BR IT! SH 'WILD 'FLOWERS 1 1 i;rHFJR^ATlJRAL'HAlJ]NlTS t HORWOOD BRITISH WILD FLOWERS FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES PLATE XXXII I. Dyer's Weed or Weld (Reseda Luleola, L. ). 2. Rock Rose ( Helianthemitm C/iammchlus, Mill.). 3. Hairy Violet (Viola hirta, L. ). 4. Musk Mallow (Malva moschata, L. ). KEY TO PLATE XXXII Nci Rose a Flower, showing 5 tteft petals, nunic^ > o'-s stamens, *fefc) s^as. *, Flowe^/~) head, with 3 ^flgPnd 3 calVx *f$k below. ,-, Seed^-tfpper part of £«&£ with stem- leaves^ W#; 2 racemdr^F flowers in bud W^cpanded, theVMKp c^._«. fCtthM»«k j«A«1 f «;) f^S , Mill.) a. Flower, .with' p,et'aii;s,t;em^d, showing calyx Antfe(. sepsis, af^j bracks or outer sepals\ belowf"w4th .(Central stamens and stigmaS->, 'Petal Itt^tached. c, Pistil with capitate sngmar Mill.) 9 HAIRY VIOLET (Viola hirta, L.) -n MUSK MALLOW (Malva moschata, L.) 14 YELLOW BALSAM (Impatiens noli-me-tangere, L.) - - - - 16 REST HARROW (Onom's spinosa, L.)- - - - - - - 18 HARE'S FOOT TREFOIL (Trifolium arvense, L.) - - - - 20 KIDNEY VETCH (Anthyllis Vulnerarta, L.) - - - - -22 YELLOW MOUNTAIN OXYTROPIS (Oxytropis campestris) - - - 24 SAINFOIN (Onobrychis vicicefolia, Scop.) 26 DROPWORT (Spircea filipendula, L.)- - - - - - -28 OAK-LEAVED MOUNTAIN AVENS (Dryas octopetala, L.) - - - 3° SALAD BURNET (Poterium Sanguisorba, L.) 32 FIELD SCABIOUS (Scabiosa arvensis, L.) 34 PLOUGHMAN'S SPIKENARD (Inula squarrosa, Bernh.) 36 COTTON THISTLE (Onopordon Acanthium, L.) 3^ AUTUMN GENTIAN (Gentiana Ama fella, L.) - - - - 4° FIELD GENTIAN (Gentiana campestris, L.) - - - - - 43 WILD THYME (Thymus Serpyllum, L.) 44 CLARY (Salvia Verbenaca, L.)- - - - - ~ • -47 vi CONTENTS PAGE SHEEP'S SORREL (Rumex Acetosella, L.)- - - - - -50 Box (Buxus sempervirens, L.) - - - - - - - -51 MUSK ORCHID (Herminium Monorchis, Br.) 54 FRAGRANT ORCHIS (Habenaria conopsea, Benth.) ~ - - - 55 SHEEP'S FESCUE (Festuca ovina, L.) - - - - - - -57 SECTION VIII.— FLOWERS OF THE LAKES, RIVERS, DITCHES, AND WET PLACES 59 MEADOW RUE ( Thalictrum flavum, L.) 67 WATER FENNEL (Ranunculus trichophyllus, Chaix) 69 WHITE WATER LILY (Castalia alba, Wood) 71 YELLOW WATER LILY (Nymphcea lutea, L.) - - - - 75 WATER CRESS (Radicula Nasturtium aquaticum, Rendle and Britten) ( = Nasturtium officinale] -------- 78 GREAT YELLOW WATER CRESS (Radicula amphibia, Druce) - - 82 GREAT CHICKWEED (Stellaria aquatica, Scop.) ----- 84 PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (Ly thrum Salicaria, L.) 86 GREAT HAIRY WILLOW HERB (Epilobium hirsutum, L.) - - - 88 MARSH BEDSTRAW (Galium pahistre, L.) ------ 91 HEMP AGRIMONY (Etipatorium cannabinum, L.) - - - 93 FLEABANE (Pulicaria dysenterica, Gray) ------ 95 THREE-LOBED BUTTERBUR (Bidens tripartita, L.) - - - 97 COLTSFOOT (Tussilago Farfara, L.)- - - - - - -99 BUTTERBUR (Petasites officinalis, Moench) 102 MARSH RAGWORT (Senecio aquaticus, Hill) - - - - - 104 MARSH THISTLE (Cnicus palustris, Willd.) - 106 GREAT YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimachia vulgaris, L.) - - - 109 MONEYWORT (Lysimachia Nummularia, L.) - - - - -in SCORPION GRASS (Myosotis scorpioides, L.) 113 WATER FIGWORT (Scrophularia aquatica, L.) 115 MUSK (Mimulus Langsdorjfii, Donn.) 118 BROOKLIME (Veronica Beccabunga, L.)- - - - - -120 WATER MINT (Mentha aquatica, L.) - 122 GIPSYWORT (Lycopus europceus, L.)- - - - - - -124 SKULL-CAP (Scutellaria galericulata, L.) - - - - - - 126 CONTENTS vii PAGE AMPHIBIOUS KNOTGRASS (Polygonum amphibium, L.) - - - 128 CRACK WILLOW (Salix fragilis, L.) 130 FROGBIT (Hydrocharis morsus-rance, L.) - - - - - 133 YELLOW FLAG (Iris Pseudacorus, L.) - - - - - -135 SNAKE'S-HEAD FRITILLARY (Fritillaria Meleagris, L.) - - - 138 REED-MACE (Typha latifolia, L.) - - - - - - -140 BUR-REED (Sparganium ramosum, Curt.) (-S. erectum, L.) - - 143 SWEET FLAG (Acorus Calamus, L.) - - 144 DUCKWEED (Lemna minor, L.)- - - - - - - - 146 WATER PLANTAIN (Alisma Plantago-aqiiatica, L.) - - - 150 ARROW-HEAD (Sagittaria sagittifolia, L.) - - - - - -I52 FLOWERING RUSH (Butomus umbellatus, L.) - - - - 155 BULRUSH (Scirpus lacustris, L.) - - - - - - -157 WOOD CLUB RUSH (Scirpus sylvaticus, L.) - - - - - 159 REED (Phragmites communis, Trin.) ------- 161 SECTION IX.— FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, GARDENS, REFUSE-HEAPS, VILLAGE GREENS, FARMYARDS, ETC. 165 GREATER CELANDINE (Chelidonium ma/us, L.) 169 SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic.) ... 171 MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED (Cerastium vulgatum, L.) - - - - 174 COMMON OR MARSH MALLOW (Mal-va sylvestris, L.)- - - - 176 STORK'S BILL (Erodium cicutarium, L'H^rit.) - - - - - 178 MELILOT (Melilotus officinalis, Lam.) - - - - - - 181 GOUTWEED (JEgopodium Podagraria, L.) - - - - - - 183 STINKING MAYWEED (Anthemis Cotula, L.) - - - - - 185 TANSY (Tanacetum vulgare, L.) - - - - - - -187 GROUNDSEL (Senecio vulgaris, L.)- - - - - - -189 BURDOCK (Arctium minus, Bernh.) - - - - - - -192 MUSK THISTLE (Carduus nutans, L.) 194 SPEAR THISTLE (Cnicus lanceolatus, Willd.) 196 MILK THISTLE (Silybum marianum, Gaertn.) - - - - - 198 CHICORY (Cichorium Intybus, L.)- - - - - - - 200 HAWK'S BEARD (Crcpis virens, L.) ( = C. capillaris, Wallr.) - - 202 viii CONTENTS PAGE HOUND'S TONGUE (Cynoglossum officinale, L.) - - - - - 204 VIPER'S BUGLOSS (Echium vulgare, L.)- - - - - - 206 BITTERSWEET (Solatium Dulcamara, L.) - - - - - 208 DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Atropa Belladonna, L.) - - - - - 211 HENBANE (Hyoscyamus niger, L.)- - - - - - -214 MULLEIN (Verbascum Thapsus, L.)- - - - - - -217 CREEPING TOADFLAX (Linaria repens, Mill.) - - - - - 219 COMMON TOADFLAX (Linaria vulgaris, Mill.) - - - - - 221 PURPLE DEAD NETTLE (Laniium purpureum, L.) - - - - 223 WHITE DEAD NETTLE (Lamium album, L.) 225 ALL-GOOD (GOOSEFOOT) (Chenopodium album, L.) - - - 227 GOOD KING HENRY (Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus, L.) - - - 229 KNOTGRASS (Polygonum aviculare, L.) 231 DAIRY MAID'S DOCK (Rumex obtusifolius, L.) 234 WALL BARLEY (Hordeum murinum, L. ) - - - - - - 236 SOME GENERAL HINTS AND NOTES 239 SECTION VII: MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES - 239 SECTION VIII: LAKES, RIVERS, STREAMS, DITCHES, AND WET PLACES 244 SECTION IX: WASTE PLACES -------- 251 PLATES IN COLOUR FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES PLATE PAGE XXXII. DYER'S WEED OR WELD; ROCK ROSE; HAIRY VIOLET; MUSK MALLOW Frontispiece 4 XXXIII. YELLOW BALSAM; REST HARROW; HARE'S FOOT TREFOIL; KIDNEY VETCH -•--..... -16 XXXIV. YELLOW MOUNTAIN OXYTROPIS; SAINFOIN; DROPWORT; OAK- LEAVED MOUNTAIN AVENS -------24 XXXV. SALAD BURNET; FIELD SCABIOUS; PLOUGHMAN'S SPIKENARD; COTTON THISTLE ---- 32 XXXVI. AUTUMN