oh ie a ape a sahenee eee At eath tae Ag mo Re a) ip Wien fat eee nated finds ig eee tin ate Oe nia Ree is es Trice it AY /70S5L — CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library arV19056 i i a 4 031 274 2 olin, ee Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031274214 WAYSIDE WEEDS. Alpine Barrenwort. ¥ Pheasant’s Hye. Yellow Fumiutory Phe 1 5 WAYSIDE WEEDS oR, BOTANICAL LESSONS FROM THE LANES AND HEDGEROWS. WITH A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFICATION. BY SPENCER THOMSON, ML_D,, L.B.C,8. EDIN., FELLOW OF BOTANICAL SOCIRTY OF EDIN.; AUTHOR OF “THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE EYE,” ETC., ETC. v NEW EDITION, ILLUSTRATED WITH GOLOURED PLATES AND ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, LONDON : GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCOCLXXII. av I705G / ‘CORNELL , UNIVERSITY \ LIBRARY 7 ee ee CONTENTS. —_— INTRODUCTION. Advantages of Botanical study—LHarly associations—The Founda- tion for our Lessons—Commonest Wayside Weeds selected— The Plan . j : ; ‘ ‘ : ; 1—6 HANDFUL I. Weeds are Flowers—The Handful—Poppies—Buttercups and ~ Marsh Marigold—Wallflower and- Lady’s Smock—Violets— Lychnis—Stitchwort—Chickweed and Wild Geranium—Parts of a Flower generally -considered—Petals or Flower-leaves— How attached—Their shape and parts—A Corolla—Stamens, their site, and how distinguished—Pistil or central organ ; its forms— Calyx; its forms— Position of parts of Flowers in Handful—Likeness and difference—Buttercups and Crowfoots —Poppy characters—Wallfiowers and Cruciform Plants— Regular Flowers—Summary . . . 2 . 7—28 HANDFUL IL. Broom Blossoms, and Gorse or Whin—Clovers and Vetches—Haw- thorn and Apple Blossoms—Strawberry and Bramble—Hem- lock tribes—Saxifrage and Willow herbs—All many- petaled— Distinctions from Handful I.—Characters of Pea tribe—Rose tribe—Hemlock or Umbel-bearing tribo—Parts of a Flower specially considered — Calyx — Corolla —Stamens—Pistil—A perfect Flower . . i é 29—60 vi CONTENTS. HANDFUL III. The Plants of the Handful—Honeysuckle and Bluebell, Daisy, Thistles, Wild Chamomile, Ragwort, and Colt’s-foot—Elder Flower—The Bedstraws—The one-pieced, or one-petaled, or Monopetalous Corolla—Composite Blossoms—The Composite Family—The Inflorescence or Flower arrangement-—The Scape and Rachis — The Capitulum — The Spike —The Axillary Flowers—The Raceme—The Umbel—The Panicle—The Cat- kin—The Whorl—Glomerulus, Spathe, and Cyme—Bracts 61—90 HANDFUL IV. A Handful of favourites—They are One-petaled—Distinction from Handful III.—Our Botanical position in Handful IV.—Free and Attached Stamens—Primroses and Forget-me-nots—Pim- pernel and Loosestrife—The Primula tribe—Speedwell and Figworts—The Labiates or Lipped Flowers—Convolyulus and Plantain—Leaves—Their Infinite -Variety—Parts of the Leaf —Ribs and Veins—Netted Veins and Straight Veins—Com- pound Leaves and Simple Leaves—Leaf Surfaces, ete.—Cut- ting of Leaves—Stemless or Sessile Leaves—Seed-leaves—Leaf- buds ‘ - os j 5 5 ‘ » 91—122 HANDFUL V. Little of outside beauty in Handful V.—Docks and Knot-grass— The Spurges—Starwort—Forest Trees—Characters of Hand- ful—The Blossoms incomplete—Knot-grass or Bistort charac- ters—Spurge characters—Starwort and Wall Pellitory—Trees of the Greenwood—Simple character of their Blossoms— Willow, Hazel, Birch, ete.—Pine tribes—Stem and Root— Aerial Roots—Herbaceous or green, and Woody Stems—Grass and Palm Stems— Twining or Climbing Stems—Shape of CONTENTS. vii Stems—Winged Stems — Underground Stems—Stems ap- parently absent-—-Roots — Fibrous and Branched — Fleshy Roots—Tuberous Roots—Office of Roots. . . 128-149 HANDFUL VI. Composed of Plants with Straight-veined Leaves—Srowdrop— Crocus—Tulip—Orchis— Wild Garlic and Black Bryony—The Perianth—Yellow Iris, or Water-Flag—Petal-like Pistila—Herb Paris—Structure of Orchis Blossom—Vegetable Structure— Cells and Vessels—Spiral Vessels—Vascular and Cellular Tis- sue ofLeaf . . ‘ ag 6 P . 151—164 HANDFUL VII. Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Petal Flowers—Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Scale Flowers—The Scale Flowered or Glumaceous Plants—Common Rush—Wood Rush and Bog Asphodel—Their Characters—Flowering Rush and Wake-robin—Duckweed — The Sedge Tribe— Grasses and Grass Blossoms—Plant Clothing—The Epidermis or Skin— Hairs—Breathing Pores or Stomates. : ‘i . 165—185 A BUNDLE OF FERNS. Ferns well known—Their elegance—Characterized by the absence of Floral Development—Spores, and Spore or Seed cases—The varying form of Ferns—Peculiar mode of Early Growth— Fern gathering—The Male Fern—Lady Fern—Hart’s-tongue ~—Brake or Bracken—Polypody and its spores—Spleenwort— Moonwort—Horse-tail and Adder’s-tongue—Characters com- mon to Ferns—Caudex, or Root-stalk— Stipe—Rachis and Pinnze—Sori—Spores and Spore cases—Exceptions to position ofSpores. . . «© +. : : . 187—204 Vili CONTENTS. A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFICATION, CLASSIFICATION OR ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS TO BE LEARNED FROM COMMONEST WEEDS. The Natural Classification—Plants evidently in Groups—Retro- spect—Division into Flowering and Flowerless Plants—Flower- _less Plants— General Characteristics — Flowering Plante— Division into Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and with Netted-veined Leaves — General Distinctions—Plants with Netted-veins—Divided into three principal Sections—Sub- division of Sections into Natural Families—Sub-division of Families into Genera—Genera composed of Species or of indi- vidual Plants—Advantages of a Natural Classification—Arti- ficial Classification—Concluding Remarks . . 205—212 tal Q 2 ON oe Ss Ee 10, ILLUSTRATIONS. Petal of common Poppy. Blossoms of Bulbous-rooted Ranunculus or Buttercup. Blossom of common Buttercup. Section of Buttercup Blossom. Buttereup Petal. Seed-vessel of common Poppy. Cruciform Blossom of Wallflower. Petal of Wallflower. Blossom of Lychnis. Petal of Lychnis. Blossom of Wild Geranium. Petal of Wild Geranium. Stamen magnified. Reproductive Organs of Wallflower. Blossoms of common Charlock. Flowercup and Stamens of common Lychnis. Pistil of Lychnis or Catch-fly Seed-vessel of Stitchwort or Starwort: Calyx of Stitchwort. Expanding Flower of Poppy. Leaf of Buttercup. .- Blossom of Violet. Blossom of common Yellow Broom. Blossom of Yellow Vetchling, Blossom of common Dog-rose. Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose. Section of Blossoms of Trailing Dog-rose. 37. 55. 65, ILLUSTRATIONS. Strawberry Blossom. Blossoms of common Bramble. Section of Blossom of common Bramble. Blossoms of common Beaked Parsley. Petals of common Broom, Calyx and Reproductive Organs of common Broom. Pod or Legume of common Broom. Compound Leaf of Vetch, Compound Leaf of Rose. Compound Leaf of Umbelliferous Plant. Blossom and Seed of Umbelliferous Plant. Stigma of Willow-herb, Poppy-bud. Stamen. . Pistil of Primrose. Diagram of a perfect Flower. Blossom of common Wild Chamomile. Blossom of Ragwort. Leaves of Woodruff. Blossom of Honeysuckle. Blossoms of Harebell, Fruit Cyme of Elder. Magnified view of Coltsfoot Florets, Section of Thistle Head. Blossom of Hawkweed. Flower-spikes and Leaves of Plantain. Spray of Scarlet Pimpernel. Fine-leaved Heath. Sprig of Currant-bush. Panicle of Grass. Blossoms of Hop. Red Dead Nettle. Common Stinging Nettle. Reproductive Organs of Wake-robin. Twig of Lime-tree. Common Self-heal, Floret of Speedwell. Floret of Plantain, Blossom of Primrose. Front view. FIG, 66, 67. 68. 69. 70, 71. 72, 73. 74, 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82, 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88.. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94, 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. ILLUSTRATIONS. xi Blossom of Primrose. Section. Blossom of Primrose. Side view. Common Forget-me-not, Yellow Loosestrife. Labiate Floret. Convolvulus or Bindweed, Leaf of Nettle, Leaf of Rose. Palmate Clover Leaf. Oak Leaf. Leaf of Black Bryony. Leaf of Dove’s-foot Cranesbill, Leaf of Corn Poppy. Seedling Plant. Blossoms of common Knotgrass (magnified). Petty Spurge. Stameniferous Blossoms of Starwort. Magnified Blossoms of Petty Spurge. Jointed elastic Stamen of Wall Pellitory. Blossoms of Willow. Catkiu of Birch, Culm or Stem of Grass, Sections of Stems. Corm of Crocus. Bulb of House-Leek. Root of White Sedge. Root of Early Purple Orchis. Root of Bird’s-nest Orchis. Blossom of Purple or Meadow Orchis. Common Snowdrop. Blossom of common Tulip. Essential Reproductive Organs of Tulip. Pistil of Tulip. Herb Paris. Vegetable Tissue. Spiral Vessels. Plant of Hairy Wood-rush, Blossom of Wood-rush. Arum Spathe, ILLUSTRATIONS. Tufted Bog-sedge. Spikelet of Brome Grass, Floret of Melic-grass, Spikelet of Meadow Soft Grass. Hairs from Plant Surfaces magnified. Plant Skin or Cuticle magnified. Frond of common Polypody. Portion of Frond of Polypody with Sori or collections of Spores. Portion of Frond of Hart’s-tongue Fern, with Sori. Fronds of Asplenium viride, or Green Spleenwort. Horse-tail, or Equisetum, Fertile Spike. Moonwort, Spore Case, or Capsule with Elastic Ring. Suirobuction. WAYSIDE WEEDS. INTRODUCTION. FLOWERS. “On mountain and on hill side, in valley and.in glen, A thousand lovely things spring up to cheer the hearts of men.” And if we read aright the lines traced on their petals gay, We never more shall cast a flower with carelessness away.” “Oh! love them as companions, thou wilt not lonely be, They'll whisper with their fragrant lips the sweetest thoughts to thee; They’ll steal thy senses from the earth, thy thoughts from themes of pain, And thou wilt feel with grateful heart they bloom not here in vain.” Row1aypD Brown. Tur science of plants, Botany, has this great ad- vantage over every other department of natural histoty, that its objects are not only most readily accessible, but that they have been familiar to most of us from childhood. The first steps of the en- tomologist, the geologist, or the mineralogist, are made, as it were, into a new world, wherein all is n 4 WAYSIDE WEEDS. Strange and unknown—to the novice we might say chaotic—but who does not know the first easy paths which guide us into Flora’s realms? Are they not to every child bordered and carpeted with daisies, and buttercups, and sweet-scented violets ? Have we not picked in them chickweed and groundsel for our favourite birds, and looked at the scarlet poppies somewhat doubtfully as poison- ous, putting them under the same anathema as “hemlock,” which, however, was often not hem- lock at all? Then, again, are not these paths overhung with the wild rose and honeysuckle for our summer shade? And when, after long absence, it may be, in the smoky town or in some foreign clime, we return to retread the once well-known paths again, and see these old familiar faces, do we not know their names as well as we do our own? ‘The cowslip, crocus, columbine, The violet and the snowdrop fine, The orchis ‘neath the hawthorn tree, The blue-bell and anemone, The wild rose, eglantine, and daisy.” We know them all, and many another, without any teaching. Truly this name-knowledge is no despicable foundation for our future botanical education—a far better one than we could find for any other science ; sounder, too, for it has not only a place in the head but in the heart; dull and dead must that heart INTRODUCTION. 5 be, that greets not warmly the old friends of our first wee toddling days. On this foundation we purpose to build, and thus to avoid what so often proves a first and. for- midable difficulty when subjects are dealt with of which the learners have no previous knowledge. We mean to take, both for text and illustration, the commonest wayside weeds and flowers familiar to all, and we mean them, being their own inter- preters, to tell us a great deal. We will try whether they cannot outline for us, if we may so speak, the plan of the flowery world, and whether we cannot gather from their simple teachings some idea of the great design, in accordance with which the vegetable kingdom is constructed and ar- ranged. It may be that many will be content with learning no more than this; but should some desire to go farther, and to gain wider knowledge of the nomberless forms of vegetable beauty and structure to be met with amid the native plants of our own land, and still more strikingly, perhaps, amid those of other latitudes, they will find the foundation begun upon our common “ Wayside Weeds,” a solid because a practical one. We call our chosen subjects common, and, in one sense, they are so—the sense-in which we have selected them for illustration; but common are they in no other, for as surely and as well as the most gorgeous exotic do each and all show 6 WAYSIDE WEEDS. forth the goodness, the wisdom, and the power of that great Creator, whose “ Steps are beauty, and his presence light.” A few words as to our arrangement. Hach of our prospective. handfuls is intended to embrace a certain section of plants related to each other in the natural classification. It is by no means requisite that all the plants named should be gathered at once, and, indeed, as they often blow at different periods of the year, this would be impossible; but enough may always be found to illustrate our text, not only as regards the classification of the flowers, but with reference to the botanical lessons which are ap- pended to each section. A general summing up will probably gather our handfuls into one, Banhtul 2. Weeds are Flowers—The Handful—Poppies—BHutter- cups and Marsh Marigold— Wallflower and Lady’s Smock— Violets—Lychnis — Stitchwort— Chickweed and Geranium — Petals or Flower-leaves—- How attached -—~ Their shape and paris—# corolla— Stameris, their site, and how distinguished—Pistil or central organ; its forms—Calyz ; its forms, etc. —Position of parts of Flowers in Handful the First —Likeness and difference—The Buttercups and Crowfoots—Poppy tharacters —Wallflower and the Cruciforms—FRegular Flowers—Summary. HANDFUL I. FLOWERS IN MANY PIECES. ‘‘ MANY PETALED.” ; “To yon deep wood With our baskets we will go, Find where the violet loves to brood, And the primrose crouching low ; The gentle anemone shall be ours, With its delicate pink and white, And the bright marsh marigold’s gorgeous flowers Shall give us their golden light.” Ler us see what we have got. Weeds every one of them! Weeds we all know them to be, but flowers they are as well; we will therefore give them the name indifferently, weeds or flowers, as it may be. Poppies in their red, from the corn-field or wayside; bright shining buttercups from the meadows, with their magnificent cousin the marsh marigold; a stray wallflower from the old castle wall, or garden if you will, for it is a true British wilding ; lady’s smock ; and a charlock—the yellow flower you always call wild mustard—or, if you like it better, a water-cress. Do not forget our wee 10 WAYSIDE WEEDS. blue friends the sweet violets, for, except the fra- grant wallflower, they are the only scented blossoms in our bundle. Add to these a scarlet lychnis; one of the brilliant white stitchworts, or, as they are * better named, starworts, from under the May hedge- row, and with it its little sister the common chick- weed, and the mouse-ear, like a hairy chickweed, though it is not one; lastly, put in a common way- side geranium, and we have Handful No. 1, from which we are to learn a whole heap of botanical lore. Our paper is headed “ Many-pieced, or many- petaled flowers,” Unbotanical people call the pieces \\ Fig, 1.—Petal of common Poppy. of a flower “leaves ;” but as the same term is ap- plied to the leaves of the plant generally, the pretty term “ petal” is more convenient, we therefore, for the future, shall always speak of petals; albeit, it gives our first initiament into botanical terms. Take all the fowers of our handful, or as many of them as you have got, and look at these petals; Fic. 2.--The Bulbous-rooted Ranunculus, back view. a, petals of expanded blossoms; 2, reflexed calyx, or flower-cup ; ¢, blossom half expanded, the flower-cup not yet turned back; d@, peduncle, or flower-stem; e, bract or flower-leaf. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 13 pull them off if you possess a good show of speci- mens, and, you will.see that they are all uncon- Fie. 3.—Back view of blossom of common Buttercup, or Creeping Ranunculus. a, petal; b, flower-cup, in five sections ; ¢, peduncle. nected with one another. First comes the bright red poppy, with its four petals (Fig. 1), all attached hl Fie. 4.—Section of Butt ip . a, petal; b, stameng; c, pistils; d, flower-stem, or peduncle ; e, receptacle. beneath the projection in the centre of the flower (Fig. 6). 14 WAYSIDE WEEDS. Put down the poppy and take up the buttercups, all you have gathered (Figs. 2, 3, 4), and, if it Fre. 5.—Buttercup petal. Fia. 6.—Seed-vessel or pistil of common x Poppy, a; 4, stamen; c¢, part of petal. chances to be in the handful, the marsh marigold, which probably some of my readers. know as the “May blob.” Any and all of these have, as you see, five petals (Fig. 3), and though the central organ (Fig, 4 c) is not exactly similar to that of the poppy (Fig. 6), you may yet observe a likeness in the attachments of the petals beneath it, Take the wallflower, another of your bunch of blossoms, its petals are very different from the petals of the poppy or the buttercups. The latter you have already seen are oval and pointed at the base (Figs. 1, 5); in the instance before us they are prolonged into the claw (Fig. 8 6), in contradistinction to the broad portion or limb. A somewhat similar petal you find in the scarlet or white lychnis (Figs. 9, 10), although in other respects it is diverse. Clawed, likewise, but WAYSIDE WEEDS. 15 less distinctly so, are the five petals of the wild geranium (Figs. 11, 12), However, there is no Fig. 7.—Cruciform blossom of Wallflower. Fic, 8.—Petal of Wallflower, "dy petal; b, stamens; ¢, flower-cup, or a, limb; 2, claw. calyx; d, peduncle, or flower-stem. occasion to go over in succession every plant in our handful ; you can do that alone, and pulling off the Fie. 9.—Blossom of Lyclnis, with pistils Fre. 10.—Petal of Lychnis. only. a, petal; 3, pistils; c, calyx. a, limb; , claw. petals compare their varied shape and cuttings, as well as their attachments and numbers. Having os 16 WAYSIDE WEEDS. done this, you will have gained some knowledge of one of the divisions of the kingdom of botany—the tf Fic. 11.—Blossom of common wild Gera- Fia, 12,—Petal of wild Gera- nium (Herb Robert), u, petals; nium. a, limb; 8, claw. 6, calyx, many petaled (polypetalous) flowers, with their petals attached beneath what’ botanists call the pistil, but A : | Fig. 13.—Stamen, magnified. Fig, 14,—Reproductive organs of Wallflower. a, stamens: 5, pistil. which, till we have formally introduced it, we must call the central organ of the flower. In the majority of flowers, however—we shall see, hereafter, not in all—between the central organ and the petals we have just been examining PLATE 2. Common Wood Sorrel. Herb Robert. Grass of Parnassus. ) Pasque Flower. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 17 there is a greater or less number of small bodies, little heads supported on slender stems (Fig. 13). In the poppy and ranunculus these little bodies are very numerous, almost too numerous to count easily (Fig. 4) ; but look into your wallflower, you have no difficulty there, for six is all you can find (Fig. 14), only you wonder to see that, in every blossom you examine, two are shorter than the others. Put down the wallflower, and take up your wild mustard (Fig. 15), or your water-cress, and 4 Fia. 15.—Blossom of common Charlock, Fie, 16.—Calyx or flower-cup a, petal; 5, 2, calyx sepals; c, stamen ; of common Lychnis. a, d, pistil. calyx; 5, stamens. you will find the same thing. Be sure you have got an established fact, and do not forget it. Take your lychnis, a red one, however, and you will find ten of these little bodies (Fig. 16) ; but, probably, no central organ. Try to count them in the violet, there are only five; but you have some difficulty, for they all adhere together, and two of them have little spurs superadded, which might confuse a beginner, These little bodies, which we have just been examining, are called the stamens, but what oC 18 WAYSIDE WEEDS. they are, what is their structure and functions, we must tell in a future page ; only remark that, in the Jlowers you have examined, their attachment, in the composition of the blossom, is the same as that of the petals. Put aside the stamens, or pull them off, and we come, at length, to our friend in the centre, whose name we have already let out—the pistil (Figs. 4, 6, 17, 18), and a very varied piece Fig. 17.—Pistil of Lychnis. 4, ovary. Fre. 18.