i rfiiw *«;>{ FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES PLATE XXIV I. Aspen (ropnliis tremula, L.). 2. Tway-blade (Listera ovata, Br.). 3- Bee Orchis (Ophiys apifera, IIucls.). 4. Snowdrop (Ga!anthiis nivalis, L.)- 5- Lily-of-the- Valley (Convallaria majatis, L.). ursinum, L.). 7- Bluebell (Scilla non-scripta, Iloffm. and Link.). 6. Garlic (Allin ASPEN 107 Populus, Pliny, is Latin for poplar, and the Latin adjective tremula denotes tremulous or shaking. ASPEN (Pofiulus tremula, L.) Photo. H. Irving. It is called Aps, Apse, Quaking- or Mountain Ash, Asp, Aspen, Auld-wives'-tongues, Ebble, Eps, Esp, Espin, Haspen, Pipple, Poplar, Quaking Esp, Rattling Asp, Snapsen. " Ah trimml't like an esp-leaf ", is a Cumberland saying. io8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES The Rattling Asp is so called from the rattling sound made by its tremulous leaves. On account of its bitter bark it was called Bitter- weed. " Oak, Ash, and Elm-tree, The laird can hang for a' the three; But fir, saigh, and bitter-weed, The laird may flyte but make naething be'et." Aps or Apse is the same as aspe by transposition of letters. Gerarde says it was called Auld-wives'-tongues because " this tree is the matter whereof women's tongues were made, as the poets and some others report, which seldome cease waggling". If it was laid on a witch's grave the people of Russia thought she would not ride abroad. It was a symbol of fear because of its tremulous leaves. The Aspen was a token of scandal, because its leaves, they said, were made from women's tongues. When Joseph and Mary were fleeing from Herod all the trees except the Aspen did homage, hence it was cursed. It is reputed also to have formed the wood of the Saviour's Cross. The sisters of Phaethon, bewailing his death on the shores of Eridanus, were changed into poplars. On Midsummer Eve they fell the highest poplar in Sicily and drag it through the village, beating a drum. Being ornamental and of quick growth it is much planted. Beavers are fond of the bark. The wood is smooth, soft, but durable. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 287. Populus tremula, L. — Tree, with suckers, leaves suborbicular, serrate, glabrous, young leaves downy, stigma erect, petiole compressed, long. Tway-blade (Listera ovata, Br.) This delicate orchid has preserved no record for us of its antiquity. It is, however, an Arctic plant found in the N. Temperate and Arctic regions, in Arctic Europe, and Siberia. In Great Britain it grows in every county except the Isle of Man, Peebles, Shetlands, and so ranges northwards to Sutherland elsewhere. It grows at 1900 ft. in N. Eng- land, and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Tway-blade is a common clay-loving plant, growing in open fields and meadows, in moist hollows, both in upland and lowland districts. It is also exceedingly abundant in damp woods, growing side by side with Man Orchis, Red Campion, and other shade plants in the depths of woods, copses, and plantations. Tway-blade has a tall, graceful, slender stem, with fibrous root, the stem being clammy, TWAY-BLADE 109 with a pair of leaves, egg-shaped (hence the second Latin name), near the base, acute, with five marked veins, opposite. The flowers are green, small, loosely arranged on a very long narrow raceme or spike. The inner petals are narrower, with a lip divided into two nearly to the base. The column has a crest or appendage, on which the anther is placed. The anthers are yellow, the sepals deep-green, and the petals yellow. When touched the rostellum, one of the stigmas, emits a sticky fluid. The Tway-blade is about i ft. high. The flowers bloom in May and June. This orchid is perennial, propagated by division of the root. The pollen is fri- able, and if not aggre- gated into a pollen mass would not adhere. It lies above the ros- tellum, and when the latter is touched it exudes a clammy fluid which rises to the level of the pollen. All the visitors are Ichneu- mons except Gram- moptera l&vis. They attach the pollinia or pollen masses to the TWAY-BLADE (Lisfera ova/a, Br.) head, and apply them to fresh stigmas. Alighting on the lower part of the labellum or lip, they creep up, licking the honey in the groove, and raising the head they touch the rostellum, from the side of which fluid exudes. This fluid which rises to the apex of the pollinia cements them to the head of the insect which collects pollinia in each fresh flower. When touched the rostellum bends down to protect the stigma, and while the groove of the labellum is receiving fresh honey it rises, leaving the stigma free for application of new pollinia. The pollinia are erect at first on the insect's head, and then bent down, and they spread apart and so touch the stigma. The seeds are light, and easily dispersed by the wind. Tway-blade is a clay-loving plant, common on clay soil in ash- woods and in humus soil. The leaves of Tway-blade are liable to be attacked by a fungus, Cceoma orchidis. no FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES Listera, R. Brown, is the name by which Dr. Martin Lister (d. 1711) is honoured, and the second Latin name refers to the shape of the leaves. This orchid is called Bifoil, Double-leaf, Dufoil, Herb Bifoil, T way- blade, Twifoil. From its interesting mode of pollination it is worth cultivating, and requires sandy, clayey, or peaty loam. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 289. Listera ovata, Br. — Stem erect, pubescent, leaves in opposite pairs, ovate, flowers in a lax spike, green, sticky, column crested. Bee Orchis (Ophrys apifera, Huds.) As a more or less southern type we find no record of its occurrence earlier than the present day. It ranges in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe from Belgium southwards, and in N. Africa. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province, except in E. Cornwall; in the Channel province, Thames, and Anglia province, not in Hunts; in the Severn province; in S. Wales only in Glamorgan and Pembroke; in N. Wales, not in Montgomery, Merioneth; in the Trent province and Mersey provinces, not in Mid Lanes; in the H umber province in Durham and Cumberland; and in Lanark. From Durham and Lanark it is general elsewhere to the south coast. In the N. of England it grows at 1000 ft. In South and Mid Ireland it is found on limestone and sandhills. The Bee Orchis is one of those characteristic plants which depend on a certain type of geological formation for their distribution, more than others. Thus it is found almost exclusively on hills composed of chalk or limestone, or in woods and copses on the same formations. It is rarely found on sandy soil or pure peat or loam. The stem is leafy, with sheathing leaves, egg-shaped, lanceolate, oblong, silvery below, and with linear veins. The bracts or leaflike organs are large, green, sheathing, equalling the flowers. As the second Latin (and English) name implies the flower has the form of a bee. Three to six flowers are arranged in a spike, and they are purple, with a 5-lobed swollen lip, the two lower lobes marked, smaller, hairy at the base, the intermediate ones turned back, oval, and hollow. The Bee Orchid is about i ft. high. Flowers may be found in June and July. The plant is perennial, and propagated by division of the root. BEE ORCHIS in The rostellum contains two pouches, and has a sticky disk, being placed much as in Orchis. The pollen-stalks are long, thin, and flexible, and the pollen-masses are at a variable distance apart. The pollen-grains vary in shape. The anther cells open directly or soon Photo. Flatters & Garnett BEE ORCHIS (Ophrys apifera^ Huds.) after the flower opens. The pollinia are pear-shaped, and after they are set free, if not removed by insects, hang by the caudicles above the stigma, and are very readily brought into contact with the stigmatic surface. It is probable that the apparent mimicry, so-called, of the flower, by which it may induce bees to visit it, is for securing occasional cross- ii2 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES pollination. But in their absence self-pollination occurs regularly. The pollen-mass, moreover, does not usually fail to reach the stigma in the same flower. The seeds are extremely small and light, and are dispersed by the wind. The Bee Orchid is distinctly a lime-loving plant, and addicted to limestone, oolite, or the chalk, and a lime soil. Opkrys, Pliny, is the Greek for eyebrow, alluding to the yellow markings on the lip, which are honey-guides leading to the nectary. The second Latin name refers to the resemblance of the petals in form to the outline of a bee. This Orchid is called Bee-flower, Bee Orchis, Dumble Dor, Honey- flower, Humble-bee. Many of these refer to the mimetic character of the flower. The root tubers have been employed to furnish jalep. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 293. Ophrys apifera, Huds. — Stem slender, leaves oblong, flowers purple, in shape resembling a bee, sepals pink within, intermediate lobes of lip reflexed. Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis, L.) It would be both interesting, and surprising, if the Snowdrop occurred in Glacial times in Britain, but we have no record, and it is found to-day in Europe south of Holland, and W. Asia. It has been recorded from as many as sixty-four of the vice-counties of Great Britain, but there is no evidence that it is native except perhaps in Hereford and Denbigh, and elsewhere it is naturalized both in Eng- land and Scotland, but not in Ireland. It is said to be native in Edinburgh. The Snowdrop, so familiar in our gardens and plantations, is found in a semi-natural state in meadows and copses, in many cases, as in the case of Crocus, Tulip, Daffodil, Narcissus, &c., having only migrated from a garden or orchard. The Snowdrop and Crocus have a similar habit. The leaves are smooth, hollowed out above, lanceolate, with the tips curved inwards, nearly as long as the flowering stems. The Snow- drop is a bulbous plant, with the leaves arranged in a rosette, but erect. The flowers are pure white, hence the first Greek and second Latin and English names. They are usually drooping. The spathe en- closing the flower is membranous. The inner segments are greenish, The sepals are inversely egg-shaped and hollowed out. SNOWDROP 113 This harbinger of spring, as it has been called, is about 6 in. in height. The Snowdrop is in flower between January and March. It is perennial and propagated by offsets. The flowers are sweet-scented and contain a moderate supply of honey, which is secreted in the green grooves on the inner sides of the flower, and the honey is sheltered from rain by the pendulous posi- tion of the latter and the perianth leaves. The flowers are open from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m., when they close. There are 6 anthers which mature SNOWDROP (Galanthus nivalis, L.) Photo. J. Holmes at the same time as the stigma. They are close to the style and open by 2 terminal slits, pollen falling out when they are touched. The anther processes form a cone and end in rigid points, being touched by a bee and shaken so that pollen drops clown when the insect is seeking honey. The insect touches the stigma with pollen from a previous flower before it touches the anthers, as the stigma is longer than the latter. If the flower is not visited by insects it is self-pollinated. The pistil is white, or only green, at first, above the middle. The honey bee clings to the perianth dusting itself with pollen on the head. It sweeps the pollen with its brushes and fore- and mid-legs into baskets on its hind-legs. It is visited by hive bees. When insects are absent the anther-stalks become loose, the anthers diverge, and pollen falls on the stigma. VOL. III. 38 n4 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES The capsule contains few seeds, which fall when ripe around the parent plant, but it also multiplies largely by bulbs. The Snowdrop is a sand-loving or clay-loving plant growing in sand or clay with some little humus. The Snowdrop mildew (Sclerotinia galanthina] attacks it. Galantkusy Linnaeus, is from Greek gala, milk, anthos, flower, from the milk-white flower, and the second Latin name (from nivis, snow) refers to the period of flowering, in winter, when snow is on the ground. This plant is called Candlemas Bells, Fair Maids, Fair Maids of February, French Snowdrop, Purification Flower, Snowdrop, Snow- flower, White Ladies. Ouida calls it White Ladies in Strathmore. The Snowdrop is called Fair Maids of February on account of its flowering in February. Legend has accumulated around so familiar a flower. Formerly young women dressed in white and walked in procession on the Feast of Purification, saying: " The snowdrop in purest white array, First rears her head on Candlemas Day ". It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary — the monks thought it bloomed at this period in memory of the Virgin when she took the child Jesus to the Temple and presented her offering, and because her image was removed from the altar on the Feast of Purification and snowdrops were strewed in its place. It is considered unlucky to bring the first snowdrop of the year into a house, for " it looks for all the world like a corpse in its shroud ". There is a beautiful legend that " An angel was sent to console Eve mourning over the barren earth. No flower grew in Eden, and driving snow kept falling and making a pall for Earth's funeral after the fall. As the angel spoke, he caught a flake of falling snow, breathed on it, and bade it take a form, and bud and blow. Ere it reached the ground it had turned into a beautiful flower which Eve prized more than all the other fair plants of Paradise. The angel said: ' This is an earnest, Eve, to thee, That Sun and Summer soon shall be '. The angel departed, and a ring of snowdrops formed a lovely posy where he stood." ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 298. Galanthus nivalis, L. — Leaves linear, keeled, flowers white, single, drooping, inner segments green, sepals exceeding the petals. LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY Lily-of-the- Valley (Convallaria majalis, L.) Confined to woods more or less, Lily-of-the- Valley is found in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe, but not in Greece and Northern Asia. In Great Britain it grows in the Peninsula province only in Somerset; in the Channel pro- vince, not in the Isle of Wight or N. Hants; in the Chan- nel, Thames, and Anglia provinces, not in E. Suffolk or Hunts; in the Severn province, cot in W. Gloucs; in S. Wales in Brecon, in N. Wales in Carnarvon, Den- bigh, Flint; in the Trent province, not in S. Lines; in the Mersey province, only in Chester; in the H umber and Tyne provinces, except in Cheviotlancl ; in the Lakes province, ex- cept in the Isle of Man; in Scotland in W. Mid and E. Perth, Forfar, Easterness. From Caithness it ranges elsewhere to Kent and Devon, but is not common. In Cumberland it is found up to 1000 ft. It is naturalized in Scotland and Ireland. The Lily-of-the-Valley is familiar enough in the gardens, where it luxuriates in the shady corners, but few know it in its natural habitat, which is entirely woodland. It grows in the dark parts of woods and copses, under trees covering quite a large area and forming extensive beds. The leaves are all radical leaves and the aerial stem merely a LILY-OF-THE- VALLEY (Convallaria tnajalis, L.) n6 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES flowering stem. The leaves are egg-shaped in pairs, stalked, erect, smooth, lance-shaped, veined, one of them exceeding the other, bright green. The leaf-stalks are round, long, the outer one dotted with red, tubular, drooping, enclosing the inner solid one. The scape or flowering stem is lateral, as long as the leaves, naked, smooth, erect, semi -cylindrical. The bracts or leaflike organs are membranous below each flower. The flowers are in drooping racemes, white, bell-shaped. The segments of the corolla are turned back. The fruit is a red berry. This plant is 6 in. in height. It flowers in May and June. Lily-of- the- Valley is perennial and propagated by the underground stems. The flowers are honeyless, but contain much pollen and the tissue a sweet sap. The flowers are visited by numerous insects. The flowers are homogamous, anthers and stigma being ripe together, or the anthers first, and in the absence of insects self-pollination occurs. When the flower expands, the stigma, longer than the anthers, is already covered with long papillae or wart-like knobs before the anthers are mature; but if the anthers are ripe and rubbed over it, little pollen adheres. When they have opened the stigma is sticky and pollen adheres to it. The flowers are pendulous, and bees cling on, and thrust the head and fore leg into the bell, touching the stigma first with pollen from another flower. It sweeps the pollen with the brushes of its fore legs into its baskets, and dusts its head with pollen, which is carried to the next flower. The stigma is 3-lobed, and the anthers stand close to it. The fruit is a rounded berry, which is red when ripe and falls to the ground, but may rarely be dispersed by birds. The plant generally grows in wide patches, indicating that it is mainly dispersed by its own agency. The Lily-of-the- Valley is a lime-loving plant flourishing best on a lime soil, but requiring humus. The leaves are attacked by ^Ecidium convallarice. A beetle, Crioceris lilii, and a fly, Parallelomma albipes, are found on the Lily-of-the-Valley. Convallaria, Linnaeus, is from convallis, a valley, its usual habitat, and majalis indicates the flowering period, May. This pretty flower is called Conval-Lily, Great Park, May and Wood Lily, Lily-among-thorns, Lily-conval, Lily-of-the-Valley, Liri- con fancy, May Blossoms. May Lily, Mugwet, Valleys. They say at St. Leonards it sprang from the blood of St. Leonard, who, encountering a mighty worm or " fire-drake " in the forest, fought GARLIC 117 it three days, and was at last the victor, but was badly wounded, and wherever his blood flowed lilies of the valley sprang up. It was regarded as symbolic of the return of happiness, and as to its per- fume of sweetness Keats says: " No flower amid the garden fairer grows Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, The Queen of flowers ". Its snow-white beauty symbolizes purity. It is gathered by all on Whit Monday in Hanover, where it is called May Bloom. A person who plants a bed of lilies will die during the next twelve months, so it is considered unlucky. The flowers are fragrant when fresh, but when dry are narcotic. Powdered, the plant induces sneezing. It is purgative, and bitter as aloes when an extract from the roots is prepared. Lime is used to prepare a green colour from the leaves. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 300. Convallaria majalis, L. — Scape semi-cylindrical, radical leaves paired, lanceolate, ovate, flowers white, campanulate, in a raceme, 6-12, berry red. Garlic (Allium ursinum, L.) The distribution of this beautiful but strong-smelling liliaceous plant is quite modern, being the N. Temperate Zone in Europe, except Greece and N. Asia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in S. Wales, except in Cardigan; in N. Wales, except in Montgomery; in the Trent pro- vince, except in S. Lines; in the Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces; and in the West and E. Lowlands, except in Elgin; in the W. Highlands, except in Mid Ebudes; in the N. Highlands; and in the Hebrides only in the Northern Isles. It is general elsewhere from Skye and Ross to the English Channel, and in Yorks rises to 1200 ft. It is native in Ireland. Garlic is a decidedly local though widespread plant, Watson having only met with it once in North Britain, and not in Surrey, where it is common. It grows in damp hollows in woods and copses, and also in shady lanes under hedges, and in hedgerows in fields where there is plenty of cover. Garlic grows from a bulb. This tends to bury itself deeper and deeper in the soil. Garlic has much the habit of Lily-of-the-Valley, with radical leaves, solid, flat, lance-shaped, stalked, few, broad, and n8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES smooth and bright green. They are reversed, and the stomata lie on the upper surface below. The bulbs are slender and acute. The flowers are white, borne in terminal clustered umbels on a naked triangular stem, with an egg-shaped, 2-valved spathe. The flowering stem is solitary. The 6 stamens in 2 sets of 3 are all simple, Photo. J. H. Crabtree Photo. GARLIC (A Ilium ursinuin, L.) shorter than the segments, the anther-stalks free and slender. The peri- anth segments are 6 in number. The capsule is 3-lobed and 3-valved. Garlic is i ft. high. Flowers are found in April and May. The plant is perennial, and increased by offsets. The flowers contain honey at the base of the ovary in 3 notches between the carpels, and are therefore visited by insects. The style is about half its length when the flower expands, and without papillae, and the anthers are not perfect. The flowers are imperfectly proterandrous, i.e. the anthers mature first. The 3 inner anthers open first in succession, by which time the GARLIC 119 style is 4^-5 mm., or three-quarters of its length. The 3 outer anthers next open. When the style is 6 mm. long the stigma ripens, and be- comes covered with little wart-like knobs. The anthers open inwards, turning- upwards. The style is often bent so that the stigma touches the anthers covered with pollen, causing self-pollination occasionally. A bee touches the anthers with one side and the stigma with the other side of the head, which cross- pollinates the flowers when fully advanced. The visitors are flies, bees, and humble bees. The fruit splits open, and sets the seeds free when ripe to fall around the flowering stems. Garlic is a clay-loving plant, growing on clay soil, or a lime-loving plant, and addicted to a lime soil, as limestone, oolite, chalk. One stage of a Fungus, Puccinia sessilis, grows on Garlic. Cceoma allioriiin also attacks it, and Peronospora schleideni and Melampsora salicis (willow-rod canker). A beetle, Meligethes ntfipes, and a Hymenopterous insect, Andrena angustior, are found on it. Allium, Plautus, is Latin for garlic, and ursinum, pertaining to a bear, refers to the smell. Garlic is from A.S. gar, spear, leac, leek. The plant is called Bear's-foot, Bear's Garlic, Buckrams, Devil's Posy, Garlick, Wild Garlick, Onions, Hog's Garlick, Wild Leek, Ramps, Rams, Ramsden, Ramsey, Ram's Horns, Ramsons, Rom my or Roms, Rosems, Stink Plant. This plant was called Bear's Garlick, according to Taberncemontanus, because bears delight in it. The Chinese employ it against the Evil Eye. It was called Devil's Posy from a supposed connection with the Evil One. To dream of Garlic denoted discovery of hidden treasure, but the approach of domestic trouble. Aubrey says: " Eat leeks in Lide [March] and ramsines in May, And all the year after physicians may play ". It is regarded as the symbol of plenty by the Bolognese, who bury it on Midsummer Night as a charm against poverty. They used to believe in Cuba that "thirteen cloves of garlic at the end of a cord, worn round the neck for thirteen days, are considered a safeguard against jaundice ". On the thirteenth clay at midnight the wrearer pro- ceeded through the street, took off his garlic neckband, turned round, and flung it behind him without turning to see what became of it. It has long been (and is still) used as a pot-herb, and for gar- nishing. 120 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 301. Allium iirsrnum, L. — Scape triangular at the base, leaves radical, flat, lanceolate, sheathed at the base, petiolate, flowers white, in a flat-topped umbel. Bluebell (Scilla non-scripta, Hoffm. and Link.) The Bluebell is apparently quite a recent plant found to-day in the N. Temperate Zone in West Europe, south of Belgium to Italy. It is common to every part of Great Britain from Caithness southwards to the south coast, growing at 1500 ft. in the Lake District, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. Spring is especially associated with bluebells in the woods. It is a typical woodland species, carpeting the whole of the ground beneath the trees. It persists in the hedgerows, and sometimes the open fields or glades between two woods in wooded districts. The Bluebell has no true stem, but the leaves are radical leaves twice as long as the leaf-stalk, broad, keeled, hollow above, smooth and shining, sheathing at the base, and ascending, but at length falling backwards with their own weight. The flowers are deep-blue, borne on solitary flowering stems. The bracts or leaflike organs are lance-shaped, nearly erect, two below each flower. The corolla is nearly cylindrical. The raceme of flowers is drooping. The corolla is campanulate or bell-shaped. The stamens are united to the perianth halfway up. The scape exceeds the leaves. The sepals are turned back. The Bluebell is i ft. high. The flowers are in bloom between March and June. It is perennial, and propagated by offsets. It is common in gardens and shrubberies. The flowers are sweet-smelling, conspicuous, drooping, bell-shapecl, in a raceme, with flowers turned to one side. There is no nectary, but the honey is free or half -concealed by the glands in the par- titions of the ovary. The lip of the bell is curved backwards. There are 6 stamens, the three longer as long as the corolla, and affixed to the corolla below, free above, and awl-shaped, the anther- stalks being flattened. The anthers are erect, yellow. The style is threadlike and the stigma is small, the style blue at the end, and the stigma finely hairy. There are some marks on the petals like Ai, Ai, which may serve as pathfinders. Insects visiting the flower, which is abundantly fertile, touch the stigma first. The fruit is a capsule, splitting open, and releasing the seeds when BLUEBELL 121 ripe for dispersal around the parent plant, the stems being- jerked by passers-by or vibrating in the wind, jerking out the seeds. The Bluebell is a humus -loving plant, growing in a humus soil, usually sand soil, or clay soil with humus mixed. It is attacked by a Fungus, Uromyces scillarum. Scilla, Dioscorides, is Greek and Latin for sea onion or squill, or from scyllo, I injure, because the tuber is a violent poison; and the second name (Latin) means, not written, because of some supposed characters like Ai on the petals. It is called Bell-bottle, Hare Bell, Wood Bells, Bloody Man's Photo. J. H. Crabtree BLUEBELL (Scilla non-scripta, Hoffm. and Link.) Fingers, Blue Bell, Blue Bottle, Blue Gramfer Greygles, Blue Rocket, Crake-feet, Craw-feet, Craw-flower, Crawtaes, Craw-tees, Cross-flower, Crow-bells, Crow-flower, Crowfoot, Crow-leek, Crow-toes, Cuckoo, Cuckoo-flower, Cuckoo's Stockings, Culverkeys, Culvers, Gowk's-hose, Gramfer-Greygles, Snap Grass, Greygle, Guckoos, Hyacinth, Crow Leek, Ring o' Bells. Ring o' Bells is an expressive name, referring to the resemblance of the spike to a symphonia or ring of bells, which is a number of tuned bells hung on a stick and struck with a hammer. It is an ornamental plant grown in gardens and shrubberies, and often white or pink. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 302. Scilla non-scripta, Hoffm. and Link. — Scape tall, leaves shorter, linear, furrowed, flowers blue, in drooping raceme, campanu- late, capsule triquetrous. Section VI FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES In making any botanical survey of a country or district one has to consider that certain associations are natural, while others are artificial. If it were possible altogether to say how much of a given region were really aboriginal, probably that portion would require to be put down as an infinitesimal fragment. It is, moreover, clear that the artificial influence of man is an overlapping or obscuring mantle whose ample folds disguise all the small corners despised by man, from position or barrenness (from his point of view), or because they have been retained under the same conditions from time immemorial, where the last resort of truly native plants can still be seen. These islets in a sea of otherwise purely artificial fields, meadows, woodlands, &c. (and we must chiefly exclude water from the artificial tracts), are really to the far-seeing botanist the most interesting part of his quest or study. For he knows quite well that the enclosed fields, with their modern ditches, hedges, trees, and turf, are no more natural than the hovels provided in the fields for the shelter of cattle, that so largely cause this alteration of the land surface. None the less, since the entire crust has repeatedly undergone radical changes in surface vegetation, configuration, and so forth, it is necessary also to consider the composition of the essentially artificial tracts. The artificial meadow and cornfields and bushlands have been already considered, and since roads and hedges are an important part of all regions and are best studied in a linear fashion, wherever they enclose or intersect the equally artificial fields or districts, we need make no apology here for making a special section devoted to the flowers of the roadsides and hedges which belong — as an appendix we may perhaps best consider them — to the previous section or meso- phytes. We have in the roads first the macadam, with a gritty border, fringed by Silverweed, a zone of grass of varying width which varies with the geological formation, where grasses, sedges, rushes, and 126 126 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES various dominant Composite and Rosaceae grow, with occasionally a bushland of Sloe, Briars, Brambles, Sallows, &c. Then there is a boundary ditch, on the sides of which or in which is an aquatic or semi- aquatic flora, which includes such hydrophilous plants as Watercress, Water Ranunculus, Marshwort, &c. Finally we have the hedge with a bank on which dry-soil forms grow, and various planted trees, with bushes and shrubs dispersed at intervals. In fields the hedges and ditches are a repetition of the last. GENERAL VIEW OF ROADSIDE Photo. L. R J. Ho Of these wayside flowers we have included about forty -four, deeming it wiser to give rather fuller attention to this section from its easy accessibility, and the variety of wild flowers that may be found along the highways and byways of Great Britain. In the south of England, or where chalk abounds, the hedges are bordered with Traveller's Joy, and here and there Barberry crops up, though it is largely an introduction. Along the ditch side, Water- cress, Garlic Mustard, and Great Stitchwort are familiar friends, the latter having delightful pearl-like blooms, the two former being used as salads. Perforate St. John's Wort grows on the sward or by the ditch side, its yellow blooms making the roadside bright along with the pink- flowered Herb Robert, which crouches amid the undergrowth in the FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 127 hedge bottom, its fragrant foliage scenting the whole roadway from side to side. Spindle-tree serves the gipsy many a good turn, as he cuts from the hedge skewers he can hawk for sale. Side by side with the latter grows the Sloe, which adorns the whole countryside in white festal array, its flowers being in bloom in the hedgerows before the leaves. Rambling over the hawthorn hedges Tufted Vetch makes handsome bright-hued tufts along every country lane, and in wet hollows or in the shallow ditch bottom. The Yellow Vetchling lends another (yellow tint) to the assemblage of wayside flowers. The Bramble forms a fine nesting-place for White-throat and Blackcap, lining many a hedgerow with pink or white blossoms arranged in handsome panicles. Along the gritty border of the macadam the silvery foliage of the Silverweed forms a fine fringe enriched by pale golden blooms. Close by the Barren Strawberry opens its numerous white blossoms which mature no ruddy fruit. In the hedge and in arching clumps by the way the Dog Rose gladdens the heart of many a weary traveller on a hot June or July day with its rose-tinted or waxen- white petals, while earlier, too, the Crab Apple in flower is a delightful picture in the hedgerow or copse. Everywhere the road is tinted with budding May in early summer, making the air heavy with its almost narcotic scent. The Bryony curls in graceful disorder over the layered hedge. With spotted stem and fetid stench Hemlock warns the wayside beast not to touch it. Under the hedgerow the Hedge-parsley with rigid stem lines the roadway as some sentinel. Cornel red -stemmed, and gay with white bloom, and Elder vary the monotony of the Whitethorn hedge. Underneath in the shade a faint smell of musk betrays the little Moschatel. Teasel with its pitcher-like leaf-bases is fond of this habitat by the hedge side. The diminutive blooms of Nipplewort peep out from the hedge where the Ash affords ample shelter for the passer-by. Great Hedge Bindweed with its handsome, white, trumpet-like blooms encompasses the hedgerow far and wide. The sward is scattered up and down with Red Bartsia sponging on the grass roots. Ground Ivy carpets the hedgebanks, and White or Blue Bugle is rampant in the moist hollows. Spurge Laurel grows in the hedge. The Nettles endeavour to drive all else out of the ditches. The tall Elm throws a wide shade across the road where Black Bryony clambers up the hedge, and in autumn the scarlet berries lend rich colour to the hedge side, as do those of the Cuckoo Pint in earlier months. 