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OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


Ex  Libris 
ISAAC  FOOT 


I 


FAMILIAR 

WILD    FLOWERS. 


FIGURED  -LV/i  DESC1HKED  BY 


F.    EDWAED    HULME,    F.L.S.,    F.S.A. 

Ul 


•  Xot  worlds  on  worlds  in  phalanx  deep, 

Xeed  we  to  prove  a  Uod  is  here  ; 
The  daisy,  fresh  from  Nature's  sleep, 

Tells  of  His  hand  in  lines  as  clear. 
For  who  but  He  who  arched  the  skies. 

And  pours  the  duv-^inii^'*  living'  Hood, 
Wondrous  alike  in  all  He  tries, 

Could  raise  the  daisy's  crimson  bud, 
And  fling1  it,  unrestrained  ami  free. 

O'er  hill  and  dale,  and  desert  sod, 
That  man,  where'er  he  walks,  may  see 

In  every  step  the  stamp  of  God  .'  " 

GOOD. 


Strics.  ^>-*--  *- 

WITH    COLOURED    PLATES. 


CASSELL    &    COMPANY,    LIMITED: 

LOXDOX,    PARIS    d'-    XE1V    YORK. 

[ALL  UIOHTS  UESLUVI:I>  ] 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CLUSTERED  BELL-FLOWER 1 

SALLOW 5 

HOLLY       . 9 

PKIVET 13 

SPOTTED  ORCHIS 17 

PINK  CAMPION 21 

SPINDLE-TREE , 25 

BUXBAUM'S  SPEEDWELL 29 

GREEN  HELLEBORE     .        .        .        .  •       '•  •  •        .         .33 

SEA  CAMPION      ...........  37 

FURZE 41 

BROAD-LEAVED  PLANTAIN 45 

TEASEL 49 

TUBEROUS  HOSCHATEL 53 

NARROW-LEAVED  EVERLASTING  PEA 57 

WILD  STRAWBERRY   .        .         .         .  ,         .        .        -        .61 

UPRIGHT  MEADOW  CROWFOOT 65 

LAMB'S-TONGUE          .                          69 

COMMON  VETCH 73 

DEW  KERRY 77 

HENBIT      .                                                                                                .  31 


iv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

FIELD  SCOKPIOX-GKASS 85 

BUTTERFLY  ORCHIS 89 

WOOD  LOOSESTRIFE 93 

YELLOW  ROCKET.  97 

GOOSE-GRASS        .        .        .        .'        •        •        •        •        •        •        .101 

CHERRY       .        .         . 105 

WATER  AVEXS    .         . 109 

MARSH  THISTLE 113 

SALAD  BURNET 11" 

HOUND'S  TO.NOI  E        .        .        .        .         .        ...         .         .         •  1-1 

CARROT ,  .         .    ll'o 

DWARF  THISTLE 120 

WATER-CRESS 133 

STARWOHT 137 

GARLIC-MtSTARI> 141 

BEE  ORCHIS 14.5 

GROUNDSEL 149 

HKMI'-XETTLE i.j-j 

LADY'S  MANTLE 157 


SUMMAEY. 


IT  should  be  prefaced  that  this  Summary  merely  professes  to  give  a 
brief  epitome  of  each  of  the  plants  represented  in  this  volume,  and 
that  it  is  principally  a  condensation  from  the  writings  of  Hooker, 
Lindley,  Bentham,  or  other  authorities  on  the  subject.* 


CLUSTERED  BELL-FLOWER,  CAMPANULA  GLOMERATA. 
Nat  Ord.,  Campannlacece. — Calyx  adherent  to  ovary,  having  five  teeth. 
Corolla  regular,  campanulate,  purple,  five-lobed.  Stamens  five,  inserted 
at  base  of  corolla.  Anthers  distinct.  Style  single,  cleft  at  summit 
into  three  stigmas.  Ovary  inferior.  Capsule  opening  at  base.  Flowers 
closely  sessile  in  the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves  and  forming  a  compact 
terminal  cluster.  Eadical  leaves  large  and  stalked,  rough,  hairy,  ovate, 
toothed ;  upper  leaves  sessile,  ovate,  toothed,  rough,  hairy,  clasping 
stem  by  their  bases.  Stalk  erect,  wiry,  angular,  varying  from  an  inch 
or  two  to  a  foot  or  more  in  length,  hairy.— Found  in  dry  pasturage  and 
hedge-banks.  Flowers  throughout  the  summer.  Perennial. 


SALLOW,  SALIXCAPREA.  Nat.  Ord.,  Amentacece.— Flowers  dioe- 
cious, the  males  in  dense  cylindrical,  sessile,  silky,  fragrant  catkins,  the 
females  also  in  catkins,  but  green  and  more  openly  arranged  in  the 
catkin.  Flowering  before  the  appearance  of  the  leaves.  Stamens  two 
in  each  flower.  Anthers  two-celled,  bright  yellow,  conspicuous.  Scales 
of  catkins  entire.  Perianth  wanting.  Stigmas  two.  Capsules  pedi- 
cellate, silky,  one-celled,  beaked.  Stipules  large.  Leaves  stipulate, 
alternate,  roundish-ovate,  wrinkled,  whitish  beneath.  A  small,  bushy 
tree. — Flowers  in  early  spring.  In  woods  and  hedgerows,  ordinarily  in 
drier  situations  than  most  of  the  other  species  of  the  willow. 
*  See  Prefatory  Note  to  the  Summary,  Series  I. 


vi  FAMILIAR    WILT)    FLOWERS. 

HOLLY,  ILEX  AQUlFOUUM.  Nat.  Ord.,  Aquifoliaceai.— Calyx  four- 
toothed.  Corolla  regular,  monopetalous,  white,  four-lobed,  rotate. 
Stamens  four,  alternate  with  corolla-lobes  and  inserted  on  corolla. 
Stigmas  four,  sessile.  Fruit,  a  scarlet  berry,  containing  four  seeds. 
Flowers  in  dense  clusters  in  the  leaf -axils.  Leaves  coriaceous,  rigid, 
alternate,  evergreen,  stalked,  shiny,  the  upper  ones  sometimes  entire 
and  flat,  but  typically  much  waved  in  outline  and  bordered  with  strong 
prickly  teeth.  A  freely-branching  shrub  or  small  tree.  Bark  smooth 
and  greyish.— Woods  and  hedgerows.  Flowers  in  May  and  June. 


PRIVET,  i.rarsTRUM  rCLGARE.  Nat.  Ord.,  Oleacecc.  Calyx  per- 
sistent, four-toothed.  Corolla  regular,  white,  four-lobed,  tubular  at 
base.  Stamens  two,  inserted  at  base  of  corolla.  Ovary  two-celled, 
each  cell  two-seeded.  Fruit  a  fleshy  globular,  black,  shining  berry. 
Inflorescence  compact,  paniculate,  at  ends  of  branches.  Leaves  nearly 
evergreen,  lanceolate,  entire,  on  short  stalks,  opposite,  exstipulate. 
Branches  long,  slender,  cylindrical,  tough,  smooth,  pliant.  A  shrub. 
—In  woods  and  hedges.  Flowers  during  June  and  July. 


SPOTTED  ORCHIS,  ORCHIS  MACULATA.  Nat.  Ord.,  OrcUd- 
acece.  Perianth  of  six  segments,  superior,  irregular,  spurred  at  base  of 
lip.  Lip  irregularly  three-lobed,  spotted.  Stamen  and  pistil  combined 
in  column,  in  axis  of  flower.  Anther  two-celled.  Ovary  inferior,  one- 
celled.  Capsule  three-valved.  Inflorescence  terminal,  densely  spicate, 
bracts  shorter  than  the  flowers.  Stem  leafy  at  base,  often  a  foot  or 
so  in  height,  but  very  variable.  Leaves  ovate  and  lanceolate,  entire, 
parallel-nerved,  more  or  less  marked  with  dark  purple  blotches.  Tubers 
flattened,  lobed.— Perennial.  Flowers  in  June  and  July.  Pasture 
lands. 


PINK  CAMPION,  i.vruxrs  DTURXA.  Nat.  Ord.,  Caryophyl- 
lacefE.  Calyx  monophyllous,  tubular,  five-toothed,  swollen  after  flower- 
ing. Corolla  of  five  petals,  lamina  spreading,  pink,  two-cleft,  scentless, 
having  small  two-notched  scale  at  base.  Flowers  dioecious.  Stamens 
ten,  hypogynous.  Styles  five,  linear,  stigmatic  throughout  their  length. 
Capsule  globular,  ten-toothed,  many-seeded.  Leaves  opposite,  entire, 


SUMMARY.  vii 

exstipulate,  tipper  sessile,  lower  ones  stalked,  slightly  rough,  hairy, 
veining  prominent.  Inflorescence  loosely  paniculate.  Stem  cylindrical, 
swollen  at  sides.  —In  moist  woods,  copses,  and  hedgerows.  Flowers 
during  June  and  July.  Perennial. 


SPINDLE  TREE,  EUOXYMUS  EUROPMU*.  Nat.  Ord.,  Celas- 
traced'.  Calyx  small,  flattened  out,  having  four  broad  short  lobes. 
Petals  four,  pale  green,  obovate,  rising  from  flat,  fleshy  disk.  Stamens 
four,  alternating  with  petals,  inserted  on  disk.  Flowers  in  loose, 
axillary  cymes.  Ovary  immersed  in  disk,  style  very  short.  Capsule 
four-lobed,  pink,  containing  large  seeds  in  orange-coloured  arillodiurn. 
Leaves  glabrous,  opposite,  lanceolate,  finely  toothed.  Stems  smooth, 
green,  tough.  A  shrub,  about  five  feet  high. — Woods  and  hedgerows. 
Flowers  in  May  and  June. 


BUXBAUM'S  SPEEDWELL,  VERONICA  BUXBAUMIT.  Nat. 
Ord.,  Scrophulariacece.  Calyx  persistent  round  fruit,  four-lobed.  Corolla 
deciduous,  monopetalous,  rotate,  irregular,  four-lobed,  pale  blue. 
Stamens  two,  inserted  in  tube  of  corolla.  Stigma  two-lobed.  Ovary 
and  capsule  two-seeded.  Capsule-lobes  broad  and  laterally  spreading, 
twice  as  broad  as  long.  Inflorescence  axillary.  Stems  procumbent, 
hairy.  Leaves  petiolate,  alternate,  cordate,  deeply  serrate,  much 
shorter  than  the  flower-stalks  that  spring  from  their  axils,  hairy. — 
Cultivated  ground,  rubbish-heaps,  and  road-sides.  Flowers  throughout 
the  summer.  Annual. 


GREEN  HELLEBORE,  IIELLEBORUS  VIHIDIS.  Nat.  Ord. 
Ranunculacece.  Calyx  of  five  large,  persistent,  conspicuous,  spreading 
sepals.  Petals  eight  to  ten,  very  small,  tubular.  Stamens  numerous. 
Carpels  many-seeded.  Flowers  few  in  number  and  drooping.  Fruit  a 
follicle.  Upper  leaves  sessile,  the  lower  leaves  large,  divided  into 
numerous  segments,  on  long  footstalks,  all  palmate  and  broadly  spread- 
ing, of  a  dull  bluish  green,  glossy  surface,  deeply  serrate.  Stem  short, 
freely  branching.— On  pasture-lands,  in  copses,  and  often  about  old 
walls,  ruins,  and  human  habitations,  preferably  on  chalk.  Flowers  in 
March  and  April.  Perennial. 


viii  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

SEA  CAMPION,  SILESR  JIABITIMA.  Nat.  Ord.,  Caryophyllacece. 
Calyx  monophyllons,  tubular  and  inflated,  five-toothed,  strongly  veined 
and  reticulated.  Corolla  of  five  white  petals,  having  two-cleft  and 
spreading  lamina.  Stamens  ten.  Styles  three.  Ovary  one.  Fruit  a 
dry  capsule  opening  at  the  top,  6-toothed.  Leaves  opposite,  entire, 
ovate-lanceolate,  small,  exstipulate.  Flowers  few  in  number.  Stems 
spreading.— On  sandy  and  stony  beaches.  June,  July,  August. 
Perennial. 


FURZE,  fi-EX  EUROP.f.US.  Nat.  Ord.,  Leguminosa>.~Ca,lyx  two- 
partite,  segments  slightly  toothed,  having  two  small  bracts  at  base, 
pubescent,  yellowish.  Corolla  papilionaceous,  bright  yellow,  fragrant . 
Stamens  ten,  inonadelphous.  Style  and  stigma  one.  Fruit  a  two-valved 
legume.  Leaves  simple,  alternate,  stipulate,  inconspicuous.  Stems  freely 
branching,  covered  with  spreading  and  rigid  spines.  Growth  compact 
and  bushy. — Commons  and  sandy  or  gravelly  heaths,  railway  embank- 
ments and  cuttings,  open  forest  land,  &c.  Flowers  more  or  less  through- 
out the  year,  but  chiefly  in  the  spring.  Perennial. 


BROAD-LEAVED  PLANTAIN,  PLAXTAGO  MAJOR.  Nat. 
Ord.,  Plantaginacece.  —  Calyx  minute,  scariose,  four-partite.  Corolla 
four-lobed,  minute,  scariose,  tubed,  reflexed.  Stamens  four,  long, 
springing  from  tube  of  corolla.  Style  and  stigma  one.  Fruit  indehiscent, 
ovate  capsule,  many  seeded.  Inflorescence  a  long  cylindrical  and  dense 
spike ;  bract  at  base  of  each  flower.  Leaves  spreading,  radical,  broadly 
ovate,  conspicuously  nerved,  dull  green.  Root-stock  short  and  thick. 
—Meadows  and  roadsides.  June,  July,  August.  Perennial. 


TEASEL,  DIP3ACCS  SYLVESTRIS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Dipsacacea.  Flowers 
in  compact  cylindrical  heads,  having  at  base  an  involucre  of  six  to 
twelve  prickly  bracts,  rigid,  unequal,  curving  upwards.  Calyx  minute, 
cup-shaped.  Eeceptacle  bearing  the  florets  covered  with  spinous  and 
hooked  scales.  Corolla  four-lobed,  monopetalous,  lilac,  having  oblique 
limb.  Stamens  four,  inserted  in  tube.  Ovary  one-celled.  Style  one. 
Fruit  small,  dry,  indehiscent,  crowned  by  calyx.  Leaves  opposite,  the 
upper  leaves  connate,  undivided,  prickles  on  midribs.  Stems  rigid, 


SUMMARY.  ix 

prickly,,  angular,  four  to  five  feet  high. — Hedges  and  roadsides.  August 
and  September.    Biennial. 


TUBEROUS  MOSCHATEL,  ADOXA  MOSCHATELLIXA.  Nat. 
Ord. ,  Araliacea'.  Flowers  irregular  in  their  parts,  terminal  flower  having 
two  sepals  and  the  laterals  three  sepals.  Corolla  superior,  rotate,  four 
or  five-cleft  according  to  position.  Stamens  eight  or  ten.  Berry  fleshy, 
four  or  five-seeded.  Inflorescence  a  globular  head  of  four  lateral 
flowers  and  one  terminal  one,  borne  on  long  peduncles.  Leaves  radical, 
on  long  footstalks,  triternate,  two  cauline  and  ternate,  radicals  longer 
than  the  stem-leaves.  Stem  slender  and  herbaceous,  and  whole  plant 
light  green  in  colour,  very  delicate  and  fragile-looking. — "Woods  and 
shady  banks.  April  and  May.  Perennial. 

EVERLASTING  PEA,  LArurnrft  SYLrESTBis.  Nat.  Ord., 
Leguminosa'.  Calyx  of  five  sepals,  the  fifth  inferior,  mouth  oblique. 
Petals  five,  papilionaceous,  standard  large,  bright  pink,  veined.  Stamens 
diadelphous,  ten.  Ovary  one-celled.  Style  and  stigma  one.  Fruit  a 
two-ralved,  large,  and  several-seeded  legume.  Leaves  alternate,  stipu- 
late, one  pair  of  leaflets,  ensiform,  branching  tendrils,  leaf-stalks  flat- 
tened, winged.  Stems  weak,  climbing,winged.  Inflorescence  racemose, 
on  long  axillary  peduncles. — Thickets  and  rocky  places.  June,  July, 
and  August.  Perennial. 

STRAWBERRY,  FRAGARIA  VEKCA.  Nat.Ord.,Rosacece.—C&l^x 
persistent,  ten-cleft,  the  alternate  segments  being  larger  than  the 
others.  Petals  five,  equal,,  perigynous,  pure  white.  Stamens  perigy- 
nous,  numeroiis,  the  anthers  two-celled.  Styles  simple,  short.  Leaves 
clothed  with  soft  hairs,  alternate,  chiefly  radical,  stipulate  on  stem. 
Achenes  on  fleshy  crimson  receptacle.  Calyx  reflexed  on  ripening  of 
the  fruit.  Stems  herbaceous,  radical,  bearing  a  small  number  of 
flowers.— Woods  and  copses.  May,  June,  July.  Perennial. 


UPRIGHT  MEADOW  CROWFOOT,  BAXUNCULUS  ACRIS. 
Nat.  Ord.,  Ranunculacece.  Calyx  yellowish  green,  spreading,  five  dis- 
tinct sepals.  Petals  five,  distinct,  bright  yellow,  having  nectariferous 
spot  at  base.  Stamens  free,  hypogynous,  numerous,  on  receptacle. 


x  FAMILIAE    WILD    FLOJTEES. 

Fruit  a  globular  head  of  numerous  carpels.  Inflorescence  a  loose, 
many-flowered  panicle.  Stems  round,  erect,  two  to  three  feet  in  height, 
freely  branching,  covered  with  soft  hairs.  Leaves  deeply  divided  into 
palmate  and  strongly  serrated  segments,  the  lower  leaves  being  on 
stalks,  and  much  more  richly  cut  than  the  upper  and  more  linear 
leaves.— Meadows  and  banks.  June  and  July.  Perennial. 


LAMB'S  -  TONGUE,  PLASTAGO  LAXCEOLATA.  Nat.  Ord., 
Plantaginacea*.— Calyx  scariose,  four-partite.  Corolla  minute,  having 
tube  and  four  spreading  lobes  in  limb.  Stamens  four,  long  and  con- 
spicuous, inserted  on  tube  of  corolla.  Style  and  stigma  simple.  Fruit 
a  capsule.  Inflorescence  densely  spicate,  borne  on  long,  leafless,  erect, 
and  angular  peduncles.  Leaves  lanceolate,  tapering  at  each  extremity, 
strongly  marked  by  the  parallel  nerves,  radical,  spreading.— Meadows, 
rubbish-heaps,  waste  ground.  June,  July.  Perennial. 


COMMON  VETCH,  VICIA  SAW  A.  Nat.  Ord.,  Leguminosa-.— 
Calyx  of  five  sepals,  gibbous  at  base.  Corolla  papilionaceous.  Stamens 
ten,  diadelphous.  Ovary  one-celled.  Style  filiform,  simple.  Fruit  a 
legume,  two-valved,  several  seeded.  Leaves  alternate,  pinnate,  leaflets 
four  to  ten  in  each  leaf,  varying  from  obcordate  to  linear.  Branching 
tendrils.  Stipules  small,  deeply  serrate.  Flowers  axillary,  on  very 
short  peduncles,  solitary  or  in  pairs.— Open  spaces  in  woods,  pastures, 
waste  ground.  May,  June.  Annual  and  biennial. 


DEWBERRY,  nunus  c&Sll'S.  Nat.  Ord.,  Rosacecc.  Calyx  of 
five  narrow  segments.  Corolla  of  five  equal,  perigynous  petals.  Flowers 
few  in  number,  in  loose  panicles.  Stamens  perigynous,  numerous. 
Style  short.  Drupes  clustered  on  a  common  receptacle,  superior,  more 
or  less  enveloped  in  calyx,  covered  with  a  grey  bloom.  Leaves  of  three 
serrated  and  strongly-veined  leaflets.  Stems  more  or  less  with  a  bloom 
on  them,  and  covered  with  small  and  weak  prickles.— Thickets  and 
waste  ground.  June,  July.  Perennial. 

HENBIT,  r.A.Mn:v  AUPLEXICAULE.  Nat.  Ord.,  Labiates.— Calyx 
campanulate,  five-toothed,  hairy,  nearly  regular.  Corolla  rose-colour, 


SUMMARY.  xi 

throat  of  tube  inflated,  conspicuous  two-lobed  and  spotted  lip,  upper 
lip  entire,  arched.  Stamens  four,  two  longer  than  the  other  two. 
Anthers  hairy.  Ovary  with  four  lobes.  Style  single,  cleft,  with  two 
stigmas.  Fruit  an  achene,  enclosed  in  calyx.  Leaves  opposite,  lower 
ones  borne  on  long  stalks,  upper  ones  sessile,  all  deeply  crenate  and 
orbicular.  Flowers  in  compact  whorls  at  summit  of  stems.  Stems 
quadrangular,  much  branched.— Fields  and  waste  ground,  especially  in 
light  and  sandy  ground.  April  to  August.  Annual. 


FIELD  SCORPION-GRASS,  MYOSOTIS  AWENSIS.  Nat. 
Ord.,  Boraginacece.  Calyx  five-cleft,  hairy,  segments  erect,  persistent. 
Corolla  hypogynous,  regular,  salver-shaped,  monopetalous,  five-lobcd, 
pale  blue.  Stamens  five,  inserted  in  calyx.  Ovary  four-lobed.  Style 
simple.  Fruit  composed  of  four  dry,  smooth,  seed-like  nuts.  Leaves 
exstipulate,  alternate,  simple,  entire,  hairy.  Inflorescence  in  unilateral 
racemes,  ebracteate,  rolled  back  when  young.— Edges  of  woods,  on 
banlis,  and  on  cultivated  ground.  June,  July,  August.  Annual  or 
biennial. 


BUTTERFLY  ORCHIS,  HAHEKARIA  BIFOLIA.  Nat.  Ord., 
Orchidacea.— Perianth  superior,  irregular,  of  six  petal-like  segments, 
the  two  lateral  segments  widely  spreading,  pure  white  or  greenish. 
Lip  linear,  obtuse,  entire,  white  or  greenish.  Spur  long  and  slender. 
Column  in  centre  of  flower  consisting  of  stamen  and  pistil,  anther  on 
face  of  column.  Ovary  inferior,  one-celled.  Capsule  three-celled. 
Inflorescence  a  loose  panicle.  Flowering-stems  with  lanceolate  bracts, 
and  having  two  large  broadly-ovate  leaves  at  its  base,  and  a  few  small 
scales.  Tubers  large  and  entire. — Moist  pastures  and  woods.  June, 
July,  August.  Perennial. 


WOOD  LOOSESTRIFE,  LYSIMACHIA  NEMOEUM.  Nat.  Ord., 
Primulacecc.— Calyx  of  five  acutely-pointed  segments.  Corolla  rotate, 
bright  yellow,  deeply  five-lobed.  Stamens  five.  Style  single,  with 
capitate  stigma.  Capsule  single,  one-celled,  opening  at  top.  Leaves 
opposite,  ovate,  almost  sessile.  Flowers  borne  singly  on  slender  and 
long  pedicels  from  the  axils  of  the  leaves ;  the  pedicels  curl  back  after 


xii  FAMILIAR    WILD  FLOWERS. 

the  flowering  is  over.     Stem  slender,  procumbent,  rooting  at  the  lower 
nodes.— Woods  and  copses.    May  to  September.    Perennial. 


YELLOW  ROCKET,  BARBABKA  VULGAHIS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Cru- 
cifera:  Calyx  of  four  sepals,  slightly  bigibbous.  Corolla  small,  bright 
yellow,  of  four  petals.  Stamens  six,  tetradynamous.  Ovary  and  style 
one.  Pods  numerous,  spreading,  linear,  terminating  in  pointed  style, 
four-angled.  Inflorescence  a  long  and  dense  raceme.  Leaves  alternate, 
varying  in  form,  lower  ones  lyrate,  upper  pinnate  or  pinnatifid,  lobed. 
Stem  stout,  erect,  branching,  furrowed,  smooth.— Hedges,  pastures. 
May  to  September.  Perennial. 


GOOSE-GRASS,  GALWM  APARINE.  Nat.  Ord.,  Rubiacece.—  Calyx 
adherent  with  ovary.  Corolla  monopetalous,  rotate,  white,  regular, 
four-cleft.  Stamens  four,  inserted  on  coi-olla.  Style  one,  two-cleft  at 
summit.  Ovary  one.  Fruit  a  dry  two-lobed  pericarp,  having  hooked 
bristles.  Flowers  three  to  ten  together  on  short  footstalks  springing 
from  axils  of  leaves.  Leaves  in  whorls,  six  to  nine  in  a  ring,  prickly, 
linear-lanceolate.  Stems  rough,  angular,  weak,  straggling,  freely 
branching,  supporting  themselves  by  numerous  recurved  prickles.— In 
hedgerows.  June,  July.  Annual. 

CHERRY,  PKUKUS  CERASUS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Eosacece.-  Calyx  inferior, 
deciduous,  five-cleft.  Corolla  of  five  petals,  white,  perigynous,  equal. 
Stamens  numerous,  inserted  on  calyx.  Ovary  one.  Fruit  a  fleshy 
drupe.  Flowers  in  umbels,  on  long  pedicels,  issuing  from  rings  of 
scales.  Leaves  alternate,  serrate,  ovate,  stipulate.  A  shrub  or  small 
tree.— Woods  and  hedgerows.  May. 

WATER   AVENS,   r,F.ux  mvALF..    Nat  Ord.,  Rosacea. -Calyx 

tube  short,  five  large  segments,  and  five  much  smaller  ones  alternating 

with  them,  purplish.     Corolla  dull  yellowish  red.  of  five  heart-shaped 

perigynous  and  equal  petals.    Stamens  perigynous,  numerous.   Flowers 

few  in  number  and  drooping,  growing  singly  on  long  peduncles.     Fruit 

an  achene,  surmounted  by  a  long  and  feathery  awn.    Leaves  chiefly 

0,  interruptedly  pinnate,  the  terminal  segment  much  larger  than 

ters,  serrate,  upper  leaves  much  more  simple  in  character 


SUMMARY.  xiii 

lanceolate  or  ternate,  serrate.  Stipules  small,  toothed.  Stems  erect 
scarcely  branching.  —Marshes,  sides  of  canals,  damp  woods,  and  boggy 
moorlands.  May,  June,  July.  Perennial. 

MARSH  THISTLE,  cxwus  FALUSTMS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Composite. 
Flower-heads  homogamous,  numerous,  clustered  together  at  the 
summit  of  the  long  stem,  forming  a  terminal  and  compact  corymb. 
Florets  purple,  all  equal  and  tubular,  five-cleft.  Stamens  five.  Ovary 
one.  Involucral  bracts  very  numerous  and  closely  imbricate.  Pappus 
plumose.  Stem  winged,  prickly,  tough,  erect,  five  or  six  feet  high. 
Leaves  decurrent,  narrow,,  pinnatifid,  wavy,  lobed,  prickly.  —  Moist 
pastures,  damp  and  shady  woods.  July.  Annual  or  biennial. 


SALAD  BURNET,  POTEHIUM  SANGUISORBA.  Nat.  Ord., 
Kosaceie.  —Flowers  grouped  in  globular  heads,  on  long  footstalks.  Upper 
flowers  female,  lower  ones  male.  Calyx  four-lobed,  superior.  Corolla 
wanting.  Stamens  perigynous,  very  numerous,  pendulous.  Styles  two, 
long,  ending  in  tufted,  purple  stigmas.  Stem  wiry,  angular.  Leaves 
pinnate,  having  numerous  pairs  of  nearly  equal,  ovate,  serrate  leaflets. 
— Dry  pastures  and  embankments  in  limestone  and  chalk  districts. 
June,  July,  August.  Perennial. 

HOUND'S-TONGUE,  ITXOGLOSSUM  OFFICINALE.  Nat.  Ord., 
Boraginacea. — Calyx  inferior,  deeply  five-cleft,  segments  erect.  Corolla 
funnel-shaped,  dull  crimson;  tube  short,  thick,  purple-spotted;  limb 
concave,  five-parted,  almost  closed  at  mouth  by  five  prominent  scales. 
Stamens  five,  inserted  into  tube.  Ovary  smooth,  depressed,  four-parted. 
Style  pyramidal,  having  capitate  stigma.  Fruit  of  four  globose  nutlets. 
Flowers  on  short  peduncles,  in  axillary  and  terminal,  unilateral,  droop- 
ing racemes.  Leaves  numerous,  alternate,  waved,  soft,  lower  ones 
broadly  lanceolate,  on  long  footstalks,  upper  ones  lanceolate,  sessile, 
whole  plant  with  strong  mousy  odour.  Stem  thick,  erect,  branching, 
leafy. — Waste  grounds  and  open  spaces  in  woods.  June,  July.  Biennial. 

CARROT,  DAUCUS  CAROTA.  Nat.  Ord.,  Umbellifera;.  —  Calyx  of 
five  small  teeth.  Corolla  of  five  obcordate  petals,  having  their  points 
inflexed,  outer  one  deeply  bifid.  Stamens  five,  on  spreading  filiform 


xiv  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

filaments.  Ovary  inferior,  ovate.  Style  filiform.  Flowers  in  large 
terminal  umbels  of  many  rays,  flat-topped  when  the  flowers  are  ex- 
panded, and  become  concave  as  the  fruit  ripens.  Leaves  bi-  and  tri- 
pinnate,  deep  green.  Stem  erect,  furrowed,  hairy,  branching.  Involu- 
cral  ring  of  numerous  pinnatifid  leaves.  Fruit  clothed  with  prickles. 
Root  fusiform,  yellowish,  of  strong  odour.— Borders  of  fields,  hedge- 
banks,  road-sides.  June,  July,  August.  Biennial. 


DWARF  THISTLE,  CNICUS  ACAULIS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Composite. 
—Flower-heads  large,  purple,  ordinarily  sessile,  few  in  number,  ordi- 
narily solitary.  All  the  corollas  tubular,  five-cleft.  Stamens  five. 
Ovary  one.  Style  one.  Pappus  plumose,  equal,  long.  Fruit  an  achene. 
Involucre  obovate,  glabrous,  scales  appressed.  Leaves  in  spreading 
tuft,  pinnatifid,  glabrous,  very  spiny.  Stem  wanting  or  very  short. — 
Gravelly  and  chalky  waste  land  and  pasturage.  July,  August,  Sep- 
tember. Perennial 


WATER-CRESS.  NASTURTIUM  OFFICIXALE.  Nat.  Ord.,  Cru- 
ciferce.  —  Calyx  of  four  ovate,  deciduous,  glabrous  sepals.  Corolla 
cruciform,  of  four  white  and  spreading  petals.  Stamens  tetradynamous. 
Inflorescence  racemose,  ebracteate.  Style  short,  having  obtuse  capitate 
stigma.  Fruit  a  two-valved  pod.  Leaves  pinnate,  alternate,  glabrous, 
lobed,  succulent.  Stem  thick,  glabrous,  branching,  rooting.— Brooks 
and  streams.  May,  June,  July,  August.  Perennial. 

STARWORT,  ASTER  TRIPOLIUM.  Nat.  Ord.,  Cruciferce.— Flower- 
heads  in  terminal  corymbs.  Involucre  of  a  few  imbricated  bracts, 
Kay  florets  purple,  ligulate,  sometimes  wanting;  disk  florets  yellow, 
tubular.  Leaves  linear-lanceolate,  entire,  alternate,  obscurely  three- 
nerved,  slightly  succulent,  exstipulate.  Stem  erect,  glabrous,  some- 
what branching  in  the  upper  part-Salt  marshes.  August,  September. 
Perennial. 

GARLIC-MUSTARD,  ALLIARIA  OFFICMALIS.  Nat.  Ord., 
Crucifertc.— Calyx  of  four  ovate-lanceolate,  connivent  sepals.  Corolla 
cruciform.  Petals  four,  white,  obovate.  Stamens  tetradynamous. 


SUMMARY.  xv 

Ovary  long,  tetragonal,  with  capitate  stigma.  Fruit  a  pod,  slender, 
prominently  nerved,  two-valved,  two-celled.  Flowers  forming  a  ter- 
minal raceme  of  corymbose  character.  Leaves  cordate,  alternate,  un- 
equally serrate,  sinuate,  glabrous,  having  a  powerful  odour  when 
rubbed.  Stern  erect,  slightly  branching,  cylindrical,  smooth. — Hedge- 
rows, waste  ground.  May,  June.  Annual  or  biennial. 


BEE  ORCHIS,  OPHRYS  APIFERA.  Nat.  Ord.,  Orchidacev.— 
Sepals  ovate,  very  spreading,  pale  green  or  white  with  pink  tinge. 
Petal  small,  lip  broad,  convex,  tumid,  trifid,  spurless,  velvety-brown, 
mottled  with  yellow.  Column  erect,  curving  over  anther.  Inflorescence 
spicate,  flowers  few  in  number.  Leaves  lanceolate,  the  lower  ones  much 
larger  than  the  upper.  Tubers  at  root. — Dry  pasturage  and  down 
land.  June,  July.  Perennial. 


GROUNDSEL,  SENECIO  VULGARIS.  Nat.  Ord.,  Composite.— 
Flower-heads  almost  sessile,  in  close  terminal  corymbose  clusters. 
Involucres  cylindrical,  having  numerous  equal  linear  bracts,  at  base 
other  smaller  ones.  Florets  of  the  ray  wanting,  tubular  florets  yellow. 
Stamens  five,  anthers  syngenesious.  Style  scarcely  longer  than  corolla. 
Ovary  one.  Achenes  with  pilose  pappus.  Leaves  pinnatifid,  with 
irregularly-toothed  lobes.  Stem  erect,  succulent,  branching. 


HEMP-NETTLE,  GALEOPSIS  TETRAIUT.  Nat.  Ord.,  Labiatce.— 
Calyx  campanulate,  with  five  pointed  teeth,  nearly  regular,  very  hairy. 
Corolla  tubular,  very  variable  in  size,  upper  lip  erect,  ovate,  the  lower 
spreading  and  three-lobed.  Stamens  four,  arranged  in  pairs,  the  two 
anterior  being  the  longest.  Ovary  one.  Stigma  two-lobed.  Flowers 
in  compact  rings  in  the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves.  Leaves  opposite, 
stalked,  acuminate,  ovate,  hairy,  coarsely  serrate.  Stem  slightly 
branching,  square,  swelling  at  nodes,  hairy.— Cultivated  ground  and 
rubbish-heaps.  July,  August,  September.  Annual. 


LADY'S  MANTLE,  ALCHEMILI.A  VULGARIS.  Nat.  Ord., 
Rosacece. — Flowers  small,  very  numerous,  pale  green,  in  lax  corymbs  at 
the  summits  of  the  stems  and  lateral  branches.  Perianth  inferior, 


xvi  FAMILIAR    WILL    FLOWERS. 

uionophyllous,  having  eight-parted  liinb,  the  four  inner  segments  being 
the  largest.  Stamens  four,  inserted  into  perianth.  Ovary  one,  having 
short  style  surmounted  with  capitate  stigma.  Fruit  a  one-seeded 
achene.  Leaves  alternate,  radicals  large,  on  long  stems,  caulines  small, 
on  small  stems,  orbicular  or  reniform,  plaited,  several  strongly-serrated 
lobes,  veiny.  Stipules  large,  connate,  serrate,  spreading.  Stems 
numerous,  erect,  slender,  cylindrical,  leafy.— Pastures,  fields,  and 
hedgerows.  June,  July,  August.  Perennial. 


FAMILIAR 

WILD    FLOWEKS. 


CLUSTEEED 
BELL-FLOWEE. 

Campanula  glomerata.        Nat.  Ord,, 
Campanulacece. 

MONGST  the  different  species 
of  British  bell-flowers  we 
find  a  very  considerable 
variety.  Of  these  we  have 
already  figured  the  noble 
nettle-leaved  bell-flower,  or 
C.  Trackelitim,  with  its  large 
purple  bells  and  general  pic- 
turesqueness  of  growth ;  the 
creeping  campanula,  C.rapun- 
culoicles,  with  its  long  line 
of  deep  purple  and  pendent 
flowers;  and  the  abundant 
and  everrcharming  harebell, 
C.  rotundlfolia,  tossing  its 
delicate  blossoms  to  the  free 
air  of  the  heath  and  moor- 
land. We  now  figure  a 
fourth  example  of  the 


2  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

genus,  the  C.  glomerate,  or  clustered  bell-flower,  a  plant 
no  less  beautiful  than  any  of  the  others,  as  all  will  admit 
who  have  seen  its  purple  spires  amidst  the  vegetation  of 
the  hedgerow.  It  delights  in  dry  upland  country,  and 
seems  to  have  a  special  liking  for  the  chalk,  though  we 
find  it  scattered  over  the  greater  part  of  England.  In 
Ireland  it  would  appear  to  be  unknown,  and  in  Scotland 
we  only  find  it  in  the  southern  counties.  Few  plants 
probably  vary  more  in  appearance  according  to  the  locality 
in  which  they  are  found.  When  we  see  it  on  the  face  of 
the  open  down,  it  is  often  dwarfed  to  a  mere  three  or  four 
inches  in  height,  and  the  flowers  no  less  than  the  rest 
of  the  plant  share  in  the  general  diminution  of  the  parts ; 
but  when  we  find  it  in  a  more  sheltered  position,  as  in  a 
hedgerow,  the  plant  is  often  a  foot  or  more  in  height,  and 
crowded  with  blossoms.  As  these  blossoms  cluster  at  the 
tops  of  the  stems,  the  plant  is  rendered  additionally  con- 
spicuous, as  the  mass  of  purple  colour  comes  prominently 
forward,  and  attracts  the  eye  amidst  the  surrounding  ver- 
dure. This  clustering  head  of  blossoms  has  given  the 
plant  its  popular  English  name,  and  also  its  specific  name, 
glomerata,  a  Latin  word,  signifying  formed  into  a  mass 
like  a  ball.  The  flowers  are  stalkless,  and  spring  in  small 
bunches  from  the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves ;  but  the  ter- 
minal bunch  is  always  considerably  the  largest,  and  is 
in  many  cases  the  only  one,  and  in  imperfectly  developed 
specimens,  or  plants  that  have  had  to  suffer  from  un- 
towardly  hard  conditions  of  existence,  is  often  represented 
by  only  some  two  or  three  blossoms.  We  mention  this 
more  particularly,  and  repeat  it,  because  there  is  no  plant 
that  varies  more,  and  our  readers  might  fail  to  realise  that 
a  puny  little  plant,  say  three  inches  high,  and  showino-  a 


CLUSTERED    BELL-FLOWER.  3 

grand  total  of  three  small  bells,  could  really  be  tbe  same 
thing  as  the  one  we  have  illustrated. 

The  clustered  bell-flower  is  a  perennial,  and  throws  up 
one  or  more  stems ;  these  are  erect  in  general  direction, 
unbranching,  angular  in  cross  section,  and  varying  in 
degrees  of  smoothness  or  hairiness.  The  leaves  that  spring 
immediately  from  the  root  or  the  lower  part  of  the  stem 
are  borne  on  long  stalks,  but  these  stalks  gradually 
diminish  as  we  advance  up  the  stems,  until  we  find  the 
upper  leaves  entirely  stalkless,  and  clasping  the  stem  with 
their  bases.  The  lower  leaves  are  long,  narrow,  and  deeply 
serrated,  while  the  upper  ones  are  somewhat  more  heart- 
shaped,  less  toothed,  but  having  their  margins  a  good  deal 
waved.  The  capsule  is  short  and  broad,  opening  by  lateral 
clefts  below  the  segments  of  the  calyx.  We  are  sometimes 
told  by  inquirers  into  the  secrets  of  nature  that  the  bell- 
shaped  flowers  furnish  a  beautiful  example  of  the  adaptation 
of  means  to  ends,  the  pendent  bells  turning  from  the  wind 
and  sheltering  the  organs  within  them  from  all  external 
damage.  It  is  always  pleasant  to  endeavour  to  com- 
prehend any  part  of  the  wonderful  scheme  of  creation,  and 
follow  humbly  in  the  steps  of  the  Divine  Wisdom,  but  the 
clustered  bell-flower  would  seem  to  show  that  one  must 
not  too  hastily  indulge  in  generalities,  for  its  blossoms 
always  stand  boldly  erect,  and  seem  to  need  nothing 
of  that  protection  to  which  we  have  referred. 