—Seed-vessel and pistils 6, styles; c, receptacle. of common Stitchwort. of structure it seems, judging by the specimens. In the poppy it is short, round, and marked or rayed on the top; in the buttercup it seems made up of a number of projecting pieces; in the wall- flower it is prolonged ; in the lychnis,* rounded and * To prevent confusion, it is necessary again to remark, that the lychnis, or catch-fly, is one of those plants which usually have their pistils, or central organs, in one blossom, and their stamens in another. This our readers must verify for themselves by ex- amination of the plants, WAYSIDE WEEDS. 19 oval, crowned by the thread-like styles. Observe, in all these cases, it rises froma little seat or receptacle, to which are attached the petals and the stamens. * You will not, however, have advanced far in your botanical studies before you discover that this single mode of attachment is by no means uni- versal; but one thing you will find constant, the relative positions of the organs of the flower, which we have just gone over. Petals, or corolla as the petals are called collectively, stamens and pistils, are always placed in the same order, one within the other. They may not all be present; in some blossoms they are never all present together, but you will never find stamens outside the petals, or pistil outside the stamens. There remains yet, for examination, one other part of the flower. Exterior to all the organs we have hitherto described, you cannot fail to have noticed a covering, or set of coverings, to which, as it holds the blossom generally, botanists have given the name of calyx, or flower-cup (Figs. 2, 3, 9,16, 19,20). This calyx, moreover, has its many differences, even in the limited number of plants we have as-yet examined. It is divided, in most of our examples, like the corolla, into separate pieces ; and as the divisions of the corolla‘are named petals, so are those of the calyx called sepals, Generally speaking, the calyx, or flower-cup, is green, but we see it.in the wallflower. (Fig. 7) more or less deeply 20 WAYSIDE WEEDS. coloured ; and in the buttercup (Fig. 2) yellowish in hue. Frequently the number of the sepals, or ‘calyx divisions, corresponds to those of the corolla, but not invariably, as we seein the poppy (Fig. 20), in which there are but two divisions, and these joined at the top, more or less completely. More- over, this poppy calyx does not, as in the wallflower, the chickweed, the violet, or the geranium, continue b ofa Fie, 19.—a, calyx or Fie. 20.—Expanding flower flower-cup of Stitch- of common Poppy, throw- wort; b, stamens. ing off calyx, a. attached to the flower, but is cast off in the process of floral expansion. Calyx, corolla, stamens, pistils—these, bear in mind, are the parts of a perfect flower, which always preserve the same relative positions within one another. With the exception of the lychnis, al- ready noticed, you will find it so in every plant in our Handful. To make sure, look at the bright white, well-named starwort,. or stitchwort, which WAYSIDE WEEDS. 21 we have not yet noticed; all the parts are just as you have seen them in the others. Differing in many respects, in this all our plants agree—the petals are perfectly disconnected from one another, and from the stamens, and with the stamens are fimed to the little receptacle on which is placed the pistil. Now these characters, as we call them, though apparently unimportant to a superficial observer, are far from being so to a botanist; they mark, in fact, one division of botanical arrangement—a division, moreover, which comprises within its limits many other plants and families of plants, beyond the few common weeds we have selected as examples, The buttercup or crowfoot family, or, as it is called botanically, the Ranunculus genus, is made up of numerous individual members, all differing from one another, but yet bearing the general family face. Some so like that you will not distinguish them till the difference has been pointed out; others, though similar, still so different, that you cannot mistake them for each other. You have, in all probability, gathered into your handful, at random, a lot of what you call butter- cups; they have all flowers about the same size, with bright yellow shining petals, and look as like as possible; but take this one, which you gathered in the meadow—if you have got it up by the roots (as you ought to do every plant, the size of which in the least admits it)—you find that it has a bulbous 22 WAYSIDE WEEDS. swelling root, that its stem is upright and hairy, and its calyx sepals are turned back (Fig 2) from the fully-expanded flower. This, which is the Ranunculus bulbosus, or bulbous-rooted crowfoot, put beside the other which is in your Handful, and which, when you gathered it, you thought was precisely similar. Compare the flower-cup (Fig. 3) with the last. It spreads—in old blossoms it falls off —but does not turn down even in the fully-expanded flower; the root of this plant is not bulbous, and attached to it are side-stems, scions, which rest on or run along the ground. This is the Ranunculus repens, or creeping crowfoot; and no less different is this third species, the Ranunculus acris, or up- right meadow crowfoot, which very likely grew beside the other two, and which, just as likely, you took into your Handful in perfect innocence of any difference. It, too, has a spreading, and not a turned-back calyx, but it has no scions. Make another comparison of these three near relations ; their faces are all very similar, are they not? Look at the little stems, peduneles, which support the blossoms. In the first two species you ex- amined, the bulbous and creeping crowfoots, these stems have little channels or furrows cut on their surface ; in the last, the upright crowfoot, they are mostly rounded. Pray look over these little dis- tinctions again, get them into your memory, and tell us, could you mistake these plants for one WAYSIDE WEEDS. 23 another again? Quite impossible, for small as the marks of difference may be, they are constant, Lastly, get into your mind an idea of the general appearance of these plants—the general habit, as botanists call it—and you will have achieved a prac-: a Fig. 21.—Leaf of common Buttercup. tical lesson in plant lore which will not readily. be forgot. The aboveare three of the crowfoot family, with a strong resemblance; but there are many of the same family, or, let us designate it properly, genus, very different; some have comparatively small flowers, and some are white, as we find in 24 WAYSIDE WHEDS. the common water ranunculus, which is so common in every streamlet and ditch that it well deserves to be called a wayside weed. Look now at the leaves, not the petals, but the plant-leaves, of the butter- cup race, with which we have just scraped acquaint- ance ; they are all divided more or less deeply (Fig. 21), but we find others with leaves perfectly undivided : these are the spearwort ranunculuses, and one of them you may gather at the side of almost any pond. The buttercup-like flower of the spear- wort you cannot mistake. One word more about our friends before we part. The members of the buttercup genus are most eloquent expositors of many botanical facts, and you are now in posses- sion of the key to some of their peculiarities. If you use your eyes you cannot miss finding species different from those most common ones upon which we have founded our first lesson. Gather all you can; never mind, at first, if you do not know their names, but put them together, and compare in every part—leaves on the stem, and leaves spring- ing from the root-crown, hairs or no hairs on any part, pistils plain or otherwise. These exercises will teach you how to look at plants, and make the very commonest weeds convey as much instruction as you could get from the rarest exotic. We have dwelt somewhat upon this ranunculus family, not only because of the well-marked characters of its members, but because so many of them are familiar WAYSIDE WEEDS. 25 to us all from childhood, and mect us in every country walk. We must now say adieu, and look to the rest of our Handful. Take another look at the poppies. You could not mistake a poppy, putting colour out of the question, for a buttercup. The petals composing the corolla are separate; it is true the stamens are numerous, and both are attached to the flower in the same manner as in the ranunculus, but here the resemblance ends. The calyx, as we have seen (Fig. 20), is entirely different, both in its divisions and in its development, and the round central pistil, in one piece, of the poppy (Fig. 6) is abundantly diverse from the many pistils of the ranunculus (Fig. 4). There are many other distinctions, which at present we are not prepared for. We go to the wallflower (Fig. 7), the watercress, or the charlock (Fig. 15), all plants of the same great botanical section as the ranunculus and the poppy; that is to say, they have many-petaled flowers, and petals and stamens (Fig. 14) are simi- larly attached ; but how different are they other- wise. The petals are clawed (Fig. 8), the stamens are definite in number, not many, and the central pistil is altogether dissimilar, as we may see more clearly if we examine any of these plants when the seed is well matured. Now, the wallflower, the water- cress, the wild mustard, and many others similar, belong to a most important family, called the Cruci- 26 WAYSIDE WEEDS. ferze, or cross-like plants, the petals being arranged in the shape of a cross, as a very little examination will show. Turning for a moment from wild to culti- vated blossoms, you will find the characters of the erucifers well marked in any turnip, cabbage, or radish, which may chance to run to seed in your garden. In an economical point of view, there are few plant families more valuable to man than these crucifers. Buttercup, poppy, wallflower, each types of their own particular family, have regular flowers; you can divide them in any direction through the centre into Fic. 22.—Blossom of Violet. a, corolla; 4, calyx; ¢, peduncle or flower-stalk d, bracts; e, spur of corolla. two equal halves. Not so our sweet little violet (Fig. 22), which holds its place beside them. It, too, is many-petaled, and has stamens and petals attached like the others, but its flower is irregular ; to divide its five petals equally, you must cut the centre in one direction only. The stamens and WAYSIDE WEEDS. 27 pistil, a single glance will show, have their dis- tinctive marks. The lychnis, stitchwort, and chickweed bring us back to the regular flowers. The stamens (Figs. 16, 19) are more than in the wallflower, fewer than in poppies or buttercups. The petals are clawed (Fig. 10), the shape different, and, specially, the pistil (Figs. 17, 18) differs from the plants we have already examined. Lastly, take the common wayside geranium (Figs. 11, 12) which we gathered into our Handful. Still we find the distinct petals attached with the stamens as before, only, at the base of the latter we come upon something new, the organs are united just in the reverse to those of the violet, The pistil, with its five lobes at the base, and its long beak, is very different from any we have yet met with, and with it we have arrived at the end of our first gathering. Just let us review what we have learned from it. We began, supposing that we knew nothing whatever of plants, and that all the stock of knowledge we had to start with was the recognition of the very commonest weeds of the wayside. Those which we selected for our first lesson were taken because of the one common character so often alluded to, the attachment of the distinct petals and the stamens to the organ named the receptacle, which supports the pistil or central organ. We have seen that but for this character 28 WAYSIDE WEEDS. common to all, they differ widely, and we have learned, at the same time, what are the parts of which a complete and perfect flower is composed, namely, the calyx and its sepals, the corolla and its petals, the stamens and the pistils, and these organs we now know, and look for in a special order. Enough here for one lesson, albeit we have a much better capital of information to start with when we go forth in search of a Second Handful. Hanhiul 2, Broom Blossoms and Gorse or Whin—Clovers and Vetches—Hawthorn and Apple Blossoms—Straw- berry and Bramble—Hemlock tribes—Sazxifrage and Willow herbs—All many-petaled—Qistinctions from Handful I.—Characters of Pea tribe—ose tribe— Hemlock or Umbelliferouws tribe—froperties and Uses— Parts of the Flower—Uses and Arrangement. ' HANDFUL IL. “ The tribes of early flow’rets, Like holy thoughts enshrined, An altar to the unseen God, They raise in every mind. The hills and everlasting skies In grandeur have their birth, But the early flow’rets only His image bring to earth.” . “Bangs. Hawnprut the second; what have we got? Bright yellow blossoms of broom (Fig. 23), the bonny golden broom, which every one knows, or ought to know ; and equally bright and golden: are those of the gorse or furze, or, as it is called in Scotland, the whin, which will make themselves seen on every common and roadside. Take these, and add to them the first of the pea or vetch tribe (Fig. 24) you meet with, throwing in a few heads of clover to make up a family party, of which the members, you quickly discover, all carry the same family face. Go on with your collecting ; gather hawthorn in its season, and a crab-apple blossom or two; wild 32 WAYSIDE WEEDS. roses (Figs. 25, 26, 27) and meadow-sweet in theirs; with the flowers of the strawberry (Fig. Fie, 23.— Blossom of common Broom. a a, petals; b, calyx; c, stamens; d, pistil. 28) and bramble (Fig. 29). You have in your hand Fic. 24.—Blossoms of common Yellow Vetchling. aa, petals; bb, calyx ec, pedicels; d, peduncle. The fl are papilionaceous, or butterfly- like. : WAYSIDE : WEEDS,. 33. another family ag distinct as the first, Go and secure some of those plants which you haye been in ¥ig. 26.—Back view of Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose, @, petals; 6, urn- shaped tube of calyx, forming -the seed-cup; ¢, upper flivigions of calyx 5 d, peduncle, . D 34; WAYSIDE WEEDS;, the habit of calling hemlock, though-ten to-ore if they are real hemlock ; but let that pass at present, Fria. 27.—Section of Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose. a, petals; 2, calyx, adher- ing to or forming the ovary or seed-vesselc; d, stamens; ¢, pistils. Fre, 28.—Back view of Strawberry Blossom.. a, petals of corolla; , sepals of calyx; c, peduncle; d, bract. WAYSIDE: WEEDS, 8D. +—-we want the ‘kind of plant for our present purs pose (Fig. 30); and, if you Have no‘other chénce; go into the kitchen-gardén, and pluck ‘a flowering . iP Ae “i Fre. 29.—Collection of Blossoms of common Brawble, ‘arranged ‘in a eorymb: dy petals; b, calyx sepals; c,. stamens ; d,,pistils ; e, pedicels; 7, bracts; g, set or bristles ; compound leaf. 1 it sprig of celery, parsley, or carrot, or fennel, calling in, if necessary, the aid of the gardener or’ cook: You have now got a type of family No. 8 of our 36 WAYSIDE WEEDS: present Handful. . Lastly, the white meadow saxi- frage and the. willow herbs are so common that many of our readers may be able to add them to the company, Fig. 294,—Section of Blossom cf common Bramble, The vetch tribes, represented by the broom, gorse, vetch, and clover (Figs, 23, 24), are very distinct from the rose family, to which the haw- thorn, apple, strawberry (Fig. 28), and rose itself (Fig. 25) belong; Equally diverse are our hemlock friends (Fig. 30), and not less so the saxifrage and the willow herb, Yet, pull them to pieces, they are all many-petaled, polypetalous (Fig. 31). Thus far they resemble the plants of Handful I., and, for aught you see at present, might be grouped with them; but we must look further, Different as the groups of Handful II. may seem from each other, they have one common point of resemblance in which they differ from Handful I., and that is in the mode in which their stamens and petals are attached to the other parts of the flower. Call to mind that in the many-petaled blossoms of Handful I, the petals and the stamens were invariably at- .WAYSIDE WEEDS. 37 tached (Figs. 4 and 6) to the part called the recep- tacle, which formed the support of the pistil; you could detach the calyx, or, as in the poppy and in Fic. 30.—Blossoms of common Beate 1 Farsley, arranged in compound umbels. @, central point of primary umbel; 2, biacts, or involucel, at ceatral point of umbellule, some of the ranunculus genus, it could detach itself, without, interfering with the other parts of the blossom. A very few trials with the plants we have 38 .WAYSIDE WEEDS.. now put into your hand will show that with them this cannot be done. If you take calyx, you take likewise stamens and petals, for to it they are attached, and not to the receptacle. All the ex- amples you have will mot show this equally well, but in some, such as the strawberry (Fig. 28) and others, it is very well marked. ‘Perhaps this little difference in the attachment of the parts may appear to a beginner a very little difference to say so much about; and yet, slight as seems the line of demar- cation, it severs groups of plants by a strictly natural distinction, which differ widely, not only in their outward appearance, but in their medicinal and economical properties. We dwell upon it, therefore, because it teaches one of the most useful and well-marked lessons in botanical distinction which we can lay before a novice, and because it is one which he can so easily verify for himself by means of the commonest wayside weeds or flowers. Here, then, we have the grand distinction between Handful I. and Handful IT., both made up of many- petaled plants; but in the former the petals and stamens are attached to the receptacle underneath the pistil, in the latter to the calyx. We now turn our attention literally to the busi- ness, or at least to the flowers in hand. We have found that those we are now examining are many- petaled, and that petals and stamens by their attach: ment te the calyx afford’ us a character which is a WAYSIDE WEEDS. ‘39 common bond of union; but after this, we must confess, we cannot show you any great resemblance. Veitch or pea tribe, rose or apple tribe, and hemlock tribe, to say nothing of saxifrage and willow herb, are not very similar. Pull this broom to ‘pieces; it is an excellent example of its order. Off come its petals one by one (Fig. 31), and an irregular lot they look. In Fre. 31.—Petals of common Broom, separated, a, standard; bb, wing; ¢. keel. truth, the pea-flowering tribe, in this country at least, has very irregular flowers, by which we mean that they can only be divided ‘one way’ into two ‘equal halves, You’ pull off the. petals « ‘and the ‘stamens remain (Fig. 82), amd there they “will re- 40 ‘WAYSIDE. WEEDS, main, evert long after the flower has withered and fallen, as we see in the example (Fig. 33). Look closely at the stamens (Fig. 82) after detaching the Fria. 34.—Calyx and essential organs of common Broom, a, calyx; 4, stamens; e, curved styles. petals. “You will perceive they are all joined together at the base by their filaments, and sur- Fig, 33:—Pod or Legume of common Broom a, legume; 6, persistent calyx; ey remains of ‘stamens ; d, remains of stigma, round, as it were, the pistil which in the broom (Fig. 82) has a peculiar curve. This pistil enlarges. into the seed-pod or legume (Fig. 33), and from this WAYSIDE WEEDS. 