GENTIAN; FIELD GENTIAN; WILD THYME; CLARY - 40 XXXVII. SHEEP'S SORREL; Box; MUSK ORCHID; FRAGRANT ORCHIS; SHEEP'S FESCUE _ _ _ 50 FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES XXXVIII. MEADOW RUE; WATER FENNEL; WHITE WATER LILY; YELLOW WATER LILY; WATER CRESS; GREAT YELLOW WATER CRESS -- _ _ 66 XXXIX. GREAT CHICKWEED; PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE; GREAT HAIRY WILLOW HERB; MARSH BEDSTRAW; HEMP AGRIMONY; FLEABANE .._ 84 XL. THREE-LOBED BUTTERBUR; COLTSFOOT; BUTTERBUR; MARSH RAGWORT; MARSH THISTLE; GREAT YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE 98 XLI. MONEYWORT; SCORPION GRASS; WATER FIGWORT; MUSK; BROOKLIME; WATER MINT 112 XLII. GIPSYWORT ; SKULL-CAP; AMPHIBIOUS KNOTGRASS; CRACK WILLOW; FROGBIT; YELLOW FLAG 124 x PLATES IN COLOUR PLATE PAGE XLIII. SNAKE'S-HEAD FRITILLARY; REED-MACE; BUR-REED; SWEET FLAG; DUCKWEED; WATER PLANTAIN - - - - 138 XLIV. ARROW-HEAD; FLOWERING RUSH; BULRUSH; WOOD CLUB RUSH; REED - - - - - - - - - - -152 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. XLV. GREATER CELANDINE; SHEPHERD'S PURSE; MOUSE-EAR CHICK- WEED; COMMON OR MARSH MALLOW; STORK'S BILL; MELILOT .._. J^Q XLVI. GOUTWEED; STINKING MAYWEED; TANSY; GROUNDSEL; BURDOCK; MUSK THISTLE 184 XLVII. SPEAR THISTLE; MILK THISTLE; CHICORY; HAWK'S BEARD; HOUND'S TONGUE; VIPER'S BUGLOSS ----- 196 XLVIII. BITTERSWEET; DEADLY NIGHTSHADE; HENBANE; MULLEIN; CREEPING TOADFLAX; COMMON TOADFLAX - 208 XLIX. PURPLE DEAD NETTLE; WHITE DEAD NETTLE; ALL-GOOD (GOOSEFOOT); GOOD KING HENRY; KNOTGRASS; DAIRY MAID'S DOCK; WALL BARLEY ------ 224 PLATES IN BLACK-AND-WHITE PACK MOUNTAIN VEGETATION .......... 5 REED SWAMP AT THE MARGIN OF A NORFOLK BROAD - ... 63 A TYPICAL FLOATING-LEAF ASSOCIATION 73 WHITE WATER LILY (Castalia alba, Wood) WITH WATER BUTTERCUP - 73 GREAT YELLOW WATER CRESS (Radicula amphibia, Druce) 79 DUCKWEED (Lemna minor, L.)- - - - - - - - - 147 ARROW-HEAD {Sagittaria sagittifolia, L.) - - - - - - - 153 xi Section VII FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES Vol. TV 1 47 FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES Mountains and hills are essentially caused by the major folds in the crust. They exhibit, exposed at the surface more usually than not, the rocks themselves, upon which in the same way are based the subsoils and soils of more lowland districts, whose derivation is not so obvious. A mountain or hill being based upon a physical character, though in itself independent of questions of soil, essentially tends to cause the plants growing on it to be adapted to dry- soil conditions as xero- philes, for the drainage is thereby at once modified. So that this group consists largely of xerophiles, with others that grow in moist hollows and are not xerophilous. A natural classification divides such plants into Lithophytes, or plants growing on bare rock surfaces themselves (chiefly Cryptogams), and Chomophytes, which grow on hills, &c., or rocks with a covering of detritus or subsoil. Of the last are those that grow on the surface (Exochomophytes), and Chasmophytes (crevice plants), which grow in the crevices of rocks, vertical or horizontal. Those here considered, surface plants, are members of the Mesophytic associations driven to higher ground for one reason or another, which by virtue of their position are mainly xerophilous. A change can be often noticed in the character of the common plants that have a wide range geographically and also altitudinally as we study them in different habitats. For in the hollows a ubiquitous plant like Dandelion is luxuriant in growth with broad leaves, and in wet meadows the leaves are still more broad, but upon the hills the foliage is much more divided and the whole plant adapted to a xero- philous habit, though not provided so definitely with those characters that stamp Xerophytes. Here a physiographical cause may be seen to act in such a way as to bring about a difference in vegetative character- istics. This is only one of the features that are induced by a retreat to a highland habitat, and it must be remembered that the glacial plants were driven to high ground on the retreat of the ice-sheets. 4 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES The porosity or degree of saturation and the structure of the rock itself greatly influence the nature of the habitat or subsoil in hilly regions, where soil is continually being worn down by rain and con- veyed to the valleys. Some rocks are hard, such as sandstone and grits, and disintegrate little, so that there is a little soil formed, as in the case of syenitic or schistose rocks. While granitic rocks decompose so that alkaline constituents are set free, yet they again are less easy to break down than the chalk or even many types of limestones. These main types continue to retain a mountainous character, or more or less the original position in which they were tilted, whereas others, such as carboniferous clays and shales, or triassic clays and liassic limestones and shales, are worn down into inconspicuous undu- lations of no altitude, though tilted originally, it may be, an equal amount. The contrast between such types is well seen in the marked escarp- ment between the lower and middle Lias formed by the latter. The marlstone escarpment affords a habitat for many truly rupestral plants that grow on the bare rock, there being little soil formed above it. This difference between the resistance of rocks to weathering is again well seen in the alternation of soft shales and dykes of diorite in the Cambrian series near Nuneaton, where they give rise to a series of dykes and troughs which diversify the country and lend extra charm to an otherwise beautiful district. The hills which are built up of older rocks, such as granite rocks with little soil, furnish a habitat for Ploughman's Spikenard, which is fond of stony places, growing in little or no soil, and Clary, which is found in such stations as well as in woodland situations on sand soil Almost bare sand rock is a support for Musk Mallow, Wild Thyme, Sheep's Fescue. On sand soil on hills Cotton Thistle may be found, and on sand, on high as well as low ground, Sheep's Sorrel. Bare stony ground is a special requirement of Kidney Vetch, Rest Harrow, and Hare's Foot Trefoil. High clayey ground is suited to Field Scabious and Dropwort. On limestone the Oak-leaved Mountain Avens grows luxuriantly, and Salad Burnet is found on hills where a lime soil is provided in which some proportion of clay occurs, which it may derive from chalk or even a calcareous sandstone. The chalk is a soft rock, which affords a soil derived from the rock itself on which a characteristic flora is to be found. Some we include here which may almost, like some of the fore- going, be called Lithophytes and not merely surface plants, such as the DYER'S WEED 7 graceful Dyer's Weed and the spreading Rock Rose, which closes its golden cup-like flowers as soon as the sun is obscured. Here grow Hairy Violet, too, Silky Mountain Vetch, Sainfoin, Box, and Musk Orchis. Wet hills are the favourite habitat of Yellow Balsam, Gentians, Felwort, and the fragrant Orchis. Dyer's Weed or Weld (Reseda luteola, L.) This plant has not been discovered in any of the early deposits. It is found to-day in the Warm Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, and Western Asia, and is introduced in the United States. It is found in all the counties of Great Britain except Kirkcudbright, Stirling, Mid Perth, Westerness, Main Argyle, Dumbarton, Clyde Isles, S., Mid, and N. Ebudes, W. Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, and the Northern Isles. There is some cloubt as to whether in Moray and west of the Caledonian Canal it is indigenous. It is thus much rarer in Scotland. In Ireland it is common. Dyer's Weed or Weld may be regarded as a native, but as a dye- yielding plant its extension of range may be due in part to this cause. It is fond of high ground, hilly places, where the soil is dry and it can live as a xerophile. It is a lime-loving plant, preferring a limy soil. It is also found on waste ground, to which it travels with other aliens like Lepidium Draba, L. campestre, and others of similar status. It is a tall, erect, graceful plant, its nodding spike being heliotropic or turned to the sun, as Linnaeus noted. The leaves are entire, long, and shining, elongate-lance-shaped, and the stem is unbranched. The flowers are yellowish-green, in long terminal pointed spikes, with 4 sepals, the petals longer, and many stamens (20-24), which are very marked. The fruit, a capsule, is flattened, broad, and trilobed, with nearly round, smooth, shining black seeds. The plant is often 3 ft. high. It flowers in July and August, and is biennial, being propagated by seeds. In the allied Reseda odorata the receptacle becomes raised into a perpendicular square plate between the stamens and sepals, at first yellow, and brown after flowering is over. Honey is secreted by it, and it acts as a honey-guide. The expanded claws or stalks of the 3 upper and middle petals lie close below the lower surface of this plate, and surround the upper lateral margins with lobes pointed anteriorly, serving to protect the honey from the rain as in a box. The laminae of the petals are split up into strips, and render the flowers conspicuous. 8 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES The flower does not require to expand, the parts of the flower lying open. The honey-glands secrete honey. The anthers bend down, open, and rise up towards the honey-disk. Three or four carpels de- velop papillae. The stigma projects considerably above the middle of the flower, forming a resting-place for insects, and is covered with pollen from other flowers. If insects do not visit it self-pollination ensues. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidse), Prosopis communis, Apis mellifica, Andrena. Prosopis, a bee with a trowel-like proboscis, DYER'S WEED (Reseda Luteola) is enabled to lift the box formed by the petals over the honey-disk, and in so doing touches the stigma, and becomes dusted also with pollen. The seeds are dispersed by the wind. The capsules opening above the seeds are blown out beyond the area of the parent plant, aided by the wind. Dyer's Weed is a sand plant, requiring a sand soil, and at the same time is a lime-loving plant, subsisting on a lime soil, being found in chalky or oolitic districts. No fungi are parasitic on this plant. The Thysanoptera Melano- thrips obesa, sEolothrips parasitica, and the Lepidoptera, Bath White (Pieris Daplidice] and Scarce-bordered Straw (Heliothis armiger) feed on it, as also Bright-line Brown-eye (Mamestra oleracea). Pliny gave the name Reseda, from resedo, I calm, because it was supposed to be a sedative. Luteola is a diminutive of lutea, yellow. ROCK ROSE 9 The English names are Ash of Jerusalem, Dyer's Rocket, Dyer's Weed, Dyer's Yellow-weed, Goud, Green-weed, Italian Rocket, Weld, Woad, Wolds or Woulds, Woold, Yellow Rocket, Yellows. It is called Base Rocket because its leaves are like a rocket, and from being used as a base in dyeing- wool. It was used as a yellow and green dye to colour wool and cotton. Dutch pink is also manufactured from it. The dye has also been applied to silk, and for paper, mohair, and linen. Blue cloth is dipped in it to dye it a green colour. When the plant is in flower it is plucked up, and used in the fresh and the dried state. When wild it is biennial, the root and radical leaves being developed the first year. The cultivated plant grown from seeds in the spring is annual. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 40. Reseda Luteola, L. — Stem tall, erect, leaves shining, undivided, lanceolate, flowers yellow, in a terminal spike, petals unequal, exceed- ing the 4 sepals, capsule flattened. Rock Rose (Helianthemum Chamsecistus, Mill.) This plant is not found fossil in any deposits. It is found in Arctic Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. In Great Britain it is absent from S. Somerset, Middlesex, Radnor, Merioneth, Cheshire, Mid Lanes, Isle of Man, Renfrew, Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow, N. Aberdeen, Westerness, and in Clyde Isles, E. Ross, and E. Suther- land. It is rare in West of Scotland, and in Cornwall. It ascends to a height of 2000 ft. The Rock Rose, while especially a plant of the chalk clowns, is found elsewhere on hilly ground where a certain amount of lime occurs on more stony substrata. It is accompanied by Dog Violet (Viola ericetorum), Heath Milkwort (Polygala depressa), and other plants, such as Horse Shoe Vetch, Anthyllis vulneraria, &c. This little plant is trailing, shrubby, with many prostrate stems, smooth below, and hairy above, adapted to growing on and amongst rocks. The leaves are linear-oblong, or acute, shortly stalked, with rolled-back margins, and deep-green, above rough to the touch, hoary below, and with 4 hairy lance -shaped stipules or leaflike organs. Some species of Rock Rose have no stipules, having broad -based leaves which serve to protect the buds. In H. gzdtatwu the upper leaves bear stipules, and are narrow at the base, whilst the lower bear no stipules and have broad bases. The flowers are large, golden-yellow, opening in the sunshine, in more than 6 in. and prostrate, flowers last from to September. 