Besides  the  four  species  of  campanulas  we  have  figured, 
we  have  some  few  others  to  which  we  may  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  referring.  First  amongst  these  stands  the  giant 
bell-flower,  or  C.  latifolia,  a  tall  and  handsome  species, 
that  is  more  especially  found  in  the  Scottish  forests  and 
in  northern  England,  but  becomes  much  rarer  as  we 


4  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

travel  south.  The  flowers  are  large  and  of  a  rich  blue  tint 
ordinarily,  but  varying  to  white  much  more  frequently  than 
is  the  case  with  any  of  the  other  species.  The  spreading 
bell-flower,  C.pattUa,  is  a  southern  plant,  and  even  in  the 
central  and  south-eastern  counties  of  England  is  by  no 
means  common;  it  is  a  light  and  graceful  plant,  not 
unlike  a  considerably  magnified  harebell  in  general  ap- 
pearance, but  the  bell  is  of  a  much  more  open  and  distended 
form,  and  the  purple  is  considerably  deeper  in  tint. 

The  next  species,  the  ivy-leaved  bell-flower,  or  C.  he- 
derifolia,  is  a  particularly  delicate  and  graceful  little 
plant.  It  should  be  sought  for  in  moist  woods,  chiefly  in 
the  south  and  west  of  England.  The  stems  are  very  slender 
and  thread-like,  supporting  small,  delicate  leaves — suffi- 
ciently like  those  of  the  ivy  to  justify  its  name — and  pale 
lilac-blue  blossoms.  These  flowers,  barely  half  an  inch  in 
length,  and  very  tubular  in  form,  are  at  first  pendent,  but 
ultimately  assume  the  erect  position. 


SALLOW. 

Salix  caprea.      Nat.  Ord., 
Sahcacete. 

VEN  those  of  our  readers  who 
fail   to   recognise   the  plant 
we  figure  under  the  name  we 
give  it  will  probably  have 
no  difficulty  in  recalling  it 
under    the     name     of     the 
"palm/'      After    the    first 
few  prinu-oses  have  cast  their 
delicate  clustering  blossoms 
upon   the  hedge-banks,  and 
the  golden  disks  of  the  colts- 
foot   have    lighted    up   the 
waste   grounds,  one   of   the 
most  welcome  signs  of  the  ap- 
proaching spring  is  the  blossom- 
ing   of    the    sallow,    and    its 
branches  were  in  earlier  times 
in  great  request  on  the  annual  re- 
currence of  Palm  Sunday.    These 

were  carried  in  processions  and  strewn  on  the  roads  on 
the  Sunday  next  before  Easter,  in  commemoration  of  the 
entry  of  our  Saviour  into  Jerusalem  immediately  before 
His  death.  As  the  palm  itself  was  not  available,  it  became 
necessary  to  find  a  substitute,  and  the  golden  heads  of  the 


6  FAMILIAR    WILD    fLOll'ERS. 

sallow  appeared  the  best  available,  though  sometimes  the 
sombre  yew  or  other  evergreen  trees  were  used  instead. 
The  custom  is  of  great  antiquity,  and  numerous  references 
to  it  may  be  found  in  old  writers,  though  the  limited  space 
here  at  our  disposal  forbids  our  quoting  any  of  them. 

The  sallow,  like  the  other  species  of  the  genus,  is 
dioecious,  that  is  to  say,  its  blossoms,  instead  of  being,  like 
those  of  the  buttercup  and  many  other  plants,  both  pistil 
and  stamen  bearing  together,  are  on  each  tree  of  one  sex 
alone.  The  golden  yellow  clusters  of  the  <(  palm,""  the  sub- 
ject of  our  illustration,  are  the  stamen-bearing  catkins; 
the  pistillate  are  green  in  colour,  somewhat  longer,  narrower, 
and  less  compactly  cylindrical.  Before  flowering  the  male 
catkins  are  of  a  soft  grey  colour,  and  very  smooth  and  silky 
to  the  touch ;  but  as  the  stamens  develop  the  silvery  grey 
is  metamorphosed  into  golden  yellow.  The  heads,  we  find, 
will  continue  to  expand  if  the  stems  be  placed  in  water ; 
the  greyer  piece  in  our  figure,  in  the  course  of  a  day  or 
two  in  our  study,  turned  as  yellow  as  the  other,  and  both 
of  them  lasted  in  perfection  for  some  time,  so  that  its 
picturesque  and  quaint-looking  sprays  are  eminently  adapted 
for  a  place  either  in  ecclesiastical  or  home  decoration.  The 
leaves  of  the  sallow  are  somewhat  more  egg-shaped  and 
broadened  than  in  some  of  the  other  common  species  of 
willow,  and  the  shrub  does  not  seem  so  entirely  a  plant  of 
the  damp  low-lying  meadows  and  edges  of  streams  as  many 
of  the  willows  do,  for  though,  like  these,  it  may  be  found 
there,  it  may  perhaps  equally  commonly  be  found  in  woods 
and  thickets  on  higher  ground.  The  word  sallow  descends 
to  us  from  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  signifies  a  plant  suitable 
for  withes  or  ties,  the  flexible  character  of  the  stems  of  this 
and  the  other  willows  marking  them  out  as  especially  use- 


SALLOW.  7 

ful  for  such  a  purpose,  or  for  weaving  into  basket-work. 
The  generic  name,  Salix,  is  the  Latin  word  for  a  willow 
tree,  while  the  specific  name,  caprea,  bestowed  on  the  plant 
by  the  great  Linnaeus,  is  also  derived  from  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  signifies  a  goat.  Smith,  in  his  "  English  Flora/' 
published  about  the  beginning  of  this  century,  says,  "  The 
name  caprea  seems  to  have  originated  in  the  reputed  fond- 
ness of  goats  for  the  catkins  as  exemplified  in  the  wooden 
cut  of  the  venerable  Tragus,  their  namesake/'  In  the 
illustration  referred  to,  we  see  a  goat  standing  on  its  hind 
legs  and  reaching  up  as  high  as  possible  for  the  sallow 
catkins,  which  it  is  represented  as  eating.  The  book  was 
published  in  1532,  first  in  German,  and  then,  in  1552,  in  a 
Latin  edition.  Tragus  was  a  Latin  travesty  of  the  writer's 
true  name,  Jerome  Bock.  In  the  same  way  the  real  name 
of  the  great  reformer  Melanchthon  was  Schwarzerd,  a  name 
signifying  in  German  black  earth,  and  which,  in  accord- 
ance with  general  usage,  was  changed  into  the  compound 
Greek  work  of  the  same  significance,  Melanchthon.  Eras- 
mus, in  like  manner,  was  really  named  Gerard,  a  name 
which  in  German  signifies  amiable ;  hence  he  called  himself 
Desiderius  Erasmus,  the  Latin  and  Greek  equivalents  of 
the  German  Gerard.  In  mediae val  times  it  was  the  almost 
invariable  custom  to  Latinise  or  turn  into  Greek  the 
proper  names  of  illustrious  men,  and  this  often  led  to 
a  little  neavy  humour,  and  while  in  some  cases  the  name 
of  the  person  merely  received  a  classic  termination,  as 
Didoens  becoming  Didonseus,  and  Lobel  being  Lobelius,  in 
others  the  temptation  to  take  such  a  name  as  Fox  or  Bull, 
and  convert  it  into  Vulpes  or  Taurus  was  irresistible. 

To  entomologists  the  sallow  is  especially  dear,  as  its 
fragrant  catkins  offer  great  temptation  to  many  kinds  of 


8  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

butterflies  and  moths,  while  its  foliage  finds  their  larvae  or 
caterpillars  welcome  provender.  Should  any  of  our 
readers  find  on  the  sallows  about  the  beginning  of  June 
a  pale  green  caterpillar  having  various  yellow  lines  and 
stripes  on  each  side,  they  will  do  well  to  take  it  home 
and  endeavour  to  rear  it.  It  is  the  larva  of  the  purple 
emperor  butterfly,  the  Apatura  Iris  of  the  entomologist, 
and  one  of  our  most  beautiful  species,  and  one  which 
may  best  be  obtained  by  rearing,  as  it  is  by  no  means 
an  easy  insect  to  capture  on  the  wing. 

In  the  well-known  lines  of  Spenser,  dealing  with  the 
economic  uses  of  many  of  our  trees,  we  find  "  the  birch  for 
shafts,  the  sallow  for  the  mill/'  It  is  much  less  liable 
to  split  on  sudden  strain  than  many  other  woods,  and  is 
therefore  used  in  mill-work  and  various  rustic  purposes 
where  this  peculiar  property  renders  it  specially  suitable. 


HOLLY. 

Hex  aguifolitnn.      Nat.  Ord., 
Aquifoliacce . 

ENGTHENED  description 
o£  the  holly  will,  we  are 
sure,  be  wholly  super- 
fluous, as  there  can  be 
but  few  people  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of 
these  islands  who  do  not 
know  the  plant  perfectly 
well.  It  seems  to  thrive 
best  in  a  light  and 
gravelly  soil,  and,  though 
possibly  some  of  our 
readers  may  be  more  fa- 
miliar with  it  as  a  mate- 
rial for  making  hedges, 
in  the  woods  it  becomes  a 
small  tree.  Its  flowers 
should  be  looked  for  in 
May  and  June.  These 

flowers  are  not  very  conspicuous ;  but,  as  we  recall  the 
astonishment  of  a  London  friend  of  ours,  who  seemed  to 
have  thought  holly  was  always  in  a  state  of  red  berries 
when  we  said  something  about  its  flowers,  we  feel  that 
they  are  considerably  better  than  nothing.  Though  they 


10  fAJTILIJE    WILD    FLO  WEES. 

are  individually  small,  the  dense  clusters  in  which  they  are 
found  in  the  axils  of  the  leaves,  and  their  delicate  creamy- 
white  colour,  tend  to  make  them  more  noticeable.  The 
corolla  is  all  in  one  piece,  but  deeply  cut  into  four  lobes ; 
and  these,  instead  of  forming  a  cup,  as  in  the  buttercup 
and  many  other  flowers,  are  thrown  boldly  back — a  feature 
which  may  be  very  readily  noted  in  our  illustration.  The 
calyx  has  four  small  teeth,  and  the  stamens,  too,  are  four  in 
number.  These  are  rather  large,  and  with  their  conspicu- 
ous yellow  anthers  form  a  noticeable  feature  in  the  cluster- 
ing blossoms.  The  berries,  as  we  all  know,  are  ordinarily 
bright  scarlet,  though  they  may  sometimes  be  found  bright 
yellow  instead  ;  and  we  remember  once  to  have  seen,  at  a 
meeting  of  a  botanical  society,  a  spray  of  holly  exhibited 
with  orange-coloured  berries,  the  result  of  a  scion  of  a 
yellow-fruited  variety  grafted  on  a  red-berried  stock. 
This  is  somewhat  curious,  for,  although  an  artist  mixes 
red  and  yellow  together,  to  make  an  orange  tint,  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  Nature  mixes  her  colours  in  the 
same  way.  Though  it  is,  of  course,  equally  open  to 
any  one  else  to  try  the  same  experiment,  and  very  possibly 
many  florists  may  have  done  so,  we  may  mention  that 
the  only  example  that  ever  came  under  our  own  notice 
of  this  grafting  together  of  the  yellow  and  the  red  came 
from  Bury  St.  Edmunds. 

The  leaves  of  the  holly  are  evergreen,  very  thick 
in  texture,  and  shining.  The  upper  leaves  are  often 
entire,  and  wanting  in  that  formidable  armament  oi' 
prickles  that  is  so  marked  a  feature  in  the  lower  and  older 
leaves. 

Though  ordinarily  a  deep  rich  green,  we  at  times  find 
plants  in  which  the  foliage  is  streaked,  or  blotched  with 


THE  HOLLY.  11 

yellow  or  white ;  and  in  one  variety,  called  the  hedgehog 
holly,  not  only  are  the  edges  of  the  leaf  armed  with  spines, 
but  its  entire  upper  surface.  The  holly-tree  is  not  only 
very  ornamental  but  very  useful.  Perhaps  its  most  prac- 
tical service  is  the  making  of  grand  hedges,  evergreen  and 
impenetrable  ;  but,  though  a  most  durable  fence  when  once 
established,  the  great  drawback  to  its  use  is  the  slowness  of 
its  growth.  Evelyn,  in  his  "  Sylva/'  thus  breaks  out  into 
admiration  of  its  combined  utility  and  beauty  : — "  Is  there," 
he  exclaims,  "  under  heaven  a  more  glorious  and  refresh- 
ing object  than  such  an  impenetrable  hedge,  glittering  with 
its  armed  and  varnished  leaves  and  blushing  with  natural 
coral  ?  "  and  he  had  good  cause  in  his  own  experience  for  his 
fervent  praise,  for  one  of  the  sights  of  his  own  garden  at 
Sayes  Court  was  a  holly  hedge  four  hundred  feet  long,  nine 
feet  high,  and  five  feet  broad.  The  ease  with  which  such  a 
hedge  can  be  kept  trimmed,  compared  to  privet,  hawthorn, 
or  any  other  substitute,  is  another  great  point  in  its  favour. 
The  wood  of  the  holly,  from  the  great  evenness  of  the 
grain,  is  very  valuable  to  the  carver  and  turner;  it  is 
largely  used  in  inlaying,  making  the  blocks  for  calico- 
printing,  and  many  other  purposes  where  its  hardness  and 
toughness  would  prove  of  service.  It  is  mentioned  by 
Spenser  amongst  the  useful  trees  under  the  older  name  of 
the  holm.  We  find  that  it  has  given  a  name  to  several 
villages  near  which  it  formerly  abounded.  Holmwood, 
near  Evelyn's  house,  in  Surrey,  is  an  illustration  that  at 
once  occurs  to  one. 

The  bark  of  the  holly,  after  a  certain  amount  of 
maceration,  produces  the  viscid  material  called  bird-lime. 
Dr.  Rousseau,  in  an  essay  on  the  use  of  holly — 
which  was  published  in  the  "Transactions'"  of  one  of 


12  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

the  learned  societies — strongly  advocated  the  use  of  the 
plant  as  a  febrifuge  and  as  a  most  efficient  substitute  for 
cinchona  bark.  The  berries  are  violently  emetic,  though 
birds  eat  them  with  impunity. 

The  holly  is  associated  with  our  great  Christmas  festi- 
val, and  has  from  the  earliest  times  been  employed  to 
decorate  our  houses  and  churches — a  survival  doubtless  of 
the  old  Roman  custom  of  decking  the  houses  with  green 
boughs  during  the  Saturnalia.  Indeed,  such  a  form  of 
rejoicing  seems  in  any  case  a  most  natural  one;  in  the 
Book  of  Leviticus,  for  instance,  we  find  amongst  the 
instructions  for  the  due  keeping  of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles 
this  command :  "  Ye  shall  take  you  on  the  first  day  the 
boughs  of  goodly  trees,  branches  of  palm-trees,  and  the 
boughs  of  thick  trees,  and  willows  of  the  brook,  and  ye 
shall  rejoice  before  the  Lord  your  God."  In  Germany, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark,  the  holly  is  called  the  Christmas 
thorn,  from  this  association  with  the  festival  of  the 
Nativity. 


PEIVET. 

Liffustrum  vulgare.     Nat.  Ord. , 
OleacccR. 

'EW  of  our  readers  will  fail 
to  recognise  the  subject 
'  of  our  present  illustration, 
though  probably  many  of 
them  will  be  more  familiar 
with  it  as  a  plant  of  the 
gardens  than  of  the  woods. 
Its  utility  has  doubtless 
been  the  cause  of  its  wide 
diffusion  throughout  Eng- 
land, yet  it  is  a  true 
wilding,  and  throughout 
the  southern  part  of  our 
island  may  be  commonly 
found  in  woodlands  and 
thickets.  Gerarde's  de- 
scription of  it  is  so  happy 
that  we  cannot  forbear  to 
quote  it;  indeed,  many  of  the  old  herbalists  were  masters 
of  terse  detail,  and  in  a  few  lines  give  one  all  the 
essential  facts.  "  Privet  is  a  shrub  growing  like  a  hedge- 
tree,  the  branches  and  twigs  whereof  be  straight  and  covered 
with  soft  glistering  leaves  of  a  deepe  green  colour,  like 
those  of  periwinkle,  but  yet  longer,  greater  also  than  the 


14  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

leaves  of  the  olive-tree  :  the  flowers  be  white,  sweet  of  smell, 
very  little,  growing  in  clusters ;  which  being  faded  there 
succeed  clusters  of  berries,  at  the  first  greene,  and  when  they 
be  ripe  blacke,  like  a  little  cluster  of  grapes,  which  yeeld  a 
purple  juice.  The  common  privet  groweth.  naturally  in 
every  wood  and  in  the  hedgerowesof  our  London  gardens." 
Gerarde  wrote  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and 
this  little  side  reference  to  the  privet  hedgerows  of  our 
ancestors  is  interesting.  Another  old  writer,  the  author  of 
the  "Theatrum  Botanicum,"  published  in  1649,  refers  also 
to  this  use  of  the  plant.  "  It  is  carryed  up  with  the  many 
slender  branches  to  a  reasonable  height  and  breadth  to 
cover  arbours,  bowres,  and  banquetting  houses,  and  brought 
wrought  and  cut  into  many  formes  of  men,  horses,  birdes, 
&c.,  as  the  workman  list,  supported  at  the  first  with  timber, 
poles,  and  the  like,  but  aftew'd  groweth  strong  of  it  selfe, 
sufficient  to  hold  it  in  the  forme  it  is  made  into/'  Several 
reasons  commend  it  as  a  hedge-maker :  it  grows  very 
rapidly,  and  soon  makes  a  substantial  fence;  it  is  evergreen, 
and  so  always  looks  cheerful ;  it  bears  clipping  admirably 
well ;  it  is  but  little  disfigured  by  insects ;  its  roots  are 
fibrous,  and  rob  the  ground  less  than  those  of  many  other 
shrubs;  it  bears  the  smoke  and  dirt  of  towns  better 
than  most  other  things;  and  it  is  not  particularly 
choice  as  to  soil  or  situation,  though  it  flourishes  most  in 
fairly  moist  ground.  It  stands  sea  breezes,  too,  better  than 
many  other  plants.  It  may  be  raised  either  by  seeds, 
layers,  or  cuttings,  the  last  named  being  most  efficacious 
when  it  is  desired  to  produce  a  fencing  as  quickly  as 
possible. 

From  the  berries  of  the  privet  a  good  green  dye  for 
woollen   materials   has  been   obtained,    and   it  is    said  to 


THE    PRIVET.  15 

be  less  fugitive  than  most  vegetable  greens  prove  to 
be;  but  the  march  of  science  and  the  extension  of  com- 
merce have  supplied  for  a  good  dye  others  still  better,  and 
the  privet,  as  a  tinctorial  plant,  has  been  supplanted  by 
other  less  known  but  more  serviceable  shrubs.  Curtis 
mentions  that  the  berries  are  also  used  as  a  colouring  for 
wines — those  probably  that  are  described  in  the  multitudi- 
nous wine  circulars  that  pour  in  upon  us  from  every  side  as 
"  very  curious/'  A  more  legitimate  use  for  the  berries  is 
as  one  of  the  items  of  the  winter  bill  of  fare  of  many  of 
our  birds,  the  bullfinch  being  especially  partial  to  them. 
Though  we  have  described  the  privet  as  an  evergreen  we 
may  be  allowed  to  so  far  qualify  this  statement  as  to  say 
that  we  often  noticed  in  hard  winters  that  the  leaves,  while 
retaining  their  position,  frequently  turn  a  purplish  brown  or 
chocolate  tint;  but  this  feature  is  by  no  means  unornamental, 
especially  when,  as  is  ordinarily  the  case,  the  bunches  of 
black  and  glossy  berries  are  freely  intermixed  with  the 
foliage. 

When  growing  in  a  wild  state  the  privet  attains  to  a 
height  of  some  six  or  seven  feet,  and  forms  a  compact-look- 
ing shrub.  Haller  mentions  a  variety  having  white 
berries,  but  this  we  have  never  seen.  Mathiolus  affirms 
that  "the  oyle  that  is  made  of  the  floures  of  privet 
infused  therein  and  set  in  the  Sunne  is  singular  good  for 
the  inflammations  of  wounds/'  and  so  forth ;  and  the  plant 
is  also  used,  according  to  other  authors,  as  a  decoction,  a 
gargle,  a  "  plaister/'  or  a  ' '  powther/'  for  most  of  the  ills 
that  flesh  is  heir  to,  from  "  the  headache  co naming  of 
choller "  to  consumption. 

Any  one  visiting  their  privet-hedge  during  August  will 
very  probably  find  upon  it  one  or  more  caterpillars  of  the 


16 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 


privet  hawk-moth,  the  Sphinx  Ligustri  of  the  entomologist. 
As  these  caterpillars  are  some  three  inches  long  and  as  thick 
as  one's  little  finger,  they  are  decidedly  conspicuous.  In 
colour  they  are  vivid  green,  slashed  with  seven  streaks  on 
either  side  of  white  and  lilac.  On  turning  into  the  chrysalis 
or  pupa  stage  they  burrow  into  the  ground,  and  any  one 
turning  up  the  soil  beneath  their  privet-bushes  will  no 
doubt  find  them  in  this  new  stage  of  existence.  If  they 
are  carefully  taken  up  and  re-buried  in  a  box  of  earth  and 
brought  indoors,  the  perfect  insect  will  emerge  in  the 
following  June.  The  moth  is  a  grand  insect,  being  over  four 
inches  long  from  tip  to  tip  of  its  front  wings.  The  front 
wings  are  pale  brown,  mottled  and  striped  with  darker 
brown  and  black ;  the  hind  wings  pink,  crossed  by  three 
broad  black  bands.  The  earth  in  which  the  pupa  is  re- 
buried  should  be  occasionally  damped,  as  would  have  been 
the  case  had  we  left  our  prize  to  the  dews  and  rains  of 
heaven ;  failing  this  the  earth  would  get  so  hard  and  dry 
that  the  perfect  insect  could  never  force  its  way  out  and 
emerge  into  the  sunlight  from  its  living  tomb. 


0*0  =  5 


SPOTTED     OECHIS. 

Orchis  macitlata.     Nat.  Ord.,  Orchidacece. 

MONGST  the  numerous  species 
of  orchis  that  spring  up  each 
recurring  year  in  our  pastures, 
few  are  more  commonly  to  be 
found  than  the  subject  of  our 
figure.  Many  of  the  orchis 
family  have  a  certain  bizarre 
aspect  that  makes  them  quaintly 
attractive — as  we  may  see,  for 
example,  in  the  bee  orchis,  or 
the  butterfly  orchis,  both  figured 
in  this  volume ;  but  the  spotted 
orchis  exhibits  no  such  mimicry 
of  other  natural  forms,  but  rests 
its  claim  on  our  admiration  on 
its  delicate  tint  and  picturesque  , 
mottling  and  striping.  Many  t 
of  the  names,  we  may  say  in 
passing  that  are  bestowed  upon 

some  of  the  species  of  orchis  are  rather  far-fetched; 
and  though  we  can  remember  the  delight  with  which 
we  welcomed  the  afore-named  bee  orchis,  our  disappoint- 
ment was  perhaps  equally  great  when  we  first  saw  the 
butterfly  orchis.  The  form,  quaint  as  it  is,  suggests 
83 


18  FAMILIAR     iriLD  FLOWERS. 

little  or  nothing  of  the  butterfly;  whether  we  had  ex- 
pected to  see  a  plant  laden  with  red  admirals,  peacocks, 
or  wood  argus,  we  scarcely  stopped  to  inquire;  suffice 
it  only  to  say  that  in  our  case,  as  probably  in  many 
others,  the  reality  did  not  bear  out  the  somewhat  hazy  and 
nebulous  anticipations  formed.  Those,  however,  who  find 
the  present  flower  have  no  such  cause  of  complaint,  for 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  fully  bears  out  its  name,  and 
in  so  doing  at  the  same  time  calls  attention  to  one  of  its 
most  beautiful  and  picturesque  features.  The  spotted 
orchis  is  one  of  the  later  species ;  many  of  the  kinds  may 
be  looked  for  in  April  and  May,  but  this  rarely  appears 
before  June.  One  accepts  a  statement  of  this  kind  very 
much  as  a  matter  of  course ;  yet,  when  we  give  a  moment's 
thought  to  it,  one  cannot  but  be  greatly  impressed  with  the 
sense  of  the  unfailing  working  of  nature's  laws.  As  the 
year  revolves,  plant  after  plant  appears  in  orderly  sequence, 
and  each  has  its  appointed  time.  The  snowdrops  lead  the 
goodly  throng,  and  all  their  fair  successors  are  marshalled 
in  their  set  places  throughout  the  changing  seasons.  This 
fixity  of  law  in  nature  is  one  of  the  most  striking  charac- 
teristics. We  see  it  again  in  the  fact  that  one  spotted 
orchis  is  in  all  essential  points  just  like  any  other  spotted 
orchis,  though  they  may  be  separated  by  a  space  of 
500  miles,  or  by  an  interval  of  500  years.  The  primroses 
of  last  year  are  in  all  essential  points — their  delicate 
colour  and  odour,  and  all  else  that  make  them  so  attractive — 
just  such  as  nestled  in  the  undergrowth  when  our  ances- 
tors were  painted  savages,  just  such  as  year  by  year — till 
climatic  influences  change,  or  the  dissolution  of  all  things 
comes — shall  spring  up  at  the  opening  of  each  i-ecurring  year, 
to  the  delight  of  generations  yet  unborn.  Empires  totter 


SPOTTED    ORCHIS.  19 

and  decay,  and  the  aspect  of  the  earth  is  transformed 
through  the  influence  of  steam  and  electricity,  so  that  even 
the  men  of  a  hundred  years  ago  would  be  startled  could 
they  re-appear  on  the  scene  of  their  former  labours ;  but  in 
the  woods  and  wilds  their  ruffled  spirits  would  find  wel- 
come repose  in  the  familiar  notes  of  the  lark  or  the  golden 
bowls  of  the  buttercups.  Like  the  "  Brook  "  of  Tennyson, 
amidst  the  coming  and  going  of  men  these  remain  for  ever, 
stable  in  the  midst  of  change,  and  inimitable  in  a  world 
that  speaks  much  of  its  progress,  and  dwells  upon  its  ever- 
increasing  development.  The  works  of  man,  being  at  the 
best  imperfect,  change  and  pass  away,  the  old  order  giving 
place  to  the  new ;  but  the  works  of  God  need  no  after- 
thought;  the  altogether  lovely  needs  no  added  grace; 
perfection  calls  for  no  after-development. 

The  spotted  orchis  is  so  called  by  botanists  and  her- 
balists, and  the  name  is  merely  a  translation  into  the 
vernacular  of  the  scientific  title.  Other  names  for  our 
present  plant  are  the  hand  orchis,  and  the  somewhat 
more  unpleasantly-sounding  title  of  dead  man^s  fingers. 
A  second  book  name  for  the  plant  is  the  palmate 
orchis.  These  names  have  evidently  some  common  under- 
lying idea;  and  we  find,  on  investigation  of  the  plant 
and  its  nomenclature,  that  they  are  derived  from  the 
curious  finger-like  lobes  into  which  the  tubers  are  divided. 
As  to  the  more  ancient  and  distinctly  provincial  names, 
we  may,  perhaps  advisedly,  take  refuge  in  the  way  that 
one  of  the  old  herbals  we  consulted  deals  with  the  matter, 
and  say  at  once,  "  It  hath  gotten  as  many  names  almost 
attributed  to  it  as  would  about  fill  a  sheet  of  paper/'  and 
there  be  content  to  leave  the  subject. 

The  stem  of  the  spotted  orchis  is  ordinarily  about  a  foot 


20  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

in  length.  The  leaves  spring  from  this  slender  stem  at 
distant  intervals,  and  have  the  curious  blotching  of  purple 
that  may  be  so  noticeably  seen  in  our  sketch  of  the  plant. 
The  flowers  vary  in  tint  from  pure  white  to  pale  lilac  ; 
but  in  gathering  a  bunch  of  them  the  variations  of 
colours  in  the  various  heads  are  often  very  noticeable. 
The  flowers  crown  the  summit  of  the  stems,  and  form  a 
dense  and  compact  mass  of  blossoms  for  a  distance  of  some 
three  inches.  The  lip  is  deeply  cut  into  three  irregular 
lobes,  and  the  spreading  lateral  sepals  are  also  very  con- 
spicuous. Each  flower  has  a  long  spur ;  this  is  scarcely, 
if  at  all,  seen  in  the  general  mass  of  flowers,  as  they  are 
too  compactly  placed  to  enable  one  to  perceive  it;  but  it 
may  be  very  clearly  seen  in  the  lowest  flower  of  all  in  our 
plate,  as  its  isolated  position  gives  us  the  opportunity  we 
require.  The  spotted  orchis  varies  a  good  deal,  not  only 
in  colour  but  in  the  shapes  and  size  of  the  leaves,  the  more 
or  less  conspicuous  bracts,  and  so  forth ;  but  the  points  of 
resemblance  are,  after  all,  more  than  the  points  of  divergence, 
and  there  is  no  real  difficulty  in  its  identification. 


1 


THE 
PINK  CAMPION. 

Lychnis  diurna.     Nat.  Ord.  Caryo- 
phyllacece. 

have  already  illustrated  the 
white  campion,  the  ragged 
robin,  and  the  bladder  cam- 
pion, and  the  present  species 
is  equally  common  and 
equally  attractive.  There 
are  fourteen  different  kinds 
of  campion,  divided  between 
the  two  closely-allied  genera, 
Silene  and  Lychnis,  most  of 
them  being  comparatively 
common,  though  some  are 
very  local  or  have  their 
home  amongst  the  moun- 
tains. On  turning  to  Cul- 
peper's  "Herbal/'  we  find 
that  he  definitely  describes 

only  the  white  campion  and  the  present  species,  but 
winds  up  by  saying,  "  there  are  forty-five  kinds  of  campion 
more."  Several  species  are  found  in  gardens,  but  as  his 
book  does  not  deal  with  cultivated  plants,  we  can  only  con- 
clude that  our  author  has  been  found  tripping  ;  perhaps  it  is 
a  lapsus pennee  for  "four  or  five  kinds  of  campion  more." 
The  pink  campion  is  a  perennial,  and  throws  up  each  year 


22  IAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

several  upright  steins,  varying  in  height  from  a  few  inches 
to  two  or  even  three  feet.  These  stalks  are  round  in  cross 
section,  swollen  at  the  joints  whence  the  leaves  spring,  and 
readily  breaking  across  at  those  points,  hairy,  and,  towards 
their  extremities,  forking.  Where  the  plant  has  grown 
amidst  surrounding  herbage  the  stems  are  green  and  appear 
to  be  succulent,  but  in  more  exposed  situations  they  are  more 
slender,  and  often  deep  dull  crimson  in  colour.  The  leaves 
are  thrown  off  in  pairs,  and  are  generally  as  hairy  as  the 
stems.  The  calyx,  too,  shares  in  this  general  hairy  character, 
has  five  acute  teeth,  and  is  strongly  ribbed.  It  varies  some- 
what in  form,  according  as  to  whether  the  flower  it  encloses 
is  stamen-bearing  or  pistilliferous — in  the  latter  case  being 
more  globular  than  in  the  other.  The  corolla  is  composed 
of  five  heart-shaped  petals,  the  colour  in  some  plants  being 
much  deeper  than  in  others.  The  styles  are  five  in  number, 
white,  long,  and  thread-like ;  they  may  be  very  clearly 
seen  in  the  centre  of  the  flower  in  our  illustration.  The 
stamens  are  ten  in  number,  five  being  longer  than  the 
other  five.  Instead  of  finding  both  organs  in  the  same 
plant,  as  is  so  generally  the  case,  all  the  flowers  on  one 
plant  will  be  found  to  have  styles  alone,  and  all  those  on 
another  to  be  furnished  with  stamens  exclusively.  Our 
illustration  presents  us  with  the  former  of  these;  it  was 
unnecessary  to  figure  both,  as  the  general  appearance  of  the 
plants  remains  so  nearly  the  same.  The  pink  campion  is 
abundantly  met  with  everywhere  in  moist  shady  places 
and  on  hedge-banks,  and  flowers  throughout  the  summer, 
commencing  as  early  as  May. 

On  taking  down  "  Dodonams,"  we  find  that  "  the  seed 
and  floures,  with  the  whole  herbe  of  the  wild  cam- 
pion, are  very  good  against  the  stinging  of  scorpions. 


THE    PINK    CAMPION.  23 

in  so  much  that  their  vertue  is  so  great  in"  this  behalfe 
that  this  herbe  onely  throwen  before  the  scorpions  taketh 
iiway  their  power  to  do  harme."  This  fear  of  scor- 
pions seems  to  have  haunted  the  people  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  though  in  England  it  was  a  very  chimerical  terror 
indeed.  The  book  we  have  just  quoted  was  "  first  set 
forth  in  the  Douch  or  Almaigne  toong  by  that  learned 
D.  Rembert  Dodoens,  physition  to  the  Emperor  :  And  now 
first  translated  out  of  French  into  English  by  Henry  Lyte, 
esquier."  So  far  as  we  are  aware,  neither  the  Dutch  nor  the 
French  have  any  more  reason  to  fear  scorpions  than  we  have. 

"  If  all  Dame  Enuies  hatefull  broode  hereat  shuld  hap  to  prie, 
Or  Momus  in  his  canckred  spight  shuld  scowle  with  scorning  eie, 
Yet  maugre  them  this  worthy  worke  the  author's  name  shall  raise, 
And  painef  ull  toile  so  well  imploied  shall  reape  renowned  praise. 
Not  only  he  whose  learned  skill  and  watchfull  paine  first  pend  it, 
And  did  with  honor  great  (in  Douch)  to  countie  his  commend  it, 
But  also  he  whose  tender  loue  to  this  his  natiue  soile 
For  vs  his  frinds  hath  first  to  take  almost  as  great  a  toile. 
A  trauell  meete  for  gentlemen  and  wights  of  worthy  fame, 
Wherehy  great  princes  heretofore  have  got  immortal  name. 
By  registring  their  names  in  herbes,  as  though  thereby  they  ment 
To  testifie  to  all  degrees  their  toile  and  trauell  spent 
In  such  a  noble  facultie  was  not  a  slauish  thing, 
But  fit  for  worthy  gentlemen,  and  for  a  noble  king. 
For  if  by  herbes  both  helthe  be  had  and  sicknesse  put  to  flight : 
If  helthe  be  that  withut  the  whiche  there  can  be  no  delighte, 
Who  dare  enuy  these  worthy  men  that  have  imploid  theire  paine 
To  helpe  the  sore,  to  heale  the  sicke,  to  raise  the  weake  againe  ? 
No  fie  of  that  but  Dodonseus  aye  shall  have  his  dew, 
Whose  learned  skille  hath  offered  first  this  worthy  worke  to  viewe. 
And  Lite  whose  toile  hath  not  been  light  to  dye  it  in  this  graine, 
Deserues  no  light  regard  of  vs,  but  thankes  and  thankes  againe 
And  sure  I  am  all  English  harts  that  like  of  physickes  lore 
Will  also  like  this  gentleman,  and  thank  him  much  therefore." 

The  doctrine  of  signatures,  as  it  was  termed  in  the 


24  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

Middle  Ages,  or,  in  other  words,  the  belief  that  every 
plant  bore  stamped  upon  it  some  indication  of  its  medicinal 
use,  must  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  this  plant  either 
with  a  peculiarly  strong  penetration,  or  possibly  an  especial 
obtuseness,  for  there  is  nothing  scorpion-like  to  the  out- 
ward eye  either  in  form,  colour,  or  anything  else.  All 
one's  feelings  towards  the  pink  campion  are  necessarily 
kindly,  for  it  is  one  of  the  pleasant  indications  in  the 
hedgerow  that  stern  winter's  reign  is  over,  and  it  finds 
a  place  in  every  rustic  nosegay  with  the  cold  steely  blue  of 
the  blossoms  of  the  bugle,  the  rich  purple  bells  of  the 
hyacinths,  and  the  snowy  stars  of  the  anemone. 


THE 
SPINDLE-TKEE. 

JEuonymus   Europteus.      Nat.    Ord., 
Celastracete. 

BEAUTIFUL  as  the  subject  of 
our  illustration  certainly  is 
when  the  later  months  of  the 
year  recur  in  their  season,  it 
presents  itself  in  an  entirely 
different  garb  to  us  in  the 
spring.  Its  beauty  is  then  of 
a  more  refined  and  less  evident 
type ;  and  we  can  well  imagine 
that  the  great  majority  of 
people  are  more  familiar  with 
the  plant  in  its  autumn  dress, 
for  in  the  one  case  a  somewhat 
close  examination  is  necessary, 
while  in  the  other  our  atten- 
tion is  almost  compelled  by  it. 
Few,  we  imagine,  of  those  who 
are  likely  to  read  these  remarks 
but  would  pause  instinctively 
when  they  suddenly  came  in  their  walks  upon  a  mass  of 
these  quaint  and  beautiful  berries.  The  small  green  flowers 
appear  in  May ;  at  this  time  the  whole  tree  is  clothed  in 
all  the  freshness  of  the  spring  verdure,  while  in  autumn 
the  delicate  green  cross-like  blossoms  have  given  place  to 
84 


•26  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

hundreds  of  fruits  of  the  brightest  and  rosiest  pink  colour, 
and  of  the  quaintest  form,  and  the  once  verdant  foliage 
glows  with  exceptional  brilliancy  even  amongst  the  rich 
autumnal  tints  that  surround  it  in  the  hedgerow.  Even 
when  the  chill  winds  and  biting  frosts  of  November  and 
December  have  swept  all  trace  of  foliage  from  the  branches, 
the  ruddy  and  waxen  berries  yet  remain  to  give  unwonted 
life  and  beauty  to  the  dreariest  scene.  As  the  seeds  ripen, 
the  various  capsules  open  down  their  centres  and  expose  to 
view  the  large  and  brilliant  orange-coloured  seeds  lying 
within  them. 

The  spindle-tree  is  scarcely  a  tree  at  all,  but  rather 
a  hedgerow  shrub,  that  attains  to  a  height  of  some  five 
to  twelve  feet.  The  leaves  are  broadly  lance-headed  in 
shape,  smooth  to  the  touch,  and  having  their  outlines 
minutely  toothed,  like  a  fine  saw.  The  slender  flower- 
stems  bear  at  their  summits  some  three  to  six  flowers 
in  a  cluster.  These  flowers  are  a  pale  yellowish-green 
in  colour.  The  fruit  is  four-lobed,  and  in  each  lobe  is  a 
single  large  seed.  Occasionally  a  variety  of  the  spindle- 
tree  is  found  in  which  the  fruit  is  pure  white,  affording 
a  very  rich  and  curious  contrast  with  the  bright  orange 
seeds  seen  within  on  the  opening  of  the  valves.  Beau- 
tiful as  these  fruits  are  to  the  eye,  they  are  possessed  of  a 
very  actively  poisonous  nature,  a  property  not  obscurely 
hinted  at  in  its  ancient  name,  Euonymus,  a  name  handed 
down  to  us  by  the  old  Greek  writer  Theophrastus,  and 
which  modern  botanical  science  has  retained.  The  name  is 
derived  from  Euonyme,  the  mother  of  the  Furies  in  classic 
mythology. 