41 “form of seed=vessel the whole of these vétch and pea plants have taken their family name of Legu- minous Plants; albeit they have another name, taken from the fancied resemblance of some of the pea-blossoms. to a butterfly, and hence they are sometimes called Papilionaceous Plants. The pe- culiar form of these butterfly-like petals has pro- cured for them the names which are appended to the figure (Fig. 31). You can scarcely see one of these leguminous plants again without knowing its social status in the botanical world, and recognizing it as a member of a very important family—quite one of the most so in Flora’s kingdom. Most im- portant to man, seeing that from it he draws sucha number of articles which are almost indispensable to his comfortable existence. The trefoils or clovers, the vetches and the lucerne which fodder his cattle, and the peas, beans, lentils and pulses which feed himself, all come from the leguminous or pod-bearing tribe ; the valuable dyes, indigo and logwood, and the drugs gum-arabic, senna, and catechu are like- wise its products. Lastly, look at the leaves of our leguminous friends (Fig. 34) ; but of these we shall spéak in a future lesson, Suffice it to point out here that they are what botanists call compound, that they are characteristic as such, especially with the superaddition, to many, of the tendrils (Fig. 34). With distinct. petals, with petals and stamens 42 WAYSIDE WEEDS. attached to:the calyx, the rose tribes are grouped with our pod-bearing friends the Leguminos ; but - from them, in other respects, they differ widely. In the first place, the blossoms are regular ; you can cut .a strawberry,.a wild-rose, or an ‘apple blos- Fra. 34,—Compound Leaf of Vetch, , tendrils. ‘som through the centre, in any direction, into two equal halves. Calyx, corolla, stamens, pistil, varying in divisions, number, etc., are yet allregular. You ‘will have ‘no difficulty with the first three sets of organs in any we have made you gather; but when ‘you come to put the pistil, or rather pistils, of the ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. ‘48 ‘strawberry and bramble beside those of the apple or wild rose, you are probably quite thrown out. ‘The strawberry and the bramble (Fig. 28, 29) bear their pistils relatively to the. other parts of the ‘blossom, in accordance with your previous expe- ‘rience of plant arrangements; but the .rose and the apple seem to put their calyx and other parts right on the top of the pistil, or at least of the seed-vessel. We are too young in our lessons to consider this subject here; suffice it that the difference is more apparent than real. It is, however, sufficient difference to cause divisions in the great class of the Rosaceous plants; some claiming to be the true stock, or Roses, whilst others, including our friends the apples and pears, rank as the Pome tribe, and a third set take their places with the cherries and plums. Never- theless, divided or not, the Rosacez are a most excellent family, and are not one whit behind the pod-bearers in the amount of good things they pre- pare for us. The queen of flowers herself heads the procession, and though her train includes many a sweet blossom, the gréat forte of her tribe lies in the fruits;-strawberries and ‘raspberries, apple and pear, almond, and plum, and peach all belong to the lan of Queen Rose; and even.these must be ushered in with flowers, for truly the blushing apple-blossom and the ‘snowy clusters of pear and cherry -bloom. would be. thought. more. of but for Ad, ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. the fruits that follow them. Neither must we for- get that ‘with all the good things they give us, ‘they are also great preparers of prussic acid, and that bitter almonds, peach kernels, and even apple pips, contain it in abundance. True Rosaceans, however, are less given to this manufacture, and Fra. 35.—Compound Leaf of Rose. offer us astringency in its place. Many members of the rose tribe, like the rose itself (Fig. 35), have compound leaves, Group No. 3, in our hand, greets us with the very different aspect of the hemlock tribe (Fig, 80), We find, on examination, the bond of union in the attachment of the petals and stamens, but almost | WAYSIDE ‘WEEDS, 45. all else is different, First, there is the great dis- tinctive feature which gives. the family name of: umbel-bearers to this large section of the vegetable kingdom ; an umbel being that: peculiar disposition. of the flowers which we see in Fig, 30, and which we find in all plants. belonging to the order. Ob- serye how the flower-stems all spring from one central point. You will seldom gather these hem- Fre, 36.—Compound Leaf of Umbelliferous Plant, a, sheath for stem, lock-like plants with flowers otherwise than white, though some have a pinkish tinge, and one or two are yellow; moreover, we have compound leaves again (Fig. 36), but compound after ‘a different mode frém the leaves of the vetch, or of the rose; the leaf, too, sheaths the stem at its base, and the stem is more or less hollow. Look to these things, 46 WAYSIDE WEEDS%.° for they are part of your lesson, and then let, ts: see to: the blossoms. themselves. Here, perliaps,. you do not seé matters quite so-plainly as you did. in, the large-blossom plants we have hitherto ex+ amined’; a little more patience is required, and the magnifying glass.will aid. you. Do not forget. we- are, still among :the distinct petal flowers. ‘Five: Fre, 37.—A, Blossom of Umbelliferous Plant: a, petal, with inflected point;' b, stamens; c, pistil with double style. B, Fruit of Umbelliferous Plant: a, styles; b, stamens ¢, & fleshy disk; d, double fruit. C, Ripe Seeds or Carpels separating from central axis, D, Section of Seeds:-a, ribs; 3, oil- channels, or vitta. little petals have these umbellifers, placed on the top of what.you will recognize as the seed—seed-: vessel it is indeed (Fig. 37)—and with a calyx, more or less minute, adhering closely to the latter: On, the summit of this little double seed, you will more easily make out the double styles, and the five. WAYSIDE WEEDS: 47 stamens will not tax your patience much. Probably, before your examination has proceeded thus far, you will. have made the discovery that the petals of this tribe of plants are: by no means: equal in size, in all: eases, and, if you. have examined closely, that they, have frequently 4 peculiar turning in—inflection— at the top (Fig. 37).. Wescould say much respect-: ing the seeds (Fig. 37) of this extensive plant family,. but that belongs to the fruit: department; only, if you have opportunity, glance: at them now when somewhat. advanced towards:ripening: A very cur- sory examination will show you how different the: small, double, ribbed, and often aromatic. seed is. from those which. have hitherto: come under our notice. The caraway seed.is an excellent specimen.. Many drugs and aromatics, and vegetables such as. carrot, parsnip, celery, parsley, are’ yielded to us by’ the umbel-bearers.. _ Scarcely would it be possible to place in your hand representatives of orders of plants more im-: portant. or:more interesting than the triad of which. we have endeavoured. to. give you some idea, and perhaps we could not well select orders possessing” characters more likely to impress themselves upon the mind. of a beginner in; the study of botany.. Look, then, again and again at the pea tribe: flowers, or weeds if you will, at those of the roses. and of the umbel bearers, for they are most dis- tinct and natural in their markings, and well caleu- 48 WAYSIDE WEEDS. lated to form foundation lines for your future knowledge, We mentioned the white meadow saxifrage and the willow herb as included in our present handful of weeds, To such as know them by their familiar names they will offer examples of other, but per- haps less strongly marked, plant families, which still have the distinct-petal character and the caly- cine attachment of stamen and petal. ‘The white meadow saxifrage is an elegant plant, often found very abundantly during May, bearing its collection of white blossoms on a stem from four to six inches high, and springing from a root which seems made up of a number of bead-like granules, the size of small peas, It represents well a plant family, the Saxifrages, which contains many beautiful mem- bers, but from which man draws but little that is useful, The willow herbs are still more common than the saxifrages, and towards the end of June, and in July, are to be found by nearly every hedge- side—at least the lesser species with their small pink flowers, A little later, the great hairy willow’ herb of our ditches and ponds offers its handsome, large, rose-coloured blossoms. If you know the plants, or can find them, you will recognize the same structural arrangement of petal and stamen that we have dwelt so much upon, and when you come to examine the pistil (Fig. 38) you get. another variety of the organ; for here the stigma Spotted Rock-rose. Hispid Mallow. WAYSIDE WEEDS, 49 is elegantly cleft into four divisions. The fruiting and seeding of these willow herbs are peculiar ; but of that hereafter. The parts of plants to which, in these our early lessons, we have more especially directed your attention, are all included in the term Reproductive Fie. 38.—a, Four-cleft stigma of willow herb. Organs—that is to say, they are such as conduce ta the formation of the seed upon which the con- tinuation and reproduction of the plant species depend. The calyx, the corolla, the stamens, the pistil, make up what we commonly understand as a flower, and without a flower there can be no seed; but a botanist’s flower and a florist’s flower are two very different things. The florist requires gay colouring and fine. petals, and cares but little for stamen or pistil; the botanist looks to the latter only as the essentials of his flower—in other words, these organs are all that are required for the prod duction of seed, and are therefore the essential reproductive organs; indeed, in some plants we find no flowering beyond the stamen and pistil development. 50 WAYSIDE WEEDS, “ God might have made the earth bring forth Enough for great and small ; The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, Without a flower at all. “He might have made enough, enough, For every want of ours ; For medicine, luxury, and toil, And yet have made no flowers.” And truth it is that, for aught we can see, we might have had all essential means of seed pro- duction without that beauty which He who made all things has lavished upon the lilies of the field. Calyx and corolla are apparently non-essential to seeding, and yet we cannot but imagine that they subserve some office of greater or less importance beyond delighting the eye. THE CALYX Of a plant has its first office in the protection of the flower-bud—covering the tender organs within, until their time for full expansion has come. Then it assumes various modes of procedure. We have seen, as in the poppy (Fig. 39), it may be cast off as the blossom opens, separating in one piece like an extinguisher, and allowing the petals, which seem to have been crumpled up within it, to expand in their full size and beauty. More generally, however, the calyx remains for a longer or shorter time after the flower blows, and in many plants it is still there after the petals of WAYSIDE WEEDS, 51 the corolla have fallen, either protecting the growing seed-vessel, or forming part of what people gene- rally call the fruit itself. The latter we find to be the case in the apple, the pear, the thorn, the fruit Fira. 39.—Poppy-bud drooping before flowering, and casting off two-pieced ealyx. of these being partly composed of the enlarged calyx. When a calyx falls off early, it is called a deciduous calyx; when it remains till the fruit has formed, it is called persistent. As yet, our calyces have been green or leaf-like organs, more or less regular, and easy of recog- nition. You must not, however, expect always to find them bearing this palpable character; they are often very irregular in form, sometimes in one piece, sometimes in two, sometimes in more. Neither is the calyx always green: of this we have had some notice in the frequently deep-coloured flower-cup of the wallflower, or yellow bivalve of the gorse, though, in these instances, it preserves its well-marked distinction from the brighter corolla. But there are cases where, although the corolla 52 WAYSIDE WEEDS. exists, it is so insignificant as to be entirely eclipsed by the more brilliant calyx—such we find in the hellebores or Christmas roses of our gardens; and, lastly, as in the anemones, the corolla may be absent altogether, and its place supplied by a calyx as beautiful as any corolla. In such cases the calyx is called petaloid or flower-like, The crocus and the snowdrop likewise offer us examples of the petaloid calyx, and in such plants the entire flower, composed of petals and sepals, is frequently called the perianth, When the calyx is joined together so as to constitute a one-pieced or monosepalous calyx, its composition of several conjoined parts is usually indicated by toothings, foldings, or marking, as we shall see in the primrose, Lastly, the calyx is frequently irregular in form; in this respect generally being coincident with irregularity of form in the corolla it encloses. Did space permit, we might enlarge greatly upon the variety of forms to be found in calyces, but now that our readers can recognize the part for themselves, it is better that they should seek out their knowledge by looking at every plant or weed for that variation—and beautiful variation too—which they will not fail to find, One last. word over our flower-cups. You will not long have examined plants before you meet, every now and then, with a calyx which looks yather like a collection of the ordinary leaves of the plant,-than like. an orderly, well-conducted calyx, WAYSIDE WEEDS. 53 This is especially remarkable among the roses and the primrose tribe, and it is, in fact, an effort of the calyx to metamorphose itself back to its original leaf-type. This is a subject of plant lore, however, which, only hinted at now, may engage your atten- tion at some future time. COROLLA. Calyx first, next within comes the corolla, regular. or irregular in form, in many pieces or petals, as we have.met with hitherto, or in one ‘piece as we shall come upon it ere long. Now, ‘before we take the flower in its full expanse of beauty, let us give short attention to it whilst yet in its baby state, cradled within.its calyx. Take ‘any common flowers or weeds you know, or, for that matter, that you may not know by name; open their buds—tear them open if you will, but also cut them in various directions with a sharp -knife ; see how beautifully packed within are these petals, which, next day, or hour even, are to open in all their expanded pride, without a crease or fold upon them. These-poppy petals-that we spoke of a little above, look really and. truly crumpled up, and yet in the expanded blossom not a trace remains of such usage. This bud-packing is known, botanically, as the estivation of flowers, and the term is applicable to calyx as well as corolla, for the calyx, you will find, has its set forms of bud- 54 WAYSIDE WEEDS. ding. Like the calyx, the corolla, when it is joined up into one piece, as it is in the primrose, the harebell or bluebell, or in the blue veronica, indicates its many-pieced origin by the divisions, more or less deep, which are marked upon it; these divisions bearing the same position, rela- tively, to the divisions of the calyx that distinct petals do—that is to say, the corolla petals or divisions are placed in alternation with the calyx sepals, or divisions, not opposite. Mark the fact, as we shall have to return to it. The forms of the corolla are exceedingly nume- rous; the crucifer or cross-like, the papilionaceous or butterfly-like, and the rosaceous we have already seen, but to these we must add the labiated, as we shall see it in the common white nettle, the bell shape of the bluebell, the wheel shape of the forget-me-not, and the strap-shaped little florets of the dandelion, or of the white ray of the daisy. Moreover, as if height, colour, and varied and lovely form were not enough, you will find many @ blossom ornamented with other appendages, such as hairs, glands, coronets, etc., which add to its beauty. Go and see. STAMENS. Within the corolla, and, when definite in num- ‘ber, alternating with its divisions, in the perfect flower, we have the stamens, those important WAYSIDE WEEDS. 55 organs which, along with the pistil, constitute the essential reproductive organs. You have already examined common plants enough to be aware that the stamens are not by any means definite in number, but occur in every proportion, from the many of the buttercup or rose to the few of the wallflower or the umbellifer. But if varied in number, they are far from being so in form (Fig. 40). The filament, or support of the anther, may $ Fie. 40.—Stamen. a, anther ; 4, filament; ¢ pollen. be absent without injury to the utility of the organ ; in other words, the anther is the essential part. Examine the latter attentively, using a lens if possible. You will quickly see that almost inva- riably this anther is composed of two lobes; and if you extend your observations, you will see that from each of these lobes, which are in reality little, pouches, is discharged a fine yellow dust. Shake your flowers over a dark. surface, and if the anthers 56 WAYSIDE WEEDS. be ripe, this pollen dust will come out in a golden shower. Dust it looks, but dust it is not; for if you get it sufficiently highly magnified, you will find it to consist of multitudes of minute bead-like grains, generally round, but sometimes oval or triatigular. When ripe, shaken or not, the anthers discharge their pollen by a regular. mode of open- ing, or, as it is called, dehiscence; this opening, in most cases, taking place along a line of suture, but in some instances by means of pores or valves. The very abundance of the pollen contents of these anthers testifies to its importance; without it, plant perpetuation does not take place. But before we get upon that subject, we must make further acquaintance than we have done yet with the other essential organ of reproduction, and for this we must look to the centre of the flower. THE PISTIL Is the central organ of the blossom, the seed- bearer. You will find, indeed you must have found already, the pistil much more varied in form than the stamens. In the buttercup it is made up of many members; in the poppy it consists, appa. rently, of but one; in the leguminous plants of one; in the umbellifers of two; in the rosaceans apparently of one in some cases, of many in others. In short, there is no end to the varieties of pistil, and such you will find the case as you go on WAYSIDE WEEDS. 57 examining blossom after blossom, as of course you will do. This seed-bearing, seed-developing pistil is composed of three parts—the ovary or seed+ vessel, the style, and the stigma. Of ‘these, two are essential, the stigma and the seed-vessel; but the style, though usually present, may, apparently, asin the poppy, where the stigma lies close upon the top of the ovary, be dispensed with. Indeed, the style, like the filament of the stamen, appears to be simply a mechanical addition to essential parts, to fit them for their relative positions in the Fig. 41,—Pistil of Primrose. wu, stigma; 8, style; ¢, ovary. blossom. As you will find, in a future lesson, the entire plant is covered with a thin skin, or epider- mis, as it is called; and only at one point is this wanting, that point being the stigma of the pistil, which, instead of epidermis, is coated with a glu. tinous matter, to which adhere the grains of pollen as they are discharged from the anther. The adhering grains convey to the ovules within the seed-vessel the power of becoming perfect seeds, ° for it isarule, seemingly without exception, that if there is no pollen, no seeds are formed. In the 58 WAYSIDE WEEDS. majority of plants, the stamens and the pistils are found combined in the same blossom; but in some, such as the lychnis, which we gathered into Hand- ful No. 1, they are not only in separate blossoms, but in separate plants, perhaps widely separated. Is it not a great chance that the pollen of the one ‘blossom reaches the stigma of the other? If it depended. on chance it would be; but He who Fic, 42.