128 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES Traveller's Joy (Clematis Vitalba, L.) This plant is found in Interglacial beds at Stoke Newington as well as in Palaeolithic deposits. It ranges in Europe, south of Holland, N. Africa, W. Asia, or in the Warm Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it occurs in most districts, being absent from Brecon, Radnor, Montgomery, Merioneth in Wales, and South Lincoln, S.E. Yorks, Cheviotland in England. In the northern counties away from the chalk or oolite it is probably not native, being a southern type. In Scotland it is found only in Lanark, Haddington, Edinburgh, Fife, Perth, Westerness, Main Argyle, and Dumbarton. It is not native in Scotland or Ireland. The Traveller's Joy, as its name suggests, is a plant of the way- sides and hedgerows, along which it was doubtless planted in the past. It is par excellence a lover of the chalky soils of the Downs, where it is seen at its best, forming rambling masses which cover the upright shrubs that grow in similar habitats, the Wayfaring Tree, the White Beam, or it may be the Hazel. In the summer its tangled bowers afford a fine arbour amongst which the birds may nest, and in the winter a shelter from the cold winds and rain. It is adapted to a dry soil and may be regarded as a xerophile= It is essentially a climbing plant, on which account it is much used in gardens, and elsewhere, to form arbours, being called Great Wild Climber. Its generic name in Latin refers to the tendrils which assist it in its rambling career over hedge and bush. These are highly developed, and very strong and elastic, and are really the leaf-stalks. Traveller's Joy is best recognized when in fruit, by the long feathery awns or persistent styles which it possesses, assisting in its dispersal. The Clematis habit is marked, the stem is woody, the leaves, which are compound, are arranged on either side of a common leaf-stalk, and there are no stipules or leaflike organs. The flowers are characterized by numerous greenish or sulphur -coloured stamens and styles, 4 white sepals in place of petals. The flowers are sweet and small, but numerous, clustered, hence the name White Vine. The Wild Clematis is often 20 ft. or more high. Flowers last from July to August or September. The plant is perennial, being a deciduous climbing shrub. No honey is secreted. In an allied species, C. recta, there is no honey, but insects visit it for pollen. It is proterandrous, that is, the anthers ripen first, and if the stamens had shed all their pollen before KEY TO PLATE XXV i tifr-yg (Berberis vutgaris, L.) ~*-> ^Bardarea. wtgaris, Ait.) \itf, (Vertical section of flower^ ; (^Androecium and gynce- cium (enlarged), showing 4 long and 2 short stamens, honey-gkmds at the base-be- t^oaft stigma above. t> Ra t^eer, and central pistil, b. c&rjfie, with 6 berries, c, P^rt Silique, with valves opening \ pf sterri^with 3 types\fl|f from above downwards, and \\ /leave^lfoiiage', ift |he axil&wtrp;;-. seeds on the iepJiim.;, ./:,' PfirV Oj \ the spines, or reduced leavj^s^ i ^ of plant; showing stem-leaves, .hO/il also 2 racemes with flowers, and ^racemes with fruit below ^ pe^talQid sepals, ojid and' flowers in various stages, :s !i$x p^als, fnth/1^ abo|^ ^^WW/lUfiW8 in * ^^oP^e No. i. Traveller's Joy (Clematis Vitalba, L.) a, Achenes, with fieathery awns, b, Part of plant, show- r. , ,,. showing one of 6 petals,anther, ins" toilette snu. nowcrs%,^vitn \ V^ ; • . / , , uOnev-glands below, and ^ec- .1 or 5 petalo.d sepals, and ^ ^ ' numerous stamens, from dif- ferent asr -.,_.. tx Tf D ^^ (Sisymbriuin rtffci. 'T, Andrcecit^n and gynce- ciuni as in 1^ 3. ^, Pet^l (enlaced). fiiiPod, shewing pungent sLyle, and hafts, uf, Part of plant^th^ncinaie — -r,- leaves, racehie ts below, flowers No. mb a, .Andf.oseklni artjd gynos- .rS^hwort (Stellar,* Holostea, L.) a, Androecium and gynoe- •' ijphfiia, fho\ving in 2 rows\j.Q stamens and pistil in ihe centre, with honey-glands at ba.se of stamens, b, Petal (notched) enlarged, i; Cap- sule with recurvtjd teeth, and 3 («feW5) sePal=- ''» !'arl of pUpt, wit^ lanceolate, stem-leaves, and 'dichbtornous cyme with flowers in various stages,! with 5 notched petals. VXX 3TAJ- i S OF (JiA ,irw^ >nva bos 01 :v/cn ^ ni -^i: ••••ori-. jf!j rii frifiq hni; ^n U'j->J ly-fi nn-yt rlJr-w -jlu^ ,v .^Itq-);; ^ ")o Jiio) ^ om;! riJiv/ ftni.fq l >JoilDib bi?f; tr:O'/>iOl-i"n*'ir> ni KViwifi rlir/? ^niv bfoibb eboq d FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES PLATE XXV I. Traveller's Joy (Cki/tads Vilulba, L.). 2. Barberry (Berberis vu/garis, L.). 3. Winter Ciess (Karbarea vulgaris, Ait.). 4- Hedge Mustard (Sisyinbriuin officinale, Scop.). 5. Sauce Alone (Sisyinbrium Alliaria, Scop.). 6. Greater Stitchvvort (Stellaria Holnstea, L.). TRAVELLER'S JOY 129 TRAVELLER'S JOY (Clematis Vitalba, L.) the pistil was mature insects would cease to visit the flowers before the stigma became mature. Cross -pollination is performed by Bees (Apidse, Sphegidae), Diptera (Syrphidse, Muscidae). The achenes (i -seeded) are dispersed by the wind. Long hairs are developed at the end of the fruit like a long feathery awn to aid in wind dispersal. Growing on a lime soil, derived from chalk or limestone, it is a VOL. TTT C 39 i-3o FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES lime-loving plant, but will grow when transplanted on a more rocky soil derived from granite or sand soil. Traveller's Joy is infested by one of the cluster-cup fungi, sEcidium clematidis. Ltemophlceus clematidis, a beetle, and the moths Small Waved Umber, Cidaria vitalbata, and Double-striped Pug, Eupithecia pumilata, are insects which feed on it. The name Clematis was derived from clema, a sort of vine, and Vitalba, by Dodomeus, from vitis, vine, alba, white. Originally the name was Viorna, adorning the ways. Gerarde in 1597 gave the name Traveller's Joy.1 The common English names are Bedwine, Beggar-brushes, Bethwine, Bindwith, Climber, Crocodile, Grey-beards, Hag-rope, Honesty, Honey-stick, Lady's Bower, Love-bind, Old Man's Beard, Old Man's Woozard, Robin Hood's Fetter, Smoke- wood, &c. Boys smoke pieces of the stem, hence the last name, and the name Tom-bacca. Used for binding like withies it was called Bindwith, &c. The name Hag-rope means hedge-rope. It was called Devil's Thread in allusion to its supposed association with the Evil One. In pre-scientific days Pliny the naturalist tells us it was used for cleansing leprous sores, because of its caustic nature. It was used for blistering, and the young shoots were pickled for vinegar. Baskets are made from the plant in some districts. It is much used in gardens for forming arbours, and as a climbing plant in gardens. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — i. Clematis Vitalba, L. — Sepals valvate in the bud, carpels awned, achenes with feathery persistent styles, leaves opposite, stem climbing and woody, with tendrils. Barberry (Berberis vulgaris, L.) Our knowledge of this plant begins with recent times. It is an occupant of the Warm Temperate Zone, occurring in Europe, temperate Asia, N. Africa, and has been introduced into the United States. It is absent from S. Somerset, S. Hants, Hunts, occurring only in Gla- morgan in S. Wales, Denbigh, Carnarvon, and Flint in N. \Vales, S. Lanes in the Trent province; but it does not occur in Mid Lanes or the Isle of Man, though present throughout the W. Lowlands, except Wigtown, and Haddington in the E. Lowlands; in Elgin and Easter- ness only in the E. Highlands. Elsewhere it is found in Westerness, Clyde Isles, and Cantire in the W. Highlands, from Caithness south- wards. It is naturalized in Scotland, ft occurs in Ireland. 1 On account possibly ot its prevalence along the highways and in hedges. BARBERRY Although widely dispersed throughout the whole of the British Isles, the Barberry as a shrub, and one indeed which yields delicious fruits for tarts, is probably in half of these introduced, and wherever it is found in the hedgerow this must usually be the case, for our hedges are quite modern. The Barberry occurs in copses and woods, and may in such localities be native. As a host-plant for the smut attacking wheat its dis- tribution has been affected by an Act of Parliament restricting" its occurrence. This is an erect, smooth- stemmed fruit tree or shrub, which tends to grow out in an arching manner after a certain distance, giving the boughs an overhanging nature above. The stem is yellow and angled. It bears numerous pointed spines or modified leaves, which are divided into three, or seven, with axillary buds bearing leaves. The leaves are inversely egg-shaped, toothed, alternate or in clusters. The clusters or racemes of yellow flowers hang down in a drooping manner. In fruit it may be recognized by their long scarlet character. It is 8-ioft. high, flowers from April to May, and is perennial. The flowers are horizontal or inclined obliquely downwards. They are thus not fully protected from the weather. The 3 inner sepals and 6 petals are curled inwards at the tips, and protect the 6 stamens and 12 honey-glands from the rain. The 3 inner sepals are conspicuous, the yellow petals quite embrace the stamens, while the latter are undisturbed. The honey- glands are at the base of the petals, thick and oval bodies of orange colour, which are close to the inner side and base of the petal. The anther- stalks touch below, and before being touched bend back and touch the portions of the petals below the honey-glands and BARBERRY (Berberis vnlgaris, L.) 132 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES adjacent halves of the latter. The honey collects in the angles between the stamens and ovary just where the proboscis is thrust in, and the stamens when touched, being sensitive, spring forward towards the pistil and dust the side of the bee's head with pollen. The stigma is covered with wart-like knobs along its edge sur- rounding the base of the ovary, and owing to the openness of the flower one side of the insect's head opposite that touched by the stamen brushes it when it goes on to the next flower, and cross- pollination thus follows. In the same flower the bee plunges its head first to one side and then to the other, and self-pollination follows. Diptera, Syrphidae, Muscidse, Hymenoptera (Apiclae, Vespidae), Coleop- tera (Dermestidae, Coccinellidae) visit it. The irritable stamens secure dusting of the insect, and cross-pollination, by driving the bee, which is startled by their recoil, away to another flower, an observation noted by Linnaeus. The fruit is dispersed by the agency of animals. It is edible, juicy, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. Being red it is attractive to birds. As the seeds have a hard testa and endosperm they are un- injured by digestion. Barberry is partly a humus-loving plant, requiring a humus soil, but is also a sand-lover, subsisting on a sand soil, and grows best in a mixture of the two or peaty loam. Puccinia graminis, an orange cluster-cups, grows on the leaves and shoots of the Barberry. The second stage of the fungus forms the well-known rust of wheat and other cereals, sEcidium berberidis. Microsphcera berberidis is parasitic on Barberry also. The Hymenoptera, Hylotoma berberidis, ff. euodis, the Lepidoptera, Beautiful Brocade, Hadena contigua, Mottled Pug, Eupithecia exiguata, Exapate selatella, Gelechia Montfetella, the Homoptera, Lecanium per- sicce, Rhopalisiphura berberidis, the flies, Rhagoletis cerasi, Spilographa alternata, visit it. Berberis, a name given by Brunfels, is mediaeval Latin of uncertain origin. Barberry is called Barbaryn, Barberry, Barboranne, Berber, Guild, Jaundice Berry, Maiden Barberry, Pepper-ridge, Piperidge, Piprage, Woodsour, Woodsore, Woodsower Tree, Piperidge Rilts. In allusion to the name Jaundice Berry, Ellis, in Modern Husband- men, 1750, p. 157, says: "The wood of this tree is said to be such an antidote against the Yellow Jaundice that, if a person constantly feeds himself with a spoon made of it, it will prevent and cure this disease while it is in its infancy." WINTER CRESS 133 The name Guild refers to the yellow bark; the name Jaundice Berry, again, refers to the so-called remedy, by " Doctrine of Signa- tures ", that the yellow bark was a cure for jaundice, and it was taken in ale for this purpose, being purgative. The scarlet berries were eaten for stomachic disorders, and they contain malic acid, which in France is manufactured from them. They make also a jelly, which is very delicious. There is tannin in the bark, and in Poland it was used for tanning leather. Morocco leather, linen, and cloth are dyed from a dye made from Barberry. It is used as an ornamental shrub in gardens. The berries are too acid for birds as a rule, but though bitter are not unpleasant. They are put in sweetmeats. It is astringent as a medicine, and has been used in bilious complaints. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 15. Berberis vulgaris, L. — Shrub, woody, spinose, leaves 3-fid spines, racemes pendulous, single or fascicled, yellow, sepals 6, de- ciduous, imbricate, petals 6 with 2 glands at base, fruit a berry, 2- seeded. Winter Cress (Barbarea vulgaris, Ait.) In deposits containing remains of recent plants as seeds no trace has as yet been found of this plant. It is widespread, occurring in the Arctic and Temperate Zone, in Arctic Europe, Asia, the Himalayas up to 17,000 ft., South Africa, Australia, and North America. It is found in every county in Great Britain, except S. Lines, Stirling, North Perth, Westerness, Main Argyle, and is absent from counties west of the Caledonian Canal, except Caithness. It is found in Ireland. The Winter Cress is fond of wraysides, where it grows in clumps on the banks of the ditches. Probably its use as a salad may be to some extent responsible for this. Elsewhere it can be found along the banks of streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes, growing in more or less damp or moist conditions, but it is frequently to be found also on rubbish heaps and in waste places with other plants used in garnishing. It has an erect habit, having a single, rarely branched, usually smooth, rarely downy, angular, main stem, with radical leaves, with a large terminal and smaller paired lobes, and with rounded lobes, and the upper leaves are inversely egg-shaped, sometimes arranged on either side of a common stalk and toothed. This gives it a strict or rigid habit. It grows in a clump, a number of plants in association in flower being a pretty picture, as the flowers are numerous. The under-side of the leaves is frequently purple, owing to the presence i34 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES of anthocyan or red colouring matter, as in many moisture-loving plants. It may be recognized by the above characters, and the small yellow flowers (J in. in diameter), which grow in loose racemes, with pods, either closely united throughout or slightly spreading. The pods have an awl-shaped point and are square, and are broader than the flower-stalks. It grows to a height of 2 ft. The flowering stage lasts from May to August. The plant appears to be bien- nial, not perennial, as usu- ally stated. On each side of the two shorter stamens (there are six stamens altogether), at the base of the sepals, there is a small fleshy, green honey - gland, and between each longer pair a larger gland, external to their base, and also where the short stamens are abor- tive or functionless. In fine weather a drop of liquid (colourless) may be seen on each of the stamens. The anthers are situated irrespective of the position of the honey-glands. The longer stamens make a revolution of 90 degrees towards the short stamens, and exceed the stigma, from the time when the anthers open after the flower expands till the anther is completely covered on one side with pollen. The two short anthers on a level with the stigma are still turned towards it after opening, and the anthers are placed as in Water Cress, while the glands are as many as in N. sylvestre. Winter Cress is dispersed by its own agency. When the pods are dry they become tense and burst, and the light seeds are scattered to some distance. WINTER CRESS (Barbarea vulgaris, Ait.) HEDGE MUSTARD 135 This plant grows on sandy loam or clay. Dodonseus gave the name Barbarea, and it was formerly called Herb St. Barbara, hence the first Latin name, the second alluding to its common occurrence. The English names are St. Barbara's Herb, Cassabully, French or Winter Cress, Winter Rocket, Wound Rocket, Yellow Rocket. It was called Wound Rocket, as Turner says, because it was held to stanch wounds. St. Barbara's Day falls on 4th December. Winter Cress was used in winter as a salad, according to Lyte, whence the names, and others in French, Dutch, and Latin. It was formerly said to have formed the Crown of Thorns, but this seems unlikely. In Sweden it is eaten and boiled. It is or was formerly used as a salad, though inferior to ordinary Water Cress, and without any distinctive flavour. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 26. Barbarea vulgaris, Ait. — Stem (flowering) angular, erect, radical leaves dark-green, shining, lyrate, terminal leaflet orbicular, upper leaves obovate, dentate, flowers yellow, numerous, style distinct, pods appressed, with subulate point, short. Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale, Scop.) As yet no traces of this plant have been found in seed-bearing deposits. It is found throughout the Warm Temperate region in Europe and W. Asia. It has been introduced into the United States. Though common in most parts of Great Britain, Hedge Mustard does not occur in Brecon, Radnor, Montgomery, Merioneth, Peebles, Selkirk, Mull, and the Shetlands. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Hedge Mustard, as the name suggests, is found by the sides of our roads and hedges, and may be said to be most common near villages and houses, and may possibly owe its distribution largely to former herbal usage. It is also a regular member of the flora of waste ground, where it ousts many more tender plants, being a vigorous plant which occupies much space. Like some other plants, Hedge Mustard has two different habits, before and after flowering. Before flowering it has a main stem, hairy, and often purple, as in Winter Cress, with numerous leaves, with seg- ments divided nearly to the midrib and with the lobes turned back, prostrate on the ground, and few above. In this form it is similar to many plants with cyclic foliar arrangement and erect stem. When the flowers have opened from a series of dividing branches, and have com- i36 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES menced to produce fruit, the aspect is rather like that of a candelabra, and by this time the basal rosette of leaves has usually disappeared. The plant is frequently covered with dust, more so than most wayside plants. It may be distinguished by its small yellow terminal racemes of flowers borne on leafless branches. The pods are closely united to the stem throughout their length, long, acute above, with sharp style, and borne on short flower-stalks, being usually downy. The leaves have a terminal pointed lobe, and lateral ones with the points turned back. The Hedge Mustard is often 2 ft. high. It flowers from May to July. It is annual, and reproduced by seed. The flowers are similar to those of Alliaria. On each side of the 2 shorter stamens are honey-glands, and each of the 4 honey drops lies between the stamens and the pistil. The anthers and stigma ripen together, and the former face the latter. The longer anthers are at first taller than the stigma, and project when the flower opens and bend inwards; the shorter ones, at first within the flower, being ultimately on the same level, but not quite so long as the stigma, curve outwards slightly. They all six grow, and the longer ones exceed the stigma. Cross-pollination is arranged for, but may not occur. In the absence of insects pollen from the four long stamens falls on the stigma. The flowers are inconspicuous and visits are in- frequent, but honey is sought by Pieris napi, P. rapce, which thrust the proboscis between the stigma and anthers. Pollen is sought by Andrena dorsata. The insects visiting it are Hymenoptera (Apiclae, Andrena dor said}, Lepidoptera, as above. Hedge Mustard is dispersed by its own agency. The pods open and allow the seeds to fall out around the plant, or disperse them to some distance. HEDGE MUSTARD (Sisymbrium officinale, Scop.) SAUCE ALONE 137 It is a sand-loving plant, and requires a dry sand soil or sandy loam, derived from older sandy rocks, grits, and sandstones. It is galled by Cecidomyia sisymbrii. A beetle, Ceuthorhynchus assimilis, visits it, also the beetles Phyllotreta nemorum, P. ochripes, Poophagiis nastiirtii, P. sisymbrii. Theophrastus gave the name Sisymbrium, which was the Greek name of a water-mint, and officinale means medicinal. The plant is called Bank Cress, Hedge Mustard, Hedgeweed, Lucifer Matches, Crambling Rocket, Sauce Alone. Hedge Mustard was eaten as a relish with salt fish, hence the last name, and was used in sauce. It was held to be diuretic, expectorant, and was regarded as a remedy for asthma, hoarseness, and chronic coughs. This plant has a somewhat saline taste. The seeds are pungent, but not so strong as mustard. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 31. Sisymbrium officinale, Scop. — Stem erect, branched, divaricate, leaves at base runcinate, points recurved, terminal lobe hastate, upper linear or absent, flowers small, yellow, pods appressed on short pedicels, downy, subulate. Sauce Alone (Sisymbrium Alliaria. Scop.) There are no deposits from which this is known in a fossil state in the British Isles. It is a plant which is found in the Temperate Zone in Europe, North Africa, Temperate West Asia, as far as the Hima- layas. In Great Britain it is found everywhere except in Cardigan, Flint, S. Lines, Stirling, Mid Perth, Main Areyle, Cantire, S. Ebudes, £> ' O/ Mid and N. Ebudes, Sutherland, Caithness, and the Northern Isles. From the Grampians it ranges southwards, up to a height of 1000 ft. in England, but it is less common in Scotland and Ireland. Garlic Mustard grows with Hedge Mustard along the wayside and beneath the hedge, or it may line the ditch which flanks the highway. Once used as a garnishing it may to some extent owe its frequency around a village, or its occurrence on highways, to this cause. A rather moist habitat suits it best, though it will grow on a high bank where there is shade enough to maintain a fair supply of moisture continuously. It manages to win its way to the front in spring to the exclusion of all else, but may be seen with the Greater Stitchwort, Red Campion, Lords-and- Ladies, &c. Jack-by-the-hedge is a tall, handsome plant, with an erect habit, and numerous heart-shaped, toothed leaves alternately arranged, the i38 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES leaves being coarsely veined, and moved by heliotropic tendency to turn towards the sun, on each aspect towards the greatest source of light. The plant smells strongly of garlic, especially when the leaves are bruised, quite as much as Ramsons. All the leaves are borne on long foot- stalks, and the broad, deep teeth give their leaves a notched ap- pearance. The flowers are white and small, the petals are stalked and inversely egg-shaped. The pods are linear, slightly curved up- ward, longer than the stalks, rounded, biloc- ular, and 2-valved. The plant is 2-3 ft. high, and flowers from May to June. It is perennial, and deciduous and herb- aceous. It has 4 honey - glands as in the Cuckoo - flower, and the honey forms into four drops in the middle of the flower, forming in wards,1 from the base of the short stamens. The drops lie between the long and short stamens, and at length fill the lower part of the space between the stamens and pistil, adhering firmly to it. There are none where the abortive or functionless stamens should be. The sepals in bud protect the parts, and being white, attract insects, and when the flowers open, they fall. The anthers open SAUCE ALONE (Sisymbrium Alliaria, Scop.) 1 Causing, it may be, the sepals to drop early. This does not happen where the nectar is formed between the stamens and sepals, or outwards. GREATER STITCH WORT 139 inwards, and the inner ones closely surround the stigma, and self- pollinate it, but honey and pollen seekers cross-pollinate it. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidae), Diptera (Syrphidae, Muscidse), Coleoptera (Nitidulidae, Curculionidse). Jack-by-the-hedge is dispersed by its own agency. The dry pods curl and burst open, and the seeds are dispersed to some distance. The plant is a sancl plant and a humus-loving plant, and flourishes best upon a sand soil, in which there is a fair proportion of humus soil. It thrives on sandstone formations, Keuper, and Liassic formations. There are no fungal pests. A Hemipterous insect, Siphonophora alliarice, feeds on it. Alliaria was an old genus proposed by Fuchs, derived from A I Hum, garlic, alluding to its smell. This species is called Beggarman's Oatmeal, Cardiacke, Caspere, Eileber, English Treacle, Garlick-wort, Hedge-garlick, Jack-by-the- hedge, Leek-cress, Garlick Mustard, Penny Hedge, Poor Man's Mustard, Poor Man's Treacle, Sauce Alone, Swarms. Once it was used as a vegetable and boiled with meat, hence the name Sauce Alone. It was fried in Wales with bacon and herrings. The garlic smell is most noticeable when the plant is rubbed between the fingers. It was employed as a sudorific, and for cancers and gangrene. The seeds were used to promote sneezing. It was reputed to be antiseptic. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 32. Sisymbrium Alliaria, Scop. — Stem tall, erect, leafy, leaves cordate, radical leaves reniform, dentate, sinuate, veined, strong- smelling, flowers white, small, pods longer than pedicels, seeds striate. Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria Holostea, L.) This plant has been found in Interglacial beds in Great Britain. It is distributed throughout the Temperate Zone in Europe and Western Asia. The Greater Stitchwort is found in every English, Scotch, and Welsh county except Mid Lanes, Stirling, N. Perth, N. Ebudes, the Hebrides, and Shetlands. It is found at a height of nearly 2000 ft. in the Highlands. The pretty starlike flowerets of the Greater Stitchwort are a welcome sign in early spring of the return of the flowers, and this reminder we meet with in every hedgerow or brake, where this charming wild flower grows. It is perhaps commoner in narrow 1 40 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES straggling plantations where there is a good deal of light than in dense woodlands where this is not the case. Perhaps to compete better with other deciduous herbaceous plants the Stitchworts have adopted the grass habit. The stem is more or less erect or ascending, prostrate at the base, and at the nodes is brittle, and hairy above, angular, the angles rough, slender. The stem is more stout upwards, and below is supported by surrounding herbage as a rule. The leaves are stalkless, rigid, united below, lance-shaped, with a long narrow point, fringed with hairs, narrow just above the base to an acute point. The margin is rough, toothed. The flowers are large, few, white, satiny, on slender ultimate stalks, in a panicled cyme, leafy. The bracts are leafy. The petals are half- divided to the base, and twice as long as the obscurely 3 -veined or nerveless sepals. The flowers are rarely double, and the petals may be irregularly lobed. The capsule is round, as long as the calyx. Some petals may be wanting occasionally. Greater Stitchwort is known also as Satin flower. The flowers bloom from April to June. The plant is perennial, increasing by division. The height is 1-2 ft. The mode of pollination in the Greater Stitchwort is similar to that of the Grassy Stitchwort. The flowers are much more con- spicuous, however, and larger, though it is true that they grow less in the open, but they are visited by a variety of insects. The flowers are bisexual. The honey-glands are yellow. They lie on the external side of the outer stamens between the petals. There is a honey -pit above, and the glands yield abundant honey, which explains the frequency of insect visits. In the ordinary course the pollination takes place in three stages. The outer ring of stamens open, standing close to the centre of the flower, and turn the anthers upwards, while the inner stamens are not yet mature. The stigmas are bent inwards. In the second stage the inner stamens open, and by this time the outer have bent back and shrivelled. The stigmas are now erect, but the papillar surfaces are turned towards each other. In the third stage the stigmas are widespreading, and in this state the flower may be self-pollinated. But with insect visits, owing to the proterandrous conditions, the flower is usually cross-pollinated. The insects that visit it are Diptera (Empidse, Syrphidae, Musciche), Hymenoptera (Apidae, Tenthredinidae), Coleoptera, CEdemera, Lepi- doptera (Pieris napce\ Thysanoptera (Tkrips). Greater Stitchwort is dispersed by its own agency. The 6-valved capsules open when ripe, allowing dispersal by the wind. GREATER STITCHWORT 141 It is a humus-loving plant requiring a peaty loam or humus soil, usually growing in or near woods, or sheltered tracts where vegetable matter collects. The microfungi Puccinia arenarice and Ustilago violacea are para- sitic on it. The leaves are galled by Brachycolus stellarice. Melampsorella Caryophyllacearum (Witches' Broom of Silver Fir) also attacks Great Stitchwort. The beetle Cassida obsoleta, the moths Marsh Pug GREATER STITCHWORT (Stellaria Hohstea, L.) Photo. B Hanley Eupithecia pygmceata, Gelechia tricolorella, G. maciilea, Coleopkora solitariella visit it, and the Hemipteron Siphonophora pisi. Holosteum, Dioscorides, is from the Greek holos, all; osteon, bone; and is used by antiphrasis to express the very opposite. Stellaria is from the Latin for star. The plant is called Aclder's-meat, Adder's Spit, Agworm-flower, Allbone, Bachelor's Buttons, Easter Bell, Billy White's Buttons, Bird's- eye, Bird's-tongue, Brandy-snaps, Break-bones, Cuckoo-flower, Cuckoo- meat, Cuckoo's Victuals, Dead Man's Bones, Devil's Corn, Devil's Eyes, Easter Flower, Scurvy, Snake and Star Grass, Headache, Lady's Lint, Lady's White Petticoat, May Flower, May-grass, Milk- 1 42 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES cans, Milk Maid, Miller's Star, Moon-flower, Moon wort, Owd Lad's Corn, Pick Pocket, Piskies, Pyxie, Shepherd's Weather Glass, Shirt Buttons, Smocks or Smock-frocks, Snakeflower, Snap grackers, Snap Jack, Snappers, Snap Stacks, Snapwort, Snow, Snowflake, Star- flower, Star of Bethlehem, Starwort, Stichewort, Stitchwort, Thunder- flower. Such is a fair example of the multiplicity of local names for common flowers, which are not without some interest in every case. This plant was called Stitchwort because it used to be drunk in wine with powdered acorns for pain in the side or the "stitch". It appears to have been called Thunder -flower because the unripe capsule contains air, and when pressed goes off with a bang, and children are fond of doing this. It was called Allbone on account of the jointed stems, or as explained above. The name Lady's Lint may be from the fine threads in the stalks. It is called Devils Eye, being held in special favour by fairies, and peasants hesitated to pluck it in case they were "pixy-led". The Yellow Underwing hovers over it in daylight in the sunlight. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 55. Stellaria Holostea, L. — Stem erect, slender, rigid, rough, leaves sessile, long-keeled, acuminate, grooved, fringed, flowers white, petals twice as long as sepals, bifid, capsule globose. Perforate St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum, L.) This common plant has been found in Preglacial beds in Suffolk, Interglacial beds in Sussex, and in Neolithic beds in Edinburgh. At the present time it is at home in the North Temperate Zone in Arctic Europe, North Africa, Siberia, West Asia as far as the Himalayas. In the United States, America, it is an introduction. It is generally distributed in Great Britain, but it is absent in the counties of Cardigan, South Lines, Stirling, S. Perth, Elgin, Westerness, Mid and N. Ebudes, West Sutherland, and the Northern Isles. In Yorkshire it grows at a height of 1000 ft. The Perforate St. John's Wort is as familiar a plant along the road- side as Herb Robert, the Yellow Vetchling, or Tufted Vetch, or Hedge Parsley, Cleavers, and Wood Basil, which commonly grow with it. It is generally found near hedges or banks, and the highway is quite gay with clumps of its yellow bloom from July to September. Many rounded or slightly angular stems arise from the same root in this as in other species, giving it a clustered appearance. They are KEY TO PLATE XXVI :horn ra^ ' x_-»' \— rj'- ~-i Wl"^"""^^-! T"^BtW~S'5?'^k: J/ ^^ ^_. un|e,^pc^Vo rt> J3«^dyicgjinie, y3ith a, SertfolvJ^ftAver, with 3 J>]f7«t^6/Wtli ^e/ds^^ui-,, seeds! '^nd\i j^a^osep^tWs sepfals^^^ftiis^ ;out of 5), ^s^^^l^^epal^k/^lyx,® ^./esiyx, Nwitti §few^ tejtli. peri^yho-»^ ';' stamens, and ^w^^«^yteeffli.\w=l^d. T^ Uftf)6^_^at|»f pI^Ht^vithv ^T, Pak^^janOvitl^'nnare Alah^edlate' paired itaflets^nd \N C leaC^d^ biahch^d ' tt o ; 1 1 i i >,, wj^flclv^s (p^)ili^ceous;' " urn. xajtav-3nd wjth flowen ^K&'/ s(wwin| " xqai both grow upon it. The beetles Bruchus loti, PhylLobius imiformi, Apion subulatum, the Thysanop- terous Thrips phalerata, the Lepidoptera Wood White (Leucophasia sinapis\ Botys fuscalis, Cemiostoma ivailesella feed upon it. Lathyrns, Theophrastus, is Greek for a kind of pulse, and the specific name refers to the meadow habitat. Meadow Vetchling is also called Angleberries, Craw-peas, Fitch, BLACKTHORN 157 Yellow Tar, Yellow Fitchling, Lady's Fingers, Mouse Pea, Crawpea, Tom Thumb Vetchling. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 90. Lathyrus pratensis, L. — Stem climbing, angled, not winged, tendrils small, leaflets 2, narrow, lanceolate, stipules sagittate, as long as leaflets; flowers yellow, veined, flower-stalk many-flowered, in raceme, secund, hile small. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa, L.) Preglacial, Interglacial, and Neolithic beds have yielded evidence of the early occurrence of this plant in Britain. In its present distri- bution it is confined to Europe, but the Bullace is found in Africa and the Himalayas, both in the Warm Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it is found south of Sutherland throughout the country, up to a height of 1300 ft. in Yorkshire. It is met with in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Sloe is so common a wayside plant as scarcely to need descrip- tion. It is found not only by the highway, with Spindle, Maple, Crab, Hawthorn, Cornel, and Elder, but also in the hedgerows, in fields, and in woods, forming dense brakes in the latter, or in the open, where the Blackthorn blossoms make the otherwise dark growth of branches quite white in early spring. As the Latin specific name indicates this plant is peculiarly spinous, which separates it from P. instititia, where there are few spines. The plant is a bushy tree with numerous interlacing branches, rigid. The Sloe has the shrub habit. It is small, rigid, much-branched, the branches spreading, zigzag, spinous (hence spinosa], the spines being arrested branches. The wood is hard and tough. The bark is black. The leaves appear after the flowers. They are egg-shaped, or oblong to lance-shaped, stalked, and vary considerably in form, in the acuteness of the leaf, and in the length of the stalk. They are downy below when young, later hairless, and are toothed. The flowers are white, ^-f in. across, shortly -stalked, the stalks solitary or in pairs, hairless. The petals are inversely egg-shaped to oblong, and vary in breadth. The fruit is a drupe, the flesh adhering to the stone, round. When the carpel becomes the fruit the layers are three, the skin or epicarp, the flesh or mesocarp, and the inner stony endocarp, the three forming the pericarp, the seed being the kernel within the stone. There are two ovules, one often being unde- veloped. 158 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES The plant is often 15 ft. high, and grows in clumps, several being associated together forming bush-land. It is one of the earliest wild flowers in March and April. The Sloe is a deciduous shrub, propa- gated by seeds. The flowers are conspicuous, and contain abundant honey, and owing to their appearance before the leaves and the early flowering are much visited by insects. The stigma matures before the anthers. In the first stage the style is considerably above the stamens. The BLACKTHORN (Primus spinosa, L.) Photo. Rev. C. A. Hall anthers have not yet opened, and are bent down towards the centre, The stigma is already receptive, and projects. It is therefore first touched by an insect visitor, the petals becoming more or less hori- zontal. The stamens become erect, and bend outwards. The outer anthers open first. The style lengthens and overtops the short stamens, which stand near the centre. As the stigma is at this stage still receptive, self-pollination may thus occur by the agency of insect visitors. In their absence self-pollination may occur as the flowers turn to the sun, from the inflection of the stamens toward the centre above the stigma, causing pollen to fall on the latter. The flower is visited by Hymenoptera (Apidse), Diptera (Empidae. BLACKTHORN 59 Syrphidse, Muscidae, Bibionidse), Coleoptera (Nitidulidae), Lepidoptera ( Vanessa]. The fruit is edible, and the seed is dispersed by animals. The Sloe is at home on sand soil, and is a sand plant, but is also a lime plant, loving limestone, and a humus-loving plant requiring humus soil. A fungus, Pnccinia pruni, causes early fall of the leaf. Eriophyes similis is a gall that attacks it. Many larger fungi grow on it: Sterenm, Podospliara, Eutypella, Poly stigma, Plowrightia, Poly- porus, Hypocmis, Entomospo- riinu, Corynuni, Cladosporium. It is also galled by Cecidomyia pntni and Biorhiza terminate ; and the beetles Otiorhynchus picipes, Monochetus sulcatus, Magdalinus pruni, Rhynchites auratus, the Hymenopterous insects Andrena bucephala, Eriocajnpa aduinbrata, Lepi- doptera Black Hairstreak ( Thecla pruni}, Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula\ Yel- low Tail Moth (^Liparis auri- flua], Grey Dagger (Acrony- ata psi), White -letter Hair- streak ( Thecla W. alburn ), Brown Hairstreak (T. betultz], Short-cloaked Moth (Nola C2i.cn I la fella], &c., and the Homopterous Capsus capil- laris, the Homoptera Psylla pruni, Trichopsylla Walkeri feed on it. Primus, Pliny, is Latin for plum-tree, and the second Latin name refers to the spinose character. The names it goes by are: Blackberry, Blackthorn, Blackthorn- May, Buckthorn, Bullens, Bullies, Bullins, Bullister, Cat's-sloes, Egg- peg Bushes, Hedge Picks, Hedge Speaks, Heg Peg Bushes, Hep, Winter Kecksies, May Blackthorn, Quick Scrog, Skig Slaathorn, Slacen-bush, Slan, Slaunbush, Slea, Sloey, Slon, Slone Bloom, Sloo- bush, Slines, Snag, Snagbush, Winter Picks. Quick or Quicks are young black or white thorn for planting in a hedge. The name Sloe for the fruit is extended to the plant itself, BLACKTHORN (Prunus spinosa, L.) 160 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES and sloes are recommended for fences. Blackthorn distinguishes it from Whitethorn or May. Blackthorn Chats are the young shoots when they have been cut down. The " Lay of Runzifal " makes a Blackthorn shoot out of the bodies of slain heathens, a white flower by the heads of fallen Christians. It was held antagonistic to witchcraft. In Surrey it is always cold when the Blackthorn comes in flower. " When the Sloe tree is as white as a sheet, Grow your barley whether it be dry or not." It is the origin of the Bullace and the Plum. In a wild state it has spines. The fruit is very astringent. A conserve is made from it, and port wine has been made from it as well as sloe gin. It has been used for marking ink. Lye or tea used to be made from the leaves. It has been substituted for cinchona bark for ague and fever. As a wood it is used for the teeth of rakes. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 91. Prunus spinosa, L. — Shrubby, stems woody, branched, twigs zigzag, spinose, black, leaves elliptical, narrow, downy below, after the flowers; flowers white, 1-2, peduncle glabrous, fruit globose. Bramble (Rubus fruticosus (= rusticanus, Merc.)) This plant is known in Preglacial, Interglacial, Neolithic, and Roman beds (at Silchester, for instance). It is a member of the North Temperate Zone, found in Central and South Europe. Out of 112 vice-counties it is found in 74 in Great Britain, but it is not so common in Scotland. The Common Bramble is not only a prevalent hedgerow plant, but it is often one of the chief mainstays of common undergrowth, and forms wide patches on heaths and moors, being indiscriminately common to both highland and lowland districts. It forms some part also of the undergrowth in woods and plantations, but is not a shade- lover like certain other brambles, of which altogether some hundred species are now known, ranking as sub-species. Brambles are plants which have a peculiar habit like Roses in general, unlike any other plants in this respect. The stems are numerous, ascending at first, or erect, growing out from a single root, and rooting again when they have arched over and commenced to descend afresh. They thus present a regular entanglement, which it is KEY TO PLATE XXVII No. i. Bramble (Rubus rusticanus, Merc.) U pper part of flowering pan icle, with recurved prickles, compounjd -^-foliqlate sfem- ieaf, flowers with 5 pQt&|s with narrow claw;, numerous stamens, and pistil in centre, also , - WO. 2, Barren Strawberry • ^Potottilla sterilh, Garcko) ; /#, "Ifrtiitj x with bjacte&e^s. ' y akid \sepals, sliowinif jfiaay/^- achenes. (5, Plant with woody rootstock, 3-foliolate leaves, stipules, flower-stalks, with 5 petals ;%od'j£ sepals i0i'ternat- ing, an'd many stameaas, with L m a, Fruit (hip), wi fallen, and stigma at the top. by Flowering branch, with^re.- curved prickles 6n stem prriqate leaves,) with flower jT in bud, and ^i^nate sepals, i] flower expanded, with 5 petals, ; many semens (pgjngynous), bracts below the flower-stalk. >/ ./Na^J^WtpleVV; , showing ne^ymeso^^'^ shewing J^.-jCf £tnd~^(of O ^y^tyffi//** ^eml% carp and cartilaginous cndo- ^ai^ w^twjna^/sutoeksV) ^^thtTOraraf calyx, a^< carp (cores), with 5 carpels. and stigma, single style in with ovary below. *, 6, Flowering branch, with centre of disk, and carpel of ripe berries.0 "';c, Stem 'with .Aia^^w: anj- gumji^^pwers ^ ^closed '-hi-, palyx-tube. i|j P1 tenffrilJind SrfJ sljdbtals wlt^ -^ TF^it, (h\^4ttjne, /wit^r^e- /largV/'male narrow claw, \yHn alternate) J"c^yea"sepAl ns, and/f branch Ard 1JVXX TiTAJl OT FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES PLATE XXVII v I. Hi ami ile (A'ubies riislicaints, Merc.). 2. Barren Strawberry ( rotentiila sterilis, Garcke). 3. Uog Rose ( A' caniiia, L.). 4. Crab Apple (Pyrns ilfalus, L.). 5. Hawthorn (Crahegiis Oxyacanllia, L.). 6. Uryony (Bryo dioica, Jacq.). BRAMBLE 161 difficult to penetrate, like numerous croquet hoops (but larger) set here and there, crossing each other in all directions. Those who have tried to find a grasshopper warbler's nest know what I mean. This Blackberry has the shrub habit. The stem is prickly, arching, prostrate. It may be hairless, bluish-green, or have prickles, bristles, and gland-tipped hairs. There are no suckers, the stem is round or angular. The barren stems are more or less erect, or arch and root from a point near the extremity, giving rise to fresh plants. The BRAMBLE (Rubus frulicosus (= rusticanus, Merc.)) Photo. R L J. He down is closely appressed. The prickles are equal, and are bent downwards, with an enlarged, flattened base. The leaves are ternate or quinate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. They are hairless, with fine hard felt below, with the margins bent downwards. The leaflets are leathery, convex, rough, stalked, overlapping or not, inversely egg-shaped, rhomboid, coarsely irregularly toothed, dark-green above, paler below (hence discolor). The terminal leaflet is inversely egg-shaped, blunt- pointed. The flowers are pink or white, in terminal racemes, with corymb- like or long lateral branches. The panicle is long, narrow. The petals are pink. The calyx is finely woolly-felted. The anther-stalks and styles are purple, the stamens longer than the styles. The VOL. III. 41 1 62 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES anthers are green. The drupes or stone fruits are black or reddish- purple, small, numerous, acid. The flower has a concave receptacular tube which surrounds the base of the pistil. The pistil is made up of numerous carpels on a conical receptacle. The cluster of drupes is an etaerio. The plant is frequently 10 ft. high. It is in flower from July to September. It is perennial, propagated by layers, the branches arching over and rooting again; the branch contracts and the tip is drawn into the earth, whilst the original branch dies very frequently, and the new plant takes its place. The flowers are large and conspicuous, expanding widely. The petals when outspread are nearly flat, being large, and many flowers form a panicle. The anthers and stigma ripen together. The stamens are numerous, but in spite of this the honey exposed on the disk is accessible to short-lipped insects, as they spread out. The outer anthers are the first to open, and they turn their anthers upwards. The stigma ripens together with these outer stamens. In spite of this homogamous condition the flowers are cross-pollinated, as the stamens are spreading. Insects in visiting the flower may touch either the anthers at the border or the stigma in the centre. The inner stamens when they open are erect, and may touch the outer stigmas and cause self-pollination. The Blackberry is visited by many insects: Hymenoptera, Apis, Boinbus, Macropis, Andrena, Halictiis, C&lioxys, Nomada, Diphysis, Osmia, Stelis, Prosopis, Crabro, Oxybelus, Anemophila, Cerceris, Sargiis, Chrysomyia, Empis, Ascia, Syritta, Eristalis, Helophilus, Chrysotoxum, Vohicella, Rhingia, Physocephala, Tipula, Byturus, Diacanthius, Limonius, Triclmis, Telephones, Malachius, CEdemera, Clytus, Leptura, Pachyta, Strangalia, Meligethes, Argynnis, Pieris crattegi, P. napi, Hesperia, &c. The fruit is a drupe or drupelet, on a convex receptacle, which is eaten and dispersed by birds, &c., and so dispersed by animal agency. Blackberries grow on a variety of soils, but in general are most addicted to a sandy or stony subsoil, which is derived from the older rocks of granitic or arenaceous origin. The fungi which infest the Blackberry and Raspberry are: Spharu- hna tntermixta, Phragmidium mbi-id&i, Coniothyrium tumczfaciens , Gleosporium venetum, Cercospora rubi. They are galled by Lasioptera rnbi, Diastrophus riibi, and other fungi infesting them are Phragmidium violaceum and Uredo innlleri. The beetles Dasytes niger, Anthonomus rubi, Batophila rubi, Meli- BRAMBLE 163 gethes rufipes, Byturus tomentosus, Dascillus cervinus, Dryophilits anobioides, Hymenoptera of the genera Mutilla, Trypoxylon, Spilomena, Pemphredon, Passalcecus, Psen, Crabro, Odynerus, Prosopis, Halictus, Andrena, Ceratina, Ccelioxys, Bombus, and Emphytus, the Lepidoptera Green Hairstreak (Tkecla rubi\ Eox Moth (Lasiocampa rubi\ Peach Blossom (jrhyatira batis], Nepticula fulvella, and many others, the Homoptera Lecanium capretz, Pediopsis tibialis, Typhlocyba tenerrima, the Heteroptera Palomenes prasina, Lopus gothicus, L. sulcatiis, Dicyphus constrictus, and Lasioptera riibi visit it for food in one form or another. Rubus, Pliny, was the Latin name for bramble, and the specific Latin name, rusticanus, denotes its wild nature. The Bramble is called Brimmle, Broomles, Brumble, Brumbleberries, Brumbley-berry Bush, Brummel, Brummelkites, Brymble, Bullbeef, Bumbleberries, Bumblekites, Bumly Kites, Bummell, Cock-bramble, Cock-brumble, Country Lawyers, Ewe Bramble, Gaitberry, Gaiter- tree, Garten Berries, Hawk's Bill Bramble, Lady's Garters, Land Briars, Lawyers, Mooches, Mulberry, Mulberry Bramble, Scaldberry, Thet-thorne, Thevethorn, Thilf. In regard to the name Blackberry a writer says: " The fine weather which is generally experienced at the latter end of September and the beginning of October, when the blackberries ripen, is called in Hants Blackberry summer." " Blake-berries that on breres growen " (William of Palerne). As to Garten Berries, to gartane is to bind with a garter, and the name may mean the berries of the binding shrub, Blackberry twigs naturally binding other shrubs together, and being, indeed, sometimes expressly used for that purpose. This suggestion is borne out by the Roxburghshire name, Lady's Garters. They are called Lawyers because " When once they gets a holt an ye, ye doant easy get shut of 'em ". The name Scaldberry was given because of their property of giving scalds or sore heads to children, and to scare children from eating them they were thus called. The name Brumble Kites is from the " rumbling and bumbling caused in the bellies of children who eat its fruit too greedily ". But bumble is a contraction of bramble and brumble. In the Forest of Dean to " mooche blackberries ", or simply to " mooch ", means to pick them. The devil was supposed to put his cloven foot on them on Michaelmas Day,1 after which it was unlucky to eat them. ^he leaves then show a serpentine marking due to a larva which lines them. Hence perhaps the 164 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES It is said that a farmer's wife, near Arundel, used to make a quantity of blackberry jam, and not having the usual amount brought she asked a woman to let her children gather some more, to which the reply was, "Ma'am, don't you know this is the nth October?" "Yes," she said. " Bless me, ma'am, and you ask me to let my children go out black- berrying? Why, I thought everyone knew that the devil went round on the loth October and spat on all the blackberries, and that if any person were to eat on the nth he or someone belonging to him would either die or fall into great trouble before the year was out," was the further reply. The devil is said to throw his cloak over blackberries and make them unwholesome, and in Ireland to stamp on them. The fruit was said to drive away serpents. To dream of passing through places covered with brambles foretells misfortune, and if you are pricked secret enemies will injure you in your friends' eyes, and if blood is drawn you lose money, while if you are unhurt you will triumph. An early harvest is predicted if brambles bloom early. Its mode of growth made it a type for lowliness, and an emblem of remorse from the fierceness with which a passer-by is grasped. The Black- berry is one of the plants thought to have made up the crown of thorns. Bramble leaves are used for scalds in Cornwall, 9 leaves being dipped in spring water, and this charm repeated three times: "There came three angels out of the East, One brought fire, and two brought frost; Out fire and in frost In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost". In the same country warts were cured by the first blackberries of the season. It was said to arise thus: "The cormorant was once a wool mer- chant. He entered into partnership with the bramble and bat, and freighted a large ship with wool. She was wrecked, and the firm became bankrupt. Since that disaster the bat skulks about all mid- night to avoid his creditors, the cormorant is for ever diving into the deep to discover its foundered vessel, while the bramble seizes hold of every passing sheep to make up his loss by stealing the wool." The fruit is largely utilized for making jams, tarts, pies, and even wine, and is quite a regular autumn industry in the country districts. The stems are also used in thatching for binding the roof together, and making straw articles and mats. BARREN STRAWBERRY 165 ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 95. Rubus fruticosus ( = rusticanus, Merc.). — Stem prostrate, arched, angular, prickly, with stellate hairs, leaves quinate, downy, white below, flowers pink, calyx downy, in terminal panicle, fruit a clrupe, small, tart. Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis, Garcke) The present distribution in the North Temperate Zone of Europe and N. Africa is all we know of this plant. In England and Wales it is generally distributed, but it does not occur in South Lines, Mid Photo. Flatters & Garnett BARREN STRAWBERRY (Potentilla sierilis, Garcke) Lanes, Roxburgh, Mid and N. Ebudes, E. Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney, Shetland. It is found at a height of 2100 ft. in Wales. It is common to Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Barren Strawberry is more fond of the open than the Wild Strawberry. It is a common roadside flower growing amongst the sward at the side of the macadam. It is also to be found in woods, where it forms wide patches. Banks are again a favourite habitat of this pretty wild flower. By the wayside its white flowers contrast with the yellow blooms of the Silverweed, which, however, flowers later as a general rule. This little gem of a flower is, as its former second Latin name, fragariastrum, implies, like the strawberry in habit, that is to say, 1 66 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES dwarf, trailing-, or prostrate, rising at the tip, with numerous brownish thick stems, which bear many inversely egg-shaped leaflets, in threes, coarsely-toothed, and softly downy on the sides. From the Wild Strawberry this plant differs in having no erect flower-stalks, and it has generally smaller flowers, with distant (not overlapping) petals, which are not notched as in the latter. The calyx is as long as the corolla, and the achenes are hairy on the scar, and wrinkled transversely. The receptacle is not, as in the Wild Strawberry, fleshy. The Barren Strawberry is not more than 6 in. in height. It is in flower in March up to May. It is perennial, and reproduced by achenes, which are numerous. It is an early-flowering plant, with many flowers, which are white but inconspicuous. It is consequently not much visited by insects, and is probably in the majority of cases self- pollinated. The honey is secreted as a thin layer, and not in drops as in Fragaria, with which otherwise it largely agrees. The anthers and stigma are ripe at the same time. The fruit consists of a group of achenes, which are dispersed when dry by falling away from the disk, and partly by the wind. Barren Strawberry is a sand-loving plant, and addicted to a sand soil, flourishing also on barren stony ground, derived from granite or older harder siliceous rock soils. Two fungi are liable to be found on the Barren Strawberry, Septoria fragarice and Phragmidium fragariastri. A beetle, Galeriica tenella, frequents it, and a moth, Nepticula arcuata. Potentilla, Brunfels, is from the Latin potens, powerful, in allusion to its powerful astringent nature, and the second Latin name refers to its barren nature. This plant is called Barren Strawberry, Strawberry Plant. It was assigned to St. Hilary. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 98. Potentilla sterilis, Garcke. — Stem prostrate, leaves obovate, ternate, serrate, silky, flowers white, petals as long as sepals, notched, short. Dog Rose (Rosa canina, L.) The forms found in early deposits do not approach R. canina, but a species with nearly round fruits. The present distribution is Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, or part of the North Temperate Zone. The DOG ROSE 167 Common Dog Rose is found in every part of Great Britain, N. to the Orkneys, and ascends to 1350 ft. in Yorkshire. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Dog Rose is one of those flowers that help to call up memories of pleasant rambles along the highway, and is one of the greatest ornaments of our wayside hedges, in fields removed from the roads, and in isolated bushes, as well as on commons and heaths. It forms a certain proportion of the undergrowth in brakes and thickets or woods. A prickly climbing shrub, the Dog Rose is a tall, arching bush, with a green or purple stem, armed with strong, equal, curved-back prickles, which serve as a protection and for climbing, smooth, shiny, with simply or doubly coarsely-toothed, rigid leaflets, the leaves being arranged each side of a stalk, egg-shaped, coarsely-toothed, the upper surface shining, the lower mostly smooth or hairy. The Dog Rose has the shrub habit. It is a large bush, with long, spreading, arching branches. The prickles are scattered, uniform, stout, broad, equal -hooked, the base thickened. The leaves are pinnate. The leaflets are hairless, simply -toothed, the secondary nerves not glandular, acute, flat, or keeled. The leaf-buds consist of scales with 3 projections at the tip, which are the leaf bases, and the stipules and upper part of the leaf are the 3 projecting points. The outer scale is the shortest. Everyone welcomes the appearance of the first Dog Rose in flower in summer. The flower varies from white to pink. In this it is a whitish-pink. The sepals are unequal, owing perhaps to the arrange- ment of the leaves in the bud. The edges of two are covered, two are not, and in the fifth, one side is and the other not covered, and the uncovered edges are bearded. The sepals are naked, bent back, pinnate, falling, 5, free, on the rim of an egg-shaped receptacular tube. The disk is flat, the mouth conspicuous. The flower-stalks are usually naked. The styles are distinctly hairy, free, or nearly free. The fruit is egg-shaped to pitcher-shaped, roundish, the numerous achenes being included in the scarlet hip or receptacular tube which serves in the place of a pericarp. There are numerous i -seeded carpels, which are clothed in long hairs, sunk in the receptacle, which is globular, open at the apex. The Dog Rose attains a height of 8-10 ft. It begins to flower in June and continues in July. It is a perennial, deciduous shrub. The flowers are conspicuous, wide open, and scented, and there is abundant pollen, but no honey. The flowers are homogamous, the 1 68 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES anthers and stigma ripening together. The stigma serves as an alighting place for insects which bear pollen from other flowers. When they do not visit the flower, and in wet weather, the flowers are self-pollinated. There is a fleshy ring surrounding the styles on the upper margin of the calyx tube, within the point where the stamens are inserted, so that the stigmas only are visible. The numerous stamens with yellow DOG ROSE (Rosa canhia, L. ) anthers add to the attractiveness of the flower. The stamens first bend outwards, while the petals are erect, the ring and stigmas serving as the only alighting place for insects, and pollen is deposited on the stigma, so that the flower is cross-pollinated. The oblique position of the flowers turned to the sun makes self-pollination possible in wet weather, and when insects do not visit the flower. The Dog Rose is visited by Heleophilus, Syritta, Meligethes, Anthrenus, Anthoconms, Cetonia, Phyllopertha, Mordella, Rhagium, Sir ang alia, Luperus. DOG ROSE 169 The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals and birds, &c., and do not fall. The Dog Rose is more or less a humus -loving plant, growing in humus soil, but is also largely a sand plant, requiring a sandy loam. The fungi which affect roses are Peronospora rosce, Sphczrulina intennixta, Sclerotinia fructigena, Phragmidium subcorticatum, Conio- thynnm fuckehi, Asteronia rosce. The large mossy galls common on this plant, and popularly known as the Robin's Pincushions, are formed by Rhodites ros&. • The plant is galled by Cecidomyia rosarztm, Rhodites eglanterice, R. nervosiLS, and Aulacaspis rose?. The beetles, Clytus arietts, Lucou mnriniis, Meligethes lumbaris; the Hymenoptera, Hylotoina roses, Pemphilins strainineipes, A2ilax broadlii, Crabro tibialis, Andrena bnnaculatiLS, A. roste\ the Lepidoptera, Buff- tip (Pygeera bucephala], Grey Dagger (A crony eta psi}, The Streamer (Cidaria derivata}, Nep- ticula angustifasciella, Spilonota rosa-collana, &c. ; the Heteropterous insect Capsus capillaris, the Homopteron Typhlocyba ros&, and the fly Spilographa alternata, feed on it. Rosa, Pliny, is Latin for rose, and the second Latin name is an adjective from cam's, dog. The rose was so named because the root was supposed to cure the bite of a dog. It is called Bird Brier, Brear, Briar, Briar Rose, Briar Tree, Hep Brier, Brier Bush, Brimmle, Buck Breer, Buckie- berries, Buckie Briar, Buckies, Bucky, Bull -beef, Canker, Canker -berry, Canker- flower, Canker-rose, Cat-choops, Cat-hep, Cat-jugs, Cat-whin, Choop, Chowps, Cowitch, Daily Bread, Dogberry, Dogbeer, Dog-chowp, Dog-hip, Dog-job, Dog-jumps, Dog Rose, Eglantine, Hap, Haup, Hedgepeak, Hippans, Dog's Hippans, Hip- rose, Hipson, Horse Bramble, Huggan, Humack, Itching Berries, Lawyers, Buckie Lice, Nippernails, Nips, Pig-noses, Pixie Pears, Redberries, Soldiers, Tickler or Tickling Tommy, Yew Brimmle. The hips of Roses were called Ticklers because boys put them down one another's backs, Daily Bread because the young shoots are eaten by children, Bull-beef because of the same reason. " I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace." Much Ado About Nothing. " To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke." King Henry IV. (Part I). " The canker blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the rose." 1 7o FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES The name Canker refers to the fruit, and the galls caused by Rhodites roses. Some people used to think a scratch from a rose was venomous. The name Dog Rose is from its lack of scent and beauty, as compared with the garden rose, though as a wild flower it is noted for both. Michaelmas Day is called Hipping Day in