The  hard  wood  of  this  tree  is  commonly  used  for 
making  butchers'  skewers  ;  and  its  familiar  name,  spindle- 


THE  SPIXDLE-TREE.  27 

tree,  points  to  another  of  its  uses.  We  nowadays 
associate  the  idea  of  spindles  with  gigantic  cotton-mills 
and  the  ceaseless  whirr  and  vibration  of  machinery ;  but 
the  name  was  bestowed  long  before  the  power  of  steam 
was  pressed  into  service,  and  the  spindle  referred  to  was 
the  homelier  form  associated  with  the  distaff — things 
that  are  now  little  more  than  a  memory  of  the  past.  Fusus 
is  the  Latin  word  for  a  spindle,  and  by  some  of  the  old 
writers  our  plant  was  called  the  Fusanum  and  the  Fusoria, 
and  by  the  Italians  it  is  still  called  the  Fusano,  and  by 
the  Germans  the  Spindelbaum.  In  France  it  is  ordi- 
narily the  Fusin,  though  they  sometimes  call  it  Priest's 
Cap,  the  form  of  the  fruit  being  somewhat  suggestive 
of  the  biretta  worn  by  the  priesthood.  The  four  lobes 
of  the  fruit  were  also  the  cause  of  the  plant  being  called 
by  some  of  the  medieval  writers  the  Tetragoma  and 
the  Quadratoria.  Parkinson,  in  his  "Theatrum  Botani- 
cum,"  suggests  that  it  might  very  well  be  called  the 
square-berried  tree ;  but  the  name  is  evidently  one  of  his 
own  composition,  and  we  find  no  indication  anywhere, 
either  in  his  books  or  others,  that  the  suggestion  was  ever 
adopted.  The  spindle-tree  is  also  in  some  old  herbals 
called  the  skewer-wood  or  the  prick-wood,  and  gatter, 
gatten,  or  gadrise.  Chaucer,  in  one  of  his  poems,  calls  it 
the  gaitre. 

Prior,  in  his  altogether  excellent  book  on  plant-names, 
explains  these  old  words  as  follows  : — The  first  is  from 
the  Anglo-Saxon  words  gatJ,  a  goad,  and  treow,  a  tree ; 
the  second  is  made  up  of  gad  again,  and  tan,  a  twig; 
while  the  third  is  again  gad,  and  hris,  a  rod.  The  same 
hardness  that  fitted  it,  as  we  have  seen,  for  skewers, 
spindles,  and  the  like,  made  it  equally  available  for  the 


28  FAMILIAR    H'lLD    FLOWERS. 

ox-goad.  Amongst  other  uses  of  this  tree  or  shrub,  we 
find  that  on  the  Continent  it  is  sometimes  utilised  for  the 
making  of  pipe-stems  ;  the  young  shoots,  too,  make  excel- 
lent charcoal,  either  for  the  purposes  of  the  artist  or  in  the 
fabrication  of  gunpowder.  The  seeds  are  said  to  yield  a 
good  yellow  dye  when  boiled  in  water,  and  a  green  one  by 
the  addition  of  alum  ;  but  all  such  dyes  are  ordinarily  very 
fugitive.  We  have  tried  several  such  suggestions  found 
in  the  books  of  the  old  herbalists,  but  never  found  them  of 
any  real  value ;  as  a  rule  the  colour  does  not  at  all  come 
up  in  brilliancy  to  what  one  might  expect  from  the  descrip- 
tion, and  in  any  case  it  has  no  lasting  beauty.  Some  old 
author  starts  with  something  that  is  after  all  only  a  guess 
or  a  fallacy,  and  then  generation  after  generation  copy  the 
original  statement,  some  writers  being  too  idle  to  take  any 
trouble  in  verifying  or  disproving  it,  and  others  regarding 
it  almost  as  a  heresy  to  throw  any  doubt  on  the  authority 
to  whom  they  go  for  information. 


Mr 
tT> 


BUXBAUM'S    SPEED- 
WELL. 

Veronica  Buxbaumii.     Nat.  Ord., 
Scrophulariacece. 

i.E  have  in  England  some  seven- 
teen distinct  species  of  speed- 
well, and  of  these  we  have  up 
to  the  present  point  only  illus- 
trated two,  the  Germander 
Speedwell,  or  Veronica  Cha- 
meedrys,  and  the  Brooklime  or 
V.  Beccabunga.  The  speedwell 
we  now  figure  exhibits  all  the 
characteristic  features  of  the 
genus,  as  may  readily  be  per- 
ceived by  comparing  it  with 
our  figures  of  the  two  other 
species,  though  it  is  perhaps 
not  so  well  known,  and  even 
when  seen  is  often  mistaken  for 
another  species  of  speedwell,  the 
V.  agrestis,  which  it  a  good  deal 
resembles.  The  plant  is  an 

annual,  and  should  be  looked  for  in  fields,  gardens,  and  waste 
lands  any  time  from  May  to  September.  Tho  particular 
piece  we  sketched  for  our  figure  was  growing  by  the  roadside^ 
and  we  mention  the  fact  because  it  enables  us  to  say  that 
though  the  plant  is  an  annual  it  must  readily  be  produced 


30  f AMI  LI  All    WILD    ¥  LOWERS. 

from  seed,  for  we  have  seen  the  plants  spring  up  year  after 
year  on  the  same  piece  of  bank  as  regularly  as  though  they 
were  as  perennial  as  oak-trees,  or  any  other  such  symbols 
of  endurance. 

The  Buxbaum's  speedwell  branches  freely  and  attains  to 
a  height  of  a  foot  or  so  ;  its  stems  and  leaves  are  thickly 
clothed  with  soft  and  silky  hairs.  The  leaves  are  placed 
singly  at  irregular  intervals  along  the  stem,  but  are  more 
numerous  as  we  approach  its  summit.  They  are  broadly 
heart-shaped,  having  their  margins  deeply  cut  into  teeth, 
and  each  leaf  has  its  short  leaf-stalk,  or  in  more  technical 
language  we  may  add  that  they  are  petiolate,  cordate- 
ovate,  inciso-serrate.  All  the  leaves  on  the  plant  are  of 
the  same  character.  The  flower-bearing  stems  that  spring 
from  the  axils  of  the  leaves  are  very  long,  and  give  a 
decided  character  to  the  plant,  while  the  flowers  them- 
selves have  the  curious  Veronica  character — three  large 
and  fairly  equal  segments  and  then  a  lower  and  narrower 
one.  The  blossoms  are  a  bright  clear  blue  in  colour,  and 
for  a  Veronica  are  decidedly  large.  The  fruit  or  capsule 
that  succeeds  the  flower  is  twice  as  broad  as  it  is  long,  and 
this  flattened-out  character  is  a  very  marked  specific  feature. 
It  may  be  seen  most  clearly  as  the  capsules  ripen  and 
develop,  and  is  therefore  best  exhibited  in  our  drawing  in 
the  detached  piece  at  the  bottom.  The  fruit,  it  will  readily 
be  observed,  is  two-lobed. 

This  graceful  and  beautiful  flower  derives  its  somewhat 
uncouth  name  from  a  distinguished  botanist  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. Such  complimentary  names  have  often  been  applied 
by  men  of  science  in  each  other's  honour,  thus  we  get  the 
Bartsia,  so  called  by  Linnaeus  in  honour  of  his  friend,  John 
Bartseh  a  distinguished  German  botanist ;  the  Schenchzeria, 


SUXSAUJl'S    SPEEDWELL.  31 

in  honour  of  three  Swiss  botanists  named  Schenchzer;  and 
the  Goody  era,  so  named  in  commemoration  of  John  Good- 
yer,  an  English  botanist  often  referred  to  by  Gerarde. 
Amongst  the  specific  names  we  in  the  same  manner  find 
not  only  Buxbaumii,  but  Halleri,  Babingtoni,  Raii,  Borreri, 
Mackayi,  Wither!  ngii,  Lawsoni,  and  many  others.  In  old 
plant  lists  we  find  the  hoary  sedge  given  as  the  Carex 
Buxbaumii,  but  this  name  is  now  disestablished,  and  the 
plant  appears  in  the -lists  as  the  C.  canescens.  The  only 
work  of  Buxbaum/s  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  though 
he  probably  wrote  others,  is  the  "  Centuriae  duae  Plan- 
tarum  circa  Byzantium  et  in  Oriente  Observatarum 
minus  Cognitarum,"  a  book  published  in  two  volumes  in 
1 729,  and  illustrated  by  numerous  plates.  The  Buxbaum's 
speedwell,  like  several  of  the  others,  may  be  termed  a  plant 
of  cultivation,  springing  up  in  the  gardens  and  fields,  and 
never  wandering  far  from  human  society  and  influence. 
The  plant  is  a  southerner,  and  though  we  find  it  throughout 
England,  and  even  in  the  adjacent  part  of  Scotland,  it  is 
more  especially  at  home  in  less  northern  latitudes,  and  it 
is  very  probable  that  it  was  inti-oduced  with  some  kind  of 
foreign  seed  at  some  bygone  period  that  we  cannot  now 
trace.  We  some  time  since  found  a  flower  which  was  an 
entire  stranger  to  us  growing  in  Surrey  in  the  midst  of  a 
field  of  swedes,  and  subsequent  investigation  demonstrated 
that  it  was  a  native  of  Peru.  A  friend  of  ours  has  so  far 
managed  to  acclimatise  the  plant  that  it  now  springs  up  in 
his  garden  every  year,  and  what  is  even  in  this  limited 
degree  possible  in  the  case  of  this  distant  stranger  becomes 
much  more  possible  in  the  case  of  a  plant  of  southern 
Europe. 

Of  the  common  species  of  speedwells  we  may  mention 


32  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

the  thyme-leaved,  or  T.  serpyllifolia  ;  the  common  veronica, 
or  V.  officinalis  ;  the  water  speedwell,  or  V.  Anagallu  ;  the 
marsh  speedwell,  or  V.  scutellata  ;  the  ivy-leaved  speedwell, 
or  V.  hederifolia;  the  procumbent  speedwell,  or  V.  agrexiix ; 
and  the  wall  speedwell,  or  V.  arvensis.  The  spiked  speed- 
well, a  very  handsome  species,  having-  its  clear  blue  flowers 
arranged  in  a  dense  spike,  is  decidedly  rare;  botanically 
it  is  the  V.  spicata.  The  rock  veronica,  or  V.  saxatilis, 
another  fine  species,  having  but  few  flowers,  but  those 
large  and  handsome-looking,  is  a  plant  of  the  'mountains, 
and  is  chiefly  found  in  the  highlands  of  Scotland,  while  the 
alpine  speedwell,  or  V.  alpina,  is  still  more  rare.  The 
vernal  speedwell,  V.  verna,  and  the  finger  speedwell,  V.  tri- 
phyllos,  are  also  exceedingly  scarce,  each  having  been  very 
seldom  met  with,  and  that  only  in  some  two  or  three  of 
the  eastern  counties. 


THE 
GEEEN  HELLEBOEE. 

Helleborus  viridis.     Nat.  Ord. 
Raminculacece. 

NY  of  our  readers  who  may  by 
chance  find  a  specimen  of 
our  present  plant  will  have 
little  difficulty  in  recognising 
it,  the  palmate  character  of 
its  foliage  and  the  unusual 
colour  of  its  flowers  being 
sufficiently  striking  points 
to  aid  in  its  identification. 
Though  we  have  spoken  of 
the  colour  of  its  flowers,  it 
is  only  in  deference  to  popu- 
lar phraseology ;  for  as  the 
artist  would  divide  things  into 
white,  black,  or  coloured,  so  the 
botanist  divides  his  plants  into 

green  and  coloured.  The  green  hellebore  should  be 
looked  for  in  thickets  and  woods,  and  appears  to  thrive 
best  in  a  stiff  and  calcareous  soil.  Like  the  henbane  or 
the  deadly  nightshade,  too,  it  seems  to  find  in  the  society 
of  mankind  an  especial  attraction ;  hence  we  find  it  on 
ruins  and  at  the  foot  of  old  walls.  It  is  in  some 
cases  an  introduced  plant,  but  in  some  of  the  eastern  and 
southern  counties  it  is  probably  indigenous.  In  many  of 
85 


34  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

the  Hertfordshire  lanes  it  is,  we  know,  a  plant  of  frequent 
occurrence;  and  Curtis,  in  his  "Flora  Londinensis," 
gives  Finchley  as  a  metropolitan  station,  though,  doubt- 
less, the  wood  to  which  he  refers  has  long  ago  been 
overwhelmed  by  the  inevitable  march  of  the  men  of  bricks 
and  mortar. 

The  green  hellebore  begins  to  flower  in  February,  and 
continues  to  blossom  until  the  middle  of  April.  The  five 
large  spreading  bodies  forming  the  conspicuous  cup  of  the 
flower  are  the  sepals  of  the  calyx;  the  petals  are  very 
much  smaller,  from  eight  to  ten  in  number,  tubular,  green, 
and  divided  into  two  lobes  at  the  top.  The  stamens  are 
numerous,  and  from  their  difference  in  colour  from  the  calyx 
and  corolla,  are  decidedly  conspicuous,  the  yellowish 
convex  mass  of  anthers  telling  out  clearly  from  the  green 
cup  in  which  they  stand.  The  flowers  of  the  green  helle- 
bore are  drooping,  and  ordinarily  somewhat  few  in  number, 
the  leaves  large,  and  divided  into  numerous  fine  and  deeply- 
toothed  segments.  The  upper  leaves  are  sessile,  the  lower 
borne  on  long  foot-stalks,  and  all  glossy  in  effect,  and  of  a 
dull  and  bluish  green. 

We  find  an  interesting  reference  to  the  hellebore  in 
Bishop  Mant's  poem  on  the  Laws  of  Nature  : — 

"  Why  is  the  lowly  speedwell  hlue  ? 
The  strawberry  white  ?    The  nettle  spread 
With  yellowish- white  and  purplish-red  ? 
What  gives  the  pileworts  golden  sheen  ? 
The  hellebores  their  blossoms  green  ? 
One  purple-tipped,  the  other  still 
Verdant  throughout." 

The  first  of  the  two  hellebores  referred  to  is  the  H. 
foetid**,  or  bear's  foot ;  the  second  is  the  plant  we  illus- 
trate. In  our  figure  it  will  be  seen  that  the  sepals  are  en- 


THE  GREEN  HELLEBORE.  35 

tirely  green ;  but  in  the  allied  species  they  are  not  "  verdant 
throughout/'  but  have  a  fringe,  or  border,  of  dull  purple 
colour.  Both  are  British  species.  A  third  well-known 
species  is  the  black  hellebore,  or  Christmas  rose  (H.  niger], 
a  plant  of  Southern  Europe,  that  may  often  be  met  with  in 
cultivation ;  in  this  the  broadly-displayed  sepals  are  pure 
white,  and  in  the  centre,  surrounding  the  clustering 
stamens,  are  the  small  and  inconspicuous  green  petals. 
Another  foreign  species,  H.  ojjicinalis,  is — or  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  say  was — held  in  repute  as  a  medicinal 
plant,  but  the  two  British  species  and  the  Christmas  i*ose 
possess  powerful  effects,  and  are  at  times  substituted  for  it. 
As  it  may  be  somewhat  puzzling  to  some  of  our 
readers  to  find  that  the  species  which  is  especially  dis- 
tinguished as  the  black  hellebore  has  large  and  striking 
flowers  of  a  pure  white,  we  hasten  to  explain  that  it 
derives  both  its  English  and  botanical  name  from  the 
colour  of  its  roots — the  parts  used  medicinally,  and  there- 
fore well  known  to  many  herbalists  and  physicians,  who 
had  perhaps  little  other  knowledge  of  the  plant.  The 
fresh  root  of  the  hellebore  applied  to  the  skin  produces  in- 
flammation and  blistering,  and  given  internally  it  is  power- 
fully irritant,  so  that  some  considerable  degree  of  care  is 
needed  in  its  employment ;  but  we  find  both  a  tincture  and 
a  powder  of  it  are  still  occasionally  used  by  the  faculty,  and 
directions  for  their  proper  preparation,  use,  and  so  forth, 
are  all  duly  set  forth  in  the  manuals  of  materia  medica. 
In  Burton's  "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  "  we  find  that — 

"  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." 


36  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

But  an  overdose  produces  the   less  cheering  symptoms  of 
syncope  and  convulsions,  followed  by  death. 

Some  of  the  older  writers,  as  Parkinson  and  Gerarde,  re- 
garding matters  from  a  more  purely  medical  point  of  view 
than  their  successors,  call  the  green  hellebore  the  bastard 
black  hellebore,  or  the  wild  black  hellebore,  while  Fuchs 
names  it  pseudo-helleborus.  Gerarde  says  it  is  "  good  for 
mad  and  furious  persons ;  for  melancholy,  dull,  and  heavy 
men ;  for  those  that  are  troubled  with  the  falling  sickness ; 
for  lepers;  for  them  that  are  sicke  of  a  quartane  ague;  and 
briefly,  for  all  those  that  are  troubled  with  black  choler  and 
molested  with  melancholy/'  He  gives  various  ways  of 
administering  it,  one  being  "  the  leaves  dried  in  an  oven 
after  the  bread  is  drawne  out,  and  the  powder  thereof  taken 
in  a  figge  or  raisin,  or  strawed  upon  a  piece  of  bread  spred 
with  honey."  Bad  as  an  attack  of  the  melancholy  may 
have  been,  the  remedy  would  appear  to  have  been  almost 


SEA  CAMPION. 

Silene  maritima.     Nat.  Orel.,  Cnryo- 
phyllacece. 

OME  writers  on  matters  botanical 
speak  of  the  present  plant  as 
only  a  variety  of  the  common 
bladder  campion,  Silene  inflata, 
a  plant  that  has  already  made 
an  appearance  in  our  series. 
Bentham,  for  example,  in  his 
"  Handbook  of  the  British 
Flora/'  winds  up  his  description 
of  the  bladder  campion  by 
saying :  "  A  sea-coast  variety, 
with  short  diffuse  stems,  thicker, 
more  obtuse  leaves,  and  almost 
solitary  flowers,  has  been  dis- 
tinguished as  a  species  under 
the  name  of  S.  maritima" 
Hooker  and  Arnott,  in  their 
"British  Flora/'  admit  it  to 
specific  rank,  as  did  the  author  of  the  well-known 
standard  work  "English  Botany/'  but  the  former,  after 
describing  the  plant,  go  on  to  say,  "This,  though  it 
has  smaller  stems  and  leaves  than  the  last,  has  larger 
flowers ;  yet  we  will  not  assert  wre  have  done  right  in 
again  raising  it  to  the  rank  of  a  species."  In  so  doubtful  a 


38  FAMILIAR    WILD   FLOWERS. 

case  we  may  very  possibly  be  asked  how  we  came  to  admit 
it  to  a  place  in  our  series  while  other  plants,  concerning 
which  there  can  be  no  doubt,  find  no  room.  To  this 
appeal  we  can,  we  think,  make  full  and  complete  reply. 
The  plant  we  figure  is  so  abundantly  met  with  on  sandy 
and  stormy  sea-shores  that  our  series  would  have  been 
manifestly  incomplete  without  it,  and  whether  it  be  only 
a  sea-side  modification  of  the  common  bladder  campion 
or  an  entirely  different  plant,  its  appearance  at  least  is  so 
different  as  to  call  for  a  separate  illustration.  As  the  sea- 
side flora,  too,  is  comparatively  so  small,  we  are  glad  to 
avail  ourselves  of  any  additional  example  of  it. 

The  sea  campion  grows  in  clumps  on  the  most  un- 
promising-looking situations,  where  the  wild  winds  rush 
tumultuously  over  the  waste,  while  the  beach  on  which 
we  find  it  may  be  either  sand  or  the  less-promising  surface 
of  rounded  boulders,  that  render  walking  so  difficult,  and 
that  present  a  stony  surface  that  one  would  imagine  utterly 
repellant  to  any  of  the  children  of  Flora. 

"  The  Eryngo  here 

Sits  as  a  queen  among  the  scanty  tribes 
Of  vegetable  race.          .... 
Here  the  sweet  rose  would  die  ;  but  she  imbibes 
From  arid  sand  and  salt  sea  dewdrops  strength  : 
The  native  of  the  beach,  by  nature  formed 
To  dwell  amongst  the  ruder  elements." 

The  plant  referred  to  in  these  lines  of  Drummond,  one 
of  our  little-read  poets,  is  the  interesting  sea-holly,  or 
Eryngium  maritimum.  Its  dense  heads  of  small  blue 
flowers,  the  quaint  spiny  forms  of  its  foliage,  and  the  singu- 
lar purple  bloom  over  leaves  and  stems,  combine  to  make 
it  a  very  curious  plant.  When  gathered  it  loses  much  of 


SEA    CAMPION.  39 

its  beauty  of  colouring,  but  as  it  dries  it  retains  the  angu- 
lar rigidity  of  its  foliage,  and  may  then  be  preserved  for 
years  amidst  groups  of  shells  or  other  trophies  of  the 
beach.  Though  the  lines  of  Drummond  refer  to  one  plant, 
while  we  are  writing  of  another,  they  are  equally  true  of 
both ;  and  if  our  readers  will  begin  with  "  The  campion 
here/'  they  will  arrive  at  a  very  just  impression  of  the 
wild  home  of  our  present  plant. 

The  stems  of  the  sea  campion  are  naturally  short ;  the 
fierce  cold  winds  that  beat  across  the  beach  effectually 
prevent  any  untoward  aspirations,  and  each  stem  bears  but 
one  or  two  flowers ;  one  of  our  stems,  we  see,  bears  one 
flower,  while  the  other  has,  beside  its  expanded  blossom, 
the  promise  of  another.  These  stems  spread  a  good  deal 
laterally,  and  are  rather  closely  covered  with  the  small  and 
fleshy  leaves.  Both  stems  and  leaves  often  have  the  cold 
blue-green  tint  that  is  so  characteristic  of  the  maritime 
flora,  more  or  less  changed  into  warmer  tints  of  crimson 
and  brown. 

The  plant  is  perennial.  The  flowers  are  large  and  hand- 
some-looking as  they  shine  like  stars  amongst  the  dense 
mass  of  foliage,  and  well  repay  in  their  fragile-looking  grace 
the  regard  we  gladly  give  them,  as  we  watch  their  gallant 
struggle  for  existence  far  from  sheltering  fence  or  shady 
hedgerow.  We  need  indeed  waste  no  such  misplaced  pity 
on  them,  as  the  Divine  Hand  that  placed  them  there  fitted 
them  amply  for  the  circumstances  surrounding  them,  and 
it  would  speedily  prove  no  mercy  to  them  to  move  them 
from  their  wild  surroundings  to  some  quiet  inland  dell. 
The  wild  freedom  and  the  boisterous  music  of  the  crashing 
surf  and  the  cry  of  the  sweeping  gull  are  the  natural 
accompaniments  of  their  lot  in  life.  The  nestling  prim- 


40  FAMILIAR    WILL    FLOWERS. 

rose  needs  the  sheltering  bank,  the  hyacinth  the  solemn 
shade  of  the  woodland,  the  heath  the  open  moorland,  and 
as  we  visit  each  scene  in  turn  we  find  in  all  alike  the 
proofs  of  adaptation. 

"  I  have  learned 

To  look  on  Nature,  not  as  in  the  hour 
Of  thoughtless  youth,  but  hearing  oftentimes 
The  still,  sad  music  of  humanity. 
Nor  harsh,  nor  grating,  though  of  ample  power 
To  chasten  and  subdue.     And  I  have  felt 
A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts  ;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused." 

The  coy  and  sheltered  primrose  and  the  wind-tossed 
campion  are  alike  the  children  of  one  common  Father, 
and  have  equally  received  at  His  hand  all  that  is  essential 
for  their  well-being. 


FUKZE. 

Ulex  Europceus.  Nat.  Ord.,  Leyuminosce. 

O  one  who  is  at  all  familiar 
with  our  commons  and  waste 
lands  can  be  ignorant  of 
the  present  plant,  its  rich 
wealth  of  golden  blossoms 
stretching  over  many  acres  of 
ground,  the  sweet  fragrance 
of  its  flowers,  and  the  long 
duration  of  its  flowering  season, 
being  all  points  that  arrest 
the  attention  even  of  the 
most  indifferent.  Early  in 
the  month  of  February  we 
may  find  it  here  and  there 
in  blossom,  "a,  token  to  the 
wintry  earth  that  beauty 
liveth  still;"  and  as  the 
spring  advances  the  dark  and 
sombre-looking  masses  of  prickly  foliage  become  thickly 
laden  with  its  brilliant  blossoms.  As  the  spring  passes 
into  summer,  and  the  primroses,  hyacinths,  and  all 
the  other  floral  beauties  of  the  opening  year  give  place 
to  their  successors,  the  furze  still  continues  in  all  its  rich- 
ness of  colour;  and  as  summer,  in  turn,  gives  place  to 


42  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

autumn,  and  its  blossoms  fade  away,  the  furze  still  stands  its 
ground,  and  brightens  the  declining  year. 

It  is  a  common  saying  among  country  folk  that 
when  the  furze  is  out  of  flower  kissing  is  out  of 
season,  whence  we  are  of  course  given  to  understand 
that  as  at  almost  all  times  some  few  blossoms  at  least 
may  be  met  with,  such  a  token  of  affection  can  rarely 
be  ill-timed.  Even  when  the  golden  flowers  of  the  furze 
are  but  sparingly  to  be  found,  the  plant  is  always  welcome, 
as  it  preserves  its  verdure  throughout  the  year.  Our 
plant  is  almost  equally  well  known  as  the  gorse,  while 
a  third  name  for  it  is  the  whin.  Goldsmith  speaks  of  the 
"blossomed  furze/'  and  Cowper  of  the  "prickly  gorse," 
its  two  commonest  names  and  its  two  most  striking  fea- 
tures being  thus  at  once  illustrated.  Thompson,  too,  calls 
it  "  the  flowering  furze  poured  forth  profusely  " — a  testi- 
mony to  a  third  marked  feature,  its  abundance.  Gold- 
smith, however,  goes  on  to  call  it  "  unprofitably  gay/' 
while  Cowper  terms  it  (<  shapeless  and  deformed,  and  dan- 
gerous to  the  touch ;  "  and  here  we  must  at  once  beg  to 
enter  our  protest.  The  furze  is  most  distinctly  not  un- 
profitable. It  is  sometimes  planted  as  a  hedge ;  at  other 
times  it  affords  an  admirable  cover  for  game.  It  will  grow 
near  the  sea,  too,  and  is,  therefore,  of  great  value  in 
shielding  young  plantations  from  the  salt-laden  and  sweep- 
ing gusts  of  wind  that  would  prove  fatal  to  them,  while 
few  things  throw  out  a  fiercer  heat  when  burnt. 

Any  one  at  all  familiar  with  country  life  will  have  seen 
the  furze  faggots  being  cut  on  the  heath,  or  will  at  least 
recall  the  places  bare  of  all  but  stumps  whence  this  harvest 
has  been  gathered.  It  is  ordinarily  cut  once  in  three  years, 
so  that  we  generally  find  not  only  the  bare  ground,  but 


FURZE.  43 

patches  elsewhere  of  more  or  less  up-springing  shoots,  and 
in  other  places  the  full-grown  plants  awaiting  the  woodman's 
visit.  Its  ashes  yield  a  serviceable  dressing  for  the  land, 
and  its  upper  shoots,  after  being  bruised  with  a  mallet,  form 
a  valuable  fodder  for  cattle  and  horses.  In  large  dairy 
establishments  the  gorse  is  crushed  almost  into  a  pulp  by  a 
small  engine,  and  then  given  to  the  cows.  It  may,  there- 
fore, be  sown  to  advantage  on  poor  land,  .the  proper  propor- 
tion being  at  the  rate  of  35  or  4-0  Ibs.  of  seed  to  the  acre. 
It  is  ready  for  cutting  in  the  second  autumn,  and  should 
yield  some  two  thousand  bundles,  or  about  eighteen  tons 
per  acre.  If  to  this  we  add  its  more  indirect  service  to  us 
through  the  industry  of  the  bees,  we  shall  at  all  events 
have  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  furze  can  scarcely  be 
called  "  unprofitably  gay  " ;  besides,  beauty  is-  in  itself  an 
end,  and  we  need  not  feel  under  any  compulsion  to  reduce 
everything  to  a  strictly  utilitarian  standard.  We  our- 
selves feel  perfectly  content  to  enjoy  its  beauty  in  the  land- 
scape, and  to  revel  iu  its  golden  richness  :  Cowper's  in- 
jurious epithets,  then,  need  not  delay  us  long;  a  glance 
at  our  figure,  or,  better  still,  a  walk  over  the  breezy  and 
furze-clad  common,  will  effectually  dispose  of  them. 

The  word  furze  is  derived  from  its  Anglo-Saxon 
name,  fyrs,  while  gorse,  also  Anglo-Saxon  in  its  origin,  is 
from  gorst,  a  waste,  and  refers,  of  course,  to  the  open 
commons  and  moorlands  on  which  we  find  the  shrub. 
The  derivation  of  the  word  whin  is  obscure,  and  two  or 
three  different  theories  are  given  in  various  etymo- 
logical works;  but  into  these  we  have  not  space  to 
enter.  The  furze  is  sometimes,  but  less  commonly,  called 
the  thorn-broom,  its  spiny  branches,  laden  with  the  large 
yellow  broom-like  flowers,  being,  of  course,  the  cause 


44  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

of  the  name.  A  variety,  distinguished  from  the  typical 
plant  by  its  smaller  size,  upright  growth,  and  soft  and 
succulent  stems,  is  sometimes  met  with  ;  it  is  ordinarily 
called  Irish  furze,  as  it  was  first  observed  in  County  Down. 
In  our  second  volume  may  be  found  the  description 
and  illustration  of  the  rest-harrow,  a  plant  having  con- 
siderably larger  leaves  than  the  furze,  and  a  rich  array 
of  pink  blossoms.  As  these  blossoms,  however,  though 
pink,  are  of  the  same  size  as  those  of  the  furze,  and  of  the 
same  papilionaceous  or  pea-flower  type,  while  the  plant  has 
spine-guarded  stems,  the  rest-harrow  is  sometimes  called 
the  petty-whin.  The  bilberry,  too,  from  its  growing  on 
the  open  moorland  and  common,  the  characteristic  home 
of  the  golden-blossomed  furze,  is  sometimes  locally  known 
as  the  whin-berry. 


BKOAD-LEAVED 
PLANTAIN. 

PUnitago  major.   Nat.  Ord.,  Flantag'macice. 

IKE  its  near  relative  the  lamb's 
tongue,  narrow-leaved  plantain, 
or  ribwort,  the  broad-leaved 
plantain  claims  a  place  in 
our  series,  for  there  are  few 
plants  that  from  their  abun- 
dance and  universal  distri- 
bution can  show  a  better 
right  to  the  title  of  Familiar 
Wild  Flowers.  It  may  be 
found  anywhere  by  road-sides 
and  in  meadow  land.  It  is, 
perhaps,  in  these  latter  days 
better  known  than  respected, 
though  there  was  a  time  when 
its  more  or  less  real  virtues 
gave  it  a  high  place  in  rustic 
esteem.  All  the  species  of 
plantain  are  mucilaginous  and  astringent  in  nature ;  and  in 
more  primitive  days,  when  the  herbs  required  for  the 
healing  art  had  to  be  in  large  measure  derived  from  the 
neighbouring  hedgerow  or  meadow,  it  was,  no  doubt,  a  dis- 
tinct acquisition  to  the  store  of  the  rural  practitioner.  In 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland  it  is  still,  we  believe,  called  the 


46  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

Slan-lus,  or  plant  of  healing ;  and  the  old  herbal s  are  full 
of  its  commendation,  and  abound  in  suggestions  for  its  use 
in  all  sorts  of  directions.  Dioscorides,  Galen,  and  many 
others  of  the  ancient  writers,  bestowed  on  it  lavish  praise 
for  its  services  in  all  inflammations,  bleedings,  the  bites  of 
mad  dogs,  of  scorpions,  and  of  venomous  serpents,  for 
ophthalmia,  insanity,  hysteria,  asthma,  phthisis,  fevers, 
ague,  and  many  others  of  the  ills  of  suffering  humanity, 
applying  it  internally,  or  in  poultices,  fomentations,  gar- 
gles, and  so  forth — in  fact,  in  every  way  in  which  it  was 
possible  to  turn  its  services  to  account.  All  these  details 
of  the  ancients  are  carefully  reproduced  by  the  mediaeval 
writers — as,  for  instance,  that  "  the  juice  mixed  with  oyle 
of  roses,  and  the  temples  and  forehead  anointed  herewith, 
easeth  the  paines  of  the  head  proceeding  from  heate,  and 
helpeth  franticke  and  lunaticke  persons  very  much,  as  also 
the  bitings  of  serpents  or  a  madde  dogge."  Erasmus,  in 
his  "  Colloquia/'  tells  a  story  of  a  toad,  who,  being  bitten 
by  a  spider,  was  straightway  freed  from  any  poisonous 
effects  he  may  have  dreaded  by  the  prompt  eating  of  a 
plantain  leaf;  and  a  relative  of  our  own  informed  us 
that  in  the  United  States  the  plant  is  called  snake- 
weed,  from  a  belief  in  its  efficacy  in  cases  of  bites  from 
venomous  creatures.  A  favourite  dog  of  his  was  one  day 
stung  by  a  rattle-snake,  and  a  preparation  of  the  juice  of 
the  plantain  and  salt  was  as  promptly  as  possible  applied 
to  the  wound.  The  poor  animal  was  in  great  agony,  but 
quickly  recovered,  and  shook  off  all  trace  of  its  misadventure. 
The  greater,  or  broad-leaved,  plantain  is  almost  cos- 
mopolitan. It  would  almost  appear  to  possess  a  peculiar 
sense  of  companionship  and  domesticity,  for  it  has  followed 
the  migrations  of  our  colonists  to  every  part  of  the  world, 


BROAD-LEAVED    PLANTA1X.  47 

and  in  both  America  and  New  Zealand  has  been  called  by 
the  aborigines  the  Englishman's  Foot,  for,  with  a  strange 
degree  of  certainty,  wherever  the  stranger  race  has  taken 
possession  of  the  soil,  there  the  plantain  in  like  manner 
asserts  its  claim  to  a  home. 

An  old  English  name  for  the  plantain  is  the  way- 
bread,  a  name  apparently  meaningless  at  first  sight;  but  on 
turning  to  some  of  the  older  herbalists,  we  find  it  given  as 
way-bred.  The  name,  therefore,  bears  no  allusion  to  any 
food-yielding  property,  but  to  the  habitat  of  the  plant, 
flourishing  as  it  does  by  the  roadside,  born  and  bred  amidst 
the  busy  haunts  of  men.  In  a  very  curious  old  book, 
"  Leechdoms,  Wortcunning,  and  Starcraft/'  it  is  called 
way-broad.  This  opens  out  a  new  theory,  that  the  plant 
was  possibly  so  called  from  its  broad  and  spreading  leaves 
flaunting  by  every  path-side.  The  Anglo-Saxon  name  for 
the  plant  was  wegbrced.  The  generic  name,  plantago,  is 
derived  from  the  Latin  word  planta,  the  sole  of  the  foot, 
a  name  that  may  have  been  originally  bestowed  either  from 
the  broad  flat  form  of  the  leaves,  from  their  closely  ap- 
pressed  growth,  in  almost  or  complete  contact  with  the 
ground,  or  from  their  growing  where  they  get  trodden 
under  foot  of  man. 

Though  the  plant  ministers  in  no  way  to  the  food  and 
sustenance  of  man,  it  is  probably  to  many  of  our  readers  a 
well-known  food-plant.  Cage-birds  greatly  enjoy  it,  and 
its  collection  and  sale  along  with  the  equally  well-known 
chickweed  and  groundsel  is  a  well-recognised  branch  of 
street  industry.  Many  of  our  smaller  native  birds  also 
are  indefatigable  collectors  of  it,  not,  indeed,  as  a  commercial 
speculation,  but  for  home  consumption. 

The  root-stock  of  the  buoad-leaved  plantain  is  short  and 


48  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

thick,  while  from  it  issue  numerous  white  fibres  that  strike 
deeply  into  the  earth,  and  from  their  stronghold  render 
the  plant  very  difficult  to  eradicate.  The  leaves  vary 
very  much,  both  in  size  and  mode  of  growth  ;  when  the  plan- 
tain is  found  amongst  the  luxuriant  herbage  of  the  hedge- 
row the  foliage  is  large,  on  long  foot-stalks,  and  struggling 
upwards,  like  all  its  surroundings,  to  the  necessary  air  and 
light ;  but  on  lawns  and  road-sides  the  leaves  are  consider- 
ably smaller,  massed  in  a  solid  rosette,  and  pressed  closely 
to  the  earth.  The  plant  seeds  freely,  and  is  a  great  dis- 
figurement to  a  lawn.  If  left  alone,  plantains  rapidlv 
multiply,  and  quite  spoil  the  look  of  the  turf,  besides  pre- 
sently throwing  up  their  multitudinous  scythe-blunting 
flower-stems ;  and  if  eradicated,  the  place  where  their  dense 
rosette  of  leaves  had  destroyed  the  grass  is  for  some  time 
an  unsightly  feature  in  the  midst  of  the  verdant  expanse. 

Like  the  ribwort,  an  allied  species  we  elsewhere  figure 
in  our  present  volume,  the  broad-leaved  plantain  has  its 
leaves  very  conspicuously  veined. 


THE    TEASEL. 


Lipsacm   sylvestris.      Nat 
Dipsacacece. 


On, 


HE  teasel,  though  not  so  com- 
mon as  some  other  plants, 
is  very  generally  distributed, 
and  we  should  imagine  that 
few  persons  out  for  a  day's 
ramble  in  the  country  would 
fail  to  come  across  a  specimen 
or  two  of  it.  Its  harsh, 
tough,  wiry  stems  offer  no 
temptation  to  any  animal 
to  browse  on  them,  and 
long  after  most  plants  have 
died  away  with  the  summer 
or  autumn,  the  dry  gaunt 
stalks  of  the  teasel  and  its 
brown  and  withered  heads 
stand  erect  in  the  hedgerow 
and  attract  our  notice.  Some 
of  our  botanists  admit  three  species,  the  D.  Fullonum, 
or  fuller's  teasel,  the  present  species,  and  the  D.  pilosus,  a 
small  teasel,  while  most  of  them  are  inclined  to  blend  the 
first  and  second  into  one.  The  first  form  has  the  hooked 
scales  of  the  flower-head  largely  developed,  and  cultiva- 
tion is  found  to  preserve  this  feature,  while  neglect  or 
87 


50  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

a  poor  soil  causes  it  to  disappear  and  pass  into  the  second 
form,  and  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  the  fuller's 
teasel  should  be  considered  merely  as  a  variety  of  our 
present  plant.  The  small  teasel  is  a  distinct  species;  it 
may  at  times  be  found  in  moist  hedgerows,  but  is  not 
generally  distributed;  its  height,  the  shape  of  its  flower- 
heads,  the  form  of  the  foliage,  are  all  quite  distinct  from 
the  present  plant. 

The  common  teasel  should  be  searched  for  on  waste 
laud,  in  the  hedgerows,  and  by  the  roadside.  It  flowers 
rather  late  in  the  summer,  and  while  commonly  dis- 
tributed in  the  south  of  England,  becomes  rarer  as  we 
go  northward.  The  plant  is  a  biennial,  and  attains  to  a 
height  of  some  four  or  five  feet,  though  we  may  sometimes 
find  specimens  only  eighteen  inches  or  so  in  height,  bearing 
the  crop  of  cylindrical  flower-heads.  The  whole  plant  is 
very  harsh  and  prickly  to  the  touch.  The  lower  leaves  are 
large,  and  lance-headed  in  shape,  and  coarsely  toothed  ;  the 
upper  leaves  are  more  pointed  in  character,  grow  in  pairs, 
and  have  their  bases  so  grown  together  as  to  form  a  deep 
cup,  capable  of  holding  dew  and  rain.  This  conspicuous 
feature  has  earned  the  plant  its  older  and  alternative  name 
of  Venus's  basin, and  it  was  held  that  the  water  which  collects 
in  this  natural  receptacle — and  may  almost  always  be  found 
there — was  a  remedy  for  warts.  Its  generic  name,  Dipwcus, 
also  refers  to  this  peculiarity  of  structure,  being  derived 
from  the  Greek  verb  signifying  to  be  thirsty. 