—Diagram of a perfect flower. a a, calycine, or external whorl, of organs alternating with 5 5, corolline whorl; ¢ c, staminal whorl, opposite calycine divisions, alternate with corolline; d d, pistiline whorl, opposite corolline, alternating with staminal and calycine, : separated the blossoms has made also the provision that they do not bloom in vain. Watch that bee who is coming away from the stamen-bearing lychnis flower, and carrying with him a golden embroidery of pollen; why, the very next thing he does is to fly off to that blossom which is wait- ing for it, and rub his spangled jacket against it. Neither is it bees only which are the pollen carriers, ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. “59 for other insects, doubtless, are equally useful: and there exist well-authenticated instances of pollen thus being carried many miles to its destined use. Remember, however, that the pollen of a rose ‘will not fertilize a wallflower, nor that of a hem- lock a poppy; like must to like, and that it will to like renders it needful for the seed-prower and nurseryman to be very careful in his way. Allied plants, such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc., do intermingle in their fertilization, and, as a consequence, a choice variety may be deteriorated or lost by the flowering of other varieties of the same family in its immediate neighbourhood. How- ever, this is digression. To go back to the stigma and its varied forms; we have already alluded to the four-cleft organ of the willow herb, now look at the harebell or campanula, and it is three-cleft ; find it out in the grasses, and it is an elegant feather ; in the primrose, a little knob like a pin’s head. We have already remarked that the organs of the flower were essential and non-essential with reference to the production of seed, the essential being the stamen and pistil. Nevertheless, the botanist regards that blossom only as the type of a perfect flower which possesses calyx and corolla, stamens and pistils fully developed; a lychnis wanting in one blossom the pistil, in another the stamens, or the anemones with a petaloid calyx 60 WAYSIDE WEEDS. instead of corolla, are not perfect flowers, botani- cally speaking. Be it remarked, too, that not only must these parts be present, but they must be developed in a regular series of circles, or whorls, as they are called, the organs alternating one with the other; the corolla divisions alternating with those of the calyx, the stamens with the divisions of the corolla on the one side, and with the parts of the pistil on the other (Fig. 42), These relative positions are, of course, altered by variations in number and development, but still they afford to botanists a standard by which to judge in the determination of doubtful parts. Hanhinl 224, The Plants of the Handful—Honeysuckle and Blue- bell, @aisy, Lhistles, Wild Chamomile, Ragwort, and Colt’s-foot—Hilder Flower—The Bedstraws— The one-pieced, or one-petaled or Monopetalous Co- rolla—Composite Blossoms—The Composite Family —ZInflorescence—The Scape and Rachis—T he Capi- tulum—The Spike—Azillary Flowers—The Raceme —The Umbel — The Panicle —The Cathkin — The Whorl—Glomerulus, Spathe, and Cyme—Bracts. HANDFUL III. ‘ Their heads Flowers raise, to greet the sun; and man, too, lifts His thankful soul to God for all these summer gifts.” CatpER CaMPBELL. Wuart have we? Honeysuckle, certainly, by the scent, before we see it, and the “ bonny bluebell,” and the “ wee, modest, crimson-tipped ” daisy, that Burns wrote of, and that Chaucer well-nigh wor- shipped as well as wrote of. These are almost enough to make a handful of themselves. But mind your fingers, for there should be prickly thistles amid our gathering this time, and the great ox-eye, or, as it is called in some places, horse- daisy, and one of those plants which children call wild chamomile (Fig. 43), and the yellow ragwort (Fig. 44), with early spring colt’s-foot, dandelion, and a bunch of elder flowers. We will not pay our readers the bad compliment to suppose they do not know every plant we have just named ; probably, too, they can tell the bedstraws and the woodruff, 64 WAYSIDE WEEDS. with their leaves placed round their stems in what is called a whorl, as shown in Fig. 45. These last do not add much to the appearance of our Handful ; Fre. 43.—Blossom of common Wild Chamomile, a, disk; 6, ray; ¢, peduncle, The leaves are divided into capillary or hair-like segments. Inflorescence definite, : but should you chance to cast your plants aside for a few days, you will find that the woodruff has, in withering, developed its sweet, new-mown hay odour, more especially so if: you are pressing it in Germander Speedwell. Yellow Bedstraw. Wood Hawkweed. Ivy-leaved Bell-fower. WAYSIDE WEEDS, 65 paper; the other flowers having quite lost their scent. Fre, 44.—Blossoms of common Ragwort. The inflorescence is definite, and arranged in a corymb. You look at the blossoms of the honeysuckle (Fig. 46), the bluebell (Fig. 47), the elder, and, if F 66 WAYSIDE WEEDS. you have a good magnifier, at those of the bed- straws and woodruff, and you quickly discover that we have left the domain of the many-petaled flowers, and reached that section where the corolla is all in one piece. (See Fig. 46.) If you attempt to re- Fig. 45.—Leaves of common W oodruff, arranged in a Whor!l. move it, it must either come away all in a piece, or it must tear; only you cannot understand why the daisy, the thistle, the ragwort (Fig. 44), and such like plants, find their place here, for truly they seem made up of pieces enough. We will get to them presently. Now these plants in our hand have one bond of WAYSIDE WEEDS. 67 connection with those we gathered into Handful II. They belong to what is called the “ Calycifloral” section ; in other words, their stamens and corolla are inserted upon the calyx, and not, like the flowers in Handful I., upon the receptacle. Moreover, the plants we are now examining have their corolla and Fie. 46,—Blossom of common Honeysuckle, in one piece, or monopetalous. a, corolla; 4, calyx; e, stamens; d, pistil. stamens (Figs. 46 and 47) fixed, as it were, on the top of the ovary, as in the case of the true roses and the pome tribe, and also the umbellifers in many-petaled calyciflore; this bemg due im all these cases to the calyx growing up, as it were, around, and thus inclosing the ovary; to speak botanically, being “adnate” toit. The corolla and stamens, however, are just as much inserted into 68 WAYSIDE WEEDS, the calyx in these cases as they are in the straw- berry and the bramble (Fig. 294). Thus, then, we have our present section of plants marked off from Fis. 47.—Blossoms of common Bluebell, or Harebell. The inflorescence is arranged in a panicle, aa, leaves of plant; 6 5, bracts. all others; they are distinct from the many-petaled, and they are no less distinct from their monopetaled WAYSIDE WEEDS. 69 or one-petaled brethren, which have corolla and stamens inserted into the receptacle beneath the Fre, 48,—Fruit of common Elder, arranged in a cyme. pistil, pistils, or ovary, like the buttercups and poppies, Not much is it our honeysuckles do for us in the 70 ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS, way of the “utile,” but in the “dulce” they are pre-eminent ; for what would English hedgerows be in June without their twining woodbines, and what would Scottish braes be in July without their own. bluebells, that every summer-straying bairn fills her hands with? How very different from the honeysuckle are the latter (Fig. 47), but yet how akin the parts of likeness for which we have taken them together. Look at one of the flowers from the bunch of elder blossoms, which is so like your old friends of the hemlock or umbellifer tribe; its one-pieced corolla springs from the top of the seed- vessel, which seed-vessel (Fig. 48) albeit will be a black elderberry in September, and its juice, may- hap, form one drop in the cup of hot spiced wine that good housewives delight in. Now, we give you credit for understanding the preceding ex- planations, but we can see that ever and anon you are puzzling to know what thistles, and daisies, and colt’s-foot do here, reminded, perhaps, every now and then, by the prickly remembrances of the , former as you grasp your flowers. _ Take any one of these last-named plants you like, say the colt’s-foot, which will probably greet us first in early spring with its yellow-rayed blossom, and let out farming secrets. However, “pull the flower’s head to pieces, and what do youfind? Not a number of distinct petals, but a numerous com- pany of little flowers, or rather florets (Fig. 49), a WAYSIDE WEEDS. 71 each with its one little ovary or seed, and the little feathery surroundings which represent the calyx; for bear in mind that the green covering which incloses the buds (Fig. 49, d) and holds the ex- panded flower is not a calyx; but of that more hereafter. Look at your dissected colt’s-foot blos- Fig. 49.—Greatly-magnified view of three florets of common Colt’s-foot. «@ tubular floret of disk, with both stamens and pistil,e; 6, bud; e, strap- shaped floret of ray, without stamens, but with pistil, £; ¢d, bracts of in- volucre; g, seed or achene, surrounded by the feathery calyx or pappus, k ; k, common receptacle. som again with your magnifying-lens, or, failing the blossom, at the figure. The first thing that will strike you is, that the little florets in the middle are very different from those at the circumference (Fig. 49, a, c). The little central flower is as perfect, aye, and as beautiful, a little flower as can be, except that its calyx is not quite after the 72 WAYSIDE WEEDS, usual fashion. Its pistil extrudes from its centre (Fig. 49, e) and the little stamens form a tube round it. Botanically, these little central florets are called the florets of the disk, in contradistinction to those at the circumference, which are called the florets of the ray (Fig. 49, c). These last, as you at once see, are not regular, symmetrical flowers like those of the disk, but are long and “ strap-shaped.” More- over, they have a pistil of their own (Fig. 49, /), “ovary, and feathery calyx or “pappus,” but no stamens, their florets depending for their fertili- zation upon the stamens of the disk, as well they may. Now, this colt’s-foot blossom is a most excellent example of this tribe of plants, the Composites, which, for all their appearance belied them, have, you see, one-pieced blossoms after all, only the blossoms are collected into a close head or capitu- lum, instead of being spread over a stem or peduncle. The part on which the florets are placed (Figs. 49, h, and 50, 6), and which represents the peduncle, is called in these plants the receptacle; and the green envelope which represents the leaves of the pe- duncle, or bracts, is called the involucre (Figs. 49, h, and 5], d). You must not run away with the idea, however, that all our composite heads of flowers are exactly similar to the colt’s-foot. In the daisy, in the rag- WAYSIDE WEEDS. 73 wort (Fig. 44), in the wild chamomile (Fig. 43), you will find them similar; but not so in the hawkweed (Fig. 51) or in the dandelion, which should not have waited our special mention until now. In the latter, the florets are all strap-shaped, like those of the colt’s-foot ray; whilst in the thistle (Fig. 50), and other allied composites, they are all tubular, like those of the colt’s-foot disk. Fie. 60.—Section of Head, or Capitulum, of common Thistle, @, florets; b, common receptacle ; c, bracts, or involucre, It will be an excellent lesson and exercise for you to gather these composite blossoms and examine them. You must expect, in doing so, to find con- siderable variation in the distribution of the stamens and pistils in the tiny florets. The composites form such an extensive family, that botanists are fain to divide them, according to these floret distinctions, 74 ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. into tribes, whereof the lettuces, dandelion, hawk- weed, etc., belong to one, the thistles and burdocks to another, the daisy, ragwort, colt’s-foot, and many another to the third. We have already alluded to-the peculiar form which the calyx——not the involucre, remember— assumes in the composite family; feathery in a Fig, 51.—Back view of blossom of common Hawkweed, a, strap-shaped florets of ray ; 2, bracts, coustituting the:common involucre; ¢, peduncle ; d, scale. greater or less degree, as familiar to us all, in thistle- down, and in the dandelion parachute, and botani- cally called the pappus, it remains after the floret has withered and fallen off, and until the ripened seed calls for its aid to transport it far from the parent plant. Something more of this aérial seed- sowing may we learn if we give careful attention to “WAYSIDE WEEDS. 75 these plants when fruiting. It is not all composites, however, which have these feathery wings; the ‘daisy, the chamomile, the chrysanthemum, and ‘others, have none, or at best a few tiny scales, to show where they should be. Both in the way of food and medicine, the com- posites, of which we have examined these few repre- sentatives, yield largely to man. The prevailing principle is a bitter, sometimes, as in the wormwood, aromatic, or, as in the lettuce, narcotic to an extent which makes itself known even in the cultivated vegetables, and is strong in some of the uncultivated species, Dahlias, asters, cinerarias, purple groundsel, the everlastings, are a few of the many brilliant flowers this great family offers to us. The elder, which we lately mentioned, belongs to the same tribe as the honeysuckle, whilst the woodruff and bedstraws represent to us the madders, their most remarkable features being the “ whorled” disposition of the leaves around the stem (Fig. 45). The bedstraws have some of them white, others have yellow flowers ; the flowers of the woodruff are small, but brilliant white, and those of the little field-madder are pink. Tiny corollas are they all, but elegantly cruciform in shape. If you have the patience to dissect them under your lens you will find the stamens fixed to the corolla, and the corolla to the calyx. No lens do you need, however, to look at the bluebells, the representatives of thé 76 WAYSIDE WEEDS, campanula tribe, and you easily make out that the same floral structure which has grouped our Handful prevails with them ; the stamens, however, are not attached to the corolla, and the stigma is lobed. In the lesson which we appended to Handful II.,. we endeavoured to give you some idea of the parts of a perfect flower, their uses and arrangement; we have now to go a step further, and say somewhat of the methods according to which flowers are arranged upon the plants which bear them. Perhaps it never occurred to many of our noviciate readers that flowers are arranged upon their stems in any definite way. They know that their mignonette grows in a little pyramid, their Tom Thumb geraniums and calceo- larias in sorts of bunches, and so on, and suppose there is some sort of set fashion for them; but as to what it is, they have not the most remote idea. Let us see whether we cannot make our few way- side weeds give us a clue to unravel, in some degree at least, flower arrangements, or, as it is called in botany, THE INFLORESCENCE. We need scarcely remark that flowers, and blos- soms generally, are supported upon a stalk or stem of some kind. In certain instances there is but one flower to a stem, as in the primrose, the snowdrop, etc.; in others, the blossoms are crowded on by WAYSIDE WEEDS. 77 hundreds and thousands, and in every variety of form and arrangement, Now this primary or main flower-stem goes by the general name of peduncle, and when, as often occurs, other little stems are Fra. 52.—Flower-spikes end Leaves of common Plantain. The peduncle springing from the root-crown is called a scape. It. might also .be called a rachis, because of its running straight to the extremity of the inflorescence. given off from it, they are known by the diminutive of pedicels, or little stems. When the peduncle springs direct from the root-crown, or root-leaves, and, unbranched, bears a single blossom, it dg called 78 WAYSIDE WEEDS. a scape; but it also bears the name of scape when, as in the daisy, the dandelion, the plantain (Fig. 52), the cowslip, or oxslip, it carries a collection of blossoms. Indeed, the latter plants, although their flowers are differently arranged, approach very near the primrose in their inflorescence, and we have only to imagine the primrose scapes bound to- Fig. 53.—Spray of common Scarlet Pimpernel. a a, blossoms, solitary, springing from the axils of the leaves, which are thence called bracts. gether part way up, to get the first transition to a compound form of flowering. Again, let us do away with the pedicels of the cowslip blossoms, and mass these together upon the top of the scape, and we get the head, or capitulum, such as we see in the daisy and other composites, or, reversing the PLATE 7. Cross-leaved Heath, Cranberry. Fine-leaved Heath. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 79 process, prolong the scape, and plant the blossoms closely along it, still keeping away the pedicels, and we have the spike such as we see in the common plantain (Fig. 52), the main stem still retaining the name of scape. In this case it might ; Fie. 54.—Fine-leaved Heath. Bl disposed in 4 and partly whorled. also be called the rachis, another term for a stem, but. for one which runs in a straight line from their base through the centre of the inflorescence. Of course, however, the majority of plants, as our readers are well aware, have not the stems thus 80 WAYSIDE WEEDS. rising from amid their root-leaves, and the umbel, the spike, or the capitulum, and any other forms of inflorescence may occur in connection with other peduncles than scapes; and, on the other hand, solitary blossoms do not necessarily claim scapes for their supports. Look at Fig. 58, which represents a sprig of the common scarlet pimpernel, a common enough weed, 4 Fra. 55,--Sprig of common Currant. Bl inap dent r: though we have not yet placed it in your hand; the flowers spring all the way up the stem, but each is solitary on its own peduncle, and starts from the junction of the stem with a leaf, or, as it is called, from the axilla of the leaf, the blossoms being described as solitary and axillary. But these leaves, from the axils of which the flowers spring, might be greatly: diminished in size, niight be dwindled WAYSIDE WEEDS. 81 down to little more than scales, and. the peduncles might be shortened ; in which case we should have such a form of flower arrangement as we see at Fig, 54, forming what is called a raceme, The raceme is one of those most common forms of in- florescence, and may be erect (as in Fig. 54), or drooping, as in the currant (Fig. 55), Now sup- pose, instead of these little pedicels of the raceme blossoms being all the same length, we have the upper or central ones short, and the lower or outer ones prolonged so as to bring the blossoms nearly to the same level, we have a corymb, as in the bramble (see Fig. 29, p. 35); but if we take a corymb, and, as it were, draw it out from the centre, we again get the raceme—a change of form of inflorescence which actually occurs in the floral development of such plants as the wallflower and other crucifers, only that in these cases the little scales, or bracts, necessary to the true raceme, are wanting. Once more let us have all our pedicels springing from one point, and we have the true umbel (Fig. 30, p. 37), which may be simple, or, as in the figure, compound, the secondary umbels. of the compound form being named wmbellules, or little umbels, As already alluded to, it is only requisite to concentrate the flowers of the umbel to get the head of the composite. When araceme, still retaining the raceme character, becomes branched, we get the panicle, which is the common flowering @ 82 WAYSIDE WEEDS. form of most of the grasses (Fig. 56), differing,. however, greatly in the compactness or diffuseness of its arrangement. Many grasses, such as wheat, Fic. 56.—Panicled Inflorescence of Grass_- WAYSIDE WEEDS. 85 barley, darnel-grass, etc., have the true spiked form of flowering, each spike being made up of numerous spikelets (locusts) ; and these, as we shall see when we come to examine grasses, are made up of a larger or smaller number of blossoms. The pe- duncle of the grass is often called the rachis, and a gan ‘ Fic, 58.—Red Dead Nettle; the blossoms disposed in whorls or verticillasters. . the stem is a culm. When a spike of flowers droops, as it does in the poplar, hazel, etc., it is called a catkin, and the fertile flower of the hop (Fig. 57) gets the same name. When in our next Handful you make acquaintance with the mint or 86 WAYSIDE WEEDS. labiate tribe of plants, to which the common red ‘or dead nettle (Fig. 58) belongs, you will find a still different flowering plan; for the blossoms are col- lected closely round the stem, in the leaf axils, in Fie. 59,—Common Stinging Nettle. Inflorescence in a glomerulus, little bundles properly called verticillasters, but often described as whorls, The stinging nettle (Fig. 59), not the slightest connection, not even a “Scotch cousin,” of its namesake, has its flowers— WAYSIDE WEEDS. 87 some of our readers stare at the idea—in little clusters, each one of which constitutes a glomerulus. One of the most unique forms of inflorescence, how- ever, is the spathe (Fig. 60), which is composed of an assemblage of blossoms inclosed within a sort of sheath or hood; as in the wake-robin—lords and ladies—so common by English hedge-sides in early spring; most Enghsh children know it, and will readily recognize what is meant. Almost we fear to bewilder you with these varied names and de- scriptions, which it is difficult to make attractive to a beginner, though it is well to get some know- ledge of them. Only one more, and we have done. Look at Fig. 48, which illustrates the fruit-cluster of the common elder ; it is neither umbel, corymb, nor raceme, but seems a mixture of all three, and gets the name of cyme. It is most near the corymb, however, in form, and derives its principal diversity from the order in which its blossoms become de- veloped and expanded; albeit this ‘brings us to another subject connected with inflorescence—the order of expansion of blossoms, whether definite or indefinite, whether tending towards the centre of the floral axis or centre, or tending away from it. It is, perhaps, better, in these our early days of weed-gathering, not to puzzle you with this sub- ject; it is scarcely requisite for our first lessons, which we are bound in good faith to keep as simple for you as possible. Look back to Fig, 53, the 88 WAYSIDE WEEDS. sprig of scarlet pimpernel: the solitary flowers spring from the axils of what we called leaves, but. Fie. 60.