Yorkshire, because hips were collected just then for confectionery. The name Itching Berries, like Ticklers, refers to the practice boys had of putting berries down one another's backs at school. In a Scottish ballad the lines occur: " Out of her breast there sprang a rose, And out of his a briar; They grew till they grew into the church top, And there they tied in a true lover's knot". A rose sprang up after the battle of Towton, where the rivals of the roses fell: " There still wild roses growing, Frail tokens of the fray, And the hedgerow green bears virtues Of Towton field that day". The prickles are said to point downwards, because when the Devil was turned out of Paradise he tried to regain his place by a ladder made of its prickles; but when only allowed to grow as a bush, he placed its prickles in an eccentric position from spite. It is under the special protection of elves and dwarfs in Scandinavia, &c. It was thought to possess mystic virtues in love matters. It was of bad omen when seen in dreams withered, but meant success in love when dreamt of blooming; and to dream of being pinched by them shows that the person has an ardent desire for something. Troths and roses have thorns about them. "A bed of roses", "As sweet as a rose", "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet ", are proverbs or well- known quotations. The Rose was worn by the Romans in garlands ; and in Greece, it" / o a lover died before his wedding a rose-bush was planted at the head of his grave. It was used in bridal bouquets and in funeral rites, and was thought by Anacreon to possess special virtue for the dead. The Rose was dedicated to Venus as the flower of love. Roses and blood are connected in popular fancy, the former being- used for haemorrhage in Germany. From Chaucer's " Romaunt of the Rose" it appears to have been connected with Whitsuntide. Churches DOG ROSE 171 were decked with it on St. Barnabas' Day. The clergy used to wear garlands of roses, and churches were adorned with it on Corpus Christi Day. Roses were said to fade on 2Oth July, St. Mary Magdalene's Day. The Rose was said to have formed the Crown of Thorns. If roses bloom in autumn it indicates an epidemic in the year. In Italy it is unlucky for a rose to drop its leaves. " Robin Redbreasts ", as the plants were also called, were once used for whooping-cough, and the leaves as a poultice in Greece. When the birds complained of the nightingale's nightly wailings, the latter replied that the rose was the cause of its grief. The first rosaries were roses that replaced the brands on a maiden accused of wrong and doomed to death at Bethlehem. The colour of the rose is clue to Mohammed's blood, so the Turks tell us. There is a Roumanian legend as follows: "It is early morning, and a young princess comes down into her garden to bathe in the silver waves of the sea. The transparent whiteness of her com- plexion is seen through the slight veil which covers it, and shines through the blue waves like the morning star in the azure sky. She springs into the sea, and mingles in the silvery rays of the sun which sparkle on the dimples of the laughing waves. The sun stands still to gaze upon her; he covers her with kisses and forgets his duty. Once, twice, thrice, has the night advanced to take her sceptre and reign over the world; twice has she found the sun upon her way. Since that day the lord of the universe has changed the princess into a rose, and this is why the rose always hangs her head and blushes when the sun gazes on her." "Under the rose" owes its significance to the habit of wearing roses in garlands. The hips are made into a conserve used in medicine, and as a dessert in Gerarde's day, who says they " maketh the most pleasante meates and banqueting dishes, and tarts, and such like ". The petals were used in Chaucer's time for wounds and ointments. The rose has long been used in perfumes. It has been cultivated, and much improved in the process in colour, scent, and form. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 104. Rosa canina, L. — Stem erect, branches arching, prickles equal, hooked, leaflets flat, leaves pinnate, serrate, flowers white, large, petals notched, peduncles smooth, sepals reflexed, not persistent, styles hairy, fruit scarlet, many-seeded. 172 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES Crab Apple (Pyrus Malus, L.) Not a trace of this plant has been found where fruits of Mountain Ash have been found. It is a northern temperate plant, occurring generally throughout Europe, Western Asia, as far east as the Himalayas. In Great Britain it is absent from Monmouth, Cardigan, Denbigh, Haddington, the E. Highlands, except South Perth, and is not found in Main Argyle, Dumbarton, Mid and N. Ebudes, nor N. Highlands or the Northern Isles, except in E. Ross. It is often an escape from cultivation. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Wild Crab is a plant of the woods and copses, but is also found frequently in hedgerows or in parks, where it sometimes grows to a good height. It is associated with plants such as Field Maple, Hawthorn, Wild Cherry, Buckthorn, Cornel, and other small-timbered trees and shrubs. Often it is just a reversion to type of the garden apple. The apple has a leaning habit, much as in poplars, but is more erect and symmetrical, a main stem dividing into numerous, finally small, drooping, and spreading branches. The Crab is a small tree, 20-25 ft. high. The branches spread out equally, forming a wide crown. The stock is short, giving rise to numerous branches, which repeatedly divide. Two varieties are known, the var. acerba (or syl- vestris] having a glabrous fruit-stalk, the var. mitis having a downy fruit-stalk. The Crab Apple is in flower for 5-6 days in April and May, and as a deciduous tree is perennial, and propagated by seeds. The resting buds have a few scales, and the lateral buds are closely appressed. The buds produce three types of shoots: (a) long shoots, with distant leaves; (6) non-flowering dwarf shoots of slow growth, with annular markings and leaves close together; (c) flowering dwarf shoots or spurs, arising from the stouter branches and producing flowers. The leaves are spiral in arrangement, simple, with short minute stipules. The leaf-stalk is slender and long. The blade is sharp- tipped, with marginal teeth. The surface is glossy above. The trunk is irregularly ridged with grey-brown furrowed bark, scaling with ease. The flowers are white, tinged with pink, and have 5 united sepals, hairy above. The petals have rounded limbs and narrow claws. The numerous stamens enclose the disk, which secretes honey. The anthers are cream colour. The style is divided into 5 branches. The fruit is an apple, with the persistent calyx above. The ovary is 5-chambered, CRAB APPLE 173 and the thick fleshy coat consists of peel, a thick juicy layer, with a thin, tough, parchment-like layer, the "core", and encloses 2 brown seeds in each chamber. The flowers are conspicuous and numerous. The honey is half- concealed, and secreted at the base of the flower. The flowers are much visited by insects. The flowers are sweet-scented, most strongly at night, so that the plant is visited by moths. The stigma ripens before the anthers, being receptive when the flower opens. The > Photo H. Irving CRAB APPLE (Pyms Malus, L.) flowers last from 5 to 6 days. The 5 stigmas stand above the stamens, so that an insect visiting the flower touches the stigma first. The anthers open on the second day, the outer rows of stamens ripening first. In some flowers the stigmas and stamens are more or less touching. The flowers are directed towards the light obliquely, so that some pollen must fall on the stigmas, and self-pollination occurs in the absence of insect visitors and in wret weather. Self-pollinated flowers do not produce good fruit. The plant is visited by Bombus terrestris, B. agrorum, B. lapi- dariits, B. hortorum, Apis mellifica, Anthophora pilipes, Andrena albicans, Halictus sex-notatus, Osmia rufa, Bombylius major, Empis 174 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES livida, Rhingia rostrata, Syrphus pyrastri, Onesia floralis, Dilophus vulgar is. The fruit is an edible, brightly-coloured pome or receptacle, with a softer pericarp, luscious when ripe, and is dispersed by birds and men. The Apple is more or less a clay-loving plant, growing on clay, or a sand plant, growing on sand. A gravelly stony subsoil also suits it. A number of fungi attack the cultivated Apple, which equally infest the Crab, of the genera Podospk&ra, Eutypella, Glomerella, Nectria, Sphcerella, Fusicladium, Tympanis, Sclerotinia, Plwliota, Polyporus, Hydmun, HypocJmus, Phyllosticta, Sph&ropsis, Entomosporiuni, Bacil- lus, Valsa, and Armillaria mellea. White cotton -wool-like tufts are formed, and the branches are much distorted by Schizoneura lanigera and S. fodiens, which cause galls; and Scolytus pruni, Alytilaspis pomormn (a scale insect), and Lecaniiim caprea cause ravages. The bark is also attacked by American Blight, the Fruit-tree Bark Beetle; the blossom and fruit by the Codlin Moth, Earwig, Golden Chafer, Apple-blossom Weevil, Apple Sawfly, Apple Suckers, Wasps; the leaves by Apple Aphis, Plum Aphis, Cockchafer, Garden Chafer, Green Leaf and Oblong Weevils, Dot Moth, Figure-of-eight Moth, Lackey Moth, Large Tortoise-shell Butterfly, Lappet Moth, Mottled Umber Moth, Small Ermine Moth, Common Vapourer, Winter Moth; the shoots by the Pith Moth; the wood by the Shot-borer Beetles, Goat Moth, and Wrood Leopard, as well as many other insects. Malus, Varro, is the Latin for Apple Tree, and has the same root as in the Celtic and Scandinavian languages. The Crab Apple is called Apis, Aplyn, Applelyn, Apple, Apple- John, Appo, Appulle, Bittersgall, Bittersweet, Catsheads, Coling, Crab, Crab-stock, Crab-tree, Grab, Grabstock, Gribble. Koling, Leather Jacket, Morris Apple, Nurse Garden, Pomewater, Sap, Scarb Jacket, Scrab, Screyt, Scrog, Star Apple, Wrell Apple, W7harre, Wilding. As to the name Bittersgall, it was often remarked of a soft, silly person, "He was born where th' bittersgall da grow, and one o' 'm fall'd on his head, and made a zaate (soft) place there". In Lincoln- shire to gather crabs is called crabbing. An acid liquor-like vinegar is called crabvargis. It was a custom 70-80 years ago to pelt the parson at Mobberley, Cheshire, with crab apples on Wakes' Sunday, the Sunday next before St. Luke's Day. The name Nurse Garden may be given because of its frequent occurrence in nursery gardens. On Twelfth Day, in Devonshire, they go "wassailing" into the orchard after supper, with a large milk-can full of cider with roasted CRAB APPLE 175 apples pressed in it. Each person takes a dome, or cup, full of the liquor, and standing under the trees says: " Health to thee, good apple tree, Well to bear pocket fulls, hat fulls, peck fulls, bushel bag fulls ". St. Dunstan is said to have bought up a quantity of barley for brewing beer. The devil, knowing his anxiety to get a good sale for it, offered to blight the apple trees so that there would be no cider. St. Dunstan agreed, and sold himself to him on condition they were blighted on May 17, 18, 19. An apple left after the bulk are picked was held to belong to the fairies. Squeezed between finger and thumb the direction of an apple pip, so shot, indicated a lover's abode. " Pippin, Pippin, paradise, Tell me where my true love lies, East, West, North, and South, Pilling Brig or Cocker Mouth." There was a custom of throwing apple peel over the head to secure marriage or the single blessed state, according as it remained whole or broken. An apple is thrown in the street in Sicily, and if a girl picks it up she will not be married, but if it is not touched the young person when married will soon be a widow. An apple is eaten before a looking-glass on Hallowe'en in Scotland, when the face of the desired one will be seen. On Christmas Eve in Austria apples are used for divining. One is cut in two in the dark, without touching it at first, then the left half is placed in the bosom, and the right is laid behind the door. The desired one may be looked for at midnight near the right half. A maiden having slept with one under her pillow on St. Andrew's or Christmas night stands with it in her hand on the next church festival, and the first man she sees will be her husband. An apple was said to foretell long life, but to dream of one after the blooming is to foretell death. Dissimilarity between two persons is expressed by the proverb: " As like as an apple is to a lobster". Wild forms are often cultivated apples run wild. The fruit of the Crab is acid and tart, and the juice is called verjuice, and used for bruises and sprains. In Ireland people put it in cider to make it rough. All garden orchard forms are derived from it. Pippins are 176 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES named because they were raised from seeds. The Newton Pippin, grafted on stocks found in other parts, assumes the character of the stock in a short time. It lives to a great age, and is very prolific. The wood is used for turning by the wheelwright and the cabinet- maker. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 107. Pyrus Malus, L. — Tree, branched, leaves ovate, serrate, shiny, or downy below, flowers white or pink, in sessile umbels, fruit yellow, globose, tapered below, styles united below. Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha, L.) Widespread and common, it is not unnatural to find this plant is represented in Preglacial, Interglacial, and Neolithic deposits. It is confined to the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, eastward to the Himalayas. In N. America it is an introduction. It is found in every part of Great Britain, except the Orkneys, and in Yorkshire it is found at the height of 1800 ft. It is native in Ireland, but is often only planted, and Watson says, "few botanists regard it as being more wild in North Britain than a casual straggler probably brought from the hedgerows by birds ". The Hawthorn is essentially a hedgerow plant to-day, being the main plant used in forming hedges all over the country. Where hedges are not cut and layered it grows to a good height and spreads extensively. When grown singly too, as in parks in the open, it is a graceful tree or shrub. The first Latin name is a transliteration of the Greek name of the plant, and the second one is a reminder, if one has not made this discovery personally, of the sharpness of the long - pointed thorns or modified branches, the English name summarizing this and the character of the fruits as implied in " haw ", which really means hedge. The May or Hawthorn is recognized by its abundance of white blossom in May or June, and the scarlet berries or "haws" in winter, which begin to mature in August and September. The typical thorns or spines also serve to distinguish it, hedges being mainly composed of Hawthorn or thorn bushes in many districts. In this state it is closely branched, and the trunks are generally dwarf, being "layered" periodically. It is, when a tree, often 30 ft. high, growing in the open. The branches are dense or loose, with slender twigs which droop or HAWTHORN 177 turn up at the end. In the summer appearance it is a mass of leaves and bloom, generally with a spherical crown and very compact. The branches may be very erect and numerous in the centre (as seen in the winter appearance), turning out at their extremities. The tree is generally sub-erect, leaning, with large branches, spread- ing and drooping, with fine twigs. A bud and a long spine are produced on the long shoots below, only a bud above. The stipules HAW on the short lateral spurs and at the bottom of the long shoots are small and awl-shaped. They soon turn brown and fall, the ground being covered with them in spring. The stipules on the upper part are coarsely toothed, sickle-shaped, &c., small and leaflike, or are large, heart-shaped, net-veined. The buds have