Lyte,  in  his  translation  of  Dodoens  (1586),  calls  our  plant 
the  card  thistle.  "  The  card  thistle  his  first  leaues  be  long 
and  large,  hackt  round  about  with  notches  like  the  teeth  of 
a  sawe,  betwixt  these  leaues  riseth  a  holow  stalke  of  three 
foote  long  or  more,  with  many  branches,  set  here  and 


THE    TEASEL.  51 

there  with  diuers  hooked  sharp  prickles,  and  spaced  or 
seuered  by  ioints,  and  at  euery  of  the  sayd  ioints  grow  two 
great  long-  leauee,  the  which  at  the  lower  endes  be  so  closely 
joined  and  fastened  together  round  about  the  stalke,  that  it 
holdeth  the  water,  falling  either  by  raine  or  dewe,  so  sure 
as  a  dish  or  bason.  At  the  top  of  the  branches  grow  long, 
roiigh,  and  prickle  heads  set  full  of  hookes;  out  of  the  same 
knops  or  heads  grow  small  purple  flowers  placed  in  eels  and 
cabbins,  like  the  honie-combe,  in  which  chambers  or  eels 
(after  the  falling  away  of  the  flower)  is  found  a  seed-like 
fenil.  The  knops  or  heads  are  holow  within,  and  for  the 
most  part  hauing  worms  in  them,  the  which  you  shall  find 
in  cleaning  the  heads.  The  small  wormes  that  are  founde 
within  the  kuops  of  teasels  do  cure  and  heale  the  quartaine 
ague,  to  be  worue  or  tied  about  the  necke  or  arme." 
Gerarde,  in  his  "  Historic  of  Plants,"  tells  us  his  own 
experience  in  this  latter  matter.  It  would  appear  from 
this  that  the  theoretical  remedy  would  not  bear  the  rough 
strain  of  actual  use.  He  shall,  however,  speak  for  himself 
in  his  own  refreshingly  quaint  way  : — "  It  is  needlesse  here 
to  alledge  those  things  that  are  added  touching  the  little 
wormes,  or  magots,  found  in  the  heads  of  the  Teasell, 
which  are  .to  be  hanged  about  the  necke,  for  they  are, 
nothing  else  but  most  vaine  and  trifling  toies,  as  my  selfe 
haue  proued  a  little  before  the  impression  hereof,  hauing 
a  most  grieuous  ague,  and  of  long  continuance :  notwith- 
standing physicke  charmes,  these  wormes  hanged  about 
my  neck,  spiders  put  into  a  walnut-shell,  and  divers  such 
foolish  toies  that  I  was  constrained  to  take  by  phantasticke 
people's  procurement ;  notwithstanding,  I  say,  my  helpe 
came  from  God  himselfe,  for  these  medicines,  and  all  other 
such  things,  did  me  no  good  at  all." 


62  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

The  flower-heads  are  numerous,  growing  singly  on  the 
extremities  of  the  footstalks,  and  first  breaking  forth  into 
flower  in  a  ring  of  blossoms  near  the  centre.  Cloth- 
makers  have  found  that  no  invention  can  supersede  the 
natural  teasel-head  for  raising  a  nap  on  woollen  cloth. 
These  heads  are  therefore  an  extensive  article  of  commerce, 
the  plant  being  largely  cultivated  for  this  purpose  in  the 
west  of  England,  in  France,  Germany,  Italy,  and  else- 
where. Many  thousands  are  imported  every  year,  and 
any  one  who  is  familiar  with  any  of  the  centres  of  the 
clothing  industry,  will  remember  seeing  the  waggon-loads 
of  teasel-heads  going  through  the  streets  to  the  different 
factories.  The  heads  are  cut  as  soon  as  the  flowers  wither, 
about  eight  inches  of  stem  remaining  attached  to  them, 
and  they  are  then  dried,  and  sorted  into  qualities.  The 
great  utility  of  the  teasel-head  is  that  it  gives  the  neces- 
sary nap,  but  breaks  at  any  serious  obstruction,  while  all 
metallic  substances  in  such  a  case  expect  the  cloth  to  yield 
first,  and  therefore  tear  the  material. 


TUBEROUS 
MOSCHATEL. 

Adoxa,   moschatellina.      Nat.    Ord., 
Araliaeete. 

MONGST  the  more  conspicuous 
floral  treasures  of  each  re- 
curring spring,  the  delicate 
little  blossom  we  have  here 
figured  runs  a  considerable 
risk  of  being  overlooked.  It 
has,  nevertheless,  a  refined 
charm  of  form  and  tint  that 
makes  it  a  not  unworthy 
companion  of  the  delicate 
sulphur-coloured  flowers  of 
the  primrose,  starring  every 
hedge-bank  and  coppice,  the 
pure  white  blossoms  of  the 
stitchwort,  or  the  royal  purple 
of  the  hyacinths,  as  their 
countless  blossoms  clothe  the 
woodland  glades  in  rich 
masses  of  colour.  The  mos- 
chatel  has  no  charms  so  immediately  patent  to  all 
beholders  as  these,  yet  we  doubt  not  that  those  who  may 
hitherto  have  overlooked  it  will  be  grateful  for  our  intro- 
duction of  it,  and  will  henceforth  give  it  due  recognition. 
Were  we  asked  to  justify  our  commendation  and  particu- 


54  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

larise  its  charms,  we  would  point  at  once  to  the  delicate 
green  of  its  foliage,  clothing  with  its  verdant  mantle 
many  a  spot  that  would  else  be  bare. 

The  moschatel  should  be  sought  for  in  woods,  on  hedge- 
banks  overhung  with  trees,  and  generally  in  shady  places. 
Though  the  plant  is  small,  the  large  masses  in  which  it 
grows  give  a  welcome  clothing  to  many  a  spot  that  offers 
in  its  damp  and  dimly-lighted  recesses  little  or  no 
inducement  to  anything  else.  In  such  spots  the  refined 
and  delicate  forms  of  the  moschatel,  or  the  glossy  leaves 
and  multitudinous  golden  stars  of  the  lesser  pile  wort,  find 
a  congenial  home.  The  rich  form  of  the  leaves  is  no  less 
beautiful  than  their  delicate  colour ;  and  whatever  commen- 
dation either  of  form  or  tint  may  be  bestowed  on  the  foliage 
is  no  less  the  due  of  the  clustering  ring  of  blossoms.  The 
moschatel  should  be  looked  for  in  the  situations  we  have 
indicated  during  April  and  the  beginning  of  May ;  after 

which  it 

"  Melts  in  unperceived  decay, 
And  glides  in  modest  innocence  away." 

The  order  to  which  the  plant  belongs  is  in  Britain 
represented  by  only  two  genera,  and  each  of  these  consists 
with  us  of  but  a  single  species.  The  little  inconspicuous 
moschatel  and  the  much  better  known  ivy  are  the  only 
representatives  we  possess  of  this  order,  though  abroad  it 
contains  many  and  various  plants,  from  forest  trees  to 
wayside  herbs.  It  would,  of  course,  be  foreign  to  our  pre- 
sent purpose  to  indicate  how  it  conies  to  pass  that  plants 
so  apparently  unlike  as  the  present  species  and  the  ivy 
should  have  got  into  close  companionship,  or  how  it  is  that 
they  alone  represent  a  great  natural  order  to  us.  To  make 
this  clear,  would  necessitate  more  technical  description 


TUBEROVS   MOSCHATEL.  5o 

and  analysis  than  is  here  desirable ;  but  those  who  care  to 
pursue  the  subject  at  greater  length  will  find  in  such 
"  Floras "  as  those  of  Dr.  Hooker  or  of  Bentham  all  the 
information  they  could  desire.  John  Ray,  in  his  early 
system  of  plant  classification,  placed  the  moschatel  amongst 
his  Het'ltfe  bacciferee,  or  berry-bearing  plants ;  but  such 
broad  massing  of  plants  has  little  scientific  value,  and  is 
only  a  degree  better  than  placing  it  amongst  root-pos- 
sessing plants.  Another  practical  disadvantage,  from  the 
English  point  of  view,  is  that  in  these  islands  the  plant 
rarely  produces  its  berries  at  all. 

The  early  writers  found  considerable  difficulty  in 
assigning  its  botanical  position  to  the  moschatel.  One  old 
author,  we  see,  calls  it  the  musk-ranunculus,  whilst  another 
places  it  amongst  the  fumitories — in  either  case  the  form  of 
the  leaves  being  probably  the  cause  of  the  arrangement.  If 
our  readers,  after  studying  our  present  plate,  will  turn  to 
the  various  species  of  buttercup,  and  to  the  common  fumi- 
tory that  we  have  already  figured,  they  will  see  that  there 
is  a  certain  similarity  in  this  respect. 

The  root-stock  of  the  moschatel  is  covered  with  thick 
fieshy  scales,  and  from  this  the  flower-stem  rises  to  a  height 
of  some  six  inches.  The  flowers  are  pale  green  in  colour, 
and  form  a  little  cluster  at  the  summit  of  the  stem.  The 
terminal  flower  has  often  four  divisions  in  the  corolla,  while 
the  lateral  blossoms  frequently  have  five ;  but  this  is  by  no 
means  a  constant  arrangement.  The  stamens  vary  in  the 
same  way  from  eight  to  ten.  The  radical  leaves,  as  may  be 
very  clearly  seen  in  our  figure,  are  borne  on  long  stalks, 
and  are  deeply  cut  into  numerous  segments,  while  the 
flower-stems  each  bear  a  single  pair ;  these  are  on  shorter 
stems,  and  less  elaborately  divided.  The  cluster  of  berries 


j(i  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

is  green  in  colour;  each  berry  contains  from  one  to  live 
oval  and  flattened  seeds,  but  ordinarily  the  smaller  numbers 
are  the  most  commonly  to  be  found.  In  many  cases  the 
berries  are  single-seeded. 

Though  some  of  the  early  botanists  called  our  plant  the 
Moschatella,  or  the  Moschatelleria,  it  has,  ever  since  Lin- 
naeus bestowed  its  present  name  on  it,  been  the  Adoxa. 
The  name  may  be  considered  fairly  descriptive,  compounded 
as  it  is  of  two  Greek  words,  signifying  "  without  glory/'  in 
allusion  to  its  humble  and  lowly  growth  and  station.  The 
specific  name  is  Latin  in  origin,  and  refers  to  the  slightly 
musky  smell  of  the  plant.  The  English  name  betrays  its 
foreign  origin,  and  can  scarcely  be  called  a  really  popular 
name,  the  plant  being  too  inconspicuous  to  have  received 
one.  It  is  sometimes  given  as  moscatel,  and  at  others  as 
moschatel,  or  moschatell. 


NARROW-LEAVED 
EVERLASTING    PEA 

Lathyrus  sylvestris.     Nat.  Ord., 
Lcgwriinostt. 

HILE  the  narrow-leaved  ever- 
lasting pea  is  not  a  familiar 
wild  flower  in  the  way  that 
dandelions  or  buttercups 
are — a  thing  that  we  may 
meet  with  here,  there,  and 
everywhere — it  is,  like  the 
wood  vetch,  Vicia  sylvatica, 
which  we  have  already 
figured,  a  plant  that  may  be 
found  in  fair  profusion  if  one 
only  goes  to  the  right  place. 
Curtis,  we  see,  in  his  "  Flora 
Londinensis  "  speaks  of  it  as 
growing  in  the  Oak  of  Honor 
Wood,  at  Peckham,  and  as 
being  abundant  in  many  parts  of  Kent  in  the  hedges  by 
the  roadside.  Curtis,  of  course,  only  gives  localities 
within  easy  reach  of  the  metropolis.  Though  found  in 
the  hedgerows  occasionally,  it  is  more  especially  at  home  in 
thickets  and  rocky  places.  We  remember  to  have  been  much 
struck  with  its  appearance  in  some  of  the  wilder  parts  of 
the  Undercliff,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  and  it  was  in  just 
such  another  locality  that  we  found  the  piece  from  which  our 
88 


58  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

sketch  was  taken.    When  found  at  all,  the  plant  is  ordinarily 
met  with  in  abundance.    It  should  be  sought  for  in  flower 
during-  June,  July,  and  August.     It  is  a  hardy  perennial, 
so  that  when  it  is  once  established  in  a  district  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  finding  it  year  after  year.      The  stalk  is  six 
feet  or  more  in   length,  climbing  and  branching   freely, 
smooth  to  the  touch,  and  having  its  angles  expanded  into 
lateral  wings,  that  ran  along  it  on  either  side.     The  leaf- 
stalks, too,  are  flattened  and  winged  in  the  same  way,  and 
terminate    in  a    three-branched  tendril;    each   leaf-stalk 
bears  a  single  pair  of  long  and  sharply-pointed  leaflets,  and 
at  its  base  are  two  small  and  narrow  stipules.     The  large 
size  of  the  leaf  unfortunately  prevented  our  showing  this 
latter  feature  on  our  plate.     The  flower-bearing  stems  are 
some  six  inches  long,  wingless,  springing  from  the  axils  of 
the  leaves,  and  each  bearing  numerous  flowers.    The  flowers 
themselves  are   large  and    attractive-looking,   rosy-red  in 
colour,  conspicuously  veined,  and  of  the  papilionaceous  form 
one  is  so  familiar  with  in  the  furze,  broom,  clover,  meadow 
vetchling,  and  other  equally  common  examples  of  the  great 
natural  order  to  which  they  and  this  belong.   The  seed-vessel 
is  a  pod  of  some  two  or  three  inches  long,  at  first  green, 
but  afterwards  changing  to  a  bright,  but  pale  brown.    Each 
pod  contains  some  ten  or  twelve  globular  and  blackish  seeds. 
That  the  present  species  should  be  the  narrow-leaved  ever- 
lasting pea  will  naturally  suggest  to  our  minds  that  there 
is  possibly  a  broad-leaved  species  as  well,  and  for  this  we 
have  not  far  to  seek,  though  we  must  look  for  it  in  the 
garden,  and  not  in  the  hedgerow  or  copse.    The  broad-leaved 
everlasting  pea  is  one  of  the  commonest,  most  old-fashioned, 
and  most  beautiful  adornments  of  an  old-fashioned  garden. 
Some  few  writers  consider  it  as  but  a  variety  of  the  plant 


NARROW-LEAVED    EVERLASTING    PEA.  59 

we  figure ;  but  most  botanists  give  it  full  specific  rank  as 
the  L.  latifol'ms.  It  has  at  rare  intervals  been  found  in 
woods  in  various  counties  throughout  England  ;  but  it  is 
a  very  doubtful  native.  We  see  that  Edwards,  in  his 
"  Flora  Britannica,"  speaks  of  it  as  follows  : — "  The  stalks 
several,  thick,  climbing  by  means  of  tendrils  to  the  height 
of  six  or  eight  feet,  or  even  higher  in  woods  ;  "  while  others 
tell  us  that,  when  found  as  a  wildling,  it  is  always  an  escape 
from  cultivation.  When,  however,  we  find  the  plant  in  the 
heart  of  a  large  wood  far  removed  from  human  habitations, 
we  feel  that  this  sweeping  statement  has  its  difficulties. 

The  name  Lathy rus  was  applied  by  Theophrastus  to 
some  leguminous  plants,  but  the  exact  species  cannot  now 
be  traced.  The  name  was  bestowed  by  the  great  Linna3us 
on  the  present  genus. 

As  Theophrastus  will  be  to  many  but  the  pale  shadow  of 
a  great  name,  we  may  advantageously  diverge  into  a  brief 
biography.  Botanical  lore  dates  back,  we  are  told  by  some 
enthusiasts,  to  Adam  himself,  while  Solomon's  treatise, 
that  extended  from  the  lordly  cedar  of  the  slopes  of 
Lebanon  to  the  lowly  hyssop  on  the  wall,  is  a  stock 
reference.  The  writings  of  the  somewhat  mythical  ^scu- 
lapius  date  still  earlier  than  those  of  Solomon ;  but  the 
most  ancient  Greek  writer  whose  works  have  actually  come 
down  to  us  is  Hippocrates.  He  was  born  at  Cos,  in  the 
year  B.C.  459.  Theophrastus  was  a  Lesbian,  and  was  born 
about  B.C.  390.  He  was  one  of  the  disciples  both  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  and  is  said  to  have  written  some  two  hundred 
treatises  on  very  diverse  subjects.  Twenty  of  these  have 
been  preserved  to  us,  and  out  of  this  small  number 
two  only  are  on  plants.  He  treated  on  vegetable 
physiology,  the  nature  and  properties  of  various  kinds  of 


60  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

timber,  on  the  ornamental  plants  of  the  garden,  on  wild 
plants,  on  various  kinds  of  grain,  on  gums  and  resins,  and 
so  forth,  dealing  with  the  whole  subject  in  a  broad  and 
comprehensive  way.  He  was  one  of  the  chosen  followers 
of  Aristotle,  and  was  entrusted  by  him  at  his  decease  with 
all  his  writings.  He  died  at  the  age  of  a  little  over  a 
century,  regretting  the  shortness  of  his  life,  and  that  he 
had  been  able  to  do  so  little  of  what  he  had  proposed  to  him- 
self. Dioscorides,  whose  name  we  have  from  time  to  time 
had  occasion  to  introduce,  was  the  third  of  the  great  trio 
of  ancient  Greek  writers  on  natural  history. 

The  first  of  the  Greek  botanical  works  introduced  into 
Western  Europe  on  the  invention  of  the  printing-press 
was  the  treatise  of  Dioscorides.  A  Latin  translation  of 
this  was  prepared  by  a  Venetian  nobleman,  and  issued 
from  the  press  in  the  year  1478.  The  work  of  the  second 
great  Greek  writer  on  plants,  Theophrastus,  was  printed 
only  five  years  afterwards,  in  1483.  Both  these  books  ran 
through  many  editions,  and,  at  the  time  of  their  repub- 
lication  in  the  Middle  Ages,  they  were  held  in  great  esteem. 


i    ' 


THE  WILD 
STEAWBEEEY. 

Fray  aria  vcsca.    Nat.  Ord.,  Rosacecc- 


the  many  grace- 
ful little  denizens  of  the 
hedge-bank,  few,  perhaps, 
are  more  pleasing  than  the 
wild  strawberry,  whether 
we  regard  its  pure  white 
blossoms  with  their  golden 
centres,  the  form  of  the 
foliage,  or  the  ruddy  fruit. 
It  is  abundantly  to  be  met 
with  in  woods  and  copses, 
and  on  somewhat  sheltered 
hedge-banks.  It  flowers 
during  April  and  May, 
and,  like  the  bramble, 
may  be  found  frequently 
both  in  flower  and  in 
fruit  at  the  same  time.  It  appears  to  be  equally  at  home 
iu  Europe,  Northern  and  Western  Asia,  the  north  of  Africa, 
Canada,  and  all  the  more  northerly  portions  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  The  fruit  of  the  wild  strawberry  is  as 
wholesome  and  delicious  as  that  of  the  garden  plant  ;  it 
has  a  pleasant  sub-acid  taste  of  its  own,  but  the  great 
drawback  is  that,  owing  to  the  small  size  of  the  fruit,  one 
soon  gets  tired  of  the  labour  of  collecting  it. 


62  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

The  strawberry  lias  been  an  object  of  cultivation  in 
England  from  a  very  early  period,  many  of  the  finest 
varieties  being  only  developments  from  the  wild  straw- 
berry, and  others  from  the  hautboy,  F.  elatior.  One 
naturally  thinks  of  the  well-known  Shakespearian  quotation 

"  My  lord  of  Ely,  when  I  was  last  in  Holborn,  I  saw 

o-ood  strawberries   in   your  garden   there, "  and  we   find 
other  references  of  much  earlier  date  to  the  strawberry. 

"  Then  unto  London  I  did  me  hye, 

Of  all  the  lands  it  beareth  the  pryse  ; 
Gode  pescode  owne  began  to  cry, 
Strabeny  rype,  and  cherrys  in  the  ryse." 

The  spelling  of  the  word  must  be  noted,  as  some  persons 
jump  too  readily  at  conclusions,  and  when  they  see  the 
plants  in  a  well-ordered  garden  all  neatly  surrounded  by 
fresh  straw,  think  that  they  have  solved  the  easy  mystery 
of  its  name.  In  Anglo-Saxon  it  is  the  streowberie,  and 
the  name  was  given  to  it  either  from  its  long  suckers  being 
strewn  on  the  ground,  or  from  their  straying  propensities. 
John  Lydgate  has  the  same  form  of  spelling,  and,  though 
the  orthography  of  the  earlier  writers  was  of  the  most 
erratic  description,  we  may  at  least  take  it  for  what  it  is 
worth,  and  neither  build  too  much  nor  too  little  upon  it, 
and  this  form  of  spelling  certainly  .suggests  stray-berry. 
Any  one  \viio  has  noticed  the  long  runners  travelling  for 
many  feet  across  a  neglected  bed  will  see  considerable  force 
in  the  use  of  this  term.  John  Lydgate,  born  about  1370, 
was  a  writer  of  clear  fluent  verse,  bringing  home  to  the 
uneducated  the  works  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  poets,  or 
satirising  in  his  rhyming  moralities  the  abuses  of  the  time. 
The  reference  to  the  strawberry  will  be  found  in  his 
"London  Lickpeuny,"  wherein  he  introduces  the  street 


THE    WILD    STRAWBERRY.  63 

cries  of  his  day,  and  points  a  moral  against  avarice  and  the 
denial  of  justice  to  the  poor. 

The  generic  name  is  derived  from  the  Latin  word 
fragrans,  a  word  that  carries  its  meaning  on  its  face, 
and  will  at  once  suggest  to  the  most  unlearned  of 
our  readers  the  idea  of  fragrance,  while  the  specific  name 
signifies  edible,  a  sufficiently  frigid  way  of  putting  it, 
as  most  people  consider  strawberries  not  only  edible  but 
are  very  glad  to  find  themselves  in  a  position  to  reduce 
their  opinions  to  practice.  It  is  singular  that  a  fruit 
so  delicious  should  have  been  held  in  so  slight  esteem  by 
the  ancients :  the  references  to  it  in  Pliny,  or  Ovid,  or 
Virgil,  for  example,  deal  with  it  very  coldly,  and  merely  as 
a  wild  fruit,  but  in  these  later  days  it  has  received  full 
attention.  It  is  a  particularly  easy  plant  to  grow. 

The  stock  is  perennial,  scaly,  and  fibrous,  throwing  out 
numerous  slender  runners  which,  in  turn,  root  at  intervals 
and  produce  new  plants.  The  flower-bearing  stems  spring 
directly  from  the  roots,  and  are  erect,  herbaceous,  clothed 
with  soft  hairs,  and  some  six  inches  in  height  :  either 
entirely  leafless  or  with  one,  or  possibly  two,  leaves  of  very 
simple  character  upon  them,  a  feature  that  may  be  clearly 
seen  in  our  illustration.  The  flowers  are  few  in  number  on 
each  stem.  The  leaves  are  of  the  form  botanically  termed 
ternate,  and  are  composed  of  three  nearly  equal  leaflets ; 
each  leaflet  being  egg-shaped  and  deeply  cut  into  teeth  like 
a  saw.  The  leaves,  like  the  stems  that  bear  them,  are  often 
thickly  clothed  with  silky  hairs.  The  petals  are  five  in 
number,  pure  white  in  colour,  easily  shattering,  and  the 
calyx  is  cleft  into  ten  divisions.  The  stamens  are  numerous, 
and  form  a  compact  ball-like  yellow  mass  in  the  centre  of 
the  flower.  The  fruit  is  fleshy  and  succulent,  ordinarily 


64  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

bright  red,  but  sometimes  white.  The  strawberry-leaved 
potentil,  Potentilla  Fragariastrum,  by  the  older  botanists 
called  the  sterile  strawberry,  closely  resembles  it :  into  the 
botanical  differences  it  would  here  be  scarcely  advisable  to 
go  at  any  length,  but  the  presence  or  absence  of  fruit  is  in 
itself  a  very  conspicuous  point  of  difference,  as  the  pseudo- 
strawberry  never  produces  the  succulent  and  ruddy  fruit 
that  is  so  conspicuous  in  the  true  plant. 

We  remember  to  have  seen  the  wild  strawberry  very 
pleasingly  introduced  in  a  sixteenth-century  MS.  in  the 
British  Museum,  the  white  flowers  and  crimson  fruit  being 
painted  on  a  golden  ground;  it  may  be  seen,  too,  very 
gracefully  rendered  in  the  foreground  of  a  picture  of  the 
Virgin  and  Child,  by  Hugo  Vandergoes.  The  Gothic 
stone-carvers  of  Southwell,  Wells,  and  elsewhere  were  not 
oblivious  of  its  charms,  and  we  have  seen  it,  too,  in  old 


UPEIGHT  MEADOW 
CKOWFOOT. 

Ranunculus   acris.      Nat.    Ore?., 
llanuncitlacece. 

,.E  havre  already  seen  in  our 
remarks  on  other  species  of 
crowfoot  or  buttercup,  that 
the  genus  is  distinguished 
by  a  peculiar  acridity,  a 
quality  which  finds  its 
maximum  in  the  flower 
before  us.  Though  we  have 
never  ourselves  experienced 
it,  we  are  told  by  various 
authorities  that  the  mere 
carrying  of  the  plants  in 
the  hand  is  often  sufficient 
to  cause  blistering  and  in- 
flammation. This  property 
it  loses  when  made  into  hay, 
but  the  plant  is  in  any  case 
unwelcome  to  the  agricul- 
turist, for  cattle  dislike  it 
exceedingly  in  its  green  state,  or  if  hard  pressed  for  forage, 
can  only  eat  it  at  the  expense  of  blistered  mouths ;  while  in 
its  dried  state,  though  it  has  lost  its  hot  and  biting  pun- 
gency, it  is  at  best  but  hard  and  tough,  and  yields  little  or 
no  nourishment.  It  is,  therefore  to  the  interest  of  the 
89 


€6  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

farmer  to  eradicate  it  as  far  as  may  be.  Though  it  bears 
a  strong  similarity  to  the  bulbous  crowfoot,  a  plant  we  have 
already  figured,  a  little  discrimination  will  soon  enable 
us  to  distinguish  the  two  species. 

The  upright  meadow  crowfoot  worthily  deserves  its 
name,  as  it  is  one  of  the  tallest  of  our  buttercups,  and 
there  is  a  peculiar  lightness  and  delicacy  in  its  freely 
up-springing  stems.  The  plant  may  often  be  found  a 
yard  or  more  high,  and  its  appearance  is  distinctly 
"  genteel,"  to  quote  Martyn,  the  author  of  the  "Flora 
Rustica."  The  meadow-crowfoot  has  perennial  roots, 
consisting  of  numerous  white  fibres.  The  stems  are 
hollow,  often  more  or  less  covered  with  soft  silky  hairs, 
and  very  freely  branching  towards  their  summits.  The 
leaves  vary  a  good  deal  in  form,  according  to  their  position 
on  the  plant,  a  feature  that  may  be  very  clearly  seen  in 
our  illustration.  The  lower  leaves  are  on  long  footstalks, 
composed  of  numerous  widely-spreading  and  deeply-divided 
segments,  while  the  upper  leaves  are  small,  composed  of  few 
segments,  simple  in  form,  and  few  in  number.  The  flowers 
form  a  golden  crown  to  the  plant,  being  very  numerous, 
and  growing  at  the  extremities  of  the  stems.  These 
flower-bearing  stems  are  not  channelled  or  furrowed  as  in 
many  of  the  other  species,  but  are  smooth  and  cylindrical. 
The  calyx  is  composed  of  fine  greenish  yellow  and  spreading 
sepals,  while  the  corolla  has  the  same  number  of  bright 
golden  yellow  and  glistening  petals ;  in  its  centre  is  the 
clustering  mass  of  stamens.  The  fruit  consists  of  numerous 
small  bodies,  technically  called  achenes,  clustered  together 
into  a  globular  head ;  an  example  of  the  form  may  be  seen 
in  the  centre  of  our  illusti-ation. 

The  plant  is  one  of  the  flowers  of  the  early  summer, 


UPRIGHT   MEADOW    CROWFOOT.  67 

but  though  it  may  be  found  in  flower  by  the  beginning 
of  June,  it  lasts  much  longer  than  many  other  blossoms, 
and  may  often  be  found  throughout  the  summer  and 
well  into  the  autumn.  It  is  naturally  more  noticeable, 
however,  in  the  earlier  mouths  of  the  year,  when  it 
has  not  so  many  rivals  to  distract  attention  fr.om  it, 
and  though  roadside  and  waste-ground  specimens  greet 
us  all  through  the  summer  months,  it  is  especially  a 
plant  of  the  meadows,  and  shares  with  the  rattle,  the  ox- 
eye,  and  many  other  fair  wildlings  the  fell  doom  of  the 
mower's  scythe.  It  is  a  plant  of  general  distribution,  and 
is  in  most  places  abundant. 

Our  plant  shares  with  the  bulbous  and  the  creeping 
crowfoots  the  generally  popular  names  of  buttercups,  king- 
cups, and  goldcups.  It  is  also  one  of  the  "  butter  flowers  " 
of  Gay  and  other  poets.  Gay  associates  the  flower  with 
the  rosemary,  or  herb  remembrance,  in  his  description  of 
the  rustic  funeral :  — 

"  To  show  their  love,  the  neighbours  far  and  near 
Followed  with  wistful  looks  the  damsel's  hier ; 
Sprigged  rosemary  the  lads  and  lasses  bore, 
While  dismally  the  parson  walked  before. 
Upon  her  grave  the  rosemary  they  threw, 
The  daisy,  butter-flower,  and  endive  blue." 

Though  the  rosemary  was  almost  always  associated  by 
the  earlier  writers  with  the  idea  of  bereavement,  the  con 
nection  was  not  a  necessary  one,  and  we  sometimes,  as  in 
the  boar's  head  carol,  find  the  herb  introduced  as  a  remem- 
brance of  old  customs  of  a  joyous  nature. 

Shakespeare  writes  of  the  "  cuckoo-buds  of  yellow  hue," 
but  the  name  cuckoo-bud  or  cuckoo-flower  was  applied 
rather  vaguely  to  various  plants,  such  as  the  stitchwort,  the 


(58  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

ladies'-smock,  and  marsh  marigold,  that  flowered  at  the 
time  of  the  arrival  of  the  cuckoos;  and  it  is  an  open  ques- 
tion whether  the  meadow-crowfoot  was  ever  included  by 
the  mediseval  writers  in  this  happy  family.  If  not,  it  at 
all  events  very  well  might  have  been. 

In  France  the  meadow-crowfoot  is  the  grenouillette,  a 
name  similar  in  meaning  to  its  generic  name  Ranunculus, 
and  referring  to  the  moist  meadow  land  in  which  the  plant 
best  prospers.  In  the  mediseval  botanieo-astrological  trea- 
tises the  meadow  crowfoot  was  reckoned  a  plant  of  Mars, 
on  account  of  its  acrid  and  fiery  nature.  One  old  author 
we  see  says  of  it,  "  They  grow  very  common  everywhere  ; 
unless  you  turn  your  head  into  a  hedge  you  cannot  but  see 
them  as  you  walk."  We  doubt,  indeed,  if  even  this  would 
be  sufficient  to  avoid  all  sight  of  them,  for  we  have  seen 
their  golden  blossoms  springing  up  on  many  a  hedge-bank, 
but  we  may  accept  his  somewhat  flippant  statement,  'as  it 
stands  at  least  as  a  testimony  of  the  abundance  of  the 
/lower. 


LAMB'S-TONGUE. 

Plantago  lanccolata.      Nat.   Ord., 
Plantaginacea. 

MONGST  the  plants  of  the 
meadow  and  pasture,  few 
are  more  abundant  than  the 
lambVtongue ;  hence  we 
could  not  deny  it  a  place 
in  our  series,  though  it 
would  be  gross  flattery 
to  place  it  on  a  par  in 
attractiveness  with  .many 
of  the  plants  we  have 
figured.  Still  it  has  a 
certain  wild  picturesqueness 
of  its  own,  and,  like  every- 
thing else  in  the  whole 
realm  of  nature,  improves 
on  acquaintance  and  study. 
It  derives  its  name  from  a 
supposed  resemblance  in  the 
form  of  the  foliage  to  the  tongue  of  a  lamb,  but  our  readers 
will  not  have  reached  our  present  volume,  we  are  sure,  with- 
out having  made  the  discovery  that  a  very  slight  resemblance 
indeed  is  in  most  cases  all  that  is  required  in  rural  nomen- 
clature. The  resemblance  in  the  present  case  is  fairly  illus- 
trative of  this  easy-going  system,  and  some  writers,  not 


70  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS, 

so  easily  satisfied  as  others,  have  endeavoured  to  transfer 
the  meaning  from  lamb's  tongue  to  Lammas  tongue. 
Lammas  was  a  festival  held  in  olden  times  at  the  beginning 
of  August ;  a  thanksgiving  for  the  first-fruits  of  the  harvest, 
and  several  plants  owe  their  popular  names  to  the  fact  of 
their  flowering  at  some  special  season  in  the  mediaeval 
calendar.  Any  attempt  however,  to  thus  identify  our 
present  plant  with  Lammas  is  not  altogether  happy,  as  it 
begins  flowering  some  six  weeks  before  this  date.  The 
added  word  tongue,  too,  is  meaningless  in  such  a  connexion, 
and  we  can  only  conclude  that  whether  the  idea  is  in 
harmony  with  our  critical  faculty  or  not,  Iambus-tongue 
in  its  most  literal  significance  is  what  we  are  expected  to 
accept.  Many  of  our  plants  have  English  names  bestowed 
by  the  rustic  dwellers  on  the  country  side,  and  these  vary 
in  quality  from  the  admirably  expressive  to  the  intolerably 
stupid,  and  in  addition  to  these  they  have  other  English 
names  that  no  rustic  ever  uses,  but  which  may  be  briefly 
described  as  "bookish/5  Such  a  name  for  our  present 
species  is  the  narrow-leaved  plantain.  In  some  old  books 
we  find  the  plant  called  Costa  canina,  rib-wort  or  rib-grass, 
evidently  in  allusion  to  the  very  prominent  veinings  on  the 
leaves,  a  feature  that  may  be  very  clearly  noted  in  our  illus- 
tration :  a  feature  too,  that  caused  it  to  receive  the  mediseval 
name  of  Quinquenervia.  By  Lonicer,  Fuchs,  and  some 
others  of  the  older  botanists,  the  plant  was  called  the 
lanceola  from  the  shape  of  the -leaves  resembling  the  head 
of  a  lance,  a  suggestion  still  preserved  in  the  specific  name 
lanceolata.  Another  old  popular  name  for  the  lamb's 
tongue  was  the  kemps,  a  word  at  first  sight  sufficiently 
unmeaning,  yet  carrying  within  it  an  interesting  reference. 
The  stalks  of  our  plant  are  peculiarly  tough  and  wiry,  and 


LAMPS-TONGUE.  71 

the  Anglo-Saxon  word  for  a  soldier  was  cempa.  If  now,  like 
the  talented  writer  on  Chinese  metaphysics,  who  so  excited 
the  wondering  admiration  of  Mr.  Pickwick,  we  "  combine 
our  information/'  we  shall  see  why  our  plant  is  the  kemps. 
It  has  from  time  immemorial,  heen  one  of  the  favourite 
games  of  country  children  to  arm  themselves  with  a  par- 
ticularly tough  lamb's-tongue  stem,  and  then  to  challenge 
all  comers  to  break  it,  each  in  turn  holding  up  their 
stem  for  the  others  to  slash  at  with  theirs,  the  one  that 
longest  survived  the  ordeal  being  of  course  victorious  and 
the  champion.  The  plant  is  also  for  the  same  reason  pro- 
vincial ly  called  cocks,  an  allusion  that  carries  us  back  to  tho 
days  of  our  grandfathers,  when  a  main  of  fighting-cocks 
had  such  an  attractive  power. 

The  economic  use  of  the  lamb's-tongue  seems  to  have 
long  been  a  matter  of  dispute,  though  we  imagine  that  the 
verdict  is  now  finally  given  against  its  utility.  Curtis,  in 
his  "Flora  Londinensis/'  says  "  the  farmers  in  general  con- 
sider this  species  of  plantain  as  a  favourite  food  of  sheep 
and  cattle,  hence  it  is  frequently  recommended  in  the  laying 
down  of  meadow  and  pasture  land  ;  and  the  seed  is  for 
that  purpose  kept  in  the  shops.  How  far  the  predilec- 
tion of  cattle  for  this  herb  is  founded  in  truth,  we  cannot 
at  present  determine ;  nor  do  we  pretend  to  say  how  far  it 
is  economical  to  substitute  this  plant  in  the  room  of  others 
which  produce  a  much  greater  crop,  and  which  they  show 
no  aversion  to.  We  should  be  rather  inclined  to  think  that 
plantain  (or  rib-grass  as  it  is  called)  should  be  but  spar- 
ingly made  us.e  of,  particularly  if  the  farmer's  chief  aim 
be  a  crop/'  As  a  good  crop  really  is  the  farmer's  chief  aim 
ordinarily,  it  will  be  seen  that  our  author  holds  it  in  very 
small  esteem. 


72  FAMILIAR     WILL    FLOWERS. 

When  the  plantain  grows  amongst  the  tall  grasses  of 
the  meadow  its  leaves  are  longer,  more  erect,  and  less 
harsh,  than  when  we  find  it  by  the  roadside,  or  on  any 
dry  and  barren  soil.  The  leaves  are  often  slightly  hairy, 
and  have  at  times  a  silvery  appearance  from  this  cause,  but 
this  is  more  especially  apparent  in  the  roadside  specimens. 
The  flower-stalks  are  longer  than  the  leaves,  furrowed  and 
angular,  and  thrown  boldly  up.  The  flower-head  varies 
a  good  deal  in  size  and  form,  sometimes  being  much 
smaller  and  more  globular  than  those  represented  in  our 
illustration.  The  sepals  are  brown  and  paper-like  in 
texture,  and  give  the  head  the  somewhat  peculiar  rusty 
look ;  the  corolla  is  very  small  and  inconspicuous,  tubed, 
and  having  four  spreading  lobes.  The  stamens,  four  in 
number,  are  the  most  noticeable  feature,  their  slender  white 
filaments  and  pale  yellow  anthers  forming  in  the  aggregate 
a  conspicuous  ring  around  the  flower-head. 


A      ,  ^    m-  !" 

wutl 


COMMON    VETCH. 

Tina  sativa.  Nat.  Ord.,  Legu>ninosf. 
HE  vetch  has  long  been  cul- 
tivated as  a  forage-plant,  and 
fe7  has  therefore  got  widely  dis- 
tributed. It  may  be  found 
almost  everywhere  :  on  culti- 
vated ground,  on  dry  pastu- 
rage, on  waste  patches  of.  soil, 
and  in  open  woodlands.  Cul- 
tivation has  to  some  extent 
modified  its  appearance,  and 
some  two  or  three  varieties  or 
sub-species  have  been  recog- 
nised, but  these  have  a  way 
of  running  into  each  other 
that  makes  their  identification 
difficult,  and  for  our  purpose, 
at  least,  we  need  attach  little 
or  no  importance  to  them. 
Cultivation  in  rich  ground 
naturally  makes  the  plant  more  luxuriant  in  growth,  the 
stems  attain  to  a  greater  height,  the  leaflets  are  broader 
and  the  flowers  larger ;  but  all  these  modifications  are  but 
developments  that  can  readily  be  traced  to  its  change  of 
circumstances,  and  directly  we  attempt  to  make  a  specific 
difference  difficulties  arise. 
90 


74  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  discriminate  between 
the  cultivated  and  the  wild  plants,  and  the  first  has 
retained  the  name  of  V.  sativa,  while  the  second  has  been 
re-named  as  T.  angustifolia.  This  latter  specific  name 
signifies  narrow-leaved,  while  sativa  denotes  that  which  is 
cultivated.  The  first  is  said  to  have  broad  leaflets,  the 
flowers  in  pairs,  and  the  pods  erect,  while  the  second,  the 
wildling,  has  narrow  leaflets,  the  flowers  solitary,  and  the 
pods  spreading1.  On  turning  to  our  illustration,  made  from 
a  plant  growing1  in  a  large  forest  and  far  removed  from  all 
suspicion  of  being  under  the  influence  of  cultivation,  we  find 
that  one  piece  has  the  flowers  singly  and  the  other  has  them 
in  pairs.  According  therefore,  to  the  specific  differences 
we  have  quoted,  our  plant  is  two  things  at  once,  "  which  " — 
to  quote  Euclid — Cl  is  absurd."  An  attempt  has  also  been 
made  to  form  a  low-spreading  variety  of  the  plant  into 
another  species,  under  the  title  of  V.  Bofartii,  but  the  test 
of  observation  and  cultivation  has  conclusively  shown  that 
it  runs  into  the  other  forms  and  has  no  permanence.  We 
may,  then,  ignoring  these  differences,  speak  of  the  plant  as 
only  one. 