—Reproduetive Organs, or Flower of common “ Wake-robin,” inclosed in a large bract, called a spathe. u, stamens; 4, pistils. leaves they are not in the eye of a botanist, for their proper designation is BRACTS. In many instances, as in the one in question, the bracts are scarcely, if at all, distinguishable WAYSIDE WEEDS. 89 from the ordinary leaves of the plant. This is more especially the case with the lower bracts of a flower series, for the upper ones become less leaf-like. Nevertheless, whether in every respect like an ordinary leaf, or whether not more than an insig- nificant scale, the appendage at. the base of a peduncle or pedicel is always known as the bract. Fie. 61.—Twig of Lime-tree. a, bract; 6, leaf; ¢, fruit. Refer back to the various figures with which the present paper and those preceding are illustrated, and you will find numerous instances of bracts. At times, however, bracts, or collections of bracts, are called involucres, when they envelope such collections of blossoms as the heads of the composites, the umbels, etc. The bract of the common lime-tree is such an excellent example of bract formation (Fig. 61), that though the lime is scarcely a “ wayside weed,” we make no excuse for bringing it forward. If you really do not as yet 90 WAYSIDE WEEDS, know a lime-tree, you can scarce miss it henceforth when you know that you cannot go withm many yards of it in July without being attracted by the scent of the blossoms, or by the hum of the myriads of bees which swarm around it. Go, pray, for the sake of the bract, pluck a twig of the first lime you meet with, only remember it belongs to Handful No. L, for it is a many-petaled bloomer. Hanstul BV. Handful IV. w Handful of Favourites—-They are One- petaled—WDistinetion from Handful Iil.—Our Bo- tanical Position in Handful IV.—Free and Attached Stamens—Primroses and Forget-me-nots—Pimper- nel and Loosestrife—The Primula tribe—T he Speed- well and Figworts—The Labiates or Lipped Flowers —Convolvulus andPlantain—Leaves— Their Infinite Variety— Carts of the Leaf—Ribs and Veins— Netted Veins and Straight Veins—Compound Leaves and Simple Leaves — Leaf Surfaces, ete. — Cutting of Leaves—Stemless or Sessile Leaves—Seed-leaves— Leaf-buds. HANDFUL IV. “ By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass.” Wuen we come to look into Handful IV., we find we have got in the midst of a whole host of well- known favourites—regular play-fellows, almost, which seem to have grown up with us from child- hood, though many a fair generation of blossoms— we almost fear to think how.many—has come and gone since some of us first gathered primroses or cowslips in May, forget-me-nots in full summer’s flushing, heather from the purple hills of August, or holly to deck the rooms in those days when mince pies and plum-pudding had their special relish and their special impunity, or before we cared to know to what division, family, or genus the botanist assigned our favourites ; but now, that is just what we want to know, so let us see, in the first place, what we have got. Heath-flowers and heather ; the holly, though many of our reader, probably, know the leaves and berries better than they do the blossoms ; conyolvulus, or bindweed, or lap-love, for it has all those names (Fig. 71); forget-me-not 94 WAYSIDE WEEDS. (Fig. 68), sufficiently well-known to every youth who has consigned his heart to the keeping of some fair maid, and, for that matter, sufficiently well known to the fair maids themselves. Next have we the veronica, speedwell, or Venus’s looking- glass, of real heavenly blue. The mint family, with the red and white dead-nettles, the wild thyme, and the self-heal (Fig. 62) come next; then our friends the primrose and the cowslip, and, with them, the scarlet pimpernel, or poor man’s weather-glass, which closes its brilliant petals long before the com- ing storm. Lastly, we have plantain for the bird- fancier, and the pink-headed thrift of seaside wastes, but perhaps more familiar as a bordering to old- fashioned flower-beds. We have a rare Handful this time, almost the best of our series, and were we not afraid of increasing its dimensions beyond our grasp, we might have graced it with more well- known blossoms still, such as the conspicuously handsome foxglove race; but we have enough and to spare for our lesson. It does not need much dteeaitian: of our blossoms to tellus that we have all monopetalous corollas, and indeed that bright blue veronica (Fig. 68) does not wait for our dissecting, but insists on casting off its corollas all in a piece, with the two stamens adher- ing. They are thoroughly deciduous corollas. The rest of our flowers are not. quite so precipitate in their proceedings, but there is scarce one we have SS | A) Fic. 62,—Common Self-heal. Blossoms arranged spike-like, in whorls, within coloured bracts. The irregular, lipped blossoms, the irregular calyx, the square stem, and the opposite leaves, are all characteristics of the Labiate leaves. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 97 named which will not at once disclose its mono- petalous character to the most cursory examination. One-petaled, therefore, are our present flowers, like those of our last Handful, but thé attachment of Fig. 63.—One-pieced deciduous corolla of common Speedwell, @ a, the stamens attached to the corolla, the corolla is like that of our first-examined blossom of the many-petaled families—namely, to the recep- tacle beneath the ovary, and not to the calyx. Our present plants, therefore, belong to the one-petaled * Corolliflore ”? section, in contradistinction to the one-petaled Calyciflore. Now, before going further, let us get a clear idea where we are in the botanical world. We made our entrance into it, as you may remember, by examining plants* which had blossoms in many distinct pieces, whereof the buttercups and their relations were prominent ex- amples, the blossoms having both petals and stamens fixed to the receptacle just beneath the seed vessel or vessels. Our next move was to plants which, still with many petals, had both petals and stamens * See Handful No. 1, 98 WAYSIDE WEEDS. attached, not to the receptacle, but to the calyx,* the rose tribe being the first examples. Another advance brought us to plants which, instead of having many-pieced corollas, had them all im one piece,t but still with the same attachment as the last named many-petaled, to the calyx; and now in our fourth step we find ourselves returning to the receptacle attachment as at first, only with mono- petalous corollas. To make the above more clear, we subjoin the following table, which is a slight simplification of that prefixed to that best of British Floras, Hooker and Arnott’s :-— Corolla and stamens inserted on recep- tacle, represented by buttercups and poppies. Corolla and stamens inserted upon calyx, represented by roses and pea tribes. Corolla and stamens inserted upon calyx, represented by campanulas and composites, Corolla and stamens inserted on recep- tacle, represented by primrose and mint tribes. Corolla in Many Pieces Corolla in One Piece A glance will now tell our traveller in Flora’s realms the ground he has already gone over, and, as we find ourselves in the fourth or last division, we again return to our primroses and their con- geners. We should tell you, however, that in this last division there is yet a sub-division into plants * See Handful No. 2. + See Handful No. 3. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 99 which, like the heaths and the plantain (Fig. 64), have their stamens free from the corolla, and into those, constituting by far the largest portion of this mortopetalous division, which have their stamens attached to the corolla, and, consequently, through it to the receptacle. Take one of these little heath- bells (Fig. 54), open it up, and you will see the stamens are all connected directly with the recep- Fre, 64,—Floret of common Plantain. @ a, elongated fil ts of st tacle. Now take your primrose flower (Fig. 65), and you will find the five stamens all inside the tube (Fig. 66), and so closely attached to it, that there is scarcely anything you can call a filament. The heath flower is a good example of what botanists call the inflated corolla, as the primrose (Fig. 65) is of the salver-shaped, the flat expanded portion con- stituting the limb, which merges into. the tube at the throat (Fig. 67). Compare the forget-me-not in your hand with these ; it is somewhat like the 100 WAYSIDE WEEDS. primrose, but more wheel-shaped ; the tube you will find is much shorter than that of the primrose or Fie. 65.—Salver-shaped bl of Primrose. a, globular stigma showing at mouth of cylindrical tube. cowslip, and yet it includes the stamens, which are attached to it. Moreover, the little tube is partly Fig. 66.—Flower of common Primrose laid open. a, limb of corolla; 6, tube of corolla; e¢, calyx; d, pistil; ¢, stamens. closed over with scales or valves. ‘There are many species of the forget-me-not—mouse-ear it is some+ times called—but we are now presuming that you WAYSIDE WEEDS. 10t have got. the largest and handsomest—the water-, plant (Fig. 68), the true forgot-me-not which. the: drowning troubadour cast ashore to the feet,of his lady-love. The forget-me-not, or Myosotis genus, as botanists call it, belongs to the Borage tribe, the Fie, 67.—Blossom of common Primrose. a, tube of corolla; 4, tubular campanulate calyx. members of which are remarkable. for being more or less clothed with stiff, rigid hairs. The primrose, from which we digressed to compare corollas with our little Myosotis friend, gives its own name to the tribe, the Primulaceew, to which it belongs. More noted for the. beauty than for the useful pro-. perties of its members, the tribe offers us most excellent examples of blossoms, regular in form. First take a glance at the leaves-of, the primrose, as we shall refer to them. shortly, and now. take up the. scarlet pimpernel (Fig. 53), and, if you know it, 102 WAYSIDE WEEDS. the yellow wood loosestrife (Fig. 69). Both these plants are classed under the primulas. You, per- haps, do not think them very like, but just take the general description of the primrose family, as you F 1a. 68.—Common Water Forget-me-not. The corollas rotate, or wheel-shaped, find it in the Flora, remembering the general divi- sion into which we have already got our flowers; namely, one-pieced corollas, attached to the recep- tacle. The description says, “Stamens inserted WAYSIDE WEEDS. 103 upon the corolla, distinct’’—that is, not connected one with another—“ corolla coloured. Style ter- minal’’—that is, springing from the top of the ovary—“ ovary entire, one-celled ; corolla regular ; Fre. 69. caueg of common Yellow Loosestrife. a a, blossoms springing from the axils of the flower- leaves or bracts. stamens opposite the lobes of the corolla, and as many, equal. Style 1.” Such is a description which, taken along with the general ‘classification, 104 WAYSIDE WEEDS. is sufficient to distinguish the primula family from any other family of British plants. Consider it well, for it is a good lesson ;, the family is exceedingly distinct, and the characters given can be easily made out, even by a beginner. How the members of the primula family—the pim- pernels, the loosestrifes, and the primroses them- selves—are distinguished from each other, we must leave to our lesson on classification. Our blue veronica, or speedwell (Fig. 63), itself a pretty little plant, has many relatives with more strongly-marked properties—among them the fox- glove; moreover, most of its tribe have irregular corollas. You may at first have thought the veronica a regular flower, but a moment’s inspection will show you it is not, and that the divisions of the corolla are far from being equal. Indeed, the irregular blossoms of the figwort tribe, which in- cludes our veronica, closely resemble those of our next tribe, the labiate plants, to which the dead- nettles, the mint, and the thyme, all of which you have in your Handful, belong. The figworts and the labiates have, as you see, both of them irregular, two-lipped flowers ; in other respects they are very different. Take one of your dead-nettles (Fig. 58), and examine it. First, there is a square stem; then there are opposite leaves, which hold clusters or verticilli of blossoms in their axils; the calyx has an upper and lower buekbean. Perfohate Yellow-wort. Lungwort. Tufted Centaurv. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 105 hip, and of the four stamens contained within the upper hood-like lobe of the corolla (Fig 70), two are long and two short. Lastly, pull out this corolla, which comes away, stamens and all, and you will see, at the bottom of the tube-like calyx, what look like four little square seeds, but which are really four little seed-vessels, each with its, own, single seed within. Go over again these charac- ters of the labiates, and you cannot but see what Fie. 70.—Floret of a Labiate plant. a, Stamens contained within upper or hood-like division of the corolla; 8, lower lip of corolla; c, calyx, which is' slightly irregular. strong family features they carry withthem. Many, like the mints, thyme, marjoram, and lavender, are characterized by the, abundance of their fragrant essential oils. There yet. remains for you to examine the holly, the conyolvulus (Fig. 71), the sea-thrift, and the plantain. The convolvulus requires no lens to bring. out its peculiarities, amid which the plait- ing of the unexpanded corolla is, conspicuous. As 106 WAYSIDE WEEDS. you advance in botanical knowledge, you will find the convolvulus tribe noted for many medicinal members, with which, possibly, you have made acquaintance under less agreeable circumstances ; it ‘is sufficient to name ipecacuanha and jalap as pro- ducts of the Convolvulace, to give you an interest in them replete with painful reminiscences, which ‘may, however, aid in fixing your lesson in your mind, We need not detain you with the thrift, further than to bid you examine it for characters similar to the rest of your Handful. Our spiked plantain is not so flower-like as the rest of its companions, that is to say, its blossoms want the size of some, and the bright colours of others of ‘its associates; but each little floret of the spike is a perfect little flower, symmetrical and complete in every way, only it hasa strange mode with its stamens, which have filaments so long that they require double folding (Fig, 64) in the unopened bud. Once more review your Handful, for it is an interesting and instructive one, seeking in each separate plant the general characters which bind its apparently diverse elements together. The botanical lesson with which we terminated _our third Handful of Wayside Weeds, left us look- ing at the bract of the lime-tree (Fig. 61), and a very distinct and well-marked specimen of a bract ‘padays-rvads 10 {f9LPSBY ,, SABI] aq} f pozr]d ro esaid ouo ut ‘render seT[oI0N OY, “BNMAjoAMOD Jo paenpulg voMUIOQ—TZ “BIT WAYSIDE WEEDS. 109 it is; but you remember, probably, that many bracts were not by any means so readily distin- guishable from the leaves ; indeed, that in numerous cases they were, to all appearance, leaves and no- thing else, but for the fact of being supplementary to the peduncles or pedicels of the blossoms, as we see in Figs. 53, 69, and 71, where the flower- leaves or bracts are indistinguishable from ordinary leaves. The transition then is natural from a lesson on bracts to a lesson on leaves. A first look around you upon the varied foliage of a summer landscape in England, or even a cursory glance over that of the first meadow or hedge-row you come to, will give some ‘notion of the infinite variety of leaf forms; and it may seem a formidable task in prospect to acquire a knowledge of them, but the interest will repay the labour, and the latter is not really great when the general rules are mastered which botanists employ to reduce the apparently heterogeneous collection to order and classification. "We do not seem to have moved from the vicinity of the lime-trees, so pluck one of its bright green shining leaves; or failing the lime-tree, gather a nettle-leaf (Fig: 72), which will do as well ; or, if you fear the sting, look for the red dead- nettle, which will not sting, or for a violet-leaf, or indeed for the first broad-looking leaf you can find. Lest, however, you should not be in the way of any other leaves than those of the present number of 110 WAYSIDE WEEDS. “ Recreative Science,” * we furnish you with a spe- cimen (Fig. 72), from which we must learn our lesson. One thing is very evident, that the broad expanded portion or limb or blade of the leaf is composed of two structures, the ribs or veins, and the green pulp lying between. In most leaves one g 7 | 8 ' ; oes wf ob ad 4 a ec ow a * Fia. 72,—Leaf of common Nettle. u, Limb or blade; 2, petiole; ¢, stipules ; d, axil; ee, margin; f, base; g, apex, main or mid rib runs up the centre of the leaf, and from this the veinings of the leaf branch out, inter- lacing with one another. In some leaves, however, there are more than one rib to the leaf, as you may see in the common plantain (Fig. 52), if you either * The periodical in which these papers were originally published. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 111 examine the plant itself, or turn to the illustration. Again, as partly exemplified in the lime leaf, and also in the nettle, other ribs or veins frequently start from the base of the leaf as well as the midrib. This leaf ribbing or veining has much to do with determining the form of the leaf, and you cannot do better than compare its variations in any broad leaves you may gather, But now take the long thin leaf of grass (Fig. 56), of sedge, or of water iris; or, if you prefer garden flowers, take hyacinth, tulip, or lily of the valley ; you will find no branchings in these leaves, nothing but straight lmes or veins running all the length of the leaf. You see at once we have our leaves divided into two distinct classes—netted- veined leaves and straight-vemed leaves. The former greatly preponderate in our northern regions, the latter occurring only in the form of grasses or small flowering plants; but in the southern and tropical climates this is reversed, and. then the straight-veined leaf is found on the loftiest trees, on the palm, the banana, the arborescent if still grassy bamboo, whilst it characterizes also the beautiful or quaint orchid. You will find, when we come to our lesson on classification, that these two kinds of leaves mark with great exactness the two great divisions of the flowering and seeding members of the vegetable kingdom. Let us go back to the leaves with netted veins. 112 WAYSIDE WEEDS. We have, it is true, severed them from a mass of straight-veined neighbours ; but, even now, when we come to look into them, their number and form seem endless. We do not look long, however, be- fore we find another line of distinction among them- selves. You know the leaf of the wild rose (Fig. Fic, 73,—Compound Pinnate Leaf of Rose. The segments of the leaf, a, ovate, with an acute apex and serrated margin; 4, stipules; c, seta or prickle. 73), of the bramble (Fig. 29), of the clover (Fig. 74), of some of our old friends of the umbel-bearing class (Fig. 36), and perhaps of the ash-tree, and lastly of the vetch (Fig. 34). Put any or all of these beside the leaf of the oak (Fig. 75), of the WAYSIDE WEEDS, 113 bryony (Fig. 76), of the lime; or, to go to more familiar plants, of daisy, or dandelion, or wild geranium (Fig. 77). The difference is evident between the com- pound or many-pieced leaves of the first set, and the simple one-pieced leaves of the second. We Fic, 74.—Compound Palmate Leaf of Clover. a, stipules; 6, petiole. begin with the latter, but do not confine yourselves to the examples we have given you, but collect in as great variety as you can. When you have done so, we doubt not that you will find the majority of the I 114 WAYSIDE WEEDS. leaves you gather are made up of two parts, the broad blade or limb, or leaf part proper (Fig. 72, a), and the supporting stem, or petiole (b). In a cer- Fic. 75.—Leaf of Oak. Form obleng ovate; the margin sinuate. tain number you will find a third part—or parts, for there are two (Fig. 72, c)—at the base of the petiole, called the. stipules. In our example, the WAYSIDE WEEDS. 