spiral scales. Spines are below the buds, and these latter are of five kinds: (i) long shoots with leaves separated by internodes, (2) foliage- bearing dwarf shoots, (3) buds like (2) ending in a flower-head, (4) long thorns, (5) short thorns. The leaves are simple, arranged in spirals, petiolate. On long shoots there are large green stipules, persistent and toothed; on the dwarf shoots the stipules VOL. III. 42 1 78 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES are small or ephemeral. The leaf-blade is lobed and toothed, the leaf glossy and glabrous. The bole has a smooth bark at first, which becomes divided into longitudinal furrows, often twisted and grey in colour. The trunk may divide. The flowers are white or pink, the inflorescence a corymbose cyme, being cylindrical with a flat top. Each flower has 5 united sepals, 5 distinct white petals, 20 stamens, pink anthers becoming brown, and they are attached to the margin of a basin. The style (i in this form) is central with a broad stigma. The scent is due to trimethylanin. The fruit is a haw or stone fruit, with i seed. The calyx is persistent at the top of the fruit. The tree is often 15 ft. high. The flowering period is May and June. A deciduous tree, it is perennial and increased by seeds. The honey is half-concealed, and is secreted by a ring at the base of the flower. The stigma ripens first. The flowers are strong- scented, and the smell is attractive to dung- and flesh-flies. The stamens are not ripe when the flower opens. The outer are erect, the inner bent inwards, the anthers below the stigmas. The stigmas are, however, ripe and project in the centre, and the anthers ripen a few- days after, opening inwards. The inner anthers when it is cold are bent down below the stigma after opening, the outer overtop the stigmas and are bent inward. But when it is fine the stamens bend outwards and then the honey disk is visible. If insects visit the flower they touch stamens and stigmas with opposite sides of the head and cross-pollination follows, but in their absence and in wet weather self- pollination is most probable. Sweet sap is exuded by the young shoots which insects seek. The visitors are numerous: Anthophora, Bombus, Andrena, Odynerus, TacJiydromia, Evipis, Microphorus, Pipiza, Rhingia, Eristalis, Helo- philus, Xylota, Echinomyia, Sarcophaga, Onesia, Graphomyia, Mesem- bnna, Cyrtoneura, Bibio, Dilophus, Attagemis, Anthrenus, Meligethes, Anthraxia, Malachius, Telephorus, Asclera, Anaspis, Mordella, Clytus, Grammoptera, Clythra, Halictus, Nomada, Eiicera, and Apis. The fruit is edible, and dispersed by birds, &c. It is therefore spread largely by animal agency. Hawthorn is normally a sand plant living on a sand soil, but it is usually enriched by some humus which is accumulated under its own shade. The first stages of Gymnosporangium confusuni and G. clavarice- forme grow on this plant. The second stage grows on Juniper in each case. The leaves are galled by Eriophyes cratcegi, E. goniothorax, or HAWTHORN 179 Cecidomyia crat&gL The fungi Polystigma rubrum, Tympanis con- spersa, Phleospora oxyacantha infest it. The insects Leopard Moth (Zeiizera cesculi}, Penthina pniniana, Priobium castaneum, Otiorhynchiis picipes, Trichiosoma tibialis, Pul- vinaria vitis, Mytilaspis pomorum, Lecanium caprece, Aphis cratcegi, Psylla crat&gi feed on the Hawthorn. Crat&gus, Theophrastus, is the Greek name of the plant. Oxya- cantha, Dioscorides, is from oxys, sharp, acanthos, thorn, and Hawthorn means hedgethorn. It is called Agald, Agarves, Aggie, Albespyne, Aglet, Aubepyne, Azzy-tree, Bird Eagles, Birds' Meat, Bread-and-Cheese, Bulls, Butter- and- Bread, Chaws, Cheese and Bread, Chucky- cheese, Cuckoo's Beads, Cuckoo's Bread-and-Cheese, Eglet, Eglet Bloom, Glaston- bury Thorn, God's Meat, Greens, Haa, Hagga, Haggils, Hagthorn, Hagues, Halves, Harsy, Harve, Hathorn, Hawberry, Haws, Haw- bus, Hawen, Haw-gaws, Bull-haws, Butter and Cat Haws, Hawses, Hawthorn, Haw-tree, Haythorn, Hazel, Hazzy Tree, Hedge-thorn, Hipperty Haws, Hog-arves, Hogberry, Hog-gazels, Howes, Johny Macgorey, May, May Bush, Pegy at Bush, Pigall, Pig Haw, Pig's Hales, Pixie Pears, Quick, Quickset, Quickwood, Sates, Thorn, Thorn- berries, Whicks, White Thorn, Wick, Wickens. The planted thorns are called Quicks to distinguish them from rails and dead fences. Quickset means a hedge set with quicks, and so does Quickwood. Albespyne is from alba spina, meaning white thorn. " And there the Jewes maden him a crowne of the branches of albe- spyne, that is white thorn." The name Bread-and-Cheese is given because the young shoots are eaten in spring by children. The name Glastonbury Thorn refers to the variety supposed to have sprung up at Glastonbury from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea which produces its blossoms on Christmas Day. It is called May because it usually flowers (in England) during that month. Lonely thorns in fields that do not grow larger are said to be bewitched, and they must not be approached at night. A fiery wheel comes from the bush which will destroy you if it comes near you. It was said to be sprung from lightning. It is widely revered and associated with marriage rites. The bride was decked with May blossom in Greece. Torches lighting the bridal couple to the nuptial chamber were made of it. It is supposed to have formed the Crown of Thorns. In Ireland it is unlucky to cut it down, as the fairies there protect it. To gather leaves of the tree is considered unsafe. But to burn it 180 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES is a remedy against mildew in wheat. It is called Fairy Thorn in Brittany and Ireland. To dream of it is a good omen. When many blossoms are seen a severe winter will follow. " When the hawthorn bloom too early shows, We shall have still many snows." The Scots have a proverb: " Mony haws, Mony snaws ". A person is said to " sit on thorns " who is continually uneasy. May Day is a survival of the old Floralia, and the Grecian bride's wreath was of May, and is still worn at the Greek nuptials, the altar being decorated with it. People went "maying" soon after midnight. " 'T is as much impossible, Unless we sweep them from the doors with cannons, To scatter 'em, as 't is to make 'em sleep On May Day morning." If White-thorn blossoms are brought into the house in Essex it is a sign of death. Many rhymes have been made up to serve as formulae to cure pricks from thorns. The leaves were put in ale to cure a speechless man. It is grown for hedges, and is a useful source of firewood. It is also an ornamental shrub in parks and gardens, and there are several varieties. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 108. Crattfgus Oxyacantha, L. — Tree, branched, spinose, leaves obovate, serrate, lobed, stipules leafy, flowers white, corymbose, calyx glabrous, styles 1-3, fruit red, enclosing the so-called stone. Bryony (Bryonia dioica, Jacq.) South of Denmark in Europe, in N. Africa, and W. Asia, that is to say, the North Temperate Zone, is the limit of the Bryony to-day, its earlier history not being known. In Great Britain it is local, but widely dispersed in the Peninsula province; it is absent in Corn- wall, but occurs throughout the Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces. In Wales it is found only in Glamorgan, Brecon, Denbigh, and Flint. It is common in the whole of the Trent province, but in the Mersey province is absent from Mid Lanes, but occurs through BRYONY 181 out the H umber and Tyne provinces, in Cumberland, and Ayr in Scotland. It is thus rare in the north, and absent from Ireland. The common Bryony is a typical hedgerow species climbing over Hawthorn and other plants. It is associated with Brambles of different kinds, Greater Stitchwort, Violet Tufted Vetch, Sloe, Dog Rose, Cow Parsnip, Elder, Teasel, Great Hedge Bindweed, and other plants. A climbing plant, Bryony is remarkable for its long, coiled tendrils and its large mandrake-like roots. The English and Greek names BRYONY (Bryonia dioica, Jacq.) refer to its quick growth, a feature that one may readily observe for oneself in spring, although it should not be restricted to this plant. The stems are long, furrowed, dividing into one or more branches, long lobes divided to the base, heart-shaped, with 5-lobed leaves, with the teeth bordered with dots, rough, and pale-green. The plants are dioecious (with flowers on different plants), the male ones in corymbose cymes, the female, which have an ovary below, being in umbels, and the calyx is only half as long as the corolla. The flowers are large with green veins. When ripe the fruit is rounded and red. The Bryony is found 8-10 ft. long. It flowers in May up to September. It is perennial, reproduced by division. In this flower the male flowers are a palish-yellow, and half an 1 82 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES inch across, and in small clusters, the female being half the size or much smaller, and it is a dioecious plant. Both male and female flowers contain honey, which is concealed. The lower part of the calyx is adherent to the corolla or hemispherical cup - shaped disk, which secretes the honey. In the male flowers 5 stamens arise on the edge of the expanded cup and incline towards the centre, and cover over the cup. Four of the anthers unite to form 2 pairs, and the fifth is free on both sides. The honey- cup has 3 narrow lateral entrances, each placed between 2 stamens fringed with long hairs, with a central entrance also above in the middle of the upper end of the stamens. The anthers form narrow ridges on the broad stamens, and the long narrow slits by which they open are bent, so that the greater part of each faces one of the lateral openings, while the upper one faces upwards. A honey-seeker, alight- ing in the centre, may thrust its proboscis amongst the stamens, or reach the honey by the lateral entrances, and in the former case would be dusted on the lower surface, in the latter on the upper surface. The pollen is sticky. The stamens touch the head or the ventral surface of the insect before the stigma does. In female flowers the pistil rises up in the centre and splits into 3 branches, club-shaped with papillae. The visitors are Andrena, Halictus, Ccelioxys, Apis, Gorytes, Ammophila, Eumencs, Odymerus, Dasytes^ Pieris. Andrena florea visits White Bryony only. The berry contains numerous flat but swollen seeds, which are dispersed by birds. This is a humus-loving plant, living in a humus soil. The beetle Lygria hirta, the Hymenoptera Andrena florea, A. denticulata, A. dorsata, the moths Phytheochroa rugosana, Catoptria fulvana, a fly Gongylomena iviedermani, feed upon it. Bryonia, Dioscorides, is the Greek name of the plant, and the second Latin name alludes to its dioecious nature. Bryony is called Bryon, Red or White Bryony, Cowbincl, Gow's Lick, Cucurd, Elphamy, F^ellon-berry, Grapewort, Hedge Grape, Wild Hep, Poison Berry, Snake Berry, Tetter Berry, White, Wild, Wood Vine. It was called Tetter Berry, and it was believed the berries " are good against all fretting and running cankers, gangraenes and tetters, and therefore the berries are usually called of the country people Tetter Berries ", according to old Parkinson. 1 It lias been suggested that the small flowers, which are inconspicuous but highly attractive, have a peculiar odour perceived by them, or possess an attraction not visible to man, that they emit ultra- violet rays. They act energetically on photographic plates. HEMLOCK 183 Shelley used the name Cowbind — " And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured May ". The name Cow's Lick is clue to small quantities of it having been given to horses in their corn to make their coats glossy, and for horned cattle. Coles says of the name Mandrake, " The root sometimes groweth to the highnesse of a childe of a yeere old, so that it hath been by some cut into the form of a man and called a mandrake, being set again into the earth". Lupton describes how men made the counterfeit mandrake. Gerarde also exposes this common fraud. Coles also says they " make thereof an ugly image by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft". It was called Devil's Cherry. It was trained to grow into shapes and used as charms. In Chaucer's day it was used to cure leprosy. Its juice was used in Dwale. The root sold for Mandragora is poisonous and acrid. It is powerfully cathartic. The red berries used for dyeing are poisonous. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 121. Bryonia dioica, Jacq. — Stem climbing, angled, tendrils simple, leaves palmate, 5-lobed, rough, plants dioecious, white with evergreen veins, staminate, in a corymb, pistillate in umbels, berries scarlet, globose. Hemlock (Conium maculatum, L.) Hemlock, in spite of its poisonous nature, is widely distributed, being found (to-day) throughout the North Temperate Zone, in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, and it has been introduced in N. America. It is general in Great Britain, but is not found in Cardigan, S.E. Yorks, Main Argyle, Mid and N. Ebucles, W. Ross, E. Ross, Shetlands. In Yorks it ascends to nearly 1000 ft. It is a moisture-loving plant, usually growing by the sides of streams and rivers, or away from such spots along the roadside, occasionally out- side outhouses, and very rarely on the borders of cornfields. Its present distribution may be partly artificial owing to its poisonous properties, its ill effects leading in some instances to extermination. Cattle generally avoid it. As is well known poisonous plants have usually some warning signals which enable animals to avoid them, and in this case the foetid smell is accompanied by a purple spotting of the stem (at once a sus- picious novelty), which is further covered with a blue powder. 184 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES The Hemlock is very tall, graceful, erect, bearing- numerous branches. The stem is smooth, bluish-white, shiny, hollow, and finely furrowed. The leaves at the base are large, triangular, shining, very much divided, the oblong leaflets having sharp coarse teeth. When crushed, the leaves smell like mice. The umbels of the flowerhead are terminal, those of the partial involucres or whorls of leaflike organs on one side only lance-shaped. The flowers are small, numerous (several hundreds in one umbel), and so conspicuous. They are white, and the first ones to open are male flowers. There are no calyx teeth. The petals have a turned- in point serving to protect the honey, and are blunt, heart-shaped, and unequal. The umbels are axillary. The flowers are sweet-scented. The Hemlock grows to a height of 5-10 ft. The flowers open in June and July. It is perennial, and reproduced by seeds. In winter the roots contract, and the plant is drawn down into the earth. The flowers mature slowly and gradually, and at first are entirely male, and later entirely female. When the flower opens, the anthers open, and are covered with pollen one by one before the styles appear. Each anther is at a distance of two-fifths the circumference from the preceding one. The anthers elongate and stand above the stigma. In the middle of the male period the older anthers wither and turn outwards, while the rest are opening and take their place, and are covered with pollen. The styles are still short and bent in with the stigmas unripe. After all the anthers have fallen off, the styles become erect, and stigmatic knobs form at the end of the styles. The flowers are visited by Sargus, Calliphora, Lucilia, Scatophaga, Meligethes, Trichius, Nematus, Ichneumon ids, Pompihis, Andrena. The fruits are flattened or winged to aid in their dispersal by the Photo. W. E. Mayes HEMLOCK (Conium maculatum, L.) KEY TO PLATE XXVI 1 1 ::'No. I. (ConiUm maculatvm, J,.)T. «, Floret ;-with; bracts, 5 Wjt-h 2 styl^. // ^Schizocarp from latevjal aspect;, showing ^.IfeV *V , ^eotiftif -tinrSc-Hrn|>(^( (Vj \tng calyx segxnents. f, Fft3i|s".,.'. . t-,. \Bistil, wfjth petak^id"\v;