The  stems  of  the  vetch  are  sometimes  short  and  spread- 
ing, sometimes  erect.  The  leaflets  vary  in  number  from 
about  six  to  ten  on  each  leaf,  and  these  leaves  terminate  in 
a  branched  tendril  that  helps  to  support  the  plant,  though 
it  has  not  the  climbing  habit  of  many  of  the  wild  peas 
and  vetches.  The  flowers  are  singly  or  in  pairs  in  the  axils 
of  the  leaves,  and  these  are  followed  by  the  characteristic 
pea-like  pods,  each  an  inch  or  so  in  length,  and  containing 
about  a  dozen  small  globular  seeds.  The  flowering-season 
is  the  spring  and  early  summer.  The  common  English 
name  of  the  plant  varies  from  vetch  to  fetch  and  fitch, 


COMMON    VETCH.  75 

while  in  Germany  it  is  wicke,  in  France  vesce,  and  in 
Italy  veccia.  All  these  names  have  a  strong  family  like- 
ness, and  are  derived,  we  are  told  by  Prior,  in  his  "  Popular 
Names  of  British  Plants,"  from  the  Latin  verb  signifying 
to  bind ;  in  allusion,  of  course,  to  the  tendrils  and  the 
straggling  growth  on  hedges  and  neighbouring  plants  that 
is  so  characteristic  of  some  of  the  plants  of  the  genus. 
The  generic  name,  vicia,  probably  carries  a  similar 
significance,  though  its  derivation  is  now  a  point  of  dispute, 
some  finding  significance  for  it  from  the  Latin  and  others 
from  the  Celtic.  Our  plant  is  also  sometimes  called  the 
tare,  and  in  some  of  the  older  writers  we  get  both  the 
common  names  combined  into  one,  and  our  plant  called  the 
tare-fytche ;  the  origin  of  the  name  is  doubtful,  but  it  has 
been  suggested  that  it  is  derived  from  the  French  verb 
tirer,  to  drag,  from  the  unceremonious  way  the  plant  has 
of  utilising  other  plants  for  its  support.  The  name  is  not 
so  appropriate  to  this  species,  however,  as  to  several  of  the 
others. 

The  vetch  has  from  a  remote  period  been  grown 
in  southern  and  central  Europe  as  a  forage-plant,  but  the 
date  of  its  introduction  into  England  is  not  known.  It  has 
the  great  advantage  of  coming  on  early,  and  is  often  sown 
with  rye,  as  the  stems  of  the  latter  afford  it  the  needful 
support,  and  the  whole  crop  is  then  made  up  into  bundles 
and  sold  as  fodder.  Even  the  dweller  in  the  town  will 
pi*obably  remember  noticing  cartloads  of  its  verdant, 
succulent-looking  foliage  passing  through  the  streets.  It  is 
greatly  liked  both  by  horses  and  cows,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
most  nutritious  foods  they  can  have  ;  its  seeds,  too,  are 
often  given  to  poultry  and  pigeons.  "  This  is  a  certaine 
knowne  pulse  to  doves  wherewith  they  are  much  delighted, 


76  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

and  although  they  be  wild,  yet  where  the  dove-houses  are 
served  herewith  they  also  will  resort  and  become  tame  with 
the  rest,  and  therefore  some  conn  trey  people  knowing  it  sow 
some  fields  therewith  to  serve  to  that  use."  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  commended  by  the  ancients  either  as  a 
meat  or  a  medicine  for  mankind — "  they  yeeld  a 
thicke  clammy  nourishment  and  hard  of  digestion/' — and 
instead  of  curing,  as  most  things  do,  almost  every  evil 
under  the  sun,  the  medieval  physicians  are  content  to 
commend  it  merely  for  use  as  "  a  pultis." 

When  grown  as  a  field-crop  the  plant  has  a  decidedly 
rich  and  luscious  appearance,  and  we  can  readily  enter  into 
the  feelings  of  a  cow  who  has  a  reputation  to  keep  up  with 
the  dairy-maid  when  she  turns  from  even  the  fragrant  but 
decidedly  dry-looking  hay  to  the  manger  full  of  the  cool 
and  succulent-looking  vetches. 


\ 


DEWBEEEY. 

Rubus   casing.     Nat.  Ord.,  Rosacece. 

UR  great  botanical  authorities 
are  hopelessly  at  variance  as 
to  what  is  a  blackberry  and 
what  is  not,  and  while  some 
will  tell  us  that  there  is 
but  one  species,  others  go  so 
far  as  to  say  that  there  are 
thirty-six.  It  is  a  plant 
that  varies  considerably,  and 
this  variation  of  the  parts  has 
led  to  an  excessive  multipli- 
cation of  supposed  species; 
and  as  scarcely  two  writers 
agree  as  to  what  should  be 
legitimately  counted  a  spe- 
cific variation  of  structure, 
and  what  should  not,  the 
whole  subject  has  got  into 
a  very  chaotic  state.  The 
dewberry  has  a  close  affinity 

to  the  blackberry,  and  some  of  the  varieties  of  each  are 
found  to  closely  approach  each  other ;  but  one  ordinarily 
finds  no  difficulty  in  identifying  it.  The  stem  of  the 
dewberry  is  covered  with  a  greyish  bloom,  and  is  much 
more  slender  and  weak  than  that  of  the  blackberry,  and 


80  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWEliS. 

hard  seed,  and  a  juyce  of  the  colour  of  claret  wine, 
contrarie  to  the  common  bramble,  whose  berries  being- 
ripe  are  of  a  shining  blacke  colour,  and  euery  berry  con- 
taines  usually  aboue  forty  graines  closely  compacted  and 
thrust  together/' 

Several  other  species  of  Rubns  ai-e  found  in  Britain, 
and  are  more  or  less  common,  the  R.  idteus,  or  raspberry, 
being  one  of  the  most  abundant.  The  fruit  is  small,  but 
fully  equal  in  flavour  to  that  of  the  garden  raspberry,  and 
makes  even  superior  preserve.  The  cloud-berry,  R.  chama- 
morus,  is  found  in  profusion  in  Scotland,  but  extends  no 
farther  south  than  Derbyshire.  The  fruit  is  large,  and  of 
a  rich  orange  colour,  giving  a  very  welcome  refreshment  to 
the  mountain-climber.  The  stone  bramble,  R.  saxatilis,  is 
another  northern  species.  The  flowers  of  all  these  three 
kinds  are  white,  the  first  and  third  being  small  and  incon- 
spicuous, while  the  blossoms  of  the  cloudberry  are  as  large 
in  size  and  as  pure  in  colour  as  those  of  the  wood  anemone. 


THE  HENBIT.   .•;,: 

Lamium  amplexicaule.    Nat.  Ord., 
Lablatce. 

E  find  in  Britain  some  three 
or  four  species  of  Lamium.  It 
is  necessary  to  put  matters  in 
this  somewhat  vague  way,  for 
some  botanists  recognise  as  spe- 
cies what  others  are  content  to 
deem  mere  varieties.  Thus  one 
botanist,  after  describing  our 
species,  adds,  "  very  difficult  to 
be  distinguished  by  characters 
either  from  the  last  or  the  next 
species,  and  perhaps  the  three 
might  be  judiciously  combined." 
Those,  however,  of  which  there 
can  be  no  doubt  are  the  Is. 
album  or  white  dead-nettle,  the 
L.  purjjitreum  or  red  dead-nettle, 
and  the  present  species.  To  these  may  be  added  the  yellow 
dead-nettle  or  weasel-snout,  classed  by  some  botanists  in  a 
genus  of  its  own,  Galeobdolon,  on  account  of  certain  modifi- 
cations of  structure,  but  retained  by  others  in  the  same  genus 
with  the  rest  we  have  named.  All  these,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Henbit,  are  often  popularly  called  archangels,  and 

our  series  includes  illustrations  of  all  four  of  them.     While 
91 


82  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

the  other  three  species  are  more  especially  plants  of  the 
spring  the  Henbit  may  be  found  in  flower  throughout  the 
whole  season.  We  find  in  our  rough  floral  notes,  made 
from  time  to  time,  the  following  entry  respecting  our 
present  plant: — " Found  well  in  flower  on  Oct.  15th,  in  a 
field  of  swedes,  together  with  the  charlock  and  Shepherd's- 
needle,  the  three  all  well  out,  and  abundant  all  over  the 
field." 

Our  remarks  as  to  the  spring  character  of  the  red 
and  white  dead-nettles  must  be  taken  with  a  certain 
limitation ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  perhaps  scarcely  a 
month  in  the  year  when  examples  of  each  could  not  be 
met  with,  but  it  is  in  an  especial  degree  in  the  spring  that 
we  find  the  hedge-banks  whitened  over  or  suffused  with  a 
dull  purple  glow  from  the  abundance  of  their  flowers.  The 
Henbit,  though  a  common-enough  plant,  is  never  so 
abundant,  never  found  in  such  aggregated  masses,  as  the 
others ;  nor  does  it  seem  to  have  so  distinctly  a  time  when 
it  is  at  its  best,  but  at  any  time  from  April  to  October  it 
may  be  ordinarily  met  with  on  waste  land,  amidst  field- 
crops,  and  in  gardens.  It  is  an  annual. 

The  Henbit  attains  to  a  height  of  from  nine  inches 
to  a  foot,  nearly  upright  in  general  direction,  yet  branch- 
ing freely.  These  branches  are  thrown  out  in  pairs, 
and  spring  from  near  the  ground;  they  are  square  in 
section,  as  in  the  other  dead-nettles.  All  the  leaves  spring 
in  pairs  from  the  stems,  the  lower  ones  being  on  stems  and 
of  a  rounded  heart-shaped  figure,  and  deeply  cut  in  outline ; 
the  upper  leaves  are  of  very  similar  character,  but  stalkless, 
and  closely  surrounding  the  stem — a  fact  that  is  brought 
out  in  the  specific  name  amplexicaule,  a  Latin  word  derived 
f  i  om  two  others  and  signifying  stem-embracing.  The  flowers 


THE    HENBIT.  83 

grow  in  rings  at  the  tops  of  the  stalks,  and  are  of  very  vari- 
ous sizes,  some  being  but  little  larger  than  the  calyx  from 
which  they  spring,  while  others  are  three  or  four  times  its 
length,  of  a  bright  rosy-red,  and  more  slender  and  delicate 
than  those  of  the  red  dead-nettle.  We  notice  that  one  old 
writer  speaks  of  them  as  "  small-hooded  gaping  blew 
flowers/'  but  we  have  already  had  frequent  occasion  to  notice 
in  the  old  herbals  that,  though  their  authors  could  often 
most  pithily  describe  the  leading  features  of  the  growth  of 
a  plant  in  a  very  few  words,  they  are  often  by  no  means 
to  be  relied  on  when  it  becomes  a  question  of  tint. 

The  name  Henbit,  according  to  Prior  in  his  altogether 
admirable  book,  "  The  Popular  Names  of  British  Plants," 
was  bestowed  on  it  from  some  fancied  nibbling  of  its  leaves 
by  poultry,  and  we  find  the  same  idea  conveyed  in  the  name 
bestowed  on  it  by  the  Germans,  Flemings,  and  others, 
and  in  the  Old-Latin  name  for  the  plant,  Morsns-gallina, 
The  generic  name  Laminm  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word 
for  throat,  and  refers  to  the  long  tubular  corollas  of  this 
and  the  allied  plants ;  by  some  of  the  earlier  botanists  it 
was  called  Alsine.  We  find  it  under  this  name,  for  instance, 
in  the  herbals  of  Gerarde  and  Parkinson.  The  word  signifies 
growing  in  groves,  and  has  been  bestowed  upon  several 
very  different  plants,  though  perhaps  on  none  less  appro- 
priately than  on  the  Henbit.  These  early  writers,  too, 
associated  the  plant,  for  some  extraordinary  reason,  with  the 
chickweed,  though  there  may  possibly  be  some  association 
or  line  of  ideas  now  lost  to  us  that  in  some  way  unites 
the  plant  bitten  of  hens  and  the  weed  of  the  chicks. 
However  this  may  be,  the  plant  in  old  herbals  rejoices 
in  the  far-stretching  title  of  the  great  ground-ivy-leaved 
chickweed.  The  shape  of  the  leaves  and  their  growth 


84  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

in  pairs  is  distinctly  suggestive  of  the  ground-ivy,  a  plant 
we  have  figured  in  our  series,  but  which  is  in  no  way  related 
to  the  true  ivy  (Hedera  Helix) .  Nevertheless,  from  the 
resemblance  of  the  Henbit  to  the  one  plant,  it  has  somehow 
received  a  name  derived  from  the  other,  and  is  by  some  old 
writers  called  the  hederula. 

In  the  same  way  the  ivy-leaved  speedwell,  the  Veronica 
hederifolia  of  the  botanist,  was  by  some  of  the  old  writers 
called  the  lesser  Henbit,  thus  making  confusion  worse 
confounded.  The  real  Henbit  was  called  the  hederula,  a 
name  derived  from  the  true  ivy,  because  it  was  something 
like  a  plant  that  had  no  connection  with,  or  resemblance 
to  the  ivy,  while  another  plant,  one  of  the  speedwells,  that 
really  has  its  foliage  sufficiently  like  in  form  to  the  true 
ivy  to  justify  the  botanical  name,  hederifolia,  is  called  the 
lesser  Henbit,  though  it  has  no  relationship  whatever  with 
the  real  Henbit,  and  is  not  even  in  the  same  great  natural 
order.  The  whole  difficulty  arises  from  the  earnest  desire  the 
early  writers  seem  to  have  felt  to  find  resemblances,  and 
on  the  strength  of  these  to  ally  together  plants  of  the 
most  diverse  natures. 


'ID     SCORP'OfJ- GR/\SS 


FIELD  SCOEPION- 
GEASS. 

Myosotis  arvensis.     Nat.  Ord., 
Boraginacex. 

NT  one  who  is  familiar  with 
the  beautiful  forget-me-not 
of  our  streams  will  have 
little  difficulty  in  detecting 
a  family  likeness  between  it 
and  our  present  plant ;  both 
are  members  of  the  same 
genus,  Myosolis,  though  the 
former  is  undoubtedly  the 
more  attractive  of  the  two. 
We  have  in  Britain  some  six 
or  seven  species  of  scorpion - 
grass — some  of  them  of  con- 
siderable rarity,  and  others 
widely  distributed  and  com- 
monly to  be  met  with — and  of 
these  the  field  scorpion-grass, 
the  subject  of  our  present 

illustration,  is  the  most  abundant  of  all.  It  will  be  found 
on  hedge-banks,  the  edges  of  woods  and  copses,  and  perhaps 
more  especially  on  cultivated  ground,  its  bunches  of  greyish 
green  leaves  soon  making  their  appearance  on  any  part  of 
the  garden  or  field  that  has  escaped  the  hoe,  and  its  flowers 
being  displayed  during  June,  July,  and  August. 


86  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS, 

The  stem  is  weak,  often  somewhat  straggling,  and  a  foot 
or  so  in  length,  both  stems  and  leaves  being  a  good  deal 
clothed  with  soft  hairs.  The  calyx  is  acutely  five-cleft,  and 
shorter  than  the  pedicel  bearing  it.  The  flowers,  when  we 
compare  them  with  those  of  the  forget-me-not,  are  small  and 
insignificant-looking,  though  they  are  of  too  bright  and 
pure  a  blue  to  altogether  escape  our  notice.  The  corolla  is 
widely  displayed  and  all  in  one  piece,  but  cut  up  into  five 
broad,  rounded  lobes.  The  flowers  are  borne  on  long  leafless 
racemes.  These  flowering  stems  often  fork  off  into  pairs,  and 
at  their  terminations  roll  round  like  the  tail  of  a  scorpion, 
a  peculiarity  that  we  may  see  in  the  comfrey  and  some  few 
other  flowers,  and  which  has  procured  for  our  plant  its  most 
common  popular  name.  It  is  sometimes  also  called  the 
field  forget-me-not. 

The  name  Myosotis  signifies  mouse-ear,  a  name  be- 
stowed on  the  genus  from  the  shape  and  hairiness  of 
the  leaves,  and  originally  applied  by  the  old  Greek 
writer  Dioscorides.  The  slight  resemblance  of  the 
curled-up  buds  to  the  tail  of  a  scorpion  was  naturally 
held  as  an  indication  that  the  plant  possessed  potent  powers 
against  the  evil  powers  of  the  scorpion  and  against  snakes 
and  other  such  like  venomous  creatures.  We  have  already 
referred  to  the  extraordinary  dread  that  scorpions  seem 
to  have  inspired  in  mediaeval  times,  though  England  can 
never  have  had  any  practical  experience  of  them  in  the 
living  state,  or  even  when  dead.  Possibly  the  fear  of  them 
was  a  tradition  handed  down  from  the  days  of  the  Crusades. 
Gerarde  we  see  gives  six  herbal  remedies  against  the  sting- 
ing of  bees  and  wasps,  and  one  against  the  stinging  of 
nettles,  while  against  the  far  more  remote  danger  of  the 
sting  of  the  scorpion,  his  readers  are  fore-armed  with 


FIELD    SCORPION-GRASS.  87 

seventeen  distinct  remedies.  These  plants  were  sometimes 
called  scorpoides  by  the  older  writers,  but  at  other  times 
this  name  was  limited  to  one  or  two  foreign  plants  with 
very  twisted  seeds,  and  our  English  plants  were  grouped 
with  them  in  the  old  herbals,  yet  separated  by  the  title  of 
false  bastard  scorpoides.  After  describing  these  foreign 
plants,  DodonaBus,  for  example,  goes  on  to  speak  of  the 
forget-me-not  and  the  present  plant,  making  the  one 
masculine  and  the  other  feminine.  "There  is  yet  two 
other  small  herbs  which  some  do  also  name  scorpion-grass 
or  scorpion-wort,  although  they  be  not  the  right.  The 
one  of  them  is  called  male  scorpion,  and  the  other  female 
scorpion.  The  male  bastard  scorpoides  groweth  about  the 
length  of  a  man's  hand,  or  to  the  length  of  a  foote,  his  stalks 
are  crookedly  turning  oboue  at  the  top,  whereon  the  knops, 
buds,  and  floures  do  stand,  euen  like  to  a  scorpion's  taile ; 
the  leaues  be  long,  narrow,  and  small.  The  floures  be 
faire  and  pleasant,  being  of  fine  little  leaues  set  one  by 
another,  of  azure  colour  with  a  little  yellow  in  the  middle. 
The  female  bastard  scorpoides  is  very  much  like  to  the 
male,  sailing  that  his  stalks  and  leaves  be  rough  and  hairie 
and  his  floueres  smaller.  The  tops  of  the  stalkes  be  likewise 
crooked,  euen  as  the  tops  of  the  male.  The  male  bastard 
scorpoides  groweth  in  medowes,  alongst  by  running 
streames  and  water  courses  ;  and  the  neerer  it  groweth  to 
the  water  the  greater  it  is  and  the  higher,  so  that  the 
leaues  do  sometimes  grow  to  the  quantitie  of  willow  leaues. 
The  female  bastard  scorpoides  groweth  in  the  borders  of 
fields  and  gardens.  The  bastard  scorpoides  haue  none 
other  knowen  name,  but  some  do  count  them  to  be  scorpion 
herbs." 

Besides  the  forget-me-not,  a   plant  we  have  already 


88  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

described,  and  the  present  species,  we  have  the  wood 
scorpion-grass,  the  early  field  scorpion-grass,  and  the 
changeable  scorpion -grass.  The  first  of  these,  the  M. 
sylvatica,  is  found  in  woods  and  shady  places  on  the 
mountains.  It  is  not  under  any  circumstances  a  common 
plant,  but  appears  to  be  more  especially  met  with  in 
Scotland  and  the  north  of  England,  though  such  southern 
localities  as  Essex  and  Kent  are  mentioned  in  the  Floras 
Its  flowers  are  bright  blue,  and  very  large  and  handsome 
looking.  The  early  field  scorpion-grass,  or  M.  collina,  is  a 
small  annual  that  may  sometimes  be  found  in  dry  open 
expanses,  on  the  tops  of  walls,  and  other  dry  places. 
Its  small  but  brilliantly  blue  flowers  expand  in  April  and 
May.  The  changeable  scorpion-grass,  or  M.  versicolor,  may 
be  very  commonly  found  on  banks,  in  meadows,  by  road- 
sides, and  in  fact  almost  anywhere :  it  derives  its  name  from 
the  fact  that  its  corollas  are  at  first  pale  yellow,  and  gradu- 
ally change  to  blue,  until  they  become  a  quite  deep  cerulean 
tint  prior  to  their  decay.  The  plants  should  be  looked  for 
in  April,  May,  and  June.  Sylvatica  signifies  that  which 
pertains  to  the  sylvan  shades ;  collina  refers  to  the  dry  hill- 
side; while  versicolor  alludes  to  the  varied  and  changing 
tints  seen  in  the  blossoms  of  the  species  so-called. 


r 


4^        ' 


BUTTERFLY  ORCHIS. 

Habenaria  bifolin.     Nat.  Ord., 
OreJtidaceee. 

OME  of  the  species  of  orchis,  as 
for  example  the  bee  orchis, 
mimic  so  admirably  the  natural 
forms  from  which  they  derive 
their  popular  names,  that  there 
has  been  a  great  temptation 
to  carry  this  fanciful  nomen- 
clature farther  than  facts  alto- 
gether warrant.  Of  this  the 
present  species  may  be  taken, 
we  think,  as  a  fair  illustration, 
for  quaint  as  the  flowers  are, 
it  is  in  the  last  degree  improb- 
able that  they  would  have  sug- 
gested to  any  one  the  idea  of 
a  butterfly,  had  we  not  already 
had  other  species  named  after 
the  monkey,  the  lizard,  the  spider,  the  bee,  the  fly,  and 
even  man  himself. 

The  butterfly  orchis  should  be  sought  for  in  moist 
woods  and  copses;  it  may  also  at  times  be  found  on  meadow 
land,  but  then  it  is  often  so  dwarfed  that  it  is  scarcely 
recognisable  as  identical  with  the  plant  growing  in  more 
favourable  conditions.  It  is  generally  distributed  over 
92 


90  FAMILIAR    WILD   FLOWERS. 

Britain,  though  in  some  localities  it  is  unknown,  and  where 
found  at  all  is  found  in  abundance,  its  pale  clustering  mass 
of  flowers  rendering  it  very  easily  visible  in  the  woodland 
shade.  This  pale  tint  of  its  blossoms  is  one  ready  means 
of  identification,  and  the  extreme  length  of  its  spur  is 
another  marked  characteristic.  This  feature  is  readily  notice- 
able in  our  illustration,  though  another  equally  well-marked 
point,  the  delicious  fragrance  of  its  flowers,  is  a  quality 
altogether  too  subtle  for  reproduction  ;  this  odour  is  more 
especially  noticeable  in  the  early  morning  and  evening.  The 
structure  of  the  blossoms,  too,  is  very  curious,  though  we 
could  scarcely  hope  to  satisfactorily  indicate  it  without 
the  use  of  diagrams  and  technicalities.  The  species  is  not 
so  difficult  of  culture  as  several  of  the  others ;  and  those 
who  will  be  at  the  trouble  of  carefully  removing  it  may 
hope  to  derive  enjoyment  from  its  quaint  beauty  each 
recurring  spring,  when  possibly  they  may  not  have  any 
opportunity  of  seeing  it  growing  as  a  wildling  in  its  forest 
home. 

There  was  once  a  time,  ere  London  had  become  a  pro- 
vince of  brick  and  mortar,  when  the  citizens  had  little  or  no 
need  to  transport  the  butterfly  orchis  to  their  urban  gar- 
dens. We  find  it  mentioned,  as  one  of  the  plants  of  the 
metropolitan  district,  in  the  "Flora  Londinensis"  of  Curtis; 
and  on  turning  to  old  Gerarde,  an  author  who  always  gives 
London  localities  if  possible,  we  find  that  he  writes  as  fol- 
lows concerning  our  plant :  "  That  kinde  which  resembleth 
the  white  Butterfly,  groweth  upon  the  declining  of  the  hill 
at  the  north  end  of  Hampsted  heath,  neere  unto  a  small 
cottage  there  in  the  way  side,  as  yee  go  from  London  to 
Hendon,  a  village  thereby.  It  groweth  in  the  fields 
adjoyning  to  the  pond  or  pinnefold  without  the  gate,  at 


BUTTERFLY    ORCHIS.  91 

the  Village  called  High-gate  neere  London,  and  likewise  in 
the  wood  belonging  to  a  Worshipfull  Gentleman  of  Kent, 
named  Master  Sid  ley,  of  South-fleet."  Gerarde  goes  on 
to  say  that  "  there  is  no  great  use  of  these  in  physicke, 
but  they  are  chiefly  regarded  for  the  pleasant  and  beautif ull 
floures  wherewith  Nature  hath  seemed  to  play  and  dis- 
port herself e." 

The  tubers  of  the  root  of  the  butterfly  orchis  are  two 
in  number,  somewhat  large,  and  terminating  below  in 
long  points.  "  To  describe,"  says  an  old  author,  "all  the 
several  sorts  of  orchis  would  be  an  endless  piece  of  work ; 
therefore,  I  shall  only  describe  the  roots,  which  are  to  be 
used  with  some  discretion.  They  have  each  of  them  a 
double  root;  within,  some  of  them  are  round,  in  others 
like  a  hand  :  these  alter  every  year  by  course;  when  the 
one  riseth  and  waxeth  full,  the  other  waxeth  lank  and 
perisheth.  Now  it  is  that  which  is  full  which  is  to  be 
used  in  medicines,  the  other  being  either  of  no  use,  or 
else,  according  to  the  humours  of  some,  it  destroys  and 
disannuls  the  virtue  of  the  other,  quite  undoing  what 
that  doth." 

The  stalk  is  a  foot  or  more  in  height,  having  small 
scaly  leaves  at  intervals  upon  it,  smooth  to  the  touch, 
but  prominently  ribbed.  The  large  radical  leaves  are 
ordinarily  two  in  number — hence  the  specific  name  bifolia — 
but  we  may  at  times  find  three.  These  are  a  rich  green 
in  colour,  and  broadly  oval  in  form,  the  veinings  upon 
them  being  distinctly  seen.  The  flower-cluster  is  often 
six  or  eight  inches  long,  the  flowers  themselves  being 
either  pure  white  or  slightly  tinged  with  green  or  cream- 
colour.  The  blossoms  may  be  looked  for  early  in  June, 
and  they  continue  well  into  August.  The  plant  varies  a 


92  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

good  deal  in  size  and  form,  and  some  of  these  extreme 
variations  have  by  some  botanists  been  considered  of 
sufficient  importance  to  give  specific  rank;  but  the  new 
species  thus  formed,  Habenaria  c/rloruntha,,  is  by  no  means 
generally  accepted. 

Though  in  ordinary  parlance  the  plant  takes  rank  as  an 
orchis,  it  will  be  noted  on  inspection  of  its  botanical  name, 
that  the  men  of  science  have  placed  it  in  another  genus. 
As  this  transfer  from  the  genus  Orchis  arises  chiefly  from  a 
different  structure  of  the  anthers,  and  deals  with  technical 
details  of  structure  which  would  be  scarcely  appreciated  by 
non-botanists,  we  may  for  all  practical  purposes  consider  it 
an  orchis.  Habena  signifies  a  thong  or  strap ;  the  name 
was  bestowed  upon  the  genus  from  the  long  and  strap-like 
form  of  the  lower  part  or  lip  of  the  flower. 


^r 


WOOD  LOOSESTKIFE. 

Lysimachia  iwmorum.     Nat.  Ord., 
Primulacea. 

E  have  111  Britain  four  species 
of  yellow  loosestrife,  and  we 
have  now,  including  the  present 
illustration,  had  the  pleasure 
of  introducing  our  readers  to 
three  of  them.  All  these 
belong  to  the  same  genus, 
Lysimachia,  and  in  addition 
to  these  there  is  another  plant 
of  a  quite  different  genus, 
the  purple  loosestrife  or  Ly th- 
rum Salicaria,  of  which  also 
we  have  furnished  an  illus- 
tration. Of  the  yellow  loose- 
strifes, the  plants  already 
figured  have  been  the  L. 
vulgaris,  or  great  yellow 
loosestrife,  so  conspicuous  an 
adornment  of  our  river-sides,  as  it  throws  up  its 
stem  some  three  feet  high,  and  bears  on  its  summit 
its  clustering  golden  flowers;  and  the  L.  nummnlaria, 
the  creeping  loosestrife,  money-wort,  herb-twopence,  or 
creeping-Jenny  (for  it  is  a  general  favourite,  and  has  many 
popular  names),  which  sends  its  long  lines  of  conspicuous 


94  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

yellow  blossoms  and  glossy  verdant  leaves  creeping  amidst 
the  herbage  of  the  hedgerow.  The  only  species  we  have 
not  figured  is  the  L.  thyrsifolia  or  tufted  loosestrife. 
In  this  the  stems  are  some  two  feet  high,  the  leaves  are 
numerous  and  lanceolate,  and  the  small  yellow  flowers 
spring  in  dense  bunches  from  the  axils  of  the  leaves. 
It  is  found  in  wet  marshy  ground,  or  by  the  sides  of 
streams,  but  is  very  rarely  met  with  in  England,  and  chiefly 
in  the  northern  counties  when  found  at  all,  though  it 
occurs  somewhat  more  frequently  in  Scotland. 

The  wood  loosestrife,  the  subject  of  our  present  illus- 
tration, is  one  of  the  smaller  species,  its  slender  stems 
being  rarely  a  foot  in  length.  It  should  be  looked  for  in 
woods  and  shady  copses,  from  the  end  of  May  to  the 
beginning  of  September,  and  it  seems  to  thrive  more 
especially  where  there  is  a  considerable  amount  of  moisture 
in  the  soil.  All  lovers  of  woodland  scenery  will  be  aware 
that  beneath  trees  the  ground  is  often  decidedly  soft,  and 
when  we  come  to  a  place  where  we  more  especially  hesitate 
whether  to  go  on  or  to  turn  back,  we  may  expect  to  find 
the  wood  loosestrife  not  far  off. 

The  meaning  of  the  generic  title  LysimacJiia  we  have 
already  referred  to  in  our  comments  on  a  preceding  species 
in  the  genus;  the  specific  name  is  Latin  in  its  origin,  and 
means  that  which  pertains  to  woods  or  groves.  We  re- 
cognise it  again  in  the  botanical  name  of  the  wood 
anemone — Anemone  nemoro.m — and  some  few  others.  A 
good  many  other  plants  have  the  terms  si/lvestris  or 
it/lvatlca  applied  to  them,  but  these  would  appear  to  be 
distinctions  without  any  real  difference,  as  the  sylvan 
shades  are  equally  those  of  the  woodland  or  the  grove. 
The  houndVtongue,  Cynoglossum  sylcaticitm,  and  the  wood 


WOOD    LOOSESTRIFE.  95 

scorpion-grass,  Myosotls  si/lcatica,  are  neither  more  nor 
less  plants  of  the  forest  than  the  wood  loosestrife  itself. 

The  root  of  the  present  loosestrife  is  perennial,  and 
composed  of  numerous  long  whitish  fibres.  From  this 
spring  several  slender  spreading  stalks,  weak  and  pros- 
trate in  character,  often  rooting  near  their  bases,  and 
generally  bright  red  in  colour;  the  leaves  grow  in 
pairs,  on  short  foot-stalks,  and  are  of  a  broadly 
oval  form,  but  pointed  at  their  extremities.  They  are 
glossy  011  both  the  upper  and  under  surfaces,  somewhat 
prominently  veined,  and  have  their  margins  waved.  In  our 
illustration  it  will  be  seen  that  in  one  case  the  leaf  stands 
alone,  and  so  far  seems  to  dispute  our  assertion  that  the 
leaves  always  grow  in  pail's,  but  it  will  also  be  seen  that 
the  foot-stalk  of  the  second  leaf  is  visible,  and  that  it  is 
only  some  accidental  circumstance  that  has  deprived  the 
plant  of  that  particular  leaf.  The  botanist  desires  to  see 
the  absolute  facts  of  plant  structure,  and  runs  some  little 
risk  of  making  his  drawings  too  suggestive  of  diagrams, 
while  the  artist  often  too  little  regards  these  facts,  and 
draws  the  object  as  he  thinks  he  sees  it,  trusting  to  the 
artistic  eye  and  accuracy  of  perception  to  supply  all  that 
is  needed.  Our  aim  has  been  in  all  our  drawings  to  try 
and  combine  these  two  things — the  absolute  facts  of  the 
case  and  those  picturesque  accidentals  that  tell  somewhat 
of  the  history  and  vicissitudes  of  the  particular  plants. 

The  flowers  of  the  wood  loosestrife  have  a  deeply 
five-cleft  corolla,  broadly  displayed  and  a  brilliant  yellow 
in  colour.  Each  flower  is  supported  on  a  long  and  slender 
stalk,  rising  from  the  axils  of  the  leaves.  The  five  long 
and  narrow  segments  of  the  calyx  may  be  seen  in  the 
flower  that  turns  its  back  on  us.  The  globular  capsule 


96  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

that  succeeds  the  blossom  has  a  way  of  twisting-  round  on 
its.  stalk  in  the  same  manner  as  the  pimpernel  does, 
and  on  this  account  and  from  general  similarity  to  that 
flower  the  old  authors  often  called  the  wood  loosestrife  the 
yellow  pimpernel.  A  drawing  of  the  pimpernel  will  be 
found  at  page  53  in  our  second  volume,  so  that  a  com- 
parison of  the  two  plants  may  be  readily  made. 


YELLOW  KOCKET. 

Barbarea  vulgaris.     Nat.  Ord. 
Crucifcrae. 

HE  yellow  rocket  may  com- 
monly be  met  with  in  fields, 
and  on  waste  lands  by  the  road- 
sides; the  specific  name  vul- 
garis  is  a  sufficient  testimony 
to  this  fact.  It  may  be 
found  in  flower  from  May  to 
August.  Its  general  growth 
is  stiff  and  erect,  the  stout 
and  branching  stem  attain- 
ing to  a  height  of  some 
eighteen  inches  or  two  feet. 
The  leaves  vary  in  cha- 
racter according  to  their 
position  on  the  plant.  "  It 
hath  many  greene,  broad, 
smoothe,  and  flat  leaves,  like 
iinto  those  of  the  common 
turneps."  Both  upper  and 
lower  leaves  are  clearly  shown 
in  our  illustration  :  the  upper  leaves,  it  will  be  seen,  are  cut 
into  numerous  deep  depressions  so  as  to  form  a  leaf  of 
several  rounded  lobes,  while  the  lower  leaves  are  con- 
siderably larger  and  consist  of  a  large  terminal  lobe,  and 
93 


98  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

at  intervals  down  the  stem  some  few  others  of  much 
smaller  and  narrower  form.  The  flowers  are  individually 
rather  small,  but  as  they  are  very  numerous,  and  of  a  clear 
bright  yellow  colour,  they  become  sufficiently  noticeable  in 
the  mass.  They  are  of  the  well-known  and  characteristic 
cruciferous  or  cross-bearing  type.  The  pods  that  succeed 
the  blossoms  ai'e  a  very  conspicuous  feature,  as  they  are 
often  much  longer  than  those  we  figure.  Our  plant,  as  we 
see  by  the  clustering  buds  and  small  size  of  the  pods,  is 
yet  in  a  comparatively  early  stage  of  the  flowering  state. 
As  the  upper  buds  one  by  one  expand  into  blossoms  the 
stem  elongates,  and  the  lower  pods  develop  until  they  are 
some  two  inches  long  or  even  more.  The  pod  is  quad- 
rangular, and  contains  a  single  row  of  seeds.  It  must 
always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  mathematician  and  the 
botanist  use  similar  terms  sometimes,  but  with  a  different 
significance.  Many  leaves,  for  example,  are  botanically 
termed  oblong,  though  their  outline  would  not  by  any 
means  satisfy  the  definitions  of  geometry;  and  in  the 
same  way,  when  we  speak  of  the  pod  being  quadrangular 
we  do  not  imply  that  the  form  is  as  rigidly  four-angled 
as  a  section  through  the  leg  of  a  kitchen  table.  The 
plant  varies  somewhat  at  times  in  the  form  of  the  leaves, 
some  being  much  more  markedly  lobed  and  cut  than  others  ; 
and  in  some  examples  the  flowers  or  pods  are  larger  than 
in  others.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  convert  these 
variations  into  type-forms  as  the  basis  for  new  species,  but 
for  this  there  would  seem  to  be  little  or  no  justification. 

The  yellow  rocket  is  also  called  the  herb  St.  Barbara,  the 
bitter  winter  cress,  and  the  land-cress.  The  first  of  these 
names  arose  from  the  mediaeval  association  of  plants  with 
saints;  examples  of  such  dedication  are  not  uncommon, 


YELLOW   ROCKET.  S9 

we  need  here  only  refer  to  St.  Anthony 's  nut,  St.  Barnaby's 
thistle,  herb  Bennet,  herb  Christopher,  and  St.  John's  wort. 
The  yellow  rocket  was  at  one  time  cultivated  as  an  early 
salad,  and  it  was  probably  placed  under  the  patronage 
of  this  special  saint  from  its  being  sown  about  the 
16th  of  December,  the  day  consecrated  to  her.  To  St. 
Barbara  wasassigned,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  somewhat 
unsaintly  and  unwomanly  function  of  presiding  over  the 
safety  of  arsenals  and  powder  magazines.  At  first  sight 
one  is  at  a  loss  to  account  for  such  an  association,  but 
the  legend  attached  to  her  name  gives  us  the  needful  clue 
to  the  mystery.  It  appears  that  on  her  profession  of 
Christianity  her  father  denounced  her  to  the  authorities, 
and  after  she  had  been  subjected  in  vain  to  torture,  the 
task  of  her  decapitation  was  assigned  to  him,  but  when 
he  was  about  to  strike  the  fatal  blow  a  flash  of  lightning 
laid  him  dead  at  her  feet.  Hence  she  was  invoked  in 
thunderstorms  by  the  timid,  and  her  protection  would 
naturally  be  claimed  by  those  who  had  charge  of  warlike 
stores  and  realised  the  disturbing  influence  the  artillery  of 
heaven  might  exercise  on  their  stores  of  powder. 

The  name  bitter  winter  cress  was  bestowed  on  the  plant 
because,  as  we  have  already  indicated,  it  was  cultivated  as  a 
salad-plant.  One  great  recommendation  it  possessed  was  that 
it  was  available  at  a  time  when  other  plants  were  not  pro- 
curable, as  its  leaves  continue  green  all  the  winter  long.  If 
the  outer  leaves  are  picked  as  tbe  plant  grows  up,  and  the 
flowering-stems  cut  off  and  kept  down,  a  plentiful  supply 
of  leaves  may  be  obtained  from  it  throughout  the  winter 
and  spring  months.  The  plant  is  very  rarely  destroyed 
by  frost,  and  we  may  see  its  glossy  leaves  on  the  hedge- 
banks  even  in  the  midst  of  winter  :  they  have  a  slight!}' 


100  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

bitter  and  pungent  taste,  that  commends  them  as  an 
ingredient  in  a  salad.  People  nowadays  no  longer 
avail  themselves  of  much  which  afforded  welcome  sus- 
tenance to  their  forefathers,  and  many  of  the  plants 
contemptuously  passed  by,  or  burnt  as  useless  cumberers  of 
the  ground,  would  furnish  wholesome  food  were  it 
not  for  the  combined  ignorance  and  prejudice  that  prevent 
their  use.  We  could  imagine  no  book  much  more  useful 
than  one  giving  simple  illustrations  of  such  plants  and 
hints  as  to  the  best  way  of  utilising  them ;  but  as  no  one 
would  buy  it,  we  need  pursue  the  idea  no  farther. 