10 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES loose racemes, with bracts or leaflike organs. The sepals are smooth, the inner ones blunt, ending- in a point, and three-nerved. The style is longer than the ovary, and bent at the base, equalling the stamens, which when touched will spring back and lie upon the petals. The stigma ends in a knob. The seeds are numerous, and the capsule, which opens by three valves, is enclosed by the longer calyx. The plant is never high The May The Rock Rose is a peren- nial, evergreen, trail- ing plant, increased by means of cuttings. There is no honey but abundant pollen. The stamens are nu- merous (150). The pistil projects above them, and insects alighting on the flower touch the pistil before the stamens and cross- pollinate the plant with pollen from a previ- ously visited flower. Self-pollination takes place if no insects visit it. There are 3 sepals and 5 petals which open in the sun. The anthers and capitate stigma mature together, the latter being a little taller. The anthers are at first close, but move outwards, and dust the insect which touches them with pollen, thus exhibiting irritability. The flower is best visited by the first insects from the corolla and by late-comers from the centre. The insect covered with pollen on a previous flower alights in the centre in the second and cross-pollinates it. Independently of insects' visits it is self-pollinated in closed and nodding flowers. There is abundant pollen sought by Diptera (Syr- phidse), Hymenoptera (Apidae), Coleoptera (Cerambycidae). Photo. Flatters & Ga ROCK ROSE (Helianthemum Chamcecistus, Mill.) HAIRY VIOLET 11 The Rock Rose disperses its seeds by the aid of the wind. The capsule splits into 3-5 valves, the seeds being jerked out and dispersed by the wind. The plant is a lime-loving plant requiring a lime soil, but where that desideratum is wanting it is a rock plant, growing on various rocky subsoils. It is galled by Diplosis helianthemi. The beetles Bruchus ater, B. Cistii, and the Lepidoptera Hypochalcia ahenella, Butalis fuscoalnea, Teleia sequax feed upon it, also Brown Argus (Polyommatus artaxerxes), the dark Annulet (Coleophora ochrea), and Laverna miscella. The name Helianthemum, given by Cordus, is from the Greek helios, sun, anthemos, flower, in allusion to its habit of opening its flower when the sun is out. Chamczcistus is from the Greek chamai, on the ground, and cistus, a shrub. The English names are Rock Rose, Sot Flower, Sun Daisy, Sun Flower, Sun Rose. This plant is often cultivated in gardens as a rock plant. Cuttings are easily made from it under glass. White and double flowers occasionally occur. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 41. Helianthemum Chamczcistus, Mill. — Dwarf shrub, leaves oval, opposite, with fringed stipules, green above, hoary below, flowers yellow, in a raceme, with bracts, style bent below, sepals 5, 2 small, blunt. Hairy Violet (Viola hirta, L.) As with the Sweet Violet no fossil seeds of this species have been found. It is confined to the cold Temperate Zone, in Europe, N. and W. Asia, extending as far as N.-W. India. It is absent in Wales from Brecon and Radnor, Pembroke, Cardigan, Merioneth, and from Mid Lanes, and the Isle of Man, but elsewhere it is universal. In Scotland it does not occur in Roxburgh, Berwick, Haddington, Edin- burgh, Fife, Forfar, Kincardine. From Forfar it ranges to the south of England, and is found at a height of 1000 ft. in Yorks. it occurs also in Ireland. The Hairy Violet is found on dry banks, and in woods, in hilly country as a rule, being addicted more especially to drier conditions than the Sweet Violet, which thrives best in the shade, but this species may also be found in damper stations in woods in low-lying situations. There is less likelihood of this species being spread artificially, and it has a less wide range. The habit is prostrate like that of the Sweet Violet, which also has 12 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES no erect stem, the leaves arising from the rootstock directly. The leaves are likewise heart-shaped, but in this case the stoles or trailing stems with buds are absent or very short, and the bracts are below the middle of the flower- stalk. Moreover, the whole plant is hairy, or roughly hairy, giving it a greyer, less green, appearance when dry. The flowers are not fragrant and less dark blue than those of the HAIRY VIOLET (Viola /n'r/a, L.) Sweet Violet, but the spur is long and hooked, and the anther spurs are linear. The plant flowers later than the Sweet Violet. The capsules are pendent in this as well as in the latter, and in each the spring flowers do not produce seeds, while the later cleistogamic flowers without petals do. The flowers vary in number of spurs, some having sack-like ends to the petals or rudimentary spurs. The Hairy Violet is not more than 6 in. high. The flowers may be found from April to May or June. The plant is perennial, increased by division of the root. The flower is pollinated in the same way as Viola odorata (which see). Both are conspicuous flowers, and have two types of flower, HAIRY VIOLET 13 spring (usually infertile) and autumn, the latter cleistogamic and fertile though apetalous. One difference is the marked absence of scent, but as it is not so usually a woodland or shade species this is the more readily to be explained. The spur is long and hooked and two anther-spurs are lance-shaped. The seeds of the Hairy Violet are dispersed by the plant's own agency, the flower-stalks hanging down when the capsule is ripe, and the seeds are sown in the ground around the parent plant. The seeds are also dispersed by ants. The capsule opens by three valves. Hairy Violet is a sand-loving plant, requiring a sand soil with a very little humus, in this differing from V. odorata. Puccinia viola, Urocystis viola, Peronospora effusa, Thielavia basi- cola are fungal parasites. The Lepidoptera Argynnis paphia (Silver-washed Fritillary), A. adippe (High-brown Fritillary), and A. aglaia (Dark-green Fritillary) feed on it. The specific Latin name hirla means hairy, alluding to the hairy leaves, stem, or leaf-stalk. In Viola odorata numerous stolons or soboles are thrown out which trail over the surface and root at intervals. In V. hirta they are not prostrate, and do not root at intervals. The roots of both are covered with tubercles when advanced. The leaf -stalks are smooth in V. odorata, hairy in V. hirta, and give it quite a downy, silvery appear- ance. The leaves are much alike, and V. odorata has hairs below, but they are more numerous in V. hirta. The leaf of the Sweet Violet is glossy above, and the leaves are longer, not so heart-shaped. In V. odorata the bracts or leaflike organs are above the scape, in V. hirta below. The Hairy Violet flowers a week later than V. odorata, and the flowers are not so deep a blue, nor do they smell. They both produce barren spring and fertile autumn flowers. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 43. Viola hirta, L. — Stoles absent or short, bracts below the middle of flower-stalk, leaves hairy, cordate, petioles with spreading hairs, flowers light blue, scentless, spur linear. 1 These are pink, fleshy, swollen, and when the flower-stalk lengthens it may bury the ripened capsule in the loose soil. The pendent capsules are due to the practically non-existent stem (which is very short), so that they are not raised up. FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Musk Mallow (Malva moschata, L.) The Musk Mallow is not found fossil in any deposit. It is a member of the flora of the North Temperate Zone, found in Europe eastward to Lithuania, and it has been introduced into the United States. Though fairly widespread in Great Britain it does not grow in West Kent, Radnor, Cardigan, Montgomery, S. Lines, Mid Lanes, S.E. Yorks, Renfrew, Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow, Mid Perth, MI-SK MALLOW (Malva moschata, L.) and elsewhere; and in the West Highlands only in Dumbarton, Clyde Isles, and S. Ebudes, and in Sutherland in N, Highlands; but in Mid Scotland Watson held it to be an alien. It is rare in Ireland. Mountains and hills are the home of the Musk Mallow, which is a rupestral or rock-loving species, delighting to grow on lofty summits where arenaceous or sandstone rocks come to the surface. In the lowlands it may be found in situations where it can command a similar sandy habitat. The Musk Mallow is a suberect plant, with numerous stems, hairy, tall, and with many branches. The leaves are kidney-shaped at the base, with long leaf- stalks, with 5-7 deep, pinnatifid lobes, divided nearly to the base, with narrow segments, the upper with narrow segments only. MUSK MALLOW The flowers are rose-pink or white, large, clustered near the summit. The calyx consists of 5 sepals. The outer calyx-teeth are narrow and hairy, the fruit-stalks being erect in fruit, the fruit downy. The 5 petals are nearly blunt at the tip, with veins of deeper colour, branched, fringed with hairs. The carpels are rounded, and covered with coarse hairs on the back. Often the stem is 2 ft. high. The flowers last and bloom in July and August. The plant is a deciduous, herbaceous peren- nial. Musk Mallow is proter- androus. The ends of the anther-stalks curve downwards and unite in a tube round the pistil. When the numer- ous anthers wither the stig- mas spread out above and obviate self-pollination. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidse), Apis mellifica, Che- lostoma, Andrena; Diptera (Bombylidae), Systrechus; Le- pidoptera, Hesperia sylvamis. The seeds are dispersed by the plant's own agency. The capsule, a schizocarp, consists of a number of aggre- gate carpels which break up when the plant is ripe, and naturally aid in dispersal around the plant, the single seeds remaining in the carpel. Musk Mallow is a sand plant, requiring a sand soil, and it is found very frequently on such formations as the Middle Lias Marlstone. A fungus, Puccinia malvacearum, the Hollyhock disease, is parasitic on it. The Swift Moth (Hepialus sylvamis) and Eubolia ceromata live on this food plant, and 3 beetles, Podagrica fuscipes, Crepidodera fiisci- cornis, C. rujipes. Malva, Pliny, is from the Greek malakos, soft, and is Latin for Mallow, given because of its emollient characters. Moschata (Latin) refers to its musk-like scent. This pretty wild flower is called Musk Mallow because its foliage has a musky odour. MUSK MALLOW (Mal-va moschata, L.) 16 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES In Germany an ointment was made from the leaves, and used to dispel malicious influences. The carpels called cheeses are termed " fairies' cheeses ". The Musk Mallow was said to encourage love. Gerarde has the following couplet: "If that of health you have any special care, Use French Mallows, that to the body wholesome are." The seeds were said to nourish the dead, so the Greeks planted the plant on graves. Like other members of the Mallow tribe Musk Mallow yields fibres of excellent quality. The Chinese use one as food. It is cultivated in gardens, and is easily improved. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 63. Ma/va moschata, L. — Stem erect, radical leaves reniform, crenate, with pinnatifid lobes, upper leaves lobed, flowers large, rose- pink, calyx lobes narrow, fruit hairy. Yellow Balsam (Impatiens noli-me-tangere, L.) A delicate plant and scarce in this country, Touch-me-not has apparently not been preserved in any seed-bearing beds. It is con- fined to the Northern Cold Temperate Zone, and is distributed sparingly throughout Europe, Siberia, and West Asia. It is recorded in twenty-four vice-counties, but except in Salop, Montgomery, West Lancashire, and Westmorland, all west of the Pennine Chain, it is doubtfully indigenous, and probably an escape. It is found in Ireland. Yellow Balsam certainly seems to be wild in the dingles of Shrop- shire, where it grows in moist wooded places adjoining rivers in upland districts. It is associated there with such plants as Elecampane and Dame's Violet, both equally uncommon, and Water Pepper, Water Mints, amongst more common semi-aquatic species. This is a tender succulent plant, tall and semi-erect, irregularly branched from a single main stem, the branches opposite, and the nodes swollen. The leaves are thin, egg-shaped to lance-shaped, coarsely toothed, the whole plant smooth, flat, and shining, and the plant grows in extensive beds like Musk, the stems requiring support. The leaves protect the flowers from the rain. They are expanded during the day, but at night they hang down. The flower-stalks are erect at first, but bend down. The flowers are yellow, with red spots and blotches, large, the large sepal hood- shaped, drooping, the spur curved backwards. The flower-stalks bear numerous clustered flowers, but are themselves solitary. There are KEY TO PLATE XXXI II lsam^ S^1 ^/ j No. 2. j Rest Harrow iilg , with valves, twisted, tip, show- - «> Pod, w; seed cavity.",, b, •S^eflX/^i Capsule ' *• S<*d, c, re delated ng. t/, Up'p^et part of ])lai a, ana /IT ' and Upper knd^1 persistent style. p^i-t of plant, with id flowers (papilion- ines ojf ..leaves, in I, No.& Ha/Vs Fpot Trefoil (Trifotijm aryense, L.) brJde-inJ teeth, b. S , ^ Keel/ * Wing o^^ •yoot, rootlets^^^f / Upper/^gtft of leaves, stiptries, and rheads. m bn . FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES PLATE XXXIII Yellow Balsam (finfatiens noli-rne-tangere, L. ). 