115 nettle leaf, the stipules are small, but at the base of the petiole of the compound rose leaf (Fig. 78), or in many vetches, and in the clover (Fig. 74), you will find the stipules much more fully developed. The point of junction of the leaf-petiole with the stem of the plant from which it springs (Fig. 72, d), is called the axil or axilla, and from the angle, formed by the two, frequently spring leaves, flowers, or buds (Fig. 69, etc.) As the ribs and veins of a leaf give it form, and govern, likewise, its irregu- larities, the intervening green pulp, or, as botanists call it, parenchyma, makes up its substance, both being covered over with the skin, or epidermis, of the plant. Much is there to tell of the beautiful and important functions performed by leaves, through their veins, parenchyma, and epidermis ; but we have too much to say of their outside forms to enter into these things now. It seems superfluous to remind the reader that a leaf has two surfaces, but we do so to direct the attention to the difference in these surfaces in every leaf you examine, that difference being, of course, much greater in some than in others. The chief appendages attached to leaves are hairs of very varied form, from the softest down, or the satiny lustre of the mountain lady’s-mantle, to the sting of nettle, which is a glandular hair, or the prickle, or seta, of. the rose-leaf, or rose or bramble stem (Fig. 73); the seta being in reality hardened hair, 116 WAYSIDE WEEDS, Remember, here, that holly prickles, with all their Christmas associations, are not hairs, but the hardened extremities of our old friends the veins. _ Remark, again, that a leaf has margin, base, and apex (Figs. 72, 76, e, f, and g), and you have Fia. 76.—Leaf of common Black Bryony. a, blade, or limb; 8, petiole ¢, stipule; d, axil; ¢, margin, entire; f, base, cordate, or heart-shaped ;. Js apex, acute, got the general outline of the leaf. But from the margin we get a whole lot of distinctive marks ; for it may be entire, as in Fig. 76; serrated, or saw-toothed, as in the rose leaflet (Fig. 78), or in WAYSIDE WEEDS. 117 the lime (Fig. 61, etc., etc.), more deeply cut or toothed, as in the nettle (Fig. 72); or sinuate, that is, cut in a wavy fashion, as in the oak (Fig. 75); lobed, as in the leaf of the common little soft= leaved geranium (Fig..77); or deeply cut, forming £2 \ Fs. 77.—Rounded, or kidney: shaped Leaf of eat Dove's-foot Cranebill, eut in rounded lobes, the pinnatifid leaf, as in the common _— (Fig. 78). The apex of the leaf takes many forms ; for, though pointed in the majority of leaves, the form of the pointing varies much, and at times there is no point at all, the leaves being either blunted in some way, or rounded as in Fig. 77, or as in the well-known Indian cress; or kidney-shaped, as in 118 WAYSIDE WEEDS. the marsh violet. The base of the leaf, likewise, has many forms; and thus, according to margin, including both base and apex, we get the diversified shapes of foliage, which not only vary so much in different species, but are even so modified in the leaves of the same tree, “That two were never found Twins at all points,” Thus the leaf of the black bryony (Fig. 76) is aptly described as heart-shaped from its base, acute from its apex, and with an entire margin ;* that of the lime (Fig. 61) as less distinctly heart-shaped, but with serrated margin. The leaf of the plantain (Fig. 52) is a broad ovate; and each individual leaf of the woodruff (Fig. 45) is lanceolate, or lancet- shaped, but approaching the linear, or line-shaped, leaf which we see in the harebell (Fig. 47), or in the grass (Fig. 56). ‘Each leaflet of the rose (Fig. 73) is ovate, acute, and serrated; ‘of the vetch (Fig. 34) ovate and entire, In the leaf of the poppy (Fig. 78) we find the cutting so deep that it almost approaches the compound leaf, and the same occurs in the leaf of the ragwort (Fig. 44), in which also we see the example of the lyrate leaf, which is, however, still * The black bryony, a very common wayside weed in England, found twining among the hedges, is an exception to the rule of netted and straight-veined leaves. It belongs, in everything but its leaves, to the straight-veined section of the vegetable world. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 119 better exemplified in the leaf of the common turnip ; and this cutting up into: segments, without'the leaf being compound, appears. strongly in the wild chamomile (Fig. 43). - Then we have shield-shaped, and arrow-shaped, and: spear-shaped leaves (as in Fra. 78,—Leaf of Corn Poppy; deeply cut, pinnatifid, not eompound. Fig. 71), ‘lobed leaves of all varieties, and many others which it would not come within the scope of these papers to enumerate and illustrate, and which will best be studied from the cullings of the way-. 120. WAYSIDE WEEDS. sides, referring the leaves of each plant to the description given in the Floras.* The rose, the vetch, the ash-tree, have truly compound leaves, that is, are composed of a number of leaflets arranged upon a central petiole, and jointed more or less distinctly to it, forming what is called a pinnate leaf, in distinction from the radiating or palmate compound leaf of the clover (Fig. 74), of the strawberry, etc., etc. The umbel- bearers, among others, offer us a large variety of compound leaves. You will call to mind that, in describing a perfect leaf, the petiole, or footstalk, was given as one of the parts; but long before this we expect you have discovered that there are many leaves which have no petiole at all, but are directly attached to the main stem. These are called sessile, or sitting leaves. When the attachment is a simple one, when the leaf is not only closely attached to the stem, but is prolonged down it, as you will find in the thistle, it gets the name of decurrent, or running down leaf; or when it more completely envelopes the stem, it becomes sheathing, as in the grass (Fig. 56), In the common teazle, the pairs of opposite leaves join, or grow completely round the stem, and then are called connate; whilst a perfoliate leaf is one which the stem seems, as it * A “Flora” is a book giving the description and classification of the plants of any particular district or country. WAYSIDE WEEDS, 121 were, to perforate. Lastly, some leaves appear to have no stem whatever to be attached to, as in our friend the plantain, and then get the name of radical, or root leaves. Whorled leaves are those which are arranged round the stem, as in the wood- ruff (Fig. 45). As yet the leaves we have been dealing with have all been true leaves, but) many ‘plants show, in the first stage of their growth, a Fig. 79.—Seedling Plant, a, cotyledonary, or seed-leaves; 3, true leaves. leaflet, or pair of leaflets, which are totally distinct in form’and appearance from all that succeed them. These first leaves are the cotyledonary, or seed- leaves of the plant. If you have ever planted a lupin-seed, and watched its growth, or carried your horticulture so far as to sow some mustard-seed, 122 WAYSIDE WEEDS. you will know what is meant; but if hot, you may soon do so, either by trying the above, or using your eyes in your next spring walk, when you will find, under every hedge, crowds of little seedlings throwing up their first seed, or nursing leaves, and pushing out from between them their true leaves, as you see in Fig. 79. One more point connected with leaves, and we have done, fearing almost that you are already tired of us. You have not forgot that in our talk about blossoms, it was mentioned that botanists took dis- tinctive plant-characters from the folding of the flower in the bud, before opening—from the esti- vation, as it is called. In the same way are characters taken from the leaf before expansion—in this case named vernation. It is sufficient here to mention the fact. Hanhtul Me. Little of outside beauty in Handful V.i—@ocks and Knot-grass—The Spurges—Starwort—Forest Lrees Characters of Handful—The Blossoms incom- plete—Knot-grass or JBistort characters—Spurge characters—Starwort characters—Wall Pellitory— Trees of the Greenwood—Simple characters of their blossoms— Willow; Hazel; Birch; ete—The Pine tribes—Stem or Root—ferial FRoots—Herbaceous or green, or Woody Stems—Compound Stems—Simple Stems—Grass and Palm Stems—(Qirection of Stems —Twining or Climbing Stems—Shape of Stems— Winged Stems—Underground Stems—Stems Appa- rently fibsent— Roots—Fibrous or Branched—Fleshy Foots—Tuberous Roots— Office of Roots. HANDFUL V, “Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, God hath written in those stars above ; But not less in the bright flowrets under us Stands the revelation of his love.” LoneFELow. Ir is but little in the way of bright colour or sweet scent we have to offer you in this our Fifth Handful, and therein lies a difficulty, as far as the plan of our lessons on ‘‘ Wayside Weeds” is concerned; for whilst the gayer or more conspicuous weeds and wild flowers we have hitherto discoursed upon are known to all, the less attractive and scentless plants are but little recognized by the inattentive passer-by. However, let us try, and do not turn away because we bid you gather unattractive weeds; they have only to be looked into and examined, to exhibit that beauty and that perfection which is never wanting, even in what may seem to man the lowest of the Creator’s handiworks. Begin with picking one of the common dock tribe, the usual, and certainly not handsome, repre- sentatives of vegetation which are found most com- 126 WAYSIDE WEEDS. monly about building rubbish and on neglected ground ; add to it one of the nettles which usually keep it company, and put alongside the nettle, if you can, its relative the common hop (Fig. 57), establishing what seems to you a strange relation- ship. Keeping still to our rubbish-heap, or search- ing any roadside, where weeding is neglected, you gather an insignificant-looking little plant, truly a wayside weed, with stems so weak that they rest Exaq. 80.—Blossoms magnified of common Knot-grass. A, Side view; a, peri- anth ; b, membranous bracts. B, Front view; a, triple styles. C, Style much magnified. much on the ground, and with numerous little pink blossoms (Fig. 80) fitting closely into the axils of the leaves. This, the common knot-grass, has a close family connection with the buckwheats. These knot-grass, bistort, and buckwheat weeds are near relatives of the docks, as you will find out on exami- nation ; moreover, their little pink flowers are very pretty indeed when minutely looked into, and even WAYSIDE WEEDS. 127 without the magnifier give some amount of ‘lively eolour to our otherwise sombre handful, especially if we gather some of the larger flowered bistort* species. For our next plant you probably need not Fig, 81.—Petty Spurge. The blossoms arranged in umbels. go further than the first neglected garden where “weeds do grow,” for there, or on some neglected bank outside the garden, the spurge or euphorbia family are, most apt to take up their quarters. * The knot-grass, bistort, arid buckwhéat, all ea to the same batanical genus, Polygonum. +» 128 WAYSIDE WEEDS. Every school-hoy, who has applied their milky juice as a cure for his warts, knows the spurges (Fig. 81) ; they are curious in their flowering, and puzzling enough to an incipient botanist. But more of them presently, And now go to therunlet, or to any ditch of clear water, for a handful of those very bright green, floating, star-like leaves, which characterize the water starwort ; you see no flowers, but never mind that, we shall find those for you presently, It seems quite a jump from this little water- plant to the forest-trees, to the oak, the birch, the hazel, and the willow, such a jump that all con- nection appears wanting between these and the lowly weeds we have just been directing you to; never- theless we shall see, although, confessedly, we have brought together an apparently heterogeneous handful, and one not quite so attractive to a be- ginner as those we have already passed. The trees you must know well enough, even if you never thought of their having blossoms, but you must look for their flowering in spring and early summer. But it is time we looked for that character in common which connects together plants so appa- rently diverse. We have, you are aware, hitherto found the flowers we examined, whether many- petaled, or one-pieced blossoms, perfect; that is to say, possessing both calyx and corolla,. the plants now in your hand are all distinguished by having incomplete flowers; the calyx and corolla seem PLATE 6. Red Bartsia. Smooth Sea-heath. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 129 merged into one, forming what is called the perianth, as in the knot-grass (Fig. 80), and in many of the division there is not even an attempt to develop what we usually consider a flower, but as in the hazel, the birch (Fig. 86), the willow, or the little starwort (Fig. 82), a simple scale is all that is left to represent the gay corollas and green flower-cups of our well-known blossoms. By some this division of Fic, 82.—Magnified view of Barren or Stameniferous Blossoms of common Starwort. A: a, leaf, partly embracing the stem ; 4, stamen with one-celled anther ; v, scale which represents the perianth. B, Star-like arrangement of leaves, flowering plants is called the Apetalous, or petal- ‘wanting, in contradistinction to the Monopetalous and Polypetalous ; by others the families are classed as the Monochlamydew, or those with but one floral covering. It is not, however, simplicity alone which we meet with in some of these flowers under notice, but, as in the spurges (Fig. 83), extreme peculiarity of structure. K 180 -WAYSIDE WEEDS. Now as the compass of our paper will not allow of a minute explanation of the structure of all the certainly dissimilar plants to which it has introduced you, let us take three, at first, as unlike as possible, the knot-grass and buckwheat (Fig. 80), as most resembling our ordinary notions of a flower; the spurge (Figs. 81, 83) as a specimen of the curious, and the starwort (Fig. 82) of the simple; for all three you will need your magnifier. The knot-grasses or buckwheats you will find have a perianth of five coloured segments (Fig. 80), doing duty for both calyx and corolla, though most resembling the latter ; a definite number of stamens, and a central ovary, at least in the common species we have pointed out to you, crowned with three little knobs or styles; and if you examine further some of the blossoms which are more advanced, you will see that the ovary thus tipped has de- veloped into a three-cornered little fruit, or, as a botanist would call it, achene. You remember we told you that the docks of the rubbish-heap were family connections of the buckwheats; examine both flower and fruit of the former, and you will find, with certain differences of course, how many points they have in common. We turn to our friend with the milky juice, the dwarf spurge (Figs. 81, 83); not one of the umbel- bearers properly so called, although its blossoms are arranged in umbels; these same. blossoms WAYSIDE WEEDS. 131 being very odd concerns. The illustration (Fig. 83) represents a single set of flowers of the dwarf spurge in two positions, and magnified of course, You observe a set of flowers, not a single flower, for that which seems to occupy the position of perianth is ranked as the involucre, containing several barren or stamen flowers (Fig. 83), and one fertile or pistil flower, which has its germen Fig. 883—Mugnified Blossoms of Petty Spurge. A, front view: a, glands of involucre; 5, stamens; ce, ovary; d, pistile. B, side view: a, involucre ; d, glands; ¢, ovary ; d, pistile. crowned with three forked or bifid styles, and is conspicuously extruded. In addition, however, to the stamens and pistils, the involucre contains a set of remarkable “horned glands;” the real perianth, which might be expected to lie within the involucre, is scarcely, if at all, present, in the form of a minute scale. The starwort, third 3 in our group ee 82), is 132 WAYSIDE WEEDS. the essence of simplicity ; so much so, indeed, that you will find it almost as difficult to realize its flower, as you may have done in the singularity of the spurge blossom. If you examine with your magnifier the axils of the starwort leaves, which partly ‘embrace the stem, you will soon discover, but not together, either the single stamen or the little ovary, with the two wee white bracts at the base, which is all this ttle bright plant has ‘to “boast of in the way of floral appendage ; little enough, but yet the flower is a real flower, having its essential organs of reproduction, if not the organs calyx and corolla, which, as we have already explained in a former lesson, constitute a perfect flower. We might say much more of these insignificant flowers which go to make up our Handful: of the nettle, which, common and despised as it is, has flowers which repay examination, and of the wall pellitory, too, a first cousin of the nettle, which finds root at the base of old dry walls: the situa- tion, the general reddish tinge about it, its incon- spicuous flowers, and its loosely hung leaves, will tell you the plant, and it is worth a few minutes’ examination with the lens to make out the beautiful structure of the jointed filaments of its stamens (Fig. 84). But we have kept these tall trees of the green- wood, mentioned before time, waiting so long, a WAYSIDE WEEDS. 138 that.we must not stay longeramid the weed class— real true weeds they are, most of them, but with @ curious minute beauty of their own which well repays examination; having shown you the way, we leave you to work out your further acquaintance with. the docks, the nettles, the goosefoots, and their congeners. And now for our trees. We give you our list, and you must pick out as many as you know, or as many as you can find. The birch, oak, alder, poplar, the numerous willows, the hazel, the elm, the beech, and the fir, and various others, all fall into our category, and are connected e ~, a : Fic. 84—Jointed elastic stamen of Wall Pellitory. both with one another, and with the weeds of our Handful already noticed, for, being dicotyledonous plants, they are at the same time destitute of the double and complete floral envelopes, such as we have hitherto been accustomed to. Some of our trees, such. as the elm, have their flowers so far regular that they: have both stamens and pistils in the same blossom, but in most the stamens and pistils are separated, either on the same or on different plants, and in many the flowers, such as they are, cluster together in what is called an amentum, or catkin, 134 WAYSIDE WEEDS. that is, a succession of little blossoms surrounding a stem, pendant or otherwise, each little blossom being composed of a scale with two or more sta- mens attached. Such little scale-formed blossoms we have in the case of the common willow, and the birch has a very similar arrangement. In the hazel, the catkin of male flowers, the “ pussy-cat’s tails” of our early days, are very conspicuous; but not so the pistil-bearing flowers, which indeed few know but those who have had a botanical introduc- Fig. 85.—Single Blossoms of Willow: a, pistil-bearing, or fertile blossom, with seale; b, stamen-bearing, or barren blossom, with scale. tion to them, for the Jarge stameniferous catkin, shaking out its showers of golden yellow pollen in early spring, quite eclipses the little bud-like fertile blossoms, which you will find not far from their more conspicuous mates, albeit you would scarcely. distinguish them from buds, but for the protrusion, from their extremities, of a number. of brilliant red filaments; these are the styles, and within the little bud lies the ovaries, which, in due time, become the clusters of autumn; the ovary expand- ing into the nut, and the scales of the bud into. WAYSIDE WEEDS, 135 what people call the husk, but a botanist the in-. volucre. The oak, too, has its barren and deciduous, or quickly-falling stameniferous catkins, but its fertile flowers are solitary within a cup-shaped scale, or rather aggregation of scales, which at length become the “acorn cups” of fairy lore. Lastly, we have mentioned the fir. It, too, has its barren catkins, but the fruit, as all know, is in the fir cone, which generally we see when it has dropped seedless and dry from the tree; the ovules, the seeds, which lay naked at the base of the scales in the dry cone, having disappeared, wings and all. The naked: seeds of the firs or pines, that is, seeds without proper pistils, and their many cotyledonary, or seed-leaves, in contradistinction to the two seed- leaves of the plants hitherto examined, place this pine tribe by themselves, even were there not other distinctive characters in leaf, wood, etc.; but these are not for our beginners to enter into. With the simple. incomplete flowers of our wood- land trees, we come to an end of the first great division of the vegetable kingdom, that which in- cludes plants with two seed-lobes, or seed-leaves, or cotyledons, hence named the dicotyledons, and which, having netted veined leaves, also grow by the de- posit of annual rings of wood on the outer circle of their stems, beneath the bark, and hence are fre- quently called exogens, or exogenous plants. . After our next lesson on.stems and roots, we reach the 136 WAYSIDE WEEDS. second great division of plants, the Monocotyledons. or Endogens, and get again amidst gay colours and handsome flowers. From the leaves and flowers which have hitherto formed the subjects of our botanical lessons, we naturally look to the stems by which both are sup- Fie. 86.