The  name  land-cress  is  evidently  bestowed  on  the  plant 
as  a  means  of  distinguishing  it  from  the  water-cress.  Some 
species  of  water-cress  have  yellow  flowers,  and  strongly 
resemble  our  present  plant,  but  the  form  of  the  pods  will 
suffice  in  any  case  to  distinguish  them.  Our  ancestors 
believed  that  the  seed  of  the  rocket  would  cure  the  bites 
of  the  serpent,  the  scorpion,  and  the  shrew-mouse.  Per- 
haps it  would. 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

CITRUS  RESEARCH  CENTER  AND 
AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATI 
RIVERbluE.  CALIFORNIA 


GOOSE-GKASS. 

Galium  Aparine.    Nat.  Ord.,  Rubiacea. 

SCATTERED  as  it  is  in  almost 
every  neglected  garden,  on 
every  piece  of  waste  ground* 
or  rambling  over  every  hedge, 
we  may  be  tolerably  certain 
of  finding  the  plant  here 
figured.  Though  its  stems 
are  very  slender  and  feeble- 
looking,  they  have  great 
roughness  and  power  of  grip, 
and  by  this  means  sustain 
themselves  amongst  other 
herbage,  and  run  for  many 
feet  amongst  the  denizens  of 
the  hedgerow.  Stem  and 
eaves  alike  are  closely  covered 
with  numerous  small  hooks, 
and  both  these  and  the  fruits 
cling  with  tenacity  to  anything  with  which  they  come  in 
contact.  Any  one  who  has  brushed  along  the  hedgerows 
while  botanising  or  blackberrying  will  be  familiar  with 
the  look  of  the  numerous  fruits  of  the  goose-grass  that 
will  be  found  attached  to  the  dress;  the  old  Greeks, 
noticing  this,  ascribed  to  the  plant  a  peculiar  fondness 
for  mankind,  and  called  it  the  Philanthropon. 


102  FAMILIAR    WILL    FLOWERS. 

The  name  goose-grass  is  bestowed  upon  the  present 
species  because  geese  have  a  great  partiality  for  it,  though 
horses,  sheep,  and  cows  seem  equally  fond  of  it.  It  is  a 
plant  of  many  names;  one  frequently  hears  it  called  cleavers, 
or  clivers,  from  its  habit  of  cleaving  to  other  things  for 
support,  while  in  Scotland  it  is  often  known  as  grip-grass, 
a  name  that  as  clearly  as  the  others  carries  its  meaning  on 
its  face.  It  has,  of  course,  no  real  connection  with  the 
grasses,  but  our  forefathers  did  not  go  in  for  nice 
distinctions,  and  called  many  another  lowly  herb  a  grass 
on  no  better  grounds.  Another  old  popular  name  for  the 
plant  is  the  catch-weed ;  it  is  sometimes  called  the  tongue- 
bleed,  too :  any  one  who  will  endeavour  to  draw  a  small 
portion  of  the  plant  across  his  mouth  will  at  once  see  why. 
A  very  old  name,  Anglo-Saxon  in  its  origin,  is  the  harriff, 
a  word  compounded  of  two  others,  and  signifying  hedge- 
robber.  The  burdock,  another  plant  with  clinging  fruits, 
at  one  time  shared  this  name  with  it ;  the  name  arose,  of 
course,  in  each  case,  from  the  habit  the  plant  has  of  laying 
hold  on  any  passing  substance.  Other  names  are  goose- 
bill,  loveman,  and  scratch  weed. 

The  goose-grass  is  an  annual;  the  roots  are  long 
and  fibrous,  the  stems  quadrangular,  weak,  brittle,  and 
jointed,  having  the  hooks  to  which  we  have  already  referred 
placed  along  the  lines  of  the  four  angles,  freely  branch- 
ing, and  attaining  at  times  to  a  length  of  seven  or  eight 
feet.  The  lateral  branches  are  thrown  off  in  pairs.  The 
leaves  grow  in  rings,  varying  in  number  from  six  to  nine. 
We  had  the  curiosity  to  count  one  hundred  of  these  rings, 
and  found  that  thirteen  of  them  were  composed  of  six 
leaves,  thirty-eight  had  seven  leaves,  while  no  fewer  than 
forty-one  were  made  up  of  eight  leaves  each,  and  the 


GOOSE-GRASS.  103 

remaining  eight  alone  had  nine  leaves  in  the  ring.  The 
flowers  are  few  in  number  and  small  in  size,  a  cluster  of 
from  two  or  three  to  eight  or  nine  being  borne  on  a 
peduncle  springing  from  the  leaf-ring.  Each  little 
corolla  is  conspicuously  cross-like  in  form,  a  feature  seen 
equally  well  in  the  bedstraws,  plants  belonging  to  the 
same  genus,  and  one  of  which,  the  cross-wort,  we  have 
elsewhere  figured.  On  the  dying  away  of  the  flowers,  they 
are  succeeded  by  fruits  that  resemble  two  dry  and  globular 
berries  in  contact ;  the  form  may  be  readily  seen  in  our 
illustration.  The  bristly  character  of  the  fruit,  and  its 
consequent  attachment  to  the  clothing  of  animals  and 
man,  is  an  evident  provision  for  its  wide  dispersion  and 
propagation. 

The  goose-grass  forms  one  of  the  ingredients  for 
the  cooling  spring  drinks  in  such  favour  with  our  great 
grandmothers ;  the  expressed  juice  was  taken  internally  in 
cutaneous  eruptions;  and  the  herb,  when  crushed  and 
bruised,  was  applied  externally  as  a  soothing  poultice. 
Even  yet  the  services  of  the  plant  to  humanity  are  not 
exhausted,  for  we  are  told  that  the  roots  will  yield  a 
good  red  dye  ;  that  the  berries,  when  dried  and  slightly 
roasted  over  the  fire,  form  an  excellent  substitute  for  coffee, 
and  yield  a  very  colourable  and  palatable  imitation  of  it, 
while  the  whole  plant  gives  a  decoction  equal  to  tea.  The 
juice  taken  in  wine  was  supposed  to  be  a  remedy  for  the 
poison  of  the  adder  ;  and  it  was  also  added  to  broth  and 
pottage  "  to  keep  them  lean  and  lank  that  are  apt  to 
grow  fat."  It  was  drunk  twice  a  day,  too,  by  the  victims 
of  yellow  jaundice,  and  in  divers  other  ways  pressed  into 
rural  medical  practice. 

Besides  the  present  plant  and  the  cross-wort,  of  both 


104 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 


of  which  we  have  already  given  illustrations,  the  G.  vernm, 
or  Lady's  bedstraw,  is  another  very  common  and  attractive 
species.  Its  yellow  flowers  are  individually  small,  but, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Yellow  Rocket,  they  grow  in  such 
large  and  compact  masses  as  to  render  the  plant  a  con- 
spicuous ornament  of  the  dry  hedge-banks  it  especially 
delights  in. 


CHEEKY. 

.        Primus  Ct-rasm.     Nat.  Ord., 

E  have  already  depicted  one 
species  of  Primus,  the  black- 
thorn, or  sloe ;  the  only  other 
representatives  of  the  genus 
amongst  us  are  the  present 
plant  and  the  bird-cherry,  or 
P.  Pa  das.  The  cherry  is 
found  in  an  apparently  wild 
state  in  spots  far  remote  from 
cultivation,  as,  for  example, 
on  the  mountains  of  Scot- 
land, as  well  as  in  our  English 
lanes  and  fields.  While  some 
writers  dispute  whether  it  be 
truly  indigenous  with  us,  or 
merely  the  degenerate  descend- 
ant of  some  long-since-intro- 
duced variety,  we  can  at  all 
events  point  to  the  fact  that 
it  is  widely  disseminated  almost  everywhere.  We  owe 
the  introduction  of  the  garden  cherry  into  these  islands 
to  the  Romans,  and  while  it  is  possible  our  hedge 
cherry  may  be  but  a  degeneration  from  this,  it  is  at 
least  as  possible  that  while  we  have  indigenous  wild 
94 


106  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

apples  and  plums,  we  may  have  equally  indigenous  wild 
cherries. 

Pliny,  in  an  interesting  passage,  writes  as  follows  : — 
"  The  cherry  did  not  exist  in  Italy  until  the  victory  of 
L.  Lucullus  over  Mithridates,  in  the  year  of  the  city 
680.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  this  tree  from 
Pomtus,  and  now,  in  the  course  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years,  it  has  travelled  beyond  the  ocean,  and 
arrived  even  in  Britannia."  The  tree,  we  are  told,  was 
brought  from  a  place  called  Cerasus,  in  Pontus,  but 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  Romans  called  the  fruit  the 
cerasus  from  the  name  of  the  place,  or  whether  they 
so  called  the  place  from  the  abundance  of  the  cerasus 
there,  in  the  same  way  that  saffron  is  not  so  called  because 
it  was  cultivated  at  Saffron  Walden,  but  Saffron  Walden 
was  so  called  because  so  much  saffron  was  cultivated  in 
its  neighbourhood.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  Romans  called 
the  cherry  the  cerasus,  and  their  name  is  yet  preserved 
amongst  the  nations  they  subdued,  as  we  may  see  in  the 
French  cerise,  the  Spanish  cereza,  the  Portuguese  cereja,  the 
Italian  ciriegia,  and  the  English  cherry.  In  Chaucer  and 
other  old  English  writers  the  word  is  given  as  cherise. 

For  some  long  period  after  the  Roman  occupation  we 
find  no  reference  to  the  plant  or  fruit,  and  it  has  been 
supposed  by  some  writers  that  the  cultivation  of  the  tree 
was  lost  during  the  stormy  period  that  followed ;  we  hear 
nothing  of  it  during  Saxon,  Danish,  or  Norman  occupa- 
tion, but  from  a  passage  in  a  poem  by  Lydgate  (who 
was  born  about  1370),  we  find  that  the  hawkers  of  London 
were  then  exposing  cherries  for  sale  amongst  their  other 
wares. 

The   wild     cherry  may  be    found  in    flower    in    the 


CHERRY.  107 

woods  and  hedgerows  in  May,  at  which  time  it  is  too 
conspicuous  to  be  overlooked.  Its  flowers  are  large, 
pure  white,  and  very  numerous,  so  that  the  whole  shrub  or 
tree  is  a  mass  of  white,  and  may  be  seen  a  mile  away. 
The  leaves  are  large,  deeply  veined  and  serrated,  and  but 
few  in  number  during;  the  flowering-season.  The  blossoms 
are  borne  on  stems  about  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches 
long,  in  groups  of  some  three  or  four;  these  spring  in 
a  clustered  arrangement  from  the  little  groups  of  leafy 
scales  that  are  given  out  at  intervals  from  the  stems. 
The  petals  and  sepals  are  each  five  in  number,  and  on  the 
expansion  of  the  blossom  the  calyx  is  thrown  boldly  back 
on  the  stem,  in  much  the  same  way  that  we  see  it  in 
the  bulbous  crowfoot,  a  plant  we  have  elsewhere  figured. 
The  stamens  form  a  conspicuous  yellow  mass  in  the  centre  of 
the  flower.  The  fruit  is  globular  and  smooth,  and  though 
edible  by  birds  and  boys,  has  a  bitter  taste  that  makes  it 
very  inferior  to  the  cultivated  kinds.  The  gum  which 
exudes  from  the  wild  cherry  is  equal  to  gum  arabic,  and 
the  wood  is  hard  and  tough,  taking  a  good  polish  and 
having  a  grain  that  makes  it  sought  after  by  the  turner 
and  cabinet-maker.  Besides  the  ordinary  employment 
of  cherries  in  cookery  and  as  a  dessert  fruit,  they  are 
largely  used  on  the  Continent  for  distillation.  Kirschen- 
wasser  is  a  spirit  obtained  from  the  fruit  and  kernels,  and 
noyau,  ratafia,  and  maraschino  all  owe  more  or  less  of 
their  potency  and  flavour  to  the  same  fruit. 

The  Romans  are  known  to  have  cultivated  eight  kinds 
of  cherries,  while  Tusser,  in  his  delightfully  quaint  "  Five 
Hundred  Pointes  of  Good  Husbandrie,"  first  published  in 
1573,  mentions  only  "  cherries  black  and  red,"  together  with 
"damisens,  respis,  filbeards,  boollesse,"  and  several  other 


108  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

fruits.  Parkinson  refers  to  thirty-four  sorts,  and  in  these 
later  days  this  number  has  been  considerably  exceeded. 
Loudon  we  see,  in  his  "  Encyclopaedia  of  Gardening/' 
gives  a  list  of  thirty-six  sorts,  but  expressly  indicates 
that  he  could  have  made  the  list  longer,  and  that  he 
only  cared  to  set  down  the  best  kinds.  The  cherry 
delights  especially  in  a  dry  and  light  soil,  but  in  Kent, 
the  paradise  of  cherry-growers,  many  of  the  best  orchards 
are  on  a  deep  loam.  Birds,  and  especially  blackbirds, 
are  particularly  fond  of  cherries, .  and  as  they  rise 
at  very  early  hours,  long  before  any  one  else  is  about, 
they  manage  to  do  a  great  deal  of  mischief.  Scare- 
crows in  the  trees  soon  lose  their  terrors,  and  where 
the  trees  are  large  it  is  much  easier  to  suggest 
netting  them  over  than  to  accomplish  this  satisfac- 
torily. We  have  often  had  occasion  to  wish  that  the 
"  Small  Birds  Protection  Act "  could  be  somehow  supple- 
mented by  a  little  cross  legislation,  bearing  some  such 
title  as  the  "  Cherry  and  Currant  Protection  Act,"  as  it  is, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  aggravating,  to  watch  one's  fruit 
slowly  ripening,  and  then  much  more  rapidly  vanishing. 


WATEK   AVENS. 

Ovum  rirale.     Xat.  Orrf.,  Rosaeetc. 

N  a  previous  volume  we 
have  figured  one  species  of 
avens,  the  common  avens, 
or  Herb  Bennet,  the  Geum 
urbanum  of  botanical  nomen- 
clature ;  a  plant  abundantly  to 
be  met  with  almost  every- 
where in  the  hedgerows  and 
on  banks.  A  reference  to  our 
illustration  will  show  that 
though  in  foliage  the  common 
avens  is  very  similar  to  the 
water  aveus,  its  flowers  are 
entirely  different,  those  of  the 
one  forming  a  small  but 
widely-spreading  golden  star 
of  five  petals,  while  the  flowers 
of  the  other,  as  our  illustration 
shows, are  much  larger, of  bell- 
like  form  and  of  reddish  tint.  We  have  thus  dwelt  upon  the 
marked  differences  in  the  flowers  of  the  two  varieties — differ- 
ences that  can  be  still  more  readily  perceived  by  an  inspection 
and  comparison  of  our  illustrations,  because  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  when  the  two  species  are  found  in  the  same  neigh- 


110  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

bourhood,  we  frequently  find  hybrid  forms  partaking  of  the 
characters  of  both,  and  inclining  sometimes  towards  one  and 
sometimes  towards  the  other.  What  may  be  called  the 
typical  intermediate  form  was  at  one  time  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  an  independent  species,  under  the  title  of  Genm 
intermedium,  a  name  that  sufficiently  explains  itself;  but  as 
every  degree  of  hybridism  and  transition  from  the  two  ex- 
tremes may  be  met  with,  there  is  evidently  no  justification  in 
admitting  the  claim  of  any  particular  degree  of  change  to  an 
independent  existence.  We  have  ourselves  met  with  every 
stage  of  gradation  between  the  two  extreme  types. 

The  water  avens,  as  its  name  implies  sufficiently  clearly, 
is  a  lover  of  moist  situations,  so  that  we  find  it  ordinarily 
by  the  banks  of  rivers  and  canals  in  the  coarse  herbage  that 
fringes  their  margins,  or  in  ditches.  It  is  not,  however,  so 
exclusively  a  plant  of  the  low-lying  valleys  as  its  name  would 
perhaps,  lead  us  to  suppose  ;  the  specimen,  for  example,  from 
which  our  illustration  was  taken  was  growing  in  a  wood 
on  the  summit  of  a  considerable  eminence,  but  we  need 
scarcely  remind  any  one  who  has  had  any  experience  of  moun- 
tains, whether  in  Cumberland,  Wales,  or  Switzerland,  that 
marshy  and  swampy  ground  is  by  no  means  uncommon  on 
them,  and  it  is  in  such  situations  that  we  find  the  water  avens. 
It  is  altogether  a  northern  plant,  flourishing  most  freely  in 
the  northern  parts  of  Europe,  in  Canada,  and  Siberia,  and 
though  occasionally  found  in  southern  England,  it  is  very 
much  more  common  in  the  northern  counties  and  in 
Scotland. 

The  generic  name  geum  is  derived  from  the  Greek, 
and  signifies  yielding  an  agreeable  flavour  :  this  refers, 
however,  to  the  root  of  the  other  species  in  the  genus, 
the  G.  nrbannm ;  while  the  specific  name  is  based  on 


WATER  A  YENS.  Ill 

the  Latin  word  r Indus,  a  small  brook.  On  turning  to  Prior, 
to  see  what  he  could  tell  us  of  the  significance  of  the 
popular  name,  we  were  met  hy  the  following  very  un- 
satisfying statement: — "Avens,  in  Promptorium  Parvu- 
lorum  avence,  in  Topsell  and  Askam  avance,  Mediaeval 
Latin  avantia  or  a  vend,  in  Ortus  Sanitatis  anancia  : 
a  word  of  obscure  origin  and  quite  unintelligible  :  spelt 
also  anartia,  anantia,  arancia,  and  amancia."  Several  of 
these  authorities  for  the  spelling  are  decidedly  antique  ;  for 
example,  the  last  book  referred  to  was  brought  out  in  the 
year  1486,  so  that  we  must  conclude  that  all  clue  to  the 
original  meaning  of  the  word  is  lost  in  the  mists  of  far- 
reaching  antiquity. 

The  root-stock  of  the  water  avens  is  perennial,  the 
stems  are  erect,  about  a  foot  high,  scarcely  branching,  having 
only  a  few  leaves  upon  them,  and  those  of  a  very  simple 
character.  Most  of  the  leaves  spring  from  the  base  of  the 
plant,  and  have  one  large  terminal  lobe  and  a  few  small 
lateral  leaflets.  The  whole  plant  is  hairy.  The  flowers  are 
few  in  number,  often  drooping,  the  five  petals  forming 
together  a  compact  and  cup-like  corolla.  The  petals  are 
heart-shaped,  and  vary  in  colour  from  a  dull  orange  to  red  or 
purplish.  The  calyx  is  cleft  into  ten  segments,  five  being 
very  much  smaller  than  the  others  with  which  they 
alternate.  It  is  dull  reddish-purple  in  colour,  and  partakes 
of  the  same  compact  nature  as  the  corolla.  The  stamens 
are  of  the  usual  rosaceous  charactei',  an  indefinite  number 
of  them  clustering  together,  and  forming  with  their  anthers 
a  yellow  mass  in  the  centre  of  the  flower — using  the  term 
centre,  of  course,  in  its  artistic,  not  botanical,  sense,  for 
here,  as  elsewhere,  the  female  organs  occupy  the  actual 
centre,  and  the  stamens  surround  them. 


112  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

Though  the  common  avens  had  a  great  reputation 
in  ancient  and  mediaeval  times  as  a  medicinal  plant,  we 
fail  to  find  any  special  commendation  of  the  water  avens. 
It  is  either  passed  over  unnoticed,  or  we  are  merely  told 
that  its  properties  are  similar  to  those  of  the  common 
avens.  It  was,  however,  often  used  in  olden  times  to 
flavour  ale  and  other  beverages,  its  roots,  like  those  of  the 
commoner  species,  having  a  somewhat  aromatic  character, 
and  a  slight  astringency.  It  was  held  to  not  merely 
improve  the  flavour  of  the  home-brewed  ale,  but  also  to 
preserve  it  from  turning  sour. 

Our  modern  herbalists  collect  the  water  avens,  and  we 
learn  that  in  the  United  States  especially  it  has  a  popular 
reputation,  and  is  held  in  great  esteem  as  a  febrifuge  and 
tonic,  in  such  settlements  as  that  of  Eden  so  graphically 
described  by  Dickens. 


\ 


MAESH-THISTLE. 

CHICKS   palmtris.       Nut.    Onl., 
Compositcc. 

fN  our  series  we  have  already 
figured  several  species  of 
thistle,  the   lordly  spear- 
plume,  the  f  rag-rant  musk- 
thistle,    the   curious    and 
beautiful  milk-thistle,  and 
others,   and  even   in   our 
present   volume    will    be 
found  another  in  addition 
to   the  present   plant.     All 
are   common  plants,  and  as 
such   claim  a  place,   as    of 
right,   in  our   series.     Cul- 
peper,   we   see,    begins  and 
ends  his  description    of   the 
British  thistles  as  follows  : — 
"Of  these  there  are  many 
kind  growing"  here  in  Eng- 
land, which  are  so  well  known  that  they  need  no  descrip- 
tion/'     There    are   certain   manifest   advantages    to   the 
author  in  this  way  of  treating-  the  subject,  but  to  any  one 
in  search  of  information  the  treatment  appears  a  little  bold. 
Of  the  ash-tree,  for  example,  he  writes  : — "  This  is  so  well 
known  that  time  will  be  mis-spent  in  writing  a  description 
95 


114  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

of  it."  Of  the  barberry  again  he  writes  ; — "  The  shrub  is 
so  well  known  by  every  boy  and  girl  that  has  but  attained 
to  the  age  of  seven  years,  that  it  needs  no  description  ;  " 
while  of  the  cherry  he  says,  "  I  suppose  there  are  few  but 
know  this  tree  for  its  fruit's  sake,  and  therefore  I  shall 
spare  writing  a  description  thereof.  In  like  flippant 
manner  he  discourses  of  the  white  lily,  and  several  other 
plants. 

Like  all  other  plants,  the  Marsh-thistle  was  placed  by 
mediaeval  botanists  under  the  planetary  influences  :  "  Mars 
rules  it,  it  is  such  a  prickly  business."  Many  of  the 
older  writers  approached  the  study  of  plants  less  from  a 
botanical  than  a  medico-astrological  point  of  view,  and 
ascribed  Jovial,  Mercurial,  or  Saturnine  influences  to  the 
wayside  weeds.  In  one  of  these  old  books  the  writer 
divides  his  readers  into  two  classes :  the  vulgar,  and 
those  who  study  astrology,  and  thus  addresses  them  : — 
"  To  the  vulgar  :  kind  souls,  I  am  sorry  it  hath  been  your 
hard  mishap  to  have  been  so  long  trained  in  such  Egyptian 
darkness,  even  darkness  that  may  be  felt.  The  vulgar 
road  of  physic  is  not  my  practice,  and  I  am,  therefore, 
the  more  unfit  to  give  you  advice.  If  I  should  set 
you  to  look  at  the  sun,  I  should  dazzle  your  eyes  and 
make  you  blind.  To  such  as  study  astrology,  who  are 
the  only  men  I  know  that  are  fit  to  study  physic, 
physic  without  astrology  being  like  a  lamp  without  oil, 
you  are  the  men  I  exceedingly  respect,  and  such  documents 
as  my  brains  can  give  you  at  present  I  shall  give  you. 
Fortify  the  body  with  herbs  of  the  nature  of  the  Lord 
of  the  Ascendant,  'tis  no  matter  whether  he  be  a  Fortune 
or  Infortune  in  this  case.  Let  your  medicine  be  some- 
thing anti-pathetical  to  the  Lord  of  the  Sixth.  If  the 


MARSH-THISTLE.  115 

Lord  of  the  Tenth  be  strong1,  make  use  of  his  medicines : 
but  if  this  cannot  well  be,  make  use  of  the  remedies  of 
the  Light  of  Time.  Be  sure  always  to  fortify  the 
grieved  part  -of  the  body  by  sympathetical  remedies. 
Regard  the  heart,  keep  that  upon  the  wheels,  because 
the  sun  is  the  foundation  of  life,  and  therefore,  those 
universal  remedies,  aurum  potabile  and  the  philosopher's 
stone,  cure  all  diseases/'  All  which  points  we  trust  our 
readers  will  duly  bear  in  mind  when  they  doctor  them- 
selves with  this  or  any  of  the  other  plants  of  our  series, 
or  we  must  most  distinctly  decline  to  be  responsible  for 
any  consequences  that  may  ensue.  But  revenons  a  nos 
chard  ons. 

The  marsh-thistle,  as  its  name  implies,  prefers  moist 
situations,  and  may  be  looked  for — or  rather,  found,  as  its 
abundance  precludes  the  necessity  of  search — not  only 
on  marshy  grounds,  but  on  moist  heaths  and  commons, 
damp  meadows,  and  the  boggy  places  in  woods.  It  is 
ordinarily  some  five  feet  high,  but  in  this  last  locality 
its  growth  amongst  the  sheltering  and  shade-casting  trees 
is  often  considerably  beyond  this,  while  its  long,  slender, 
and  scarcely-branched  stem  and  erect  growth  make  it  look 
even  taller  than  it  is.  As  it  is  pre-eminently  the  thistle 
of  the  marsh,  and  is  never  found  except  in  such  localities 
as  we  have  referred  to,  it  is  not  likely  to  be  mistaken 
for  any  other  thistle.  Like  all  the  rest  of  its  relatives, 
it  often  varies  to  white  flower-heads,  and  while  the 
stem  and  leaves  are  exceptionally  spiny,  it  differs  from 
most  of  the  other  species  in  having  its  flower-heads  de- 
fenceless. Both  these  characters,  the  excess  of  spiny 
defence  in  one  part  and  the  absence  of  it  in  another, 
rnny  be  clearly  seen  in  our  figure.  The  leaves  are  long, 


116  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

narrow,  and  stalkless,  their  bases  being-  produced  down 
the  stem,  their  upper  surfaces  of  a  deep  green,  and  the 
whole  leaf  more  or  less  covered  with  rough  hairs.  The 
lateral  segments  of  the  upper  leaves  are  long  and 
narrow,  while  the  terminal  portion  of  the  leaf  is  carried 
out  into  a  still  longer  and  more  acute  point,  giving  a 
very  quaint  and  marked  character  to  the  form.  .  The 
flower-heads  are  numerous,  and  densely  massed  in  clusters 
at  the  end  of  the  stem ;  the  flowers  themselves  are  of 
the  well-known  composite  type,  and  are  succeeded  by 
a  mass  of  feathery  down.  As  the  plant  is  a  biennial, 
there  should  be  no  great  difficulty  in  its  extirpation  by  the 
husbandman,  but  it  is  very  necessary  that  it  should  be 
eradicated  or  cut  down  before  seeding-time,  otherwise  each 
passing  breeze  will  waft  its  winged  seeds  far  and  wide 
over  the  country-side.  The  neglect  of  one  farmer  falls 
on  all  in  such  a  matter.  In  many  cases  it  would  pro- 
bably be  possible  to  meet  the  plague  most  effectually  by 
effective  drainage  operations. 


SALAD  BUKNET. 

Poterium  saiiguisorba.      Nat.    Ortf., 
Rosacea. 

LANTS,  there  is  no  doubt,  in 
not  a  few  cases  may  be  very 
common  and  yet  scarcely  come 
within  the  literal  scope  of  our 
title  and  be  called  familiar ; 
and  the  present  species,  the 
salad  burnet,  may  be  taken  as 
a  very  good  illustration  of  that 
fact,  for  it  is  abundantly  distri- 
buted throughout  the  country, 
and  yet  we  venture  to  say  that 
to  ninety-nine  pairs  of  eyes  out 
of  a  hundred  that  light  here 
upon  its  counterfeit  present- 
ment, it  will  be  a  stranger. 
The  reason  of  this  is  not  far 
to  seek;  the  small  size  of  its 
flower-heads  and  their  absence 
of  strong  colour  are  sufficient  to  render  the  plant  invisible 
amongst  the  grass  to  those  who  only  cast  a  casual  glance 
at  the  herbage  at  their  feet,  while  it  does  not  occur  in  such 
masses,  nor  on  spots  so  bare  of  other  vegetation  as  the  equally 
inconspicuous  moschatell,  and  other  such-like  plants  do, 
thus  more  or  less  compelling  us  to  give  it  our  observation. 


118  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

The  influence  of  geological  formation  is  often  mucn 
o-reater  than  many  persons  who  have  not  stiidied  the  matter 
at  all  would  suppose,  for  we  find  numerous  species  attaching 
themselves,  either  exclusively  or  by  evident  choice,  to  cer- 
tain soils;  the  chalk  hills  of  our  downs,  for  example, 
whether  met  with  round  Dover,  or  Guildiord,  or  wherever 
else  they  may  be,  afford  a  good  illustration  of  this.  The 
salad  burnet  is  a  lover  of  chalk  and  limestone,  and  is 
abundant  wherever  we  get  a  dry  hill-side  or  high-lying 
pasturage  of  this  character  in  the  south.  It  is  much  more 
rarely  met  with  in  either  Scotland  or  Ireland,  than  in 
England. 

The  salad  burnet  is  a  perennial,  and  should  be  looked 
for  during  June,  July,  and  August.  Inconspicuous  as 
it  is,  it  is  not  without  a  certain  quaint  charm  of  its 
own;  the  foliage  is  richly  cut,  and  the  flower-heads  are 
very  curious.  Several  nearly  upright  stems,  from  nine 
inches  to  a  foot  or  so  in  height,  are  thrown  up  from  the 
root ;  these  are  somewhat  angular,  often  reddish  in  colour 
and  smooth  to  the  touch.  The  leaves  spring  in  alternate 
arrangement  from  these  stems ;  each  leaf  is  composed  of 
numerous  lateral  leaflets,  small,  and  deeply  cut  into  acute 
teeth.  The  necessities  of  our  space  have  compelled  us  to 
be  content  with  showing  a  leaf  having  seven  pairs  of  these 
leaflets,  but  leaves  with  twice  that  number  are  quite  as  com- 
monly met  with.  The  flowers  grow  in  globular  heads,  the 
lower  flowers  in  each  head  being  males,  and  the  upper  ones 
females.  Hence,  at  the  lower  part  of  each  head  we  see 
conspicuously  the  hanging  tufts  of  stamens,  while  the  whole 
is  surmounted  by  the  less  noticeable,  but  delicate  and  richly 
coloured  stigmas.  The  staminiferous  flowei's  are  large  and 
spreading,  green  in  colour,  and  often  edged  with  crimson ; 


SALAD    BURXET.  119 

the  pistil-bearing  flowers  are  smaller — the  first,  or  stamen- 
bearing,  are  cut  into  four  very  evident  lobes;  the  second 
four-cleft,  but  much  more  finely. 

•Attempts  have  been  made  to  introduce  both  this  and  cm- 
allied  species  the  great  burnet,  or  Sanguisorba  officinalis, 
into  agriculture,  but  the  results  would  appear  to  have  by 
no  means  answered  the  expectations  of  those  who  promoted 
the  idea.  The  leaves  of  the  salad  burnet,  when  bruised,  smell 
somewhat  like  cucumber,  and  have  an  acid  flavour  that 
at  one  time  led  to  its  introduction  into  salads,  a  fact  still 
preserved  in  its  common  name ;  while  others  added  it  to 
wine,  on  account  of  an  agreeable  taste  it  was  held  to 
contribute  to  the  mixture.  This  preparation  is  comme- 
morated in  the  generic  name  poteri/tm,  a  word  signi- 
fying drinking-cup.  Pliny  highly  commended  a  decoction 
of  the  plant  beaten  up  with  honey,  for  divers  com- 
plaints. This  old  use  of  the  plant  as  a  flavouring  and 
a  medicine  is  incidentally  seen  in  the  following  extract  from 
the  "  Theatrum  Botauicum."  "  It  groweth  wilde  in  divers 
places  of  this  Land,  in  dry  sandy  places,  but  is  usually 
preserved  in  gardens,  to  be  ready  at  hande  when  it  shall 
neede  to  be  used."  According  to  this  author,  the  plant 
possesses  many  ft  vertues."  "It  is  a  speciall  helpe  to  defend 
the  heart  from  noysome  vapours,  and  from  the  infection 
of  the  Plague  or  Pestilence,  and  all  other  contagious 
diseases,  for  which  purpose  it  is  of  great  effect,  the  juice 
thereof  being  taken  in  some  drink.  It  is  also  a  singular 
good  Woundherbe  for  all  sorts  of  wounds,  both  of  the  head 
and  body,  either  inward  or  outward,  to  bee  used  eyther  by 
the  juice  or  decoction  of  the  herbe,  or  by  the  powder  of 
the  herbe  or  roote,  or  the  water  of  the  distilled  herbe,  or 
else  made  into  oyle  or  oyntment  by  it  selfe,  or  with  other 


120  FAMILIAR    WILD    ILOfl'ERS. 

things  to  be  kept."  We  see,  too,  that  in  the  "  New 
Herball  or  Historie  of  Plants"  of  "that  learned  D. 
Rembert  Dodoens,"  a  quaint  old  black-letter  volume 
published  in  1586,  the  burnet  is  strongly  commended  as 
a  healer  of  wounds,  "  made  into  powder  and  dronke  with 
wine,  wherein  iron  hath  bene  often  quenched,  and  so  doth 
the  herbe  alone,  being  but  only  holden  in  a  man's  hand 
as  some  have  written.  The  leaues  stiped  in  wine,  and 
dronken,  doth  comfort  and  rejoice  the  hart,  and  are  good 
against  the  trembling  and  shaking  of  the  same."  These 
are  but  samples,  mere  surface  skimmings,  of  some  of  the 
more  evident  "  vertues  "  of  this  lowly  herb :  space  forbids 
our  adding  more,  nor,  indeed  is  it  necessary,  for  if  our 
readers  will  only  consider  that  it  is  a  sort  of  general- 
heal-all,  a  more  detailed  catalogue  becomes  needless. 


HOUND'S   TONGUE. 

Cynoylossiim   offic'male.      Nat.    Ord., 
Boraginacece. 

\\.HY  this  plant  especially  should 
be  called  the  hound's  tongue 
is  not  immediately  clear, 
though  we  are  told  by  old 
authorities  that  it  derives 
its  name  from  the  shape  of 
its  leaves.  These,  possibly, 
are  about  as  similar  or  dis- 
similar to  the  tongue  of  a 
dog  as  the  foliage  of  some 
half-dozen  other  plants  that 
at  once  occur  to  one's  mind. 
It  is,  however,  altogether 
too  late  in  the  day  to  raise 
objections  on  that  score,  for 
the  plant  is  the  hound's 
tongue  not  only  in  England, 
but  in  the  vernacular  of  all  Europe.  In  France,  for 
example,  it  is  the  Langue  de  chien,  in  Germany  the 
Hnndszunge.  The  generic  name,  Cynoglossiim,  Greek  in 
its  origin,  carries  the  same  significance.  One  old  author, 
Coles,  in  his  "  art  of  simpling,"  breaks  away,  we  see, 
from  the  general  theory  that  the  plant  derives  its 
curious  title  from  the  shape  and  texture  of  the  leaf,  and 
86 


122  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

appeals  to  a  still  older,  and  perhaps  equally  reliable, 
authority,  for  he  tells  us  that  the  plant  "will  tye  the 
tongues  of  houndes  so  that  they  shall  not  bark  at  you, 
if  it  be  laid  under  the  bottom  of  your  feet,  as  Miraldus 
writeth."  The  size  and  soft  texture  of  the  leaf  were 
probably  the  cause  of  the  name,  in  the  same  way  that  we 
find  another  plant  with  long  and  rough  leaves  called  the 
ox-tongue.  Pliny,  in  his  writings,  refers  to  a  plant  called 
cynoglossos,  but  it  is  not  certainly  known  what  plant  he 
meant. 

The  whole  plant  has  a  very  strong  and  disagreeable  smell, 
resembling  as  nearly  as  possible  that  of  mice ;  and  we  can 
only  wonder  that  a  resemblance  so  patent  should  not  have 
influenced  its  name.  Cattle  in  general  dislike  this 
nauseous  herb,  but  goats  will  sometimes  crop  its  foliage. 
As  goats,  however,  will  eat  with  impunity  either  tobacco- 
leaves  or  those  of  the  deadly  nightshade,  their  eccentric 
taste  may  well  stand  alone. 

The  hound's  tongue  seems  to  be  rarely  attacked  by 
insects  or  caterpillars,  though  the  larva  of  the  scarlet 
tiger-moth,  the  Hypercowpa  dominula  of  the  entomo- 
logist, may  sometimes  be  found  upon  it.  The  cater- 
pillar is  black,  with  a  broad  pale  yellow  stripe  along  the 
back,  and  the  moth  into  which  it  ultimately  develops  is 
one  of  our  gayest  and  most  beautiful  insects,  the  front 
wings  being  dark  green,  spotted  with  yellow  and  white, 
while  the  hind  wings  are  a  deep  crimson,  spotted  with 
black. 

The  specific  name  of  the  hound's  tongue  refers  to 
the  officinal  value  of  the  plant,  but  though  formerly 
included  in  the  Materia  Medica  of  the  London  and 
Edinburgh  Pharmacopeias,  and  still  used  in  some  parts  of 


HOUND'S    TOKGt'E.  123 

the  Continent,  its  medicinal  use  in  England  is  now  a  thing 
of.  the  past.  Its  medicinal  effects  seem  of  too  doubtful  a 
nature  to  make  it  of  any  real  service,  for  while  some 
authors  ascribe  to  it  valuable  narcotic  and  astringent 
properties,  others  deny  that  it  has  any  healing  influence  at 
all.  Its  lurid  appearance,  offensive  smell,  and  the  aversion 
with  which  animals  regard  it,  are  points  that  have  justifi- 
ably caused  it  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion.  Even  the 
handling  of  the  plant  for  any  considerable  time  will  in 
some  persons  produce  nausea,  giddiness,  and  fainting.  It 
would  seem  almost  impossible  for  anybody,  however  stupid, 
to  mistake  this  plant  for  anything  culinary,  but  moi-e  than 
one  case  is  recorded  in  medical  works  where  the  plant  has 
been  eaten  in  error,  and  with  the  gravest  results.  The  root 
of  the  hound's  tongue  is  tapering,  and  some  eight  or  nine 
inches  long,  and  dark  reddish-black  externally,  but  whitish 
within.  The  stems  are  thick,  erect,  some  two  feet  high  or 
so,  branching  freely  near  their  summits,  and  clothed  with 
rough  hairs. 

"  The  roote  of  Dogstoong,"  the  writer  of  a  treatise 
published  A.D.  1586  tells  us,  "is  very  good  to  heal  wounds, 
and  it  is  with  good  successe  laid  to  the  disease  called  the 
wild-fire,  when  it  is  pund  with  barley  meale.  The  water 
or  wine  wherein  it  hath  bene  boyled  cureth  woundes  and 
hote  inflammations,  and  it  is  excellent  against  the  boils 
and  grieuances  of  the  mouth.  For  the  same  purpose  they 
make  an  ointment,  as  followeth : — First  they  boyle  the 
iuice  thereof  with  honey  of  roses,  then  when  it  is  well 
boyled  they  mingle  turpentine  with  it,  sturring  it  hard, 
untill  all  be  well  incorporate  together,  then  they  apply  it 
to  wounds." 

The  leaves  are  numerous,  alternate,  long,  and  narrow, 


124  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLO  WEES. 

and  their  margins  are  a  good  deal  waved.  In  colour  they 
are  of  a  greyish-green,  and  the  numerous  short  hairs 
upon  them  not  only  cause  them  to  look  greyer,  but  give 
them  a  soft  feel  to  the  touch.  The  lower  leaves  are  on 
long  stalks,  and  are  considerably  broader  in  proportion 
to  their  length  than  the  smaller  stemless  leaves  that  clasp 
the  stalks.  The  flowers  are  small  and  of  a  dull  reddish- 
crimson,  arranged  in  racemes.  The  arrangement  is 
unilateral :  that  is  to  say,  all  the  flowers  spring  from  one 
side  of  the  stem.  The  flower  racemes  are  terminal,  or 
issue  from  the  axils  of  the  upper  leaves,  and  ordinarily  are 
slightly  drooping.  The  fruit  is  of  a  somewhat  curious 
character,  being  divided  into  four  portions  and  very  rough 
to  the  touch ;  our  illustration  gives  a  sufficiently  good  idea 
of  its  character.  "  The  seed  is  flat  and  rough,  three  or 
foure  togither  like  to  a  true-loue  knot,  the  which  do 
cleave  fast  unto  garments,  when  they  are  ripe."  The 
hound's  tongue  is  a  biennial,  and  should  be  looked  for  in 
woods  and  on  waste  ground  during  June  and  July. 