2. Rest Harrow (Onoiiis sf>inosa, L. ). 3. Hare's Foul Trefoil ( 7'rifolinm arrense, L. )• 4- Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis Vulncraria, L. )• YELLOW BALSAM two outer opposite sepals, which are flat and oblique. The upper sepal, owing to the twisted pedicel (lowermost) is large, and is spurred; the lower petal (uppermost) is small, but broad and hollow. The two innermost petals are irregular, oblique and irregularly lobecl. Yellow Balsam is from I to 2 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom from June to September. It is an annual reproduced by seeds. The flowers are often cleistogamic. In the allied /. balsanrina in young flowers the anthers lie on the still closed stigmas, and in- sects visiting the flower are dusted with pollen while they are inserting their tongue in the long spur. In older flowers when the anthers have withered the stigmas are spread out, and touch the same parts of the bee. The flowers are showy and large, but hidden away. Humble bees visit the flowers. Touch-me-not has its seeds dispersed by its own mechanism. The capsule1 is stretched when ripe, which causes it to split and eject the seeds on the slightest touch. This is a humus-loving plant, which requires a peat or humus soil, being addicted to a wet aquatic habitat, where it finds a peaty soil mixed with alluvium. The leaves are infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Puccinia argentata. The moths Elephant Hawk Moth (Cheerocampa Elpcnor\ Large Twin- spot Carpet (Coremia quadrifasciata), Netted Carpet (Cidaria reticu- lata), Lygus biriviata feed upon it. Impatiens, Dodonseus, from the Latin, means impatient, because 1 It is 5-chamberecl. The partitions are thin and break away, leaving the central pillar in the middle. In drying, the cells below the epidermis become stretched more than those below. The carpels turn some- what to the right, or corkscrew-wise. When the capsule opens, the valves roll up like a spring (as in Meadow Vetchling), and are jerked away carrying the seeds (cf. Geranium). VOL. TV 48 YELLOW BALSAM (Impatiens iwli-mc-tangere, L.) ,8 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES of the sudden bursting of the capsule if it is touched when ripe. Noli-me-tangere, Columna, Latin for touch-me-not, means the same his handsome and curious plant is called Balsam, Quick-in-hand, Touch-me-not. Coles, in his Art of Simples, says: "A plant called Noli-me-tangere, near which if you put your hand the seed will spurtle forth suddenly, in so much that the unexpectednesse of it made the Valient Lord Fairfax to start, as Mister Robert (Isobart) at the Physick garden in Oxford can tell you ". At night the leaves hang pendent, &unlike most other plants, whose leaves droop during the day, if at all. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 71. Impatient noli-me-tangere, L.— Stem branched, slender, leafy, leaves ovate, serrate, peduncles many-flowered, flowers yellow with orange spots, spur recurved, valves of capsule curling when touched. Rest Harrow (Ononis spinosa, L.) Like most leguminous plants included in this work this is not represented amongst the Early Glacial floras. It is a plant of the North Temperate Zone found in Europe, West Asia, North Africa. In Great Britain it is absent from the counties of Worcester, Brecon, Radnor, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Montgomery, Carnarvon, Anglesea, Renfrew, Lanark, and elsewhere, and in Scotland it only occurs in Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, Forfar, and Dum- barton, growing on sandy shores and dry pastures. Rest Harrow is an upland plant which is fond of rough, scrubby pasture, usually indicating rather bare unproductive ground. For this reason it is, like Gorse in some parts, burned and rooted up in order to get rid of it. Hillsides of medium elevation are the usual station for this plant, though it may be found on sandy shores also at a lower level. It is a shrubby plant, with erect or prostrate then ascending hairy stems, with stolons or trailing shoots, with numerous branches, downy, and bearing long spines, smooth or gummy. The leaves are in threes below,1 above lance-shaped, coarsely toothed. The hairs may be scattered or lie in two opposite rows. The solitary rose-coloured and white flowers are borne in the axils or in pairs, either stalkless or shortly stalked. The standard is streaked with red. The corolla exceeds the calyx, the keel and wings 1 Or the lateral leaflets may be absent. REST HARROW 19 being equal. The pods are less than the calyx in length, downy, with seeds with raised points. The plant is from i ft. to 18 in. in height. June, July, August are the periods during which the flowers are in bloom. The plant is perennial and increased by division. The flower is similar to that of Lohis. It has the piston-mechanism. The alse or wings on which the bees alight act as levers to depress the carina or keel, and fold over its upper part, being united by two pro- REST HARROW (Ononis spinosa, L.) jections, directed downwards and upwards, which fit into deep grooves. Two lobes on the upper margin of the alse He over the column of stamens. The alse do not cohere, but the upper borders of the carina do at first, forming a tube, and leave a small opening only at the tip, where the pollen is pushed through a small gap. The stamens are monaclelphous or attached. Honey is not secreted. The stamens are thickened at the end, the outer ones most, but the inner produce more pollen. The visitors are Apis mellifica, Cilissa leporina, Anthopkora quadrimaculata, Bombus lapidarius. In the Rest Harrow the seeds are dispersed by the plant's own mechanism. The pod is i-4-celled and 2-valved, and when con- tracted when dry it expels the seeds for a short distance. 20 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Indicative of barren ground, Rest Harrow is mainly a sand plant, requiring a sand soil derived from older rocks, chiefly arenaceous, or stony ground derived from Precambrian or granitic rocks. A mildew Peronospora trifoliorum is parasitic on it. The beetles Apion ononis, Psammobins porcicollis; the Lepidoptera, Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa trifolii). Bordered Sallow (Heliothis marginatd], Bor- dered Straw (H. peltiger], Satyr Pug (Eiipithecia satyrata), Gracil- laria ononis, Pteropliora phaodactyla, P. acanthodactyhis, Grapholita citrana; many Heteroptera, Therapha hyoscyami, Metacanthns punctipes, Calocoris chenopodii, Orthocephalus saltator, Orthotylus ochrotrichus, Dicvphus globulifer, D. anmilatus, Macrotylus solitarins, M. payklutii, Hoplomachiis thunbergii, Afacrocolus hortulanus; and the Homopteron Deltocephalus atriformis, infest this plant. Ononis, Theophrastus, is from the Greek ones, an ass (because they are said especially to like it), and spinosa refers to its spiny nature. Rest Harrow is called Whin, Cat Whin, Finweed, Ground Furze, Harrow Rest, Horse's Breath, Lady-whin, Wild Liquorice, Rassels, &c. This thorny plant is troublesome in cornfields, having ligneous stems and thick roots. All cattle leave it, but horses eat it freely. It is easily cultivated. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 76. Ononis spinosa, L. — Stem erect, spinous, hairy, shrubby, leaflets oblong, flowers rosy -pink, wings less than the keel, pods longer than the calyx, seeds tuberculate. Hare's Foot Trefoil (Trifolium arvense, L.) Hare's Foot Trefoil is unknown in any ancient deposits in Britain. A member of the flora of the North Temperate Zone it is found in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, and is introduced in America. In Great Britain it is found in ninety-four of the vice-counties. It is common also in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The occurrence of Hare's Foot Trefoil, whether wild or otherwise, s an indication of dry soil. It grows in dry pastures inland, or on barren stony ground, in all cases requiring a sandy subsoil. It is also a common plant on waste ground, being often introduced into quarries with fodder, and upon waste ground by building operations through the transfer of materials by railway, &c. This handsome plant is tall and erect, having a silvery, downy ap- earance, with a slender trefoil habit. It is branched with short, spread- ng, alternate, ascending branches. There are three oblong leaflets HARE'S FOOT TREFOIL 21 The flowers are in egg-shaped or rounded, terminal, soft, rosy-white heads which lengthen, with soft, hairy calyx-teeth much longer than the corolla, giving the head a soft feathery appearance. The corolla is papilionaceous, shorter than the calyx, and hidden amongst the bristle-like teeth. The inversely egg-shaped fruits are enclosed by the calyx and retained in the head when ripe. Hare's Foot Trefoil is usually about i ft. high. The flowers may be sought in July and August. The plant is annual and increased by seed. Though the flowers are very small they are visited by a variety of HARE'S FOOT TREFOIL (Tri folium arvcnse, L.) insects. The stamens are united as in other types of papilionaceous flowers. Hare's Foot Trefoil is visited by Hymenoptera (Apidae), Apis mellifica, Bombus rajellus, B. lapidarius, Cilissa leporina, Andrena xantlmra, Halictus zonuhis, H. quadricinctus, Osmia calmentaria, Megachile maritima; Sphegidse, Psammophila affinis\ Lepidoptera, Small Skipper (Adop&a thaumas). The outer perianth is feathery and persistent, and winged, assisting the fruits to some extent to disperse themselves by aid of the wind, or they lie in the heads and the seeds germinate on the ground. Hare's Foot Trefoil is most at home on a sand soil, and is thus a sand plant. It also grows on rocky, stony ground, Precambrian and older granitic and metamorphic rocks. 42 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES No insect or fungal pests infest this plant. This plant has the specific name arvense because it is associated largely with arable land. It is called Hare's-foot Clover, Dogs-and-cats, Hare's Foot. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 79. Trifolium arvense, L.— Stem erect, branched, leaflets linear, obovate, terminal flowers in cylindrical heads, softly hairy, pink, small, calyx teeth subulate, setaceous, longer than corolla. Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis Vulneraria, L.) The recent distribution (of which alone anything is known) of this plant is circumscribed by the North Temperate and the Arctic Zones of Arctic Europe, North Africa, Western Asia. It is not found in Great Britain in S. Essex, Hunts, Carmarthen, Flint, Brecon, Radnor, Mont- gomery, Merioneth, Wigtown, Peebles, Selkirk, Mull, West Ross, north- wards towards the Shetlands, but elsewhere generally, and ascends up to 2400 ft. in the Highlands, and is found in Ireland and the Channel Isles. The Kidney Vetch is a lover of dry chalky soil or hill-sides, being largely a South of England plant, where also it grows by the sea; but it occurs in many other districts also as a well-established plant, especially in the vicinity of brickyards and similar places, where it is frequently associated with Sainfoin, Lucerne, and Hare's Foot Trefoil. Herbaceous, tall, and having a silky appearance, this plant has a woody rootstock, suberect stem, with leaflets each side of a common stalk, with a larger terminal leaflet, bluish-white foliage (another Eng- lish name, Lady's Fingers, may refer to the foliage). Anthyllis, meaning Beard Flower, refers to its silky appearance. The flowers are yellow, lateral, and in pairs. The calyx is egg- shaped, with pointed teeth, membranous, exceeding the petals, the heads many-flowered, the flowers long-tubed. The pods are on long stalks, acute, smooth, netted, containing one seed. This strikingly beautiful plant is from 6 in. to i ft. in height. It flowers in May right on up to August. It is perennial, and propagated by division. The flower is like that of Lotus, with a long tube, and can only be reached by bees with a long proboscis. When the flower is young the stigma is dry though the keel encloses the pistil, and no pollen adheres, but when the bulk of the pollen has been removed the stigma is clammy, and pollen then adheres to it. The flower is pollinated by aid of the piston-mechanism, and the swollen and hairy calyx surrounds KIDNEY VETCH 23 the long claws or stalks, the standard projecting 5-7 mm., and inclined upwards, with a groove on the lower part of the blade for the alse or wings, with two rounded lobes at its base. The wings or alse are, moreover, quite surrounded by the vexillum or standard. Insects grasp the alae and insert their proboscis under the vexillum or standard. The alae surround the carina or keel, and it is forced clown when the former are depressed. Each ala has a deep groove at its base, and the carina has a sharp knob fitting into this groove. KIDNEY VETCH (Anthyllis Vulneraria, L.) The upper margins of the alse are unfolded, wnence they remain close together. By this means the parts return to their place after the insect presses on them, causing pollen to be pressed into the slit, formed by the alar margins, by the thickened end of the stamens, the stigma re- maining free from it; but if rubbed it becomes sticky and the pollen adheres. Hence insect visits favour cross-pollination. The pollen- grains are short, six-sided prisms with striated