—Catkin Blossom of common Birch, ported. By stems we do not mean the peduncles and petioles. For we trust our readers haye not forgotten that these are not the main stem or axis which forms the plant centre, and from which flower-carrying peduncle and leaf-supporting petiole alike sprig. With the stem, we by consequence WAYSIDE WIEDS. 137 connect the root, and treat of both together. Were we to ask our novitiate readers what parts they would consider most necessary for the existence. and individuality of a plant, they would be much, inclined to name root and stem, and yet there are plants apparently destitute of one or other of these parts. Some of the orchis tribe have no roots at all, except such as are air planted, or aérial, and the’ familiar primrose, the plantain (Fig, 52), the stemless thistle, etc., etc., seem equally destitute of stem: seem, be it remarked, for no plant which bears a leaf can be said to want a stem of some sort, be it ever so short, no more, perhaps, than. what is called the root crown, but still it is stem, for though so intimately connected, the two parts root and stem claim to be essentially distinct from the first moment of their seedling birth, when the root will go down, and the stem will go up as by most unerring instinct. If any reader could tell us why all roots tend to strike downwards, away from the light, and towards the centre of this terrestrial ball of ours, they would answer a very puzzling question. Many experiments have been tried, and germinating seeds have been placed in all positions and circumstances, but yet down go the roots, up go the little seedling stem, and all we can say is that so it has been ordered by God. Of stems we have many varieties; you have only to use your eyes in the first walk you take in 1388 WAYSIDE WEEDS. field or garden to learn that. This green stalk of groundsel, or of chickweed, or even the young shoot of rose, bramble, or honeysuckle, breaks off easily enough in your hand, and gives you a speci- men of the herbaceous stem, but try some of the older second year’s growths of the last-named plants, and you will find them tough enough, they are no longer herbaceous, but woody. You have here a practical example of the two kinds of stems and plants ; the first herbaceous, green, succulent, and easily broken, such as are formed by one summer’s growth; the second, brownish, tough, and woody, such as we find in shrubs and trees in or after their second year of existence. Between the well-marked herbaceous stem of the quick- growing weed, and the hardened heart-wood of the oak, we have, of course, every grade of dis- tinction.. Compound or branched stems, and simple stems, give us another division. The first are so common, and comprise such a large proportion of our trees and shrubs, that to cite example would be superfluous; as to the latter, the grasses, such as wheat, rye-grass, the sedges, etc., give us good examples, and the common foxglove, amid others, an excellent one. The simple unbranched stem which supports the head of the dandelion, the umbel of the cowslip, or the spike of the plantain, and which is known as the scape, is more properly WAYSIDE WEEDS. 1389 a peduncle than a stem. In examining compound or branched stems, it will be as well to note that plants which have their leaves placed alternately, as a rule, give off alternate branches, and vice versd ; Fria. 87.—Portion of culm of a grass which is hollow or fistulous : a, leaf, which at b forms a sheath for the sten or culm; c, knot, where the stem is divi- ded by strengthening partitions. a, culm split, to show at ¢ the knot or diaphragm, and having already learned that branches take. their first commencement from buds in the. leaf axils, this is no more than we might expect. Having drawn your attention to the simple stem. of the grasses, known as the culm, we must bid. 140 WAYSIDE WEEDS. you remember the division of vegetables to which the grasses belong—those with one-lobed seeds and straight-veined leaves, but which also bear the name of endogenous plants, from the peculiar mode of growth of the stems, which have their annual additions of new material made to the centre. This mode of growth we cannot see exemplified in the herbaceous grass, or indeed in any of our native endogens, but the giant palms of the tropics, could we get at them, would show not only this peculiar stem structure, but the noblest specimen of the simple, unbranched stem. Call to mind the pictures you have seen of some palm-clad island of the Southern Seas, and you will remember the simple stem of these beautiful and stately trees. To return to the grass stem (Fig. 87), examine it further. It is hollow, hence called fistulous; its hollow column, strong in itself, considering the amount of material, is further strengthened by knots or thickenings, at which a partition or diaphragm is thrown across the tube (Fig. 87, 4). Moreover, the exterior of the green grass tube is smooth and shining from its coating of silex or flint substance. A wonderful combination of strength, lightness, and slender grace have we in the simple grass stems. The sedge of the water- side has also a simple stem and straight-veined leaf, but the stem is sharply triangular (Fig. 88, F), and has no knots, We go back to stems generally ; WAYSIDE WEEDS, 141 if we want an erect stem, this upright meadow ranunculus or buttercup gives us an excellent ex- ample, but for that matter we need be under no diffi. culty in finding many a wayside weed, which stands as erect as any volunteer rifleman. The reverse of upright we find in many another wee plant. The ground ivy, which shows its bright blue blossoms under every hedgerow in early spring, rests its procumbent or flat-lying stems on the ground; and almost similarly placed we find those of the ivy: a b : Zs ©Oog BA Fig, 88,—Section of Stems: a, round, as in the majority of plants: 4, furrowed, as in many umbel-bearers; c, compressed, as in flat-+temmed meadow- grass; d, square, as in labiate plants; e, angular, as in common wallflower; J, triangled, as in sedges. leaved speedwell, in which, howeyer, the decum- bent stems gradually merge into ascending ones. ‘The decumbent stem does not rest so completely ‘on the ground as the procumbent one. The pros- trate, or trailing, or creeping stems, such as we find in the common yellow moneywort, root at various points as they go on, ina different way, however, from the long weak runners or branches of such plants as the strawberry, the common creeping buttercup, or the creeping cinquefoil, 142 WAYSIDE WEEDS. These runners carry at their extremities buds or scions, which rooting, form new plants, and these, in time, become independent of the parent root by the withering of the connecting runner, a process which does not, asa rule, take place in the true creeping and rooting stem. Again, some stems tend upwards, but are so weak themselves that they must depend on their neighbours for support, such are the twining stems of the honeysuckle, the convolvulus, the bryony, or the bistort; others of these weak plants do not twine, but climb, as vines, peas, or vetches do by their tendrils ; or as the now well-known canary-creeper and others, by hooking their stems and leaf petioles upon any supporting object. While looking at stem directions, do not, in your searchings, overlook stem forms ; most, perhaps, are round, but not all (Fig. 88). Some, as in the hemlock-like umbellifers, are furrowed, others are flattened, as in the flat-stemmed meadow- grass (Fig. 88), many, as in our sweet-smelling friends the labiates, are square, the wallflower has its stem strongly angled, and the water sedges are many of them so sharply triangled that they will cut your fingers if you are not mindful. Winged stems occur, as in the thistles, where the leaves are decurrent or prolonged down the stems. The surface covering of stems is not less varied than their forms, the usual green has frequent spots and stainings. It carries hairs of all sorts and WAYSIDE WEEDS. 143 degrees of stiffness, from the softest down ta the stiff bristles of the viper’s bugloss and its con- geners, or the setze or spines of rose or bramble; these, however, belong to- the subject of plant- covering generally, of which hereafter. Our stems, hitherto, have been all honest aboveground stems, but we must notice some which, although claiming to be, and really being, true stems, yet hide them- Fie. 89.—Root, etc., of common Crocus: a, rootlets; 6, root-crown; ¢, solid underground stem, usually called the bulb; dd, leaf and flower-buds pro- ceeding from underground stem. selves under the surface of the soil. Such, most familiarly, are the corms, or underground stems, roots or bulbs they are often erroneously called, of the common crocus (Fig. 89). If you look at our illustration you will see that the rootlets are attached to the root-plate which underlies the mass that is generally called the bulb, and which is really rather an appendage to the stem than the stem itself. "The scaly bulb of the white lily is a true 144 “WAYSIDE WEEDS. bulb, and is also classed as an underground stem. The common house-leek (Fig. 90), which delights to grow on old thatch, and delights the old lady of the thatched cottage by so doing, is essentially a bulb-stem with open scales, but it grows above- ground as an honest stem should do. The hya- cinth, likewise a true bulb-stem, will grow either above or underground, it seems not to care which, Fic. 90.—Fleshy-leaved aboveground bulb of common House Leek, correspond- ing to the bulbs of the common white lily or .of the hyacinth, which are intended to grow underground, all being alike stems. and the onion seems scarcely decided what to do, growing partly in and partly out of the soil; the Jatter another true bulb-stem, only with extended coats instead of scales. There is yet another form of underground stem, the rooting rhizome or root- ‘stock, from which we have a succession of stems, as in the lily of the valley, the asparagus, some sedges and ferns, in the mints, and, to the farmer’s WAYSIDE WEEDS. 145 . sorrow, in the twitch, or couch-grass. Lastly, we have /plants like the primroses, the plantains, the dandelion, and many others, which offer us an apology for a stem, in a thickened neck, just above the root, from which is given off the crowd of leaves and flower scapes. : Now, with all these various forms of ite Fi, 91.—Root of White Sedge; mixed branched, and fibrous. ground stems, we fear, our uninitiated readers will begin almost to think they will not know a root when they see one, and perhaps have doubts whether the familiar radish, whose very name means root, is really a root. As we might expect, roots share many of the stem characters : they are annual, biennial, triennial, and L 146 WAYSIDE WEEDS. perennial ; they are simple and branched, and their structure is very similar to the stem. Many roots, as those of the grasses, composed solely of fibres, are fibrous roots. We will not give you an illustration, for you have only to pull up the first tuft of grass you see to get one. Other roots have, in addition to their fibres, their caudex, or root-stem, which Fie. 92.—Root of Early Purple Orchis: @, exhausted tuber ; 0, fresh tuber ; e, fibres of root. may be simple, or branched, or fleshy. Fig. 91, which is the root of one of the sedges, shows a main root-stem, partly branched, from which the rootlets proceed. Fleshy roots, such as the carrét, ‘parsnip, turnip, and radish, have their rootlets attached to the central fleshy catdex, chiefly at the WAYSIDE WEEDS. 147 e lower part; and according to the shape of this caudex they are classed as conical, spindle-shaped, globular, etc. In the last-mentioned cases, the fleshy portion of the root forms part of the central root-stem, or axis; but in tuberous-rooted or tuber- bearing plants, as the orchis (Fig. 92), the dahlia, some ranunculuses, etc,, the fleshy portions are Fig, 93.--Root of Bird’s-nest Orchis: «, fibre-like tubers; &, fibres or rootlets. attached as appendages or tubers, and the rootlets enter the plant above them, and not at their lower end. The fascicled root, such as we find in the bird’s-nest orchis (Fig. 93), is simply a tuberous root, only the tubers are long, thin, and numerous, 148 . WAYSIDE WEEDS. instead of thick and limited in number. The last roots we have to speak of are the aérial; we do not mean roots like those of the well-known banana, made still better known by Moore’s lines, “‘ They tell us of an Indian tree,” or of the tropical orchids; but rootlets such as the ivy throws out to the wall against which it clings, using them as supports, but ready also to convert them into rootlets should occasion offer. We need scarcely tell our readers that roots (except the aérials) serve first the purpose of fixing the plants to which they belong to the soil, and, secondly, that of absorbing moisture along with gases and salts for the nourishment of the plant. This absorption is effected not by the whole root surface, but by the extremities of the fibres or rootlets, these extremities forming what are called spongioles, being so constructed as to admit of more ready absorption of the nutritious fluids. Lastly, a few words are requisite respecting those fleshy masses which we have, for the first time, met with in the form of the turnip or the radish root, the tuber of the orchis, the corm of the crocus, etc. What is their intended use? They are simply stores of nutriment laid up for aiding the future growth of the plant itself, in its flowering and seeding, or for the nutriment of a new generation of younger plants. Throughout the vegetable kingdom we find this providential storing up for WAYSIDE WEEDS. 149 future use often in the root, but sometimes in the stem, as in the crocus, in the fleshy scales of the lily bulb, or in the actual stem of the turnip- stemmed cabbage; also, as in the well-hearted cab- bage itself, in the leaves. Perhaps our readers have never reflected why a cabbage hearts, or a turnip forms its globe, or a carrot its long fleshy cone: they will not now forget that He who “ opens his hand” and “fills” all ‘with good,” thus doubly provides for the well-being and food of man, and for the due development of his “ lower works.” Hanhtul ME. Composed of Plants with straight-veined Leaves— Snowdrop— Crocus—Tulip—Orchis— Wild Garlic and Black Bryony—The fPerianth—Yellow Iris, or Water-flag—Cetal-like Pistils—Herb Paris— Structure of Orchis blossom—Vegetable Structures —Cells and Vessels—Spiral Vessels—Vascular and Cellular Tissue of Leaf. HANDFUL VI. “ April smiles, and April tears, ‘Welcome them together.” Wirs our Fifth Handful of “ Wayside Weeds,” and real veritable weeds most of them were, we also said adieu to the plants with netted veined leaves. As we have already remarked, in these our tempe- rate zones, the netted leaf-veins characterize by far the largest proportion of our vegetable products, and, excluding the cereal and pasture grasses, by far the most important. They have accordingly engrossed the lion’s share of these light sketches of Flora’s kingdom ; that they do not, however, monopolize all the beauty, our next Handful. of their straight-veined relatives fully testifies. Nay, so much beauty do we find in the collection, that we expect our readers will demur at the word weeds at all. Weeds or flowers, whichever they be, they are probably more familiar to the town dweller than many more common flowerets; the most unmiti- gated townsman knows the snowdrop, the crocus, the hyacinth, the tulip, and the lily of the valley, those 154 WAYSIDE WEEDS. bright and cheerful blossoms which meet us every- where in early spring; in the woodlands, where the first of the company pushes up its pure white bells through the withered leaves of the gone-by year, or the snow of the present one, in the plot of the “town garden” or of the suburban dwelling; in drawing-rooms on stand or mantelpiece, or giving brightness to every shop or market where vegetable Fic. 94.—Blossom of common Purple or Meadow Orchia: 1 1, pieces of the perianth ; 2, pollen pouches ; 3, stigma; 4, spur; 6, twisted ovary support- ing blossom ; 6, bract. 7, Waxy pollen masses. produce is sold, these bright-coloured blossoms proclaim that spring has come. Take, as your first specimen of the second great division of flowering plants, those we have just named, only be careful that your tulips and hyacinths are single and not double blossoms, WAYSIDE WEEDS. 155 observing the same rule if you add a narcissus or a jonquil to the bouquet. But, leaving the garden, let us seek in the meadows for the bright purple orchis blossoms (Fig. 94), which every child knows and gathers in early summer ; these are really way- side weeds, and waterside weeds are these bright yellow iris blossoms, which few can be so unobser- vant as to pass without remark. Possibly all may not know the wild garlics, but they are pretty flowers, especially the commonest of them, the white-flowered, broad-leaved species. Its smell certainly does not warrant its introduction into the company we have already given you, so take or leave it as you like. Other plants you may find with straight-veined leaves, and it is well to examine all; and, last addition to the Handful, if you are gathering in midland or southern England, we give you the black bryony, which thrives so luxuriantly amidst the hedgerows, with its very bright, shining, and characteristic heart-shaped leaves, mentioned, you may remember, in one of, our late lessons, as being exceptional in their veinings. It is the British representative of the yams of warmer climates. Without again referring to the leaves of our collected plants, we pass to the blossoms, and you will at once observe the peculiarity which all possess of having their parts in threes or sixes. We must here premise that in the present division of plants, 156 WAYSIDE WEEDS. the old familiar terms calyx and corolla give place to that of perianth, which is applied to the floral cover- ings, even although they appear external to, and distinct from one another, as in the snowdrop (Fig. 95). In the latter flower, observe, there are Fic. 95.—Common Snowdrop: 1, outer pieces of perianth ; 2, inner pieces perianth ; 3, ovary; 4, bract; 5, straight-veined leaves. three external divisions of the perianth, and three within these; there are six stamens and three lobes to the stigma; lastly, the leaves are straight-veined, so that altogether the pretty little snowdrop is a WAYSIDE WEEDS. 157 perfectly orthodox and representative snpedbee of the monocotyledons, or one-séed-lobed plants. Not less so the tulip (Fig. 96), with its six-pieced perianth, its six stamens (Fig. 97), and its three- ‘lobed stigma (Fig. 98). Need we remind ‘an unini- oo - Fig. 96.—Blossom of common Tulip, with its six perianth pieces and straight-veined leaves. tiated reader that if they look for wild tulips—they are rare to be met with, and only in a few special places—they must not expect to find the bright colours of the cultivated flower, but a plain yellow 158 - WAYSIDE WEEDS. blossom, which, however pretty in itself, has no claims to brilliant tinting. The lily of the valley— surely we need not try to describe the sweetest of woodland plants—has its six deep cuttings in its pure white bell blossoms, and the crocus, you will find, keeps up the family characters. Again, in the jonquil or narcissus we have the marked distinction between the internal and external perianth. The bright yellow, large, and handsome blossoms of the common iris or water-flag might well claim their place with any flowers, however gay, but they may also 2 Fre, 97.—Essential reproductive organs Fig, 98.—Pistil of Twip with three- of Tulip: 1, stamens; 2, pistil. lobed stigma. claim to be really wayside plants, so common are they by river and pond side in the bonny month of June; they well carry out the ternate characters of the petaloid division of the monocotyledons. But this we have had so well exemplified in the members of this class, in the snowdrop, tulip, crocus, etc., already adverted to, that we might have rested content with merely indicating the iris as a further example, had it not more to show us. You count the six divisions WAYSIDE WEEDS. 