CAEEOT. 

Daucus   Carota.      Nat.   Ord., 
Umbellifera:. 

NY  one  who  is  at  all  familiar 
with  the  look  of  the  garden 
carrot  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  recognising  its  wild  pro- 
genitor, for  though  culti- 
vation has  done  much  to 
improve  the  plant,  its  main 
features,  the  richly  -  cut 
leaves  and  densely-clustered 
blossoms,  remain  unaltered. 
When  we  pull  the  plant  up, 
we  "  make  assurance  doubly 
sure,"  for  the  well-known 
odour  of  the  root  settles  the 
point  beyond  all  further 
doubt.  The  wild  carrot  is 
very  generally  distributed 
throughout  Britain,  on  the  borders  of  fields  and  by  the 
road-sides,  and  seems  to  thrive  more  especially  near  the 
sea.  It  may  be  found  in  flower  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  summer.  The  root  is  spindle-shaped,  slender,  firm, 
somewhat  tough  and  woody,  yellowish  in  colour,  pene- 
trating some  distance  into  the  ground,  and  having  only 
a  few  lateral  rootlets.  The  leaves  are  very  finely 


126  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOJTEBS. 

divided,  and  of  the  form  termed  botanieally  tri-pinnate. 
When  a  leaf  is  composed,  as  in  the  case  of  the  ash  or  the 
parsnip,  of  a  number  of  lateral  leaflets,  it  is  said  to  be  pin- 
nate or  feather-like  ;  when  these  lateral  divisions  are  them- 
selves pinnated,  it  is  said  to  be  bi-pinnate,  or  twice-feathered. 
The  leaf  in  our  illustration  is  of  this  character,  but  some  of 
the  lower  leaves  are  still  more  divided,  and  become  tri- 
pinnate.  The  lower  leaves  are  considerably  larger  than  the 
upper;  their  arrangement  on  the  main  stem  is  alternate, 
and  all  embrace  it  with  that  sheathing  base  which  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  umbelliferous  plants. 

The  stems  are  erect  and  branched,  furrowed,  attaining 
ordinarily  to  a  height  of  some  two  feet,  but  sometimes  ex- 
ceeding this ;  both  stems  and  leaves  are  more  or  less  clothed 
with  short  coarse  hairs.  The  umbels  of  the  flowers  are 
terminal,  large,  and  composed  of  numerous  rays.  The 
flowers  themselves  are  very  small,  but  from  their  whiteness 
and  number,  present  in  the  aggregate  a  very  conspicuous 
appearance.  During  the  flowering-period  the  head  is  nearly 
flat  or  slightly  convex,  but  as  the  seeds  ripen  the  form 
becomes  very  cup-like ;  hence  one  of  the  popular  names  for 
the  plant  is  bird's-nest,  while  in  Germany  it  is  the  Vogelnext. 
The  two  contrasting  forms,  the  umbel  during  the  flowering 
and  during  the  fruiting  stage,  may  be  clearly  seen  in  our 
illustration.  The  ring  of  finely-divided  and  leaf-like  bracts 
at  the  point  whence  the  umbel  springs  is  another 
noticeable  feature.  The  fruit  is  covered  with  numerous 
little  bristles,  arranged  in  five  rows. 

If  any  of  our  readers  will  rescue  just  the  head  of 
a  carrot,  before  the  cook  consigns  it  to  the  rubbish  - 
heap,  and  then  place  it  in  a  small  saucer  of  water,  in 
a  short  time  it  will  throw  up  a  very  graceful  and  delicate 


CARROT.  127 

tuft  of  leaves.  We  have  seen  very  pretty  winter  orna- 
ments made  by  suspending  these  carrot-heads  in  damp  moss ; 
all  that  is  necessary  is  to  slice  the  top  off  the  carrot,  say 
half  an  inch  deep,  and  then  keep  it  moist.  Our  plant 
is  in  France  the  carotte,  and  in  Italy  the  corota.  The 
derivation  of  the  word  is  obscure,  but  it  has  been  suggested 
that  it  owes  its  origin  to  the  Celtic  word  car,  signifying  red. 
The  only  drawback  that  one  feels  in  accepting  this  etymology 
is  a  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Celtic  peoples  cultivated  the 
carrot  at  all.  It  is  only  the  cultivated  root  that  is  red,  the 
wild  one  being  yellow  in  colour ;  if,  therefore,  they  only 
knew  it  in  its  wild  state,  they  would  naturally  have  called 
it  by  some  name  signifying  yellow-rooted. 

The  generic  name  Danciis  is  handed  down  to  us  from 
the  old  Greek  writers;  there  seems  to  be  no  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  plant  so  called  by  Dioscorides  and  other 
old  authorities  is  the  carrot.  Pliny  speaks  of  the  finest 
carrots  being  procurable  in  his  day  from  Candia,  and  we 
from  time  to  time  meet  with  other  references  that  seem 
to  identify  the  ancient  plant  with  the  root  so  well  known 
to  ourselves.  The  carrot  was  in  ancient  times  much  valued 
for  its  medicinal  properties,  and  the  old  Greek  name  refers 
to  its  stimulating  character.  Carrots  contain  a  large 
amount  of  sugar.  From  one  pound  of  carrots  we  are  able  to 
obtain  one  ounce  and  eleven  grains  of  sugar,  while  out  of 
the  sixteen  ounces  fourteen  are  water.  In  the  interesting 
catalogue  of  the  Food  Collection  at  Bethnal  Green  Museum, 
prepared  by  Dr.  Lankester,  we  learn  that  the  maximum 
amount  of  work  produceable  by  a  pound  of  carrots  is  that 
it  will  enable  a  man  to  raise  sixty-four  tons  one  foot  high, 
so  that  it  would  appear  to  be  a  very  efficient  force-producer. 
The  amount  of  water  will  probably  surprise  many  people; 


128  IAMILIAB    WILD    ILOirERS. 

but  when  we  consider  that  in  an  average  specimen  of 
humanity,  a  man  of  eleven  stone  or  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  pounds  weight,  about  one  hundred  and  eleven  of  these 
are  water,  we  see  that  a  goodly  supply  to  repair  waste 
and  wear  and  tear  is  necessary.  Physiologically,  a  man 
may  be  considered  as  being  about  twenty  pounds  of  carbon, 
a  little  phosphorus,  small  quantities  of  iron,  sodium, 
and  other  substances,  and  several  pailfuls  of  water. 

Carrots  are  also  extremely  useful  for  cattle-feeding,  and 
one  cannot  give  one's  horse  or  cow  a  greater  treat  than  a  few 
of  these  sweet  and  succulent  roots.  The  compressed  roots 
make  an  admirable  food  towards  the  dietary  of  voyagers ; 
they  can  be  reduced  to  powder,  and  thus  become  very  port- 
able. In  France  and  Germany  a  spirit  is  distilled  from 
the  carrot,  one  gallon  being  yielded  by  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  of  roots ;  attempts  have  also  been  made 
to  extract  sugar  from  them,  but  in  competition  with  either 
cane-sugar  or  that  obtainable  from  the  beet-root,  it  has 
not  proved  commercially  successful.  A  less  legitimate 
use  of  the  carrot  is  as  an  adulterant  of  coffee. 


THE 
DWAKF  THISTLE. 

C'tticus  acaiilis.   Nat.  Ord.,  Componitee. 

<NY  one  familiar  with  the  great 
expanses  of  chalk  down-land 
so  characteristic  of  the  south 
of  England  will  scarcely  have 
failed'  to  notice  the  dwarf 
thistles  that  dot  them  over 
so  abundantly.  Even  if  they 
have  not  perceived  the  crim- 
son flower-heads  nestling  in 
the  short  turf,  which  makes 
a  tempting  resting-place,  it  is 
more  than  possible  that  their 
pleasant  dream  of  rest  has 
been  rudely  dispelled  by  the 
anguish  created  by  putting 
one's  hand  on  the  prickly 
foliage,  thickly  spread  over 
the  ground;  and  there  is  cer- 
tainly no  more  practical  way  of  appreciating  the  force 
and  point  of  the  motto  that  accompanies  the  heraldic  use 
of  the  thistle  as  the  national  badge  of  Scotland — "  Nemo 
me  impune  lacessit  " — no  one  trifles  with  me  scathless.  An 
old  writer  thus  discourses  on  the  stinging  nettle  : — "  This 
vexing  vegetable  of  subtil  acrimonious  parts,  are  listed 
under  valiant  Mars,  who  hath  armed  them  with  flaming 
97 


130  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

swords,  to  offend  those  that  dare  to  lay  hands  on  them/' 
and  we  may  well  re-echo  his  words,  though  clothed  in 
somewhat  hyperbolic  language,  and  apply  them  to  this 
other  vexing  vegetable,  the  dwarf  thistle.  One's  first 
impression  on  seeing  these  thistles  thickly  spreading  over 
the  far-reaching  downs  is  that  they  are  some  ordinary  species 
that  has  got  dwarfed  by  the  keen  winds  which  sweep  across 
these  breezy  expanses.  We  are  so  used  to  the  idea  of 
thistles  some  three,  four,  or  even  six  feet  high,  that  we 
cannot  at  once  realise  that  the  little  rosette  at  our  feet  is  a 
truly  representative  plant,  and  a  veritable  and  distinct  species. 
The  specific  name  signifies  stemless,  and  the  plant  is  some- 
times, in  popular  nomenclature,  called  the  stalkless  thistle, 
but  a  reference  to  our  illustration  will  show  that  these 
names  are  not  quite  in  accordance  with  the  facts  of  the 
case.  Its  almost  total  want  of  stem  at  once  renders  its 
identification  easy  ;  it  rarely  attains  to  more  than  an  inch  in 
height,  though  we  have  once  or  twice  seen  it  four  or  five 
inches  high.  As  no  other  thistle  when  an  inch  high 
develops  flower-heads,  the  present  plant  cannot  be  mistaken 
for  the  seedling  state  of  any  other  species. 

The  root-stock  of  the  dwarf  thistle  is  woody  and 
perennial,  and  from  it  springs  a  spreading  rosette 
of  very  prickly  leaves  closely  appressed  to  the  turf, 
and  having  numerous  and  well-armed  lateral  segments. 
The  darker  colour  and  glossy  surface  of  these  leaves 
tends  to  make  them  somewhat  conspicuous  amongst  the 
short  verdant  grass-blades ;  but  in  any  case  the  plant  is 
particularly  humble-looking,  and  would  entirely  escape 
notice  were  it  not  for  the  large  crimson  flower  which  springs 
from  the  centre  of  the  radiating  leaves.  These  flower-heads 
are  large  even  when  compared  with  many  other  species 


THE   DTTASF    THISTLE.  131 

o£  thistle,  and  appear  especially  so  when  we  regard  the 
diminutive  plant  from  which  they  spring.  Commonly 
only  a  single  flower-head  springs  from  the  centre  of  the 
leafy  tuft,  but  in  other  rosettes  we  find  two  or  more.  Our 
illustration  represents  three,  but  the  flower-heads  are  more 
ordinarily  solitary.  After  the  conspicuous  purple  flower- 
heads  we  find  the  scarcely  less  conspicuous  masses  of  white 
feathery  down.  This  down,  with  its  attached  seeds,  is  dissi- 
pated by  the  wind  and  sent  far  and  wide.  The  abundance  of 
this  plant  in  dry  pasturage  makes  it  one  of  the  plagues  of  the 
agriculturist,  as  it  takes  up  the  room  that  he  would  prefer 
to  see  occupied  by  the  sweet  upland  turf.  It  is  one  of  the 
later  flowering  species  of  thistle,  and  should  be  looked  for 
in  July,  August,  and  September :  it  seems  to  be  only 
found  in  the  southern  and  central  counties  of  England,  and 
more  especially  in  the  former,  being,  in  fact,  as  we  have 
already  indicated,  in  an  especial  degree  a  plant  of  the 
chalk.  Hence  we  find  it  more  especially  on  the  great 
expanses  of  cliff  and  downland  so  characteristic  of  parts  of 
Surrey,  Sussex,  Kent,  and  Hampshire.  Where  found  at 
all  the  dwarf  thistle  is  found  in  abundance. 

The  roots  of  the  various  species  of  thistle  were  boiled 
in  wine  by  our  ancestors  as  correctives  of  impurities  and 
poverty  of  the  blood.  "  The  same  layd  to  with  vinegar 
healeth  the  wild  scurffe  or  noughty  scabbe."  Pliny  started 
the  idea,  an  idea  which  the  medieval  writers  reverently 
passed  on — that  if  a  bald  head  were  fomented  with  a  de- 
coction of  thistle  the  application  would  bring  a  luxuriant 
covering  back  again.  We  have  great  pleasure  in  pre- 
senting this  fact,  or  pseudo-fact,  to  the  knowledge  of  our 
readers  who  may  be  in  search  of  a  hair-restorer  :  we  may 
yet  live  to  see  glowing  advertisements  of  the  "  world- 


132  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

famed  Cnicuaculis,"  as  it  is  probably  at  least  as  effective 
as  some  other  preparations,  while  the  raw  material  is  so 
abundant  that  the  preparation  of  the  restorer,  say  at  seven 
and  sixpence  the  bottle,  affords  a  fine  field  for  commercial 
energy  and  speculation. 

The  Scottish  thistle,  like  the  Irish  shamrock,  is  a  choice 
subject  for  learned  argument,  and  much  discussion  has 
been  raised  as  to  which  species  has  the  honour  of  giving 
the  national  badge  to  Caledonia.  Such  discussion  here 
would  be  wholly  out  of  place,  and  even  the  bare  recapitula- 
tion of  the  various  views  for  or  against  the  different  species 
would  be  decidedly  superfluous,  but  we  may  just  mention 
that  the  present  plant  is  one  of  those  held  to  have  a  good 
right  to  claim  this  proud  position. 


WATER-CRESS. 

Nasturtium    ojficinale.      Nat.    Ord., 
L't'itcifercc. 

T  will  doubtless  be  conceded  that 
whatever  degree,  more  or  less, 
of  acquaintance  which  some  of 
our  readers  may  have  had  with 
certain  of  our  plants,  we  have  at 
length,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
daisy  and  the  dandelion,  all 
reached  a  common  meeting-- 
ground, a  plant  that  is  familiar 
to  every  one.  All  our  readers, 
urban  as  well  as  rural,  will 
have  made  acquaintance  with 
the  water-cress,  though  only 
the  latter  will  have  seen  it,  as 
we  have  figured  it,  in  the 
flowering  state.  The  plant  is 
not  so  desirable  as  an  esculent 
during  the  tiowering-season,  and  it  is  naturally  the  aim  of 
the  water-cress  grower  to  cultivate  large  masses  of  foliage 
rather  than  to  allow  free  flowering.  Hence  the  townsman 
has  no  opportunity,  so  long  as  he  keeps  within  sight  of 
the  paving-stones,  of  seeing  the  plant  as  we  have  figured  it. 
The  root  of  the  plant  is  long  and  creeping,  composed 
of  numerous  tufts  of  slender  white  fibres.  It  is  very 


134  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

easily  eradicated.  In  the  river  at  the  bottom  of  our 
own  garden  we  have  in  some  years  had  large  quan- 
tities of  the  plant  in  vigorous  growth,  some  of  the 
masses  being  many  square  yards  in  area;  and  when 
this  and  the  water  buttercups,  and  other  aquatic  plants, 
blocked  the  river  up  too  completely,  we  always  found 
that  while  many  of  the  things  could  only  be  kept  down  by 
a  free  use  of  the  scythe, the  water-cress,  with  a  comparatively 
slight  pull,  could  be  entirely  dislodged,  and  sent  floating 
down  stream.  The  floating  portions  presently  lodge  on  a 
shallow  part  of  the  bed  of  the  river,  or  get  drifted  into  a 
quiet  back-water,  and  there  speedily  re-root  themselves. 
When  the  plant  is  in  flower  its  multitudinous  blossoms 
give  quite  a  white  mantling  to  the  stream,  and  at  a  little 
distance,  as  one  looks  up  or  down  stream,  look  almost  as 
though  not  flowers,  but  flour  had  been  freely  sprinkled  ! 
The  stems  are  from  a  few  inches  to  some  four  feet  long, 
and  have  numerous  rootlets  springing  from  their  lower 
portions.  The  leaves  vary  in  form  according  to  their 
position  on  the  stem  ;  those  of  the  flowering-shoots  are 
shown  in  our  sketch,  but  those  with  which  we  are  more 
familiar  as  an  article  of  diet  are  much  larger,  often 
bronzed  or  purpled,  and  having  the  terminal  leaflet  much 
larger  than  the  others.  The  corolla  is  of  the  cruciform 
type,  so  characteristic  of  the  great  natural  order  to  which 
the  plant  belongs.  The  pod  is  an  inch  or  so  in  length. 
The  foolVcress,  water-parsnip,  or  Sium  nodiforvm,  is 
often  found  growing  with  the  water-cress,  and  as  the  latter 
is  thoroughly  wholesome,  while  the  former  is  deleterious, 
some  little  care  should  be  exercised,  though  there  is  no  real 
difficulty  in  discriminating  them.  The  foolVcress  belongs 
to  the  umbel-bearing  plants ;  all  its  flowers,  therefore,  are 


WATER-CRESS.  135 

borne  on  stems  that  spring  in  bunches  from  one  point,  like 
the  ribs  of  an  umbrella,  while  its  leaves  are  much  longer, 
more  acutely  pointed,  and  of  a  paler  green  than  those  of 
the  water-cress ;  the  leaf-stalks  also  at  their  bases  sheathe 
the  stem,  and  those  of  the  water-cress  do  not.  The  fool's 
cress  is  so  called  because  no  one  but  a  very  foolish  person 
would  really  mistake  it  for  the  true  water-cress.  The 
resemblance  between  the  two  species  is  after  all  very 
slight,  and  the  points  of  difference  we  have  set  down  are 
amply  sufficient  to  prevent  any  possibility  of  mistake. 

The  water-cress  grows  most  luxuriantly  in  clear  and 
gently-moving  streams  having  a  gravelly  bottom,  and 
the  plants  have  then  a  far  finer  development  and  a  richer 
flavour  than  those  that  have  sprung  up  either  on  mud  or 
in  almost  or  quite  stationary  water;  but  we  have  even 
heard  of  its  being  grown  very  successfully  as  a  pot-plant 
in  the  greenhouse,  the  great  necessity  being  an  ample  supply 
of  water,  or  the  plants  grow  tough  and  burning  to  the 
taste.  Water-cress  must  be  familiar  to  all  as  an  agree- 
able and  wholesome  salad,  and  its  culture  for  the  table 
is  very  extensively  practised  in  many  parts  of  England. 
Large  quantities  are  brought  in  daily  for  a  considerable 
part  of  the  year  to  the  London  markets  and  other  large 
centres  of  population,  travelling  in  many  cases  forty  or 
fifty  miles  to  their  destination.  One  Nicholas  Mesner  has 
the  credit  of  being  the  first  man  to  cultivate  it.  He  was 
a  native  of  Erfurt,  and  lived  there  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century ;  but  though  after  this  beginning  the 
water-cress  was  freely  grown  in  Holland  and  Germany, 
it  was  more  than  a  hundred  years  afterwards  that  an 
Englishman,  named  Bradbury,  introduced  its  culture  into 
England. 


136  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

A  water-cress  bed  should  be  about  four  or  five  feet 
wide,  and  have  a  good  sandy  or  gravelly  bottom  :  in 
this  the  young-  plants  or  cuttings  are  planted  in  rows 
about  a  foot  apart,  so  as  to  allow  free  passage  of  water. 
The  depth  of  water  need  not  be  more  than  three  or  four 
inches.  The  water-cress  bears  a  great  deal  of  gathering 
without  injury  to  the  plants. 

The  plant  is  in  France  the  Cresson,  and  in  Germany 
the  Brunuenkresse.  The  generic  name  is  derived  from  the 
words  nasus  tortus,  a  convulsed  nose,  on  account  of  the 
pungency  of  most  of  the  species.  The  water-cress  contains 
a  considerable  amount  of  sulphur  and  iodine,  and  though 
we  now  value  it  more  especially  as  a  pleasant  relish,  it  is 
doubtlessly  valuable  medicinally  from  its  stimulative  effects 
on  the  digestive  organs  and  its  an ti- scorbutic  virtues  to 
persons  of  debilitated  constitutions.  A  decoction  of  it 
formed  at  one  time  a  leading  ingredient  in  the  "spring 
tea  "  our  forefathers,  or  perhaps  more  especially  our  fore- 
mothers,  seem  to  have  had  such  faith  in. 


STABWOBT. 

Aster    Tripoli  >nn.      Nat.    Ord., 
Coiiipoaifce. 

|  HE  present  plant  has  several 
names,  though  of  these  the 
Sea-aster  and  the  one  we 
have  selected  above  are  at 
once  the  commonest  and 
most  expressive.  Aster,  we 
need  scarcely  pause  to  ex- 
plain, means  a  star,  while 
wort  is  the  Saxon  word  for 
plant.  It  will  be  seen,  there- 
fore, that  the  same  idea,  a 
reference  to  the  star-like  rays 
of  the  flower,  runs  through 
both  names,  and  any  one 
who  has  seen  its  stellate 
blossoms  enlivening  in  their 
thousands  some  dreary  sea- 
side marsh  will  feel  the  full  appropriateness  and  beauty 
of  the  titles  given.  Other  names  in  more  or  less  common 
use  are  the  Michaelmas  daisy,  the  blue  daisy,  and  the  blue 
chamomile.  The  true  Michaelmas  daisy  is  a  plant  of  very 
near  kindred,  and  we  can  easily  see  how  the  name  of  the 
garden  flower  got  transferred  to  this  dweller  in  the  waste, 
nor  is  there  any  more  difficulty  in  understanding  how  the 
98 


138  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

names  of  such  well-known  fellow-composite  flowers  as  the 
<laisy  or  the  chamomile  were  shared  by  the  sea-aster  or 
starwort. 

"  Our  ordinary  sea-starrewort  hath  many  long  and  some- 
what broad  leaves  rising  from  the  roote  next  the  ground, 
smooth,  fat,  and  thicke,  and  of  a  blewish-greene  colour,  from 
among  which  riseth  up  a  smooth  herby  or  fleshy-greeue 
stalke.  branched  towards  the  toppes  into  divers  smaller 
branches,  with  such-like  leaves  upon  them  as  grow  below, 
but  lesser.  The  flowers  that  stand  at  the  toppes  of  them 
are  somewhat  large,  having  a  bluish  purple  border  of  leaves 
standing  about  a  yellow  middle  thrum,  which,  after  it  hath 
done  flowering,  turneth  into  downe,  and  the  small  seede 
therewithe  is  blown  away  at  the  will  of  the  winde ;  the 
roote  hath  divers  greater  strings  and  many  smaller  fibres 
thereat  which  grow  deepe  and  sticke  fast  in  the  middle  of 
the  marshie  ditches  where  it  groweth."  The  foregoing, 
despite  its  antique  phraseology,  is  as  graphic  a  description 
of  the  plant  as  one  need  wish  for. 

The  starwort,  as  we  have  already  indicated,  is  a  denizen 
of  the  low-lying  lands  by  the  sea  that  come  beneath  the 
saline  influences  and  occasional  overflowings  of  the  tide — • 
"  you  shall  hardly  misse  it  in  any  salt  marsh  in  some  place 
or  other  if  you  looke  well  for  it ; " — it  attains  to  a  height 
of  about  a  foot  under  favourable  conditions,  and  should  be 
sought  for  during  the  later  months  of  summer,  and  part  of 
the  autumn.  Hence  it  will  be  seen  that  not  only  does  its 
appearance  justify  the  name  of  Michaelmas  daisy  but  also 
the  late  date  of  its  flowering-season. 

The  specific  name  Tripolium  is  the  old  Greek  name 
for  the  plant.  Dioscorides  says  that  this  name  was 
given  because  the  flowers  change  colour  thrice  a  day 


STAllU'OUT.  139 

— an  altogether  wild  statement  that  one  would  have 
imagined  could  not  have  survived  the  day  of  its  birth. 
Gerarde  discourseth  as  follows  on  the  plant : — It  is  re- 
ported hy  men  of  great  fame  and  learning-  that  this  plant 
doth  change  the  colour  of  its  flowers  thrice  in  a  day.  This 
rumour  we  may  believe,  and  it  may  be  true,  for  that  we 
see  and  perceive  things  of  as  great  and  greater  wonder  to 
proceed  out  of  the  earth.  This  herbe  I  planted  in  my 
garden,  whither  (in  his  season)  I  did  repaire  to  finde  out 
the  truth  hereof,  but  I  could  not  espy  any  such  variable  - 
nesse  herein  ;  yet  thus  much  I  may  say,  that  as  the  heate 
of  the  sunne  doth  change  the  colour  of  diuers  flowers  so  it 
fell  out  with  this,  which  in  the  morning  was  very  faire, 
hut  after  of  a  pale  wan  colour.  Which  proveth  that  to  be 
but  a  fable  which  is  reported  by  some,  that  in  one  day  it 
changeth  the  colour  of  its  flowers  thrice  :  that  is  to  say,  in 
the  morning  it  is  white,  at  nooue  purple,  and  in  the  even- 
ing crimson.  But  it  is  not  untrue  that  there  may  be  found 
three  colours  of  the  flowers  in  one  day,  by  reason  that  the 
flowers  are  not  all  perfected  together,  but  one  after  another 
by  little  and  little.  There  may  easily  be  obserued  three 
colours  in  them,  which  is  to  be  vnderstood  of  them  that  are 
beginning  to  flowre,  that  are  perfectly  flowred,  and  those 
that  are  falling  away-  For  they  that  are  flowering  and  be 
not  wide  open  and  perfect  are  of  a  purplish  colour,  and 
those  that  are  perfect  and  wide-open  of  a  whitish  blew,  and 
such  as  have  fallen  away  have  'a  white  down;  which 
changing  hapneth  vnto  other  plants."  Gerarde  had  him- 
self too  great  a  love  of  the  marvellous  to  be  easily  daunted 
by  a  wonderful  story,  but  we  cannot  but  respect  his  love 
for  the  truth,  and  the  great  pains  he  took  to  ascertain  what 
really  was  the  truth.  So  many  of  these  ancient  writers,  and 


HO  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLO  WEES. 

too  many  of  their  modern  successors,  find  it  exceedingly 
easy  just  to  pass  a  story  on,  so  that  a  statement  of 
any  kind,  if  not  too  bare-faced,  may  live  an  unlimited 
time  without  being;  brought  to  the  test.  We  have 
ourselves  brought  to  the  rough  test  of  trial  and  ex- 
perience very  many  of  the  statements  found  in  various  books 
of  more  or  less  antiquity,  and  have  frequently  found  them 
delusive;  until  at  last  we  have  arrived  at  a  state  of  almost 
utter  scepticism  on  all  such  points. 

The  following  graphic  description  of  the  littoral  waste 
by  Merritt  is  well  worth  quotation  : — 

' '  The  marsh  is  bleak  and  lonely.     Scarce  a  flower 
Gleams  in  the  waving  grass.     The  rosy  thrift 
Has  paler  grown  since  summer  bkssed  the  scene  ; 
And  the  sea-lavender,  whose  lilac  blooms 
Drew  from  the  saline  soil  a  richer  hue 
Than  when  they  grew  on  yonder  towering  cliff, 
Quivers  in  flowering  greenness  to  the  wind. 
No  sound  is  heard,  save  when  the  sea-bird  screams 
Its  lonely  prestige  of  the  coming  storm ; 
And  the  sole  blossom  which  can  glad  the  eye 
Is  yon  pale  starwort  nodding  to  the  wind." 


\ 


- 


GAELIC-MUSTAED. 


Ord., 


Alii* 


>-ia    qfficinalis.       Xat. 
Critcifera;. 

little  care  will  be  neces- 
sary to  prevent  a  mistake 
arising  in  one's  mind  between 
the  present  plant  and  the 
Suymbrium.  offic'n/ale,  or  com- 
mon hedge-mustard.  Both 
plants  are  equally  common, 
and  both  are  figured  in  our 
series.  The  one  plant  has 
small  yellow  flowers,  and  the 
other  considerably  larger 
white  ones  ;  but  they  are 
very  nearly  allied  botanically 
and  some  writers  have  placed 
the  two  plants  in  the  same 
genus.  No  one,  however, 
could  possibly  mistake  one 
for  the  other  if  he  saw  them 

both  together,  as  the  similarity  is  verbal  alone.  Our  present 
plant  is  called  the  garlic-mustard,  and  the  hedge-garlic, 
while  the  other  is  the  hedge-mustard.  Hedge-garlic  is  not 
by  any  means  a  happy  title,  as  the  true  garlic,  a  plant 
figured  in  a  previous  volume,  is  also  a  dweller  in  the 
hedgerow,  and  is  wholly  different  from  this  in  every  way. 


142  FAMILIAR     Jl  1LH    FLOWERS. 

The  tall  stems  and  great  heart-shaped  leaves  of  the  garlic- 
mustard  are  conspicuous  on  almost  every  hedge-bank  during 
the  early  summer,  and  the  plant  may  be  readily  dis- 
tinguished from  anything  else  at  all  like  it  by  its  strong 
garlic-like  taste  and  odour.  On  this  account  it  was  at  one 
time  largely  employed  in  the  rustic  we/in,  either  eaten 
///'  iifttnrel  with  bread  and  butter,  or  boiled  as  a  pot-herb. 
AVe  have  heard,  too,  of  its  being  fried  with  herrings  and 
bacon,  and  in  Germany  it  is  largely  eaten  as  a  salad  and 
anti-scorbutic  with  salt  meat.  According  to  Bautsch,  it  has 
been  found  useful  in  tanning,  but  whatever  value  it  may 
possess  in  this  way  its  being  inferior  to  oak-bark  and  other 
materials  will  always  prevent  its  being  of  any  practical 
service.  Horses  and  sheep  refuse  it,  but  cows  will  eat  it, 
though  it  is  very  undesirable  that  they  should,  unless 
their  owner  is  so  partial  to  garlic  that  he  considers  it 
a  desirable  flavouring  to  his  milk  and  butter. 

The  strong  garlic-like  odour  of  the  plant  is  expressed 
not  only  in  its  popular  name,  but  in  the  generic  title  as 
well,  Alii  art  o  being  derived  from  allinm,  the  Latin  word 
for  garlic.  Ray,  in  his  "Synopsis  Methodica  Stirpium 
Britannic-arum,"  published  in  the  year  1724,  calls  it  the 
H<-x/>('rix  (iUiinii  redolent,  a  title  equally  redolent  of  the 
garlic.  Another  popular  name  for  the  plant  is  the  sauce- 
alone.  It  has  been  very  naturally  suggested  that  this 
name  was  given  to  the  herb  from  the  fact  that  its  use  in 
homely  cookery  rendered  any  other  flavouring  unnecessary ; 
but  as  we  find  that  the  true  garlic  in  Spain  is  the  ajo,  in 
Portugal  the  alho,  while  in  France  it  is  called  ail  or 
ailloigiion,  and  in  Italy  aglio  and  aglione,  it  is  probable 
that  we  are  again  confronted  with  a  reference  to  its  garlic- 
like  odour,  and  that  sauce-alone  is  after  all  sauce-garlic. 


GAELIC-MUSTARD.  143 

Another  common  name  for  the  sauce-alone  or  the 
garlic-mustard  is  the  Jack-by-the-hedge ;  and  in  some 
old  herbals  it  is  the  jies  asiitinus  or  donkey's-foot,  a 
name  bestowed  on  it  from  the  shape  of  the  leaf,  but 
which  is  by  no  means  appropriate,  and  which  probably 
would  never  have  been  thought  of  had  there  not  been 
already  a  colt's-foot,  a  bird's-foot,  and  the  like.  The 
plant  has  by  some  more  recent  authorities  been  classed  in 
the  genus  Krij^litnuti,  and  by  others  in  Sixymlrrium.  These 
genera  are  closely  allied  botanically  with  that  in  which  it 
is  now  placed,  and  we  cite  them  both,  as  very  possibly  our 
readers  who  may  desire  to  know  more  of  the  plant  might 
in  some  books  find  it  under  one  beading,  and  in  others 
under  another. 

The  garlic-mustard  appears  to  be  sometimes  an  annual, 
but  it  is  more  ordinarily  biennial.  The  root  is  long,  white, 
tapering,  forked,  and  furnished  with  numerous  lateral 
fibres.  The  stalk  is  upright,  and  from  two  to  three  feet 
high,  round,  smooth,  often  purplish  at  the  bottom, 
branching  at  the  top,  but  having  as  a  whole  a  bold  and 
<?rect  growth.  The  lateral  branches  are  few  in  number, 
arranged  alternately,  and  partake  of  the  general  upright 
character.  In  young  plants  there  are  often  no  lateral 
shoots  at  all.  All  the  leaves  are  stalked,  the  upper  ones 
being  on  short  stems  and  the  lower  on  much  larger 
ones ;  all,  too,  are  coai'sely  toothed,  but  they  vary  some- 
what in  shape  and  size  according  to  their  position  on  the 
plant.  The  upper  leaves  are  small,  and  may  be  described  as 
of  a  pointed  heart-like  form ;  while  the  lower  are  much 
larger,  and  of  a  very  much  more  rounded  heart-like  shape :  all 
are  very  deeply  veined  and  somewhat  wrinkled.  The  flowers 
are  white,  growing  in  a  cluster  on  the  summit  of  the  stems, 


144  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

each  being  composed  of  four  petals.  The  stamens  are  six 
in  number,  and  of  the  familiar  type  seen  in  all  the  cruci- 
ferous plants.  The  pods  that  succeed  the  blossoms  are  a 
very  prominent  and  noticeable  feature ;  they  vary  in  size 
from  the  lowest  scale  of  immature  development  to  two 
inches  or  more  in  length.  These  pods  are  stiff  and  cylin- 
drical, and  each  contains  numerous  small  brown  shin i no- 
seeds.  The  medieval  herbalists  were  profuse  in  their 
praises  of  the  medicinal  virtues  of  the  garlic-mustard, 
applying  it  internally  as  a  sudorific,  and  externally  as 
an  antiseptic,  but  this  faith  in  its  efficacv  is,  so  far  as 
we  are  aware,  now  entirely  a  thing  of  the  past. 


BEE    OECHIS. 

Ophrys    apifera.      Nat.    Ord.t 
Orchidacea;. 

'•  ATUItE  contains  many  curious 
i     examples   of   what   has   been 
termed  mimicry ;    the   repro- 
duction of  a  certain  form  in 
some  wholly  different  species. 
In   most   cases  this   mimicry 
is    held   to    be    a    protective 
feature,  but  in  others,  as  in 
the  present  case,  this  theory 
does    not   meet   the    require- 
ments of  the  case.     One  can 
easily  understand  that  the  re- 
semblance of  the  curious  clear- 
winged    moths,    such   as   the 
Spliccia    api-formift,    to    bees, 
wasps,  hornets,  and  such-like 
well-armed  insects,  often  saves 
them  from    being    captured, 
but  in  the  case  of  the  resem- 
blance of  our  present  plant  to  the  insect  of  which  it  bears 
the  name  this  can  only  be  regarded   purely  and  simply 
as  a  freak  of  Nature.     The  animal  and  vegetable  king- 
doms   curiously   interchange  their    forms,  and    while   on 
the  one  hand  we  have  a  plant  having  its  flowers  strongly 
99 


146  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

suggestive  of  a  bee,  on  the  other  we  find  the  wonder- 
ful leaf-insect  of  the  tropics  so  similar  in  its  marking 
to  the  colouring,  veining,  form,  and  texture  of  some 
leaves  that  it  becomes  extremely  difficult  to  detect  its 
presence  when  motionless  amongst  the  surrounding  foliage. 
The  upper  surfaces  of  the  wings  of  many  moths,  and  the 
under  surfaces  of  the  wings  of  most  butterflies,  those  parts 
in  fact  in  each  that  are  most  visible  when  the  insect  is 
at  rest,  are  beautifully  mottled  and  shaded  with  greys  and 
browns  resembling  the  tints  of  barks  and  lichens.  The 
Lappet  and  Bufftip  moths  afford  beautiful  illustrations  of 
the  mimicry  of  foliage  and  dead  sticks.  Some  caterpillars 
closely  resemble  twigs,  and  many  of  our  readers  will 
remember  to  have  seen  specimens  in  our  museums  of  the 
eccentric  stick  insects  of  the  Eastern  archipelago.  It  would 
be  easy  to  multiply  to  almost  any  extent  additional 
examples  of  this  curious  mimicry,  protective  or  otherwise. 

The  old  poet  Langhorne  has  the  following  lines  on  the 
subject  of  our  illustration  : — 

"  See  on  that  flowret's  velvet  breast, 

How  close  the  busy  vagrant  lies  ! 
His  thin-wrought  plume,  his  downy  breast, 
The  ambrosial  gold  that  swells  his  thighs. 

Perhaps  his  fragrant  load  may  bind 
His  limbs  ;  we'll  set  the  captive  free; 

I  sought  the  living  bee  to  find, 
And  found  the  picture  of  a  bee." 

The  name  by  which  the  plant  is  commonly  known  is 
so  distinctly  appropriate  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  old 
name  of  "  honey-bee  flowere,"  given  in.  some  of  the  old 
herbals,  it  has  no  alternative  title,  the  "  dead  carkasse  of  a 
Bee,"  to  quote  Gerarde,  being  too  evidently  to  the  fore  to 
make  any  name  appropriate  that  ignored  so  marked  a  feature 


SEE    ORCHIS.  147 

The  bee-orchis  should  be  searched  for  on  chalk  downs 
and  clayey  soils  during-  June  and  July.  Though  not  by 
any  means  a  scarce  plant  in  the  special  localities  it  favours, 
it  is  often  almost  extirpated  in  a  district  by  the  passion 
that  some  botanists  and  excursionists  have  for  rooting  up 
every  specimen  they  can  find,  exceeding  all  bounds  of 
moderation,  and  selfishly  depriving  those  who  come  after 
them  of  a  pleasure  they  might  fairly  claim  to  share. 
When  gathered  the  flowers  preserve  their  freshness  for  a 
long  time,  the  buds  continuing  to  expand. 

The  tubers  of  the  bee-orchis  are  of  the  ordinary  type  of 
the  genus,  two  roundish  and  unequal  masses  surmounted 
by  a  few  small  fibres.  The  stem  is  a  foot  or  so  in  height. 
Near  its  base  are  several  small  sheathing  leaves,  silvery  on 
their  under  surface  and  green  or  brown  above.  The  flowers 
are  large  and  few  in  number,  about  four  or  five  being  the 
ordinary  number.  From  their  size  and  the  considerable 
distance  apart  at  which  they  are  placed  they  render  the  flower- 
spike  very  noticeable,  the  upper  four  to  six  inches  being 
flower-bearing.  The  sheathing  floral  leaves  from  which  the 
blossoms  spring  are  very  large  and  conspicuous.  The  lip 
of  the  flower  is  broad  and  convex,  and  though  lobed  at 
the  base  appears  almost  as  a  simple  form  from  the  turning 
under  and  back  of  the  parts.  In  texture  it  is  very  smooth 
and  velvet-like,  and  richly  variegated  in  colour  with  mark- 
ings of  yellow  and  brown.  The  flowers  are  without  the 
spur  that  is  so  characteristic  a  feature  in  the  butterfly 
orchis  (figured  in  the  present  series)  and  several  of  the 
other  species.  The  outer  sepals  are  large  and  prominent, 
sometimes  pale  pink  in  colour  throughout,  at  other  times 
greenish  or  white  ;  the  inner  sepals  are  similar  in  tint 
but  very  much  smaller. 