159 of the perianth, thrée alternately being longer than the other three, but within these again there are three other flower-like parts, what are they ? Just raise one of them, for they are arched, and under- neath you discover a stamen, and then it may probably occur to you, what really is the case, that Fig. 99.—Herb Paris : with involucre of four whorled leaves or bracts. these arched petal-like organs, being in the centre of the flower, must be the styles ; and truly they are ‘potaloid or flower-like styles. As a contrast and anomaly to the extreme regularity of the ternate blossoms and straight- 160 WAYSIDE WEEDS. ‘veined plants of the petaloid monocotyledons, we should mention that singular-looking plant the Herb Paris (Fig. 99), which those who have. the chance of exploring damp moist woods may find ‘in blossom in the month of May. The straight stem, the four, sometimes five ovate leaves arranged in a whorl or circle, from the centre of which springs the flower scape, and the flower not beirig composed of three or six pieces, are characters which combine to give us avery odd but interesting member of the present set of plants, and one which cannot be mis- taken for any other member of the British Flora. Oddities, too, in their way, are the members of the next family, the bright and beautiful but very singular orchids. These plants have been so exten- sively and successfully cultivated of late years, that most of our readers must know some of the forms and appearances of foreign members of the tribe, even if they know not by sight the common “ king- cups,” or purple orchis of our meadows, the sweet- scented white butterfly orchis of our hill pastures, or some of the rarer and more singular forms, such as the bee and spider orchis, which abound in certain localities, more particularly in the south of England, and on chalky soils. Without digressing into many interesting particulars, we must confine ourselves to get the essential characteristics of the order, from the common early purple orchis, the Orchis mascula, which purples many of our meadows in the month PLATE 3. Bee Ophrys. Monkey Orchis. WAYSIDE WEEDS. 161 of May. We take one of its handsome spikes of flowers and pluck off a blossom (Fig. 94). You observe there is a bract ai the base (Fig. 94, 6), and from the bract axil springs a twisted-looking stem or pedicel (Fig, 94, 5), this twisted support being the ovary or future seed-vessel- of the plant, with its stigma spot (Fig. 94,3) at its apex, sur- rounded by the six irregular pieces. of the perianth, These also inclose two little pouches (Fig. 94, 2), which contain, not stamens, but little masses of waxy pollen (Fig. 94,7). If you understand the above arrangement tolerably clearly, it will give you a clue to the construction of the beautiful and often grotesque blossoms of the orchis tribe. All the plants which we have now placed in your hand belong to the petaloid division of the mono- cotyledons—a division which claims many of the brightest ornaments of our gardens; but yet all the petaloids, as we shall see in another Handful— we must make another—are not quite so beaks in their clothing, The flower and its parts, leaves, stems at roots, have each in succession claimed our brief notice and. explanation ; there but remains to be appended to our sixth and seventh Handfuls a few words upon the internal structures, as well as upon the outer covering or clothing of plants. As the point is one which you cannot very well verify for yourselves in this present early stage of your botanical learning, M 162 WAYSIDE WEEDS. you must take on trust the fact that vegetable structure generally is made up of cells and vessels ; or, if the latter be regarded merely as elongated cells, it may be said, even of the forest tree, that it is simply an aggregation of innumerable vegetable cells. However, the distinction into cell, and into fibre and vessel is more appropriate and con- venient. The lowest tribes of plants, such as the seaweeds, the mosses, and the fungi or mushrooms, are really and truly made up of cells only. But we are talking of cells, when, perhaps, simple as the thing is in itself, few of our readers have formed any idea upon the subject. A cell isa very minute NEY | | , ent Fic. 100.—Vegetable tissue magnified, showing cella and spiral vessels. bag or vesicle, with very thin walls of vegetable tissue ; thin comparatively, but varying in the thick- ness of their walls considerably among themselves. These minute little cells differ much in shape, being round, oval, six sided, etc., and fitting closely to one another, or leaving interstices, or “ intercellular spaces” between. Moreover, cells may be flattened, as we shall see in the cuticle or skin of the plant, or they may be elongated more or less, when they become vessels or fibres; and as there are varieties WAYSIDE WEEDS. 163 among the cells, so do they likewise exist amid the vessel or vascular tissue. There are vessels which are simply tubes, or it may be long cells with taper- ing ends; others are like series of shorter cells placed end to end, some are plain, others are dotted and marked. But the most remarkable and inte- resting to a beginner, as well as the most easily Fra. 101.— Rose leaf torn asunder to show @, a, spiral vessels. observed, are the spiral vessels of plants. Take almost any leaf, a strawberry or rose leaf if you can, and tear it very gently across the leaf-veins. Ob- serve as you do so, that you draw out some extremely fine, cobweb-like filaments, a few of which stretch entirely across the rent (Fig. 101); these are the 164 WAYSIDE WEEDS. spiral vessels, which, although drawn out in this instance like an uncoiled spring, lie, in their ordi- nary condition, with their coils close together, mingled with the tube-like and other vessels, the cells being disposed amongst or around them in various ways. Fine as these vessels seem, yet are they sufficiently strong, if carefully drawn out, to support the one half of the severed leaf (Fig. 101), when retaining no connection with the other half beyond that afforded by the almost invisible spiral coil. In the leaf the distinction between the vessel- tissue and the cell-tissue is so strongly marked, that even the beginner cannot fail to note the former as making up the veins of the leaf, and the latter as filling up all the intermediate spaces. As you may suppose, the use of the cells and vessels of plants is chiefly to permit and promote the circula- tion of the sap, or of the fluids generally ; but the former especially are also destined to serve as store-bags for the secretions peculiar to the tree or plant. Hanbtul MER, Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Petal-flowers —Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Scale- flowers—T he Scale-flowered or Glumaceous Plants— Common Rush—Wood Push and Bog Asphodel— Their characters—Flowering Rush and Wake-robin —Duckweed—The Sedge Iribe—Grasses and Grass Blossoms—Clant Clothing—The Skin or Epider- mis—Hairs—Breathing Pores or Stomates. HANDFUL VII. “Then think I of deep shadows on the grass,— Of meadows where in the sun the cattle graze, Where as the breezes pass, The gleaming rushes lean a thousand ways.” : Russet LOWELL. Just let us remind our readers that we are among the straight-veined monocotyledons or one-seed lobed plants, and that this second great division of the vegetable kingdon is itself divided into two sections, the petaloid plants and the glumaceous plants, or those in which the floral envelopes are more or less corolla or flower-like, and those which have only chaffy scales to inclose and protect their essential organs of reproduction—the stamens and pistils. With respect to the petaloids, we need scarcely say that the beautiful blossoms we reviewed in Handful VI. all belong to the section, but there are a good many other genera also claiming to be admitted within the petaloid boundary, which are by no means so flower-like. Indeed, some of them, because they cannot show a proper flower, seem as 168 WAYSIDE WEEDS. if they would not show any, and have nearly naked blossoms. Nevertheless, we shall find some of the less conspicuous of the petaloids sufficiently interest- ing. The glumaceous or scale-flowered division of British plants is composed of two tribes only, the sedges or Cyperacece, and. the grasses or Graminec, The former are comparatively unimportant; of the importance, or rather necessity of the latter, to man and animals, it is scarcely requisite to speak. We fear the glumaceous section of Flora’s family is often shirked by the novitiate botanist; partly, at least, from an exaggerated idea of the difficulties which attend its study, and partly from the com- paratively unattractive exterior of its members. Let us assure our readers that the difficulties are hot so great, and that the interest well repays the trouble of surmounting them, such as they may be. But to these we shall return, Space compels us to bid you gather in one “ handful” certain examples of the petaloids left unnoticed in our last Handful, and with them the glumaceous plants too. We shall find you plenty of both falling within the category of ‘‘ Wayside Weeds,” and none more so than, as the child’s hymn speaks— “The rushes by the water ‘We gather every day.” What plant so familiar as that with which we began ourfirst experiments in textilemanufacture—whodoes WAYSIDE WEEDS: 171 not remember it ?—-copying the nurse-maid or elder sister: as she wove rush caps, baskets, and all the: varieties of rush handicraft. Every one knows rushes, so get a few; but; remember, in blossom, that is, with the loose bunch of flowers protruding from the side of the straight round stem. There are many different species of the rush proper, but we fear to confuse by trying to distinguish between them, so simply gather the rush in fower. The wood-rush, especially the field species, is a Wayside Weed too, but it is a chance whether its reddish brown heads of blossoms, and bright yellow sta- mens, which show abundantly in spring, have at- tracted the attention of learners; nevertheless, look out for the plant, or for the greater hairy wood- rush (Fig. 102), which grows in woods. These wood-rushes, with their: flat hairy leaves, are very different from the common rush, as you may see. If you are in a moor country you should put beside them the bog-asphodel, really a pretty flower, which from its abundance may well be called a weed. It, too, belongs to the rush tribe. The water plantain you must often have seen, its broad, long-stalked leaves, and diffuse panicles of small pale rose-coloured blossoms standing up from some pool in summer, or from ditches by the side of railway embankments, which are favourite sites for it. It, too, is a wayside petaloid, and so likewise, in some places, is the arrow-head, with its beautifully 172 WAYSIDE WEEDS. shaped leaves. Then into the same section come crowding a large following of pond-weeds; you know these plants with dark olive-green leaves, floating on most pond surfaces, from which the little flower spikes shoot up in early summer; and lastly, there is the duckweed of our stagnant waters, which all summer long covers and protects them with its brilliant green fronds, till the ice covering surprises and supersedes it. If we have not already Fre. 103,—Blossom of Wood-rush, showing perianth in six divisions, and style with three stigmas. filled your hands too full, make way for a few glu- maces. If you can recognize a sedge or two, get them, and any grass, from oats to meadow grass, which you can find in blossom, will do well to illus- trate what we wish to say. You look distrustfully - at your handful, the members of it seem so different from the plants you have been all along examining, Let us see? Do not forget the trine numbers of the straight-veined division, and go back to your rushes, Take a wood-rush blossom (Fig. 103), and WAYSIDE WEEDS. 178 examine it through your. lens, A three-stigma capped style in the centre is surrounded by six stamens, and these again by six segments of peri- anth or floral envelope, which are, as you will see, not petals exactly, but approaching thereto. The blossom of the rush proper you will find is not very different, but in some examples the stamens number three only, The bog-asphodel, a first cousin of these rushes and wood-rushes, which has come out in bright yellow, and which holds itself half a foot high, or a little more, on the wet moorland on which it grows, has very much the same characters as its relatives ; moreover, the capsules or seed-yessels of all are either quite three-celled, or imperfectly so, and three-valved; thus you see the ternate divisions of the monocotyledons are kept up. A rush, and a flowering one, but not a oe sah either, we omitted to bid you gather, but itis com- mon enough in some places to make it at least a pondside weed. The handsome umbels of the tall floweriug rush” would indeed set off your hand- ful, and well illustrate, in all its characters, our present divisions. Knowing these characters, it is sufficient to bid you compare the water plantain and the arrow-head—if you have got them—with the same standard. There is one plant, the arum or wake-robin (Fig. 104), common enough in England, and commonly ‘known, which belongs to 174 WAYSIDE WEEDS. this our petaloid section, We have already quoted it in Handful VI. for its singular and conspicuous bract or spathe, but it is so very diverse in appear- ‘Fie. 104.—Arum Spathe, including ial organs of plant reproduction ; a, stamens; 6, pistils. ance and structure from the usual types of the sec- tion, we have forborne to add it to your collection, fearmg confusion. Remember, however, at some WAYSIDE WEEDS. 175 future day that the wake-robin is a petaloid mono- cotyledon ; but all ternate division of organs is lost, the stamens and pistils (Fig. 104) are indefinite in number, the perianth is wanting, and its place is supplied by-the enveloping bract or spathe. Quite as abnormal in its way, from our type, is this funny little duckweed which puzzles you altogether; you see a little leaf or a series of little leaflets—fronds they are often called—all conjoined, with a little water-root depending from each, but where the flower is, or even should be, is past. your comprehension, The fact is, this little duckweed, so called because it affords frequent food to water-fowl, chooses rather to increase by means of little buds which take the place of the stamens and pistils, and so each little leaf throws out other little leaves on each side, but does not throw them off, for they remain attached to their parent, and these again, when they are old enough, send out their own little leaflets, and so on they go covering the surface of the pool from the fierce heat of summer, giving shelter and houseroom to myriads of water-bred little beings, and offering at. the same time a wonderful example of a most attached family. Nevertheless, examine closely, and in some of the little fronds, or frondose leaves, you may find the two little stamens, and the wee little seed-vessel which is all this duck- weed, or, as the botanist calls it, Lemna, has to offer. Do not confuse yourself by trying to connect 176 WAYSIDE WEEDS. this curious and beautiful little plant with the other petaloids generally, but look at it simply as one of our wayside weeds, well-deserving in itself your attention. Moreover, do not omit to examine the delicate sheaths which tip the root fibre of each little leaflet. Passing on to the glumaceous or second section of the British monocotyledons, we find it divided between the Cyperaceze or sedge tribes, and the Gramineze or grasses, As regards the former, we much fear that few of our uninstructed readers will recognize them as wayside weeds, common as they are. The cotton grass, it is true, attracts attention when its many heads of white, cottony, almost silky fibre, whiten the moorland in summer, but then, all the flowering characters are gone, The bull-rushes or club-rushes may be known to some, but the sedge proper, or Carex family, is the most numerous in the division, numbering almost seventy British species. We must rest content with one illustration (Fig. 105), which may lead yon to recog- nize the first sedge you meet with by land or water. The barren spike (Fig. 105, a) consists of stamens only, with a single scale (Fig. 105, c) at their base. ‘These wither up after flowering. The fertile spikes (Fig. 105, b) consist of pistils only, each pistil like~ wise supported by its scale (Fig. 105, d), which finally protects the fruit (Fig. 105, e). The stems are of well-marked triangular form (Fig. 105, f). WAYSIDE WEEDS, 177 With some little resemblance to the grasses, the sedges are yet very different, as the descriptions prove, and more diverse still in their useful import. Comparatively, the sedge has rarely any economical yalue: the grass tribes, directly or indirectly, are the staple of man’s material life, Fre, 105.—Carex stricta, or Tufted Bog-sedge : a, barren spike; b 4, fertile spikes ; c, d, scales of perianth ; ¢, fruit, or seed ; Ff, section of stem. Important, however, as the second or gramineous division of the British Glwmacee may be, we must dismiss it with but short notice. It would be quite useless to attempt to discriminate for a beginner the N 178 WAYSIDE WEEDS. differences between the tribes or genera of grasses ; it must suffice to point out the parts of the grass blossom, or the peculiarities of the grass plant, and leave those who wish, to confirm them for themselves: Take any grass you chance to meet with, but a large species, with what you probably call the seeds large too, will be best. Observe, first, the narrow straight-veined leaves, and next, the cylindrical hollow stem with joints and knots at intervals, the Fig. 106.—A, Spikelet of Brome Grass; a a, glumes, or involucre, inclosing grass florets. B, Single floret of Brome Grass; 2, glumelle, or perianth ; e, stumens; e, awn. leaves sheathing the stem. The seeds or blossoms are disposed in spikes, as in the case of wheat or barley, which, perhaps, it is unnecessary to say are real, true grasses, or more loosely in panicles, as in oats. Now take one of these grass blossoms (Fig. 106), and if the plant really be in blossom, you will observe, hanging out, the loosely-attached stamens WAYSIDE WEEDS. 179 —“ versatile” is the proper botanical term—three in every distinct species of British grass, but one, the sweet-scented meadow grass, which has only two of these organs ; you will, probably, also observe the little feathery stigmas protruding beside them. The scales, or palew, or valves, for they have all these Fra. 107.—Floret of Melis Grass, showing feathery stigmas. names, which include the stamens and styles, are, as you will observe, generally in pairs (Figs. 107 and Fig. 108,—Spikelet or Locusta of Meadow Soft Gruss; a a, glumes or involucre, inclosing florets. 108) ; a number of pairs making up a little spikelet (Fig. 108}. From the extremities of the scales, generally from the outer one, and often from its back, arise long, thread-like projections, which have the name of awns. Barley, rye, and the beautiful feather-grass afford us some of the best 180 WAYSIDE WEEDS. examples of the awn in full development, Of course these awns give valuable characters in distinguishing the various species of grass from each other, but if you~ will examine the diverse scales which compose the spikelet, or locusta, as it is called, you will find they have many distinctive marks besides ; some are more or less covered with hairs ; some have many or few veins or nerves; and whilst some are pointed at the apex, others are blunted, and others “ bifid,” or ’ forked.” We have yet, however, to speak to you of the structure of this flower spikelet asa whole, The outer and lower pair of scales or glumes (Figs, 106 and 108) were at one time regarded as equivalent to a calyx, but as in many grasses they inclose a con- siderable number of florets, they are now more properly regarded as bracts, constituting an invo- lucre, such as we remember in our old friends the composites, consequently the pairs of scales inclosed by the glumes, instead of being equivalent to a corolla, must be looked on as the perianth of the blossom. These inclosed scales are often called palee. The grass stem gots the distinctive name of culm. PLANT CLOTHING, “If God so clothe the grass of the field.” A very varied wardrobe have these “lilies of the field.” The richly coloured petals, some- times brightly coloured calyx or bract, the WAYSIDE WEEDS. 18] leaves of every surface variety, the bright shining stems of the grasses, or of the smooth, richly. spotted “hemlock, the bark of birch, beech, oak, or pine, are all portions of our plant clothing. True it is that much of the colour which varies the plant exterior beléngs rather to the colour cells just below the plant covering or cuticle, than to the cuticle itself, but still we may legitimately regard all as part of the array which God has given.