148  FAMILIAR     WILD    FLOWERS. 

The  generic  name  Ophrys  is  simply  the  Greek  word  for 
eyebrow,  while  apifera  signifies  bee-bearing-.  It  is  not  at 
first  sight  very  evident  why  our  beautiful  plant  should  be 
branded  by  botanists  as  the  bee-bearing  eyebrow  ;  but  we 
find  on  turning  to  Pliny,  a  great  authority  on  natural 
history,  that  the  plant  was  in  his  time  employed  by 
ladies  to  darken  their  eyebrows.  He  tells  us  that 
"  Lysimachia  gives  a  fair  and  golden  tint  to  the 
hair,  and  hypericon,  likewise  ophrys,  makes  it  black/' 
From  the  description  which  he  gives  of  the  plant  it  is 
more  probable  that  he  had  in  his  mind  an  allied 
species,  the  tway-blade,  a  very  common  plant  of 
our  woods  and  moist  pastures.  The  second  name 
was  bestowed  on  the  plant  by  Hudson,  a  botanist 
of  some  repute.  The  plant  was  in  the  catalogue  of 
Linnaeus  given  as  the  0.  insectifera  or  insect-bearing,  but  as 
we  have  other  insect  forms,  as,  for  example,  the  butterfly 
orchis,  the  more  definite  and  individualised  name  is  clearly 
an  advantage. 


GROUNDSEL. 

Svneclo    viilgaris.      Nat.    Ord., 
Composite. 

MONGST  all  familiar  wild 
flowers,  perhaps  none  is  more 
distinctly  familiar  than  the 
lowly  groundsel,  the  subject  of 
our  present  illustration.  Even 
the  dweller  in  the  town  can 
scarcely  be  ignorant  of  it,  for, 
together  with  the  chickweed 
and  the  plantain,  its  sale  is 
one  of  the  recognised  street 
industries  amongst  the  busy 
haunts  of  men.  It  is  a  very 
popular  food  not  only  with 
caged  birds  but  with  man^ 
of  our  common  wild  species. 
Its  powers  of  seeding  are 
something  enormous,  as  any 
one  who  has  a  garden  knows 
to  his  cost.  The  plant  is  an 

annual,  and  is  pulled  up  with  the  greatest  ease,  as  its  small 
fibrous  roots  have  very  little  hold  of  the  soil.  It  would 
appear  then  that  there  need  be  but  little  difficulty 
in  effecting  its  final  and  complete  eradication ;  but 
the  plant  seeds  so  freely,  and  scatters  its  multitudinous 


152 


FAMILIAR  WILD  FLOWERS. 


the  paines.  Another  as  fabulous  and  ridiculous  as  that, 
is  this,  which  some  have  set  downe,  that  glasse  being 
boyled  in  the  juice  of  groundsel  and  the  blood  of  a  ramme 
or  goate,  will  become  as  soft  as  wax,  fit  to  be  made  into 
any  forme,  which  being  put  into  cold  water  will  come  to 
be  harde  againe."  Could  we  only  believe  in  the  possi- 
bility of  such  a  recipe,  a  fine  career  of  usefulness  would 
be  open  to  both  "  goates  "  and  groundsel ;  in  the  meantime 
it  is  a  welcome  food  to  small  birds,  and  a  source  of  end- 
less vexation  to  the  generality  of  mankind. 


HEMP-NETTLE. 

Gnfeopsis  Tetrahlt.     Nat.  Ord., 
Labiatce. 

HE  hernp-nettle  is  so  called 
not  on  account  of  any 
botanical  affinity  with 
the  hemp — for  the  name 
was  bestowed  long  be- 
fore botanical  science 
was  out  of  its  infancy — 
nor  even  from  its  sharing 
the  valuable  qualities  of 
the  hemp  as  a  raw  ma- 
terial for  fabrics,  though 
doubtless  the  fibres  of 
many  plants  could  be 
turned  to  more  account 
than  we  find  to  be  the 
case.  The  name  merely 
arose  from  a  slight  re- 
semblance in  the  leaves  of  the  two  plants.  The  leaves 
of  the  true  hemp  are  composed  of  some  five  or  seven  long, 
narrow,  sharply-serrated  leaves,  all  springing  from  one  point 
— a  beautiful  form  in  itself,  and  somewhat  resembling  the 
leaf  of  the  better  known  horse-chestnut,  except  that  in  the 
hemp  all  the  leaflets  are  much  narrower  in  proportion  to 
their  length.  The  leaves  of  the  hemp-nettle  have  no  such 
100 


156  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

for  the  most  part,  or  a  little  pale  whayish,  which  doth 
plainly  express  the  difference/'  The  old  authors  often  call 
our  species  the  bastard-hemp. 

Critical  zoologists  have  been  known  to  object  to  the 
popular  name  for  the  common  cockroach  or  black-beetle, 
on  the  ground  that  the  creature  is  not  black,  and  that  it 
is  not  a  beetle ;  and  we  may  in  the  same  way  be  allowed 
to  point  out  that  our  present  plant  is  neither  hemp  nor 
nettle.  The  true  nettles  belong  to  a  wholly  different  order. 

The  plant  "dronken  in  wine  comforteth  the  hart 
and  driueth  away  all  melancholic  and  sadnesse."  But, 
as  the  charge  against  us  as  a  nation  by  our  foreign 
critics  centuries  ago  was  that  we  were  the  victims  of 
phlegm  we  can  only  conclude  either  that  our  critics  were 
mistaken,  or  that  our  forefathers  had  not  the  courage  of 
their  opinions,  and  were  wanting  in  the  needful  faith  in  this 
and  several  other  plants  that  were  equally  commended 
as  antidotes  to  the  "  melancholic." 


*\ 


LADY'S    MANTLE. 

ilcheinilla    vulgarls.      Nat.    Ord., 
Rosaceae. 

MANTLE,  the  subject 
of  our  present  illustration,  is  ge- 
nerally distributed  over  Britain, 
but  seems  more  especially  at 
home  in  the  colder  regions  and 
on  high-lying  land.  It  may  also 
be  found  in  moist  pasturage. 
Wherever  we  find  it,  it  would 
-  appear  to  select  the  more 

bracing  climates,  being  either 
in  an  especial  degree  a  plant 
of  the  North,  freely  found  be- 
yond the  Arctic  circle  in  Europe 
and  Asia,  in  Greenland  and  Labra- 
dor; or  if  found  in  more  distinctly 
southern  latitudes,  it  is  only  as  a 
plant  of  such  mountain  ranges  as 
the  Himalayas.  It  is  a  perennial, 
and  should  be  looked  for  in  flower  during  June,  July, 
and  August.  From  the  fact  of  the  whole  plant, 
stems,  leaves,  and  flowers,  being  clad  in  green,  it 
must  very  frequently  escape  notice,  yet  we  would 
claim  for  it  our  readers'  hearty  appreciation  ;  the  grace 
of  its  growth,  the  rich  form  of  its  foliage,  and  the 


158  FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 

beautiful  shape  of  its  clustering  blossoms  are  all  features 
which  justify  us  in  our  own  appreciation  and  in  appealing 
to  that  of  others  who  may  not  yet  have  made  an  ac- 
quaintance with  its  modest  beauties. 

The  lower  leaves  of  the  Lady's  mantle  are  much 
larger  than  any  of  those  which  our  limited  space  has  allowed 
us  to  show,  being  borne  on  long  stalks,  fairly  circular 
in  general  outline,  but  having  their  margins  cut  into 
seven  or  nine  broad  but  shallow  lobes ;  the  upper  leaves 
are  small,  and  either  stalkless  or  on  short  stems,  and 
all  are  acutely  notched  and  toothed.  The  leaf -like  stipules 
embracing  the  stem  are  a  noticeable  feature.  The  flowers 
are  small,  numerous,  and  yellowish-green  in  colour,  grouped 
in  clusters  at  the  ends  of  the  freely  branching  flower- 
stems.  The  petals  are  wanting,  the  calyx  eight-cleft,  the 
four  outer  and  alternating  segments  being  smaller  than 
the  others.  The  stamens  are  four  in  number.  The  whole 
plant  is  about  a  foot  in  height,  and  generally  more  or  less 
clothed  with  soft  hairs. 

The  plant  is  the  Lady's  mantle,  not  the  ladies'- 
mantle;  the  point  may  not  appear  important,  and  we 
find  it  sometimes  given  one  way  and  sometimes  another ; 
but  the  first  is  the  true  form,  and  bears  record  of  its 
association  in  medieval  times  with  the  Virgin  Mary. 
Other  parallel  examples  are  the  thrift  or  Lady's  cushion, 
the  dodder  or  Lady's  laces,  the  Solomon's  seal  or  Lady's 
seal,  the  quaking  grass  or  Lady's  hair,  and  several  others 
that  we  need  not  stay  to  particularise.  It  is  in  Sweden, 
too,  the  Lady's  cape,  in  Germany  the  Frauenmantel . 
In  France  an  entirely  new  idea  is  introduced,  the  form 
of  the  spreading  root-leaves  having  suggested  the  name 
pied-de-lion.  It  was  also  called  in  mediaeval  Latin  the 


LADY'S    MANTLE.  159 

leontopodium,  Anglicised  into  lionVpaw,  and  thence 
modified  into  bear's-foot.  The  radiating  character  of  the 
lower  leaves,  suggested  to  others  the  idea  of  a  star, 
and  procured  it  the  name  of  stellaria;  but  this  was  an 
unfortunate  name,  as  it  had  already  been  bestowed  on 
some  three  or  four  other  plants. 

Tragus  seems  to  have  been  the  original  bestower  of 
the  generic  name  on  the  Lady's  mantle,  a  name  that  was 
confirmed  by  its  re-adoption  by  Linnasus.  As  probably 
Tragus  is  but  an  empty  name  to  the  great  majority  of 
our  readers,  we  may  perhaps  indulge  in  a  brief  biographical 
parenthesis.  The  so-called  Tragus  was  a  German  botanist, 
his  real  name  being  Jerome  Boch.  In  accordance  with  a 
fashion  prevalent  amongst  the  learned  in  the  middle  ages, 
his  name,  equivalent  in  English  to  goat,  was  Latinised 
into  Tragus,  a  word  of  the  same  signification.  Tragus 
is  best  known  by  his  History  of  Plants,  published  in 
German  in  the  year  1532,  and  in  a  Latin  edition  in 
1552. 

The  generic  title,  of  the  plant,  Alchemilla,  like  our 
English  word  alchemy,  is  derived  from  the  Aiubic 
word  alkemelych,  and  was  bestowed  owing  to  the  wonder- 
working powers  of  the  plant  according  to  some  old  writers, 
though  others  thought  and  taught,  or  at  least  taught,  that 
the  alchemical  virtues  lay  in  the  subtle  influence  the  foliage 
imparted  to  the  dewdrops  that  lay  in  its  furrowed  leaves. 
These  dewdrops  entered  into  many  a  mystic  potion. 

Horses  and  sheep  ai*e  fond  of  the  Lady's  mantle, 
and  it  has  therefore  been  suggested  that  it  might  be 
profitably  used  as  a  fodder-plant ;  but  there  is,  of  course, 
a  wide  distinction  between  observing  animals  browsing  up- 
on a  plant  on  the  mountain-sides,  and  deliberately  setting 


160 


FAMILIAR    WILL    FLOWER*. 


some  few  acres  of  ground  with  it  for  forage,  and  so  far 
as  we  are  able  to  trace  the  matter,  the  scheme  seems 
never  to  have  gone  beyond  the  theoretical  stage.  It  is  of 
course  comparatively  easy  for  a  botanist  to  make  such  a 
suggestion,  but  with  the  farmer  who  is  asked  to  forego 
wheat  or  turnips  for  a  crop  of  Lady's  mantle  the  matter 
assumes  an  entirely  different  aspect. 

The  parsley-piert  or  Alcliemilla  arvensis  is  an  allied 
species  abundantly  to  be  met  with  growing  on  the  tops  of 
old  walls,  on  waste  ground,  in  gravel-pits,  and  the  like. 
As  this  plant  is  rarely  more  than  four  inches  high,  and 
has  very  minute  green  flowers,  it  is  at  best  inconspicuous, 
though  its  deeply-divided  leaves  and  general  growth  are 
by  no  means  unattractive  to  the  lover  of  natural  beauty. 


INDEX   OF   ENGLISH   NAMES. 


The  Roman  number  refers  to  the  Volume  in  which  an  account  and  figure 
of  the  plant  may  be  found,  and  the  Arabic  number  to  the  page. 


Agrimony,  II.  85 
Anemone,  IV.  5 

Creeping  Thistle,  III.  117 
Cross-leaved  Heath,  IV.  25 

Apple,  I.  17 

Cross-wort,  IV.,  125 

Arum,  I.  29 

Cuckoo-pint,  I.  29 

Autumnal  Hawkbit,  II.  101 

Daffodil,  I.  121 

Bee  Orchis,  V.  115 

Daisy,  I.  101 

Betony,  III.  49 

Dandelion,  I.  45 

Bindweed,  II.  1 
Bird's-foot  Trefoil,  II.  69 

Deadly  Nightshade,  III.  65 
Devils'-bit  Scabious,  III.  145 

Black  Bryony,  1.  149 
]  Hack  thorn,  III.  13 

Dewberry,  V.  77 
Dog-rose,  1.  145 

l;iaddrr  Campion,  IV.  101 

Dove's-foot  Crane's-bill,  III.  113 

Bluebottle,  IV.  49. 

Dwarf  Thistle.  V.  129 

Bog  Asphodel,  IV.  141 
Borage,  I.  21 

Everlasting  Pea,  V.  57 
Feverfew,  IV.  93 

Bramble,  II.  133. 

Field  Convolvulus,  1.  1 

Broad-leaved  Garlic,  I.  53 
Broad-leaved  Plantain,  V.  45 

Field  Rose,  I.  5 
Field  Scabious,  IV.  65 

Brooklime,  II.  57 

Field  Scorpion-grass,  V.  85 

Broom,  III.  5 

Field  Thistle,  III.  93 

Broom-rape,  IV.  157 

Fleabane,  III.  37 

Bugle,  I.  137 
Bulbous  Crowfoot,  I.  49 

Flowering  Rush,  II.  5. 
Fools'  Parsley,  IV.  137 

Burdock,  I.  157 

Forget-me-not,  II.  65 

Bush  Vetch,  I.  93 

Foxglove,  1.  153 

Butterfly  Orchis,  V.  89 

Fritillary,  III.  97 

Buxbaum's  Speedwell,  V.  29 

Fumitory,  IV.  153 

Carrot,  V.  125 

Furze.  V.  41 

Celandine,  II.  109 

Garlic-Mustard,  V.  141 

Centaury,  IV.  121 

Germander  Speedwell,  I.  81 

Charlock,  IV.  85 

Goldilocks,  I.  65 

Cherry,  V.  105 

Goose-grass,  V.  101 

Cinquefoil,  II.  37 

Greater  Willow-herb,  II.  41 

Clustered  Bell-flower,  V.  1 

Green  Hellebore,  V.  33 

Coltsfoot,  III.  141 

Ground  Ivy,  I.  125 

Comfrey,  I.  109 

Groundsel,  V.  149 

Common  Avens,  II.  149 

Hairy  St.  John's  Wort,  IV.  45 

Common  Orchis,  I.  53 

Harebell,  I.  77 

Common  Rock-rose,  III.  53 

Hawthorn,  I.  105 

Corn  Bluebottle,  IV.  49 

Heart's-ease,  II.  137 

Corn-cockle,  II.  125 

Heath,  IV.  17 

Corn  Crowfoot,  III.  133 

Heather,  III.  25 

Corn  Marigold,  IV.  77 

Hedge  Calamint,  III.  109 

Corn  Mint,  IV.  1 

Hedge  Mustard,  III.  101 

Corn  Sow-thistle,  II.  93 
Cowslip,  I.  89 
Cow-wheat,  IV.  53 

Hedge  Stachys,  III.  77 
Hemp-nettle,  V.  153 
Henbit,  V.  81 

Creeping  Bell-flower,  III.  21 

Herb  Robert,  I.  97 

101 


162 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 


Holly,  V.  9 

Honeysuckle,  II.  45 

Hop  Trefoil,  IV.  21 

Hounds'-tongue,  V.  121 

Hyacinth,  I.  41 

Ivy-leaved  Toadflax,  III.  45 

Kidney  Vetch,  IV.  149 

Knot-grass,  IV.  129 

Lady's  Mantle,  V.  157 

Lady's  Smock,  I.,  133 

Lamb's-tongue,  V.  69 

Larger  Knapweed,  II.  153 

Leopard's-bane,  III.  89 

Lesser  Celandine,  1.  73 

Lesser  Red-rattle,  IV.  105 

Lily  of  the  Valley,  III.  125 

Ling,  IV.  17 

Mallow,  II.  81 

Marsh  Marigold,  I.  101 

Marsh  Thistle,  V.  113 

Meadow  Crane's-bill,  I.  9 

Meadow  Crowfoot,  V.  65 

Meadow  Saffron,  IV.  133 

Meadow  Saxifrage,  IV.  62 

Meadow  Vetchling,  II.  29 

Melampyre,  IV.  53 

Melancholy  Thistle,  III.  121 

Milk  Thistle,  IV.  41 

Moneywort,  III.  57 

Moschatel,  V.  53  , 

Mountain  Poppy,  IV.  37 

Mullein,  II.  21 

Musk  Mallow,  II.  97 

Nettle-leaved  Bell-flower,  III.  129 

Nipplewort,  II.  121 

Nodding  Thistle,  II.  25 

Orpine,  IV.  57 

Ox-eye,  I.  85 

Pansy,  II.  137 

Periwinkle,  I.  69 

Pimpernel,  II.  53 

Pink  Campion,  V.  21 

Pink  Persicaria,  II.  33 

Prickly-headed  Poppy,  II.  77 

Primrose,  I.  37 

Privet,  V.  13 

Purple  Loosestrife,  III.  41 

Ragged  Robin,  II.  113 

Ragwort,  IV.  117 

Red  Bartsia,  IV.  33 

Red-berried  Bryony,  II.  13 

Red  Dead-nettle,  I.  61 

Red  Meadow  Clover,  III.  137 

Red-rattle,  IV.  105. 

Red  Valerian,  III.  61 

Rest-harrow,  II.  9 

Rock-rose,  III.  53 

Sainfoin,  IV.  113 

Salad  Burnet,  V.  117 

Sallow,  V.  5 


Saw-wort,  IV.  9 

Scarlet  Poppy,  I.  25 

Scentless  Mayvyecd,  II.  61 

Sea  Campion,  V.  37 

Sea  Lavender,  II.  73 

Self-heal,  IV.  81 

Shepherd's  Needle,  III.  85 

Shining  Crane's-bill,  II.  113 

Silverweed,  I.  13 

Small  Knapweed,  III.  153 

Small  Willow-herb,  IV.  89 

Snowdrop,  II.  145 

Snowflake,  II.  145 

Sow-thistle,  II.  157 

Spear-plume  Thistle,  II.  105 

S:,im He-tree,  V.  25 

Spotted  Orchis,  V.  17 

Star-wort,  V.  137 

Stitch-wort,  II.  129 

Stonecrop,  IV.  69 
I  Stork's-bill,  II.  17 
i  Strawberry,  V.  61 
!  Succory,  II.  49 

Sweet  Briar,  HI.  1 

Tansy,  III.  73 

Teasel,  V.  49 

Thrift,  IV.  97 

Toadflax,  I.  113 

Tormentil,  II.  37 

Touch-me-not,  IV.  29 

Tuberous  Pea,  IV.  73 

Tufted  Vetch,  III.  33 

Tutsan,  III.  9 

Valerian,  IIL  157 

Vetch,  V.  73 

Violet,  I.  33 

Wallflower,  III.  17 

Wall  Pennywort,  III.  149 

Wall  Pepper,  IV.  69 

Water  Avens,  V.  109 

Water-cress,  V.  133 

Water-figwort,  IV.  109 

Water-ragwort,  II.  117 

Water-ranunculus,  I.  65 

White  Campion,  I.  141 

White  Dead-nettle,  I.  61 

Wood  Loosestrife,  V.  93 

Woodruff,  IV.  145 

Wood-sage,  III.  29 

Wood-sorrel,  IV.  13 

Wood-vetch,  II.  89 

Woody  Nightshade,  I.  117 

Yarrow,  II.  141 

Yellow  Dead-nettle,  II.  129 

Yellow  Horned  Poppy,  I.  129 

Yellow  Iris,  I.  57 

Yellow  Loosestrife,  III.  69 

Yellow  Rattle,  IIU.  105 

Yellow  Rocket,  V.  97 

Yellow  Water-lily,  III.  81 


INDEX  OP  BOTANICAL  NAMES. 


The  Roman  number  refers  to  the  Volume  in  which  an  account  and  figure 
of  the  plant  may  be  found,  and  the  Arabic  number  to  the  page. 


Achillea  millefolium,  II.  141 
Adoxa  MoscliutHlina,  V.  53 

Cichorium  Intybus,  II.  49 
Cnicus  acaulis,  V.  129 

yKthusa  Cynapium,  IV.  137 
Agraphis  nutans,  I.  41 
Agrimonia  Eupatorium,  II.  85 

arvensis,  III.  117 
„       heterophyllus.  III.  121 
„       lanceolatus,  II.  105 

Agrostemma  Githasjo,  II.  125 
Ajuga  reptans,  I.  137 
Alclicinilla  vulgaris,  V.  157 

palustris,  V.  113 
Colchicum  autumnale,  IV.  133 
Convallaria  majalis,  III.  125 

A  iliaria  offlcinalis,  V.  141 

Convolvulus  arvensis,  I.  1 

Allium  ursinuni,  I.  53 

Cotyledon  Umbilicus,  III.  149 

Anagallis  arvensis,  II.  53 

Cratwgus  Oxycantha.  I.  105 

Anomone  nemorosa,  IV.  5 

Cynoglossuni  officinale,  V.  121 

Anthyllis  vulneraria,  IV.  149 

Daucus  Carota,  V.  125 

Apargia  autumnalis,  II.  101 
Arctium  Lappa,  I.  157 
Armeria  maritima,  IV.  97 

Digitalis  purpurea,  I.  153 
Dipsacus  sylvestris,  V.  49 
Doronicum  Pardalianches,  III.  89 

Arum  nmculatum,  I.  29 

Epilobium  hirsutum,  II.  41 

Asperula  odorata,  IV.  145 

montanum,  IV.  89 

Aster  Tripolium,  V.  137 

Erica  cinerea,  III.  25 

Atropa  Belladonna,  III.  65 
Barbarea  vulgaris,  V.  97 

„     Tetralix,  IV.  25 
Erodium  cicutarium,  II.  17 

Mart  Ma  Odontitcs,  IV.  33 
Bellis  perennis,  I.  101 
Betonica  offlcinalis,  III.  49 

Erythraia  Centaurium,  IV.  121 
Euonymus  Europeeus,  V.  25 
Fragaria  vesca,  V.  61 

Borago  offlcinalis,  I.  21 

Fritillaria  Mcleagris,  III.  97 

Bryonia  dioica,  II.  13 

Fumaria  offlcinalis,  IV.  153 

Butomus  umbellatus,  II.  5 

Galanthus  nivalis,  II.  145 

Calamintha  clinopodium,  III.  109 

Galeobdolon  luteum,  II.  129 

Calluna  vulgaris,  IV.  17 
Caltha  palustris,  I.  101 

Galcopsis  Tetrahit,  V.  153 
Galium  Aparine,  V.  101 

Calystegia  sepium,  II.  1 

cruciatum,  IV.  125 

Campanula  glomerata,  V.  1 

Geranium  lucidum,  II.  113 

,,           rapunculoides,  III.  21 

molle,  III.  113 

„          rotundifolia,  I.  77 

„         pratense,  I.  9 

Trachelium,  III.  129 

„          Robertianum,  I.  97 

Cardamine  pratensis,  I.  133 
Carduus  acanthoides,  III.  93 

Geum  rivale,  V.  109 
Geum  urbanum,  II.  149 

Marianus,  IV.  41 

Glaucium  luteum,  I.  129 

„        nutans,  II.  25 

Habenaria  bifolia,  V.  89 

Ccntaurea  Cyanus,  IV.  49 

Helianthemum  vulgaro.  III.  53 

„          nigra,  III.  153 

Helleborus  viridis,  V.  33 

Scabiosa,  II.  153 
(  Vnt  ranthus  ruber,  III.  61 
Choiranthus  Cheiri,  III.  17 

Hypericum  Androseemum,  III.  9 
Hypericum  hirsutum,  IV.  45 
Ilex  aquifolium,  V.  9 

Chelidonium  majus,  II.  109 
Chrysanthemum  Leucanthemum,  I. 

Impatiens  noli-me-tangere,  IV.  29 
Iris  pseudacorus,  I.  57 

85 

Knautia  arvensis,  IV.  65 

Chrysanthemum  segetum,  IV.  77 

Lamium  album,  I,  61 

164 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOU'ERS. 


Lamium  amplexicaule,  V.  81 

„        purpureum.  I.  61 
Lapsana  communis,  II.  121 
Lathyrus  pratensis,  II.  29 
„        sylvestris,  V.  57 
Leucojam  sestivum,  II.  115 
Lisrustrum  vulgarc,  V.  13 
Linaria  Cymbalaria.  III.  45 
Linaria  vulgaris,  I.  113 
Lonicera  Periclymenum,  II.  45 
Lotus  corniculatus,  II.  69 
Lychnis  diurna,  V.  21 

Flos-cuculi,  II.  113 
,,       Vespertina,  I.  141 
Lysimachia  nemorum,  V.  93 

„  nummularia,  III.  57 

vulgaris,  III.  69 
Lythrum  Salicaria.  III.  41 
Malva  moschata,  II.  97 
„      sylvestris,  II.  81 
Matricaria  inodora,  II.  61 

Parthenium,  IV.  93 
Meconopsis  Cambrica,  IV.  37 
Melampyrum  pratense,  IV.  53 
Mentha  arvensis,  IV.  1 
Myosotis  arvensis,  V.  35 
palustris,  II.  65 

Narcissus  pseudo-Narcissus.  I.  121 
Narthecium  ossifragum,  IV.  141 
Nasturtium  offlcinale,  V.  133 
Nepeta  Glechoma,  I.  125 
Nuphar  lutea,  III.  81 
Onobrychis  sativa,  IV.  113 
Ononis  arvensis,  II.  9 
Ophrys  apifera,  V.  145 
Orchis  maculata,  V.  17 

mascula,  I.  53 
Orobanche  maior,  IV.  157 
Orobus  tuberosus,  IV.  73 
Oxalis  Acetosella,  IV.  13 
Papaver  Argemone,  II.  77 

Rhoeas,  I.  25 

Pedicularis  sylvatica,  IV.  105 
Plantago  lanceolata,  V.  69 
Plantago  major,  V.  45 
Polygonum  aviculare,  IV.  129 
Polygonum  Persicaria,  II.  33 
Potentilla  anserina,  I.  13 
reptans,  II.  37 
Tormentilla,  II.  37 
Poterium  Sanguisorba,  V.  117 
Primula  veris,  I.  89 

vulgaris,  I.  37 
Prunella  vulgaris.  IV.  81 
Prunus  Cerasus,  V.  105 

communis,  III.  13 
Pulicaria  dysenterica,  III.  37 


Pyrus  Malus.  1. 17 
Ranunculus  acris,  V.  65 

aquatilis,  I.  65 
arvensis,  III.  133 
auricomus,  I.  65 
bulbosus.  I.  49 
Ficaria,  I.  73 

Rhinanthus  Crista-galli,  III.  105 
Rosa  arvensis,  I.  5 

„     canina,  I.  145 

„     rubiginosa,  III.  1 
Rubus  csesius,  V.  77. 

„      fruticosus,  II.  133 
Salix  caprea,  V.  5 
Sarothamnus  scoparius,  III.  5. 
Saxifraga  granulata,  IV.  62 
Scabiosa  arvensis,  IV.  65 
succisa,  III.  145 
Scandix  Pecten,  III.  85 
Scrophularia  aquatica,  IV.  109 
Sedum  acre,  IV.  69 

„       Telephium,  IV.  57 
Senecio  aquaticus,  II.  117 

„       Jacoboea,  IV.  117 

„       vulgaris,  V.  149 
Serratula  tinctoria.  IV.  9 
Silene  inflata,  IV.  101 
Silene  maritima,  V.  37 
Sinapis  arvensis,  IV.  85  . 

Sisymbrium  offlcinale.  III.  101 
Solanum  Dulcamara,  I.  117 
Sonchus  arvensis,  II.  93 

oleraceus,  II.  157 
Stachys  sylvatica,  III.  77 
Statice  Limonium,  II.  73 
SteUaria  Holostea,  II,  129 
Symphytum  offlcinale,  I.  109 
Tamus  communis,  I.  149 
Tanacetum  vulgare,  III.  73 
Taraxacum  Dens-Leonis,  I.  45 
Teucrium  Scorodonia.  III.  29 
Trifolium  procumbens,  IV.  21 

„         pratense,  III.  137 
Tussilago  Farfara,  III.  141 
Ulex  Europseus,  V.  41 
Valeriana  offlcinalis.  III.  157 
Verbascum  Thapsus,  II.  21 
Veronica  Beccabunga,  II.  57 
Buxbaumii,  V.  29 
Chamtedrys,  I.  81 
Vicia  Cracca,  HI.  33 

„     sativa,  V.  73 

,,     sepium,  I.  93 

„     sylvatica,  II.  89 
Vinca  major,  I.  69 
Viola  odorata,  I.  33 

„      tricolor,  II.  137 


TABLE  OF  BOTANICAL  ORDERS  AND  GENERA 
REPRESENTED  IN  THE  WORK. 


RANUNCULA  CE^. 

Anemone  nemorosa,  IV.  5 
Ranunculus  aquatilis,  I.  65 
Ficaria,  I.  73 
auricomus,  I.  65 
acris,  V.  65 
bulbosus,  I.  49 
arvensis,  III.  133 
Caltha  palusti-is,  I.  101 
Helleborus  viridis,  V.  33 

NYMPHJEACE^E. 
Nuphar  lutea,  III.  81 

PAPAVERACE^. 
Papaver  Rhceas,  I.  25 

„        Argemone,  II.  77 
Meconopsis  cambrica,  IV.  37 
Chelidonium  majus,  II.  109 
Glaucium  luteum,  I.  129 

FUMARIACEJZ. 

Fumaria  offlcinalls,  IV.  153 

CRUCIFERM. 

Cheiranthus  Cheiri,  III.  17 
Barbarea  vulgaris,  V.  97 
Nasturtium  offlcinale,  V.  133 
Cardamine  pratensis,  1. 133 
Sisymbrium  officinale,  III.  101 
Alliaria  offlcinalis,  V.  141 
Sinapis  arvensis,  IV.  85 

CISTACEJE. 

Helianthemum  vulgare,  III.  53 


VIOL  ACE 'JE. 

Viola  odorata,  I.  33 
„      tricolor,  II.  137 

CARYOPHYLLACEJE. 
Silene  inflata,  IV.  101 
„      niaritima,  V.  37 
Lychnis  vespertina,  1. 141 
„        diurna,  V.  21 

Flos-cuculi,  II.  113 
Agrostemma  githago,  II.  125 
Stellaria  Holostea,  II.  129 

EYPERICACE^E. 

Hypericum  Androssemum,  III.  9 
„          hirsutum,  IV.  45 

MALVACEAE. 

Malva  sylvestris,  II.  81 
„      moschata,  II.  97 

GERANIACE^E. 

Geranium  pratense,  I.  9 

,,          Robertianum,  I.  97 
„          lucidum,  II.  113 

molle,  III.  113 
Erodium  cicutarium,  II.  K 
Oxalis  Acetosella,  IV.  13 
Impatiens  Noli-me-tangere,  IV.  29 

CELASTRACEJE. 

Enonymus  Europoeus,  V.  25 

LEGUMINOS^E. 
Ulex  europoeus,  V.  41 
Sarothamnus  scoparius,  III.  5 


166 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 


LEGUMINOSJE  (continued). 
Ononis  arvensis,  II.  9 
Trifolium  pratense,  III.  137 

„          procumbens,  IV.  21 
Lotus  corniculatus,  II.  69 
Anthyllis  vulneraria,  IV.  149 
Onobrychis  sativa,  IV.  113 
Vicia  Cracca,  III,  33 
„     sylvatica,  II.  89 
„     sepium,  I.  93 
„     sativa,  V.  73 
Lathyrus  pratensis,  II.  29 
sylvestris,  V.  57 
Orobus  tuberosus,  IV.  73 

ROSACES. 

Prunus  communis,  III.  13 

cerasus,  V.  105 
Geum  rivale,  V.  109 

,,      urbanum,  II.  149 
Rubus  fruticosus,  II.  133 
Rubus  csesius,  V.  77 
Fragaria  vesca,  V.  61 
Potentilla  reptans,  II.  37 

Tormentilla,  II.  37 
„         anserina,  1. 13 
Alchemilla  vulgaris,  V.  137 
Poterium  Sanguisorba,  V.  117 
Agrimonia  Eupatoria,  II.  85 
Rosa  rubiginosa,  III.  1 
„     arvensis,  I.  5 
„     canina,  I.  145 
Pyrus  Mains,  1. 17 
Cratsegus  Oxyacantha,  1. 105 

ONAGRACEJE. 

Epilobiam  hirsutum,  II.  41 
„          montanum,  IV.  89 

LYTHRACEM. 

Lythrum  Salicaria,  III.  41 

CUCURBITACE^E. 
Bryonia  dioica,  II.  13 

CRASSULACEJE. 

Cotyledon  umbilicus,  III.  149 
Sedum  Telephium,  IV.  57 
„       acre,  IV.  69 

SAXIFRAGACE^!. 

Saxifraga  granulata,  IV.  62 


VMBELLIFERJE. 

.acthusa  Cynapium,  IV.  137 
Scandix  Pecten,  III.  85 
Daucus  Carota,  IV.  125 

ARALIACE^E: 

Adoxa  Moschatellina,  V.  53 

CAPRIFOLIA  CEJE. 

Lonicera  Periclymenum,  II.  45 

RUBIACE^E. 

Galium  cruciatum,  IV.  125 

Aparine,  V.  101 
Asperula  odorata,  IV.  145 

VA  LERIANA  CE^. 
Centranthus  ruber,  III.  61 
Valeriana  offlcinalis,  III.  157 

DIPSACACEJ2. 

Dipsacus  sylvestris,  V.  49 
Scabiosa  succisa.  III.  145 
Knautia  arvensis,  IV.  65 

COMPOSITE. 

Tussilago  Farfara,  III.  141 
Aster  Tripolium,  V.-137 
Pulicaria  dysenterica,  III.  37 
Bellis  perennis,  I.  101 
Chrysanthemum  Leucanthemum 

Chrysanthemum  segetum,  IV.  77 
Matricaria  Parthenium,  IV.  93 
Matricaria  inodora,  II.  61 
Achillea  Millefolium,  II.  141 
Tanacetum  vulgare,  III.  73 
Senecio  vulgaris,  V.  149 
„       aquaticus,  II.  117 
Jacobrea,  IV.  117 
Doronicum  Pardalianches,  III.  89 
Arctium  Lappa,  I.  157 
Serratula  tinctoria,  IV.  9 
Carduus  Marianus,  IV.  41 
„         nutans,  II.  25 

crispus,  III.  93 
Cnicus  lanceolatus,  II.  105 
palustris,  V.  113 
arvensis,  III.  117 
„       heterophyllus,  III.  121 
acaulis,  V.  129 


INDEX. 


167 


COMPOSITE  (continued). 
Centaurea  nigra,  III.  153 
Cyanus,  IV.  49 
Scabiosa,  II.  153 
Apargia  autumiialis,  II.  101 
Sonchus  arvensis,  II.  93 

,,        oleraceus,  II.  157 
Taraxacum  Dens-lconis,  I.  45 
Cichorium  Intybus,  II.  49 
Lapsana  communis,  II.  121 

CAMPANULA  CEJE. 

Campanula  glomerata,  V.  I 

Trachelium,  III.  129 
„          rapunculoides,  III.  21 
,,  rotundifolia,  I.  77 

ERICACE^V. 

Calluna  vulgaris,  IV.  17 
Erica  cinerea,  III.  25 
„      Tetralix,  IV.  25 

PRIMULACE^E. 
Primula  veris,  I.  89 

„        vulgaris,  I.  37 
Lysimachia  vulgaris,  III.  69 

„  nummularia,  III.  57 

,,  nemorum,  V.  93 

Anagallis  arvensis,  II.  53 

AQUIFOLIACE^-E. 
Ilex  Aquifolium,  V.  9 

OLEACE^S. 

Ligustrum  vulgare,  V.  13 

APOCYNACE^E 
Vinca  major,  I.  69 

GENTIANACE^E. 

Erythrsea  Centaurium,  IV.  121 

CONVOLVrLACEJE. 
Convolvulus  arvensis,  I.  1 
Calystegia  sepium,  II.  1 

BORAGINACE^E. 

Myosotis  palustris,  II.  65 
„       arvensis,  V.  35 


BORAGINACEJE  (continued}. 
Symphytum  offlcinale,  I.  109 
Borago  omcinalis,  I.  21 
Cynoglossum  offlcinale,  V.  121 

SOLANACE^l. 

Solanum  Dulcamara,  1. 117 
Atropa  Belladonna,  III.  65 

OROBANCHA  CE^. 
Orobanche  major,  IV.  157 

SCROPHULARIA  CEJ3. 
Verbascum  Thapsus,  II.  21 
Linaria  vulgaris,  I.  113 

Cymbalaria,  III.  45 
Scrophularia  aquatica,  IV,  109 
Digitalis  purpurea,  I.  153 
Veronica  Beccabunga,  II.  57 
„        Chamcedrys,  I.  81 
Buxbaumii,  V.  29 
Bartsia  Odontites,  IV.  33 
Rhinanthus  Crista-galli,  III.  105 
Pedicularis  sylvatica,  IV.  105 
Melampyrum  pratense,  IV.  53 

LABIATE. 

Mentha  arvensis,  IV.  1 
Calamintha  Clinopodium,  III.  109 
Nepeta  Glcchoma,  I.  125 
Prunella  vulgaris,  IV.  81 
Stachys  sylvatica,  III.  77 
Galeopsis  Tetrahit,  V.  153 
Betonica  omcinalis,  III.  49 
Lamium  album,  I.  61 

„        amplexicaule,  V.  81 
,,         purpureum,  I.  61 
Galeobdolon  luteum,  II.  129 
Teucrium  Scorodonia,  III.  29 
Ajuga  reptans,  I.  137 

PL  UMBA  GIN  A  CEJE. 
Statice  Limonium,  II.  73 
Armeria  maritima,  IV.  97 

PL  ANT  A  GIN  A  CE^E. 
Plantago  lanceolata,  V.  69 
„         major,  V.  45 

POLYGON 'ACE2E. 

Polygonum  aviculare,  IV.  129 
„  Persicaria,  II.  33 


168 


FAMILIAR    WILD    FLOWERS. 


AMENTACE^E. 
Salix  caprea,  V.  5 

ARACE^E. 

Arum  maculatum,  1. 129 

BUTOMACEJE. 

Butomus  umbellatus,  II.  5 

ORCHID  ACE  &. 
Orchis  mascula,  I.  53 

„  maculata,  V.  17 
Habenaria  bifolia,  V.  89 
Ophrys  apifera,  V.  145 

IRIDACE& 

Iris  pseudacorus,  I.  57 


!   AMARYLLIDACEJE. 

Narcissus  Pseudo-narcissus,  I.  121 
Galanthus  nivalis,  II.  145 
Leucojam  sestivum,  II.  145 

D 10  SCORE  A  CE^. 
Tamus  communis,  1. 149 

LILIACE^E. 

Convallaria  majalis,  III.  125 
Fritillaria  Meleagris,  III.  97 
Agraphis  nutans,  I.  41 
Allium  ursinum,  I.  53 

JUXCACEJE. 

Nartheciurn  ossifragum,  IV.  141 

MELANTHACE^E. 

Colchicum  autumnale,  IV.  133 


Date  Due 


Demco  293-5 


QK81 

H91      Hulme,  Frederick  Edward 

v.5 

Familiar  wild  flowers. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


K81 
91 


000  634  581     3 
Hulme,    Frederick   Edward 
Familiar  wild  flowers. 


K  'jfijf 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

CITRUS  RESEARCH  CENTER  AND 

AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

RIVERSIDE,  CALHORNIA