angles. The visitors are Bombus silvarum, B. hortorum, B. imiscorum, Osinia, Lyc&na. The pod, enclosed by the dry, swollen calyx, is sometimes dehiscent, splitting open, and if the calyx persists the seed may be thrown to some distance by contraction of the pod. 24 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Kidney Vetch is a lime-loving plant, being addicted to a lime soil, growing as a rule on chalk or other calcareous rocks. This choice wild flower is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Uromyces anthyllidis. A beetle, Tychius scheideri; a butterfly (the Mazarine Blue), a moth, Gelechia anthyllidella, and two Heteroptera, Lopus sulcatus, Hoplomachus tkunbergi, feed on .it. Anthyllis, Dioscorides, is from the Greek anthos, flower, ioulos, down, from the silky bristles of the calyx, and Vulneraria because it was supposed to be a cure for wounds, from the Latin vulnus, wound. Names applied to this plant include Cats-claws, Crawnebs, Yellow Crow's-foot, Jupiter's Beard, Kidney Vetch, Lady's Fingers, Luck, Lamb's-toe, Staunch, Woundwort. Being named Our Lady's Fingers, it was connected with Scriptural things. Gerarcle says it " shall prevayle much against the strangury and the payne of the veynes ". It has been utilized as a yellow dye. The excellence of South Down mutton has been ascribed to the preva- lence of this plant in the pastures where sheep feed in the south, and it is undoubtedly a good fodder plant. The colour of the flower varies considerably according to the nature of the soil. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 83. AntJiyllis Vnlncraria, L. — Stem erect, radical leaves simple, oblong, upper pinnate, leaflets unequal, glaucous, terminal leaflet largest, flowers yellow, in a dense head, two on each stalk, calyx in- flated, woolly, bracts large. Yellow Mountain Oxytropis (Oxytropis campestris) There is no trace of this plant in early seed-bearing beds. It is a member of the flora of the North Temperate and Arctic Zone, of Arctic and Alpine Europe, Siberia, and America. In Great Britain it is found in Forfar, E. Perth, at altitudes of 2000 ft. It is confined to Scotland. The silky or Yellow Mountain Vetch is found only on the moist mountain heights of Clova, where Oak-leaved Mountain Avens and other plants, such as Yellow Balsam, Winter Green, Butterwort, and other alpine or subalpine species, delight to grow. It has much the same habit as Astragalus, but the stems are prostrate or the plant may have no aerial stem. The plant is silky or softly hairy. The leaves have the leaflets arranged each side of a common stalk, with lance-shaped acute leaflets, in about twelve pairs, with a terminal leaflet exceeding the flowering stems. KEY TO PLATE XXXIV Yellow Mountain Oxytrqpifc ' / f is catnpestris, OJCJUf^ with curved beak. 3, Galyx, with wl-like unequal teeth, f, Plant, with radical pinnate leaves and lance-shaped stipules, flowers in head on long flowe ' No. 2. Sainfoin (Onobtychis triciafolia, Scop.) a, Standard or vexilium. b, Wings or alae. f, Keel or carina. dt Pod, with CJiljDcXl/, Seed. /, Leaf (pinnate), with membranous stipules, f, Flowers in head, with bracts, on long stalk. >pwork A. J§> a, Group of follicles^ £,/fSfem-leaf; _ nate) and too^hed^troutekjf ^Jtotf&tock, with root-fibres and tubers. £ . ' . - FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES PLATE XXXIV . I. Yellow Mountain .Oxytropis (Oxytropis cainpestris, D.C.). 2. Sainfoin (Ouobtychis via\rfolia, Scop.). 3. Dropvvort (Spircea Filipendula, L.). 4. Oak-leaved Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetcda, L.). YELLOW MOUNTAIN OXYTROPIS The flowers are pale-yellow (hence the first part of the English name), in paired and crowded terminal heads, tinged with purple. The bracts equal the calyx, and the keel is acute (hence the generic name, from the Greek). The pods are finely hairy, with six or more joints, netted, and imperfectly 2-celled. This plant is dwarf, at most 6 in. The flowers appear in June and July. The plant is perennial. The flower is conspicuous, yellow and purple, with a tubular calyx, and a general arrangement of parts much as in Lotus, but the petals have long claws or stalks, the carina or keel is erect and has a recurved tooth at the tip, and the upper tenth stamen is free for insertion of the insect's pro- boscis. The stigma is minute, and the ovule is stalkless. Seeds of this plant are dispersed by the plant's own mechanism. The pod is 2-celled, and by contraction the seeds are thrown from it to short distances by an explosive motion. Being a rock plant, this plant grows on a rock soil derived from older barren schistose or granitic rocks. A beetle, Coccinella 22-punctata, a moth, Xylina conspicillaris, and a fly, Cecidomyia giraudi, feed on the plant. The name Oxytropis is from the Greek, oocys, sharp, tropis, keel, in allusion to the narrow keel. The second Latin name refers to the habitat, in fields. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 85. Oxytropis campestris, D.C. — Stem woody, leaflets lanceolate, leaves as long as flower-stalks, erect, downy, flowers yellow, purplish, pods hairy. YELLOW MOUNTAIN OXYTROPIS (Oxytropis campestris) 26 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciaefolia, Scop.) The distribution of this plant in the North Temperate Zone is West and S. Europe and Northern Asia, and it is unknown before this period in early beds. In Great Britain it is found in Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Hants, and in the Thames district; it is absent from S. Kent, but occurs throughout Anglia except in Hunts, and not in West Gloucestershire, Monmouth, or Stafford, in the Severn district; in Wales it is found only in Glamorgan, and elsewhere is introduced. Watson regards it as doubtfully indigenous in Mid and S.-E. Eng- land, and it is usually a relic of cultivation. It is a plant of hilly, rocky ground, and is a feature of the south country and the eastern counties, dispersed by farming operations, but as a fodder plant turns up, or is likely to do so, wherever quarrying is in progress. The stems are long, suberect, rather rigid, with numerous leaves, with leaflets each side of a common stalk, consisting of 3-12 oblong or linear lance-shaped leaflets, shortly stalked, and with a blunt point, entire, practically smooth, dark-green, with an odd or terminal one. The flowers are in close racemes, rose-red, with dark veins. The tube of the calyx is silky, and it is short with awl-like teeth. The wings of the flowers are very short. The pods are dark-brown, netted, rough, roughly semicircular, downy, and contain one seed. The Sainfoin grows to a height of 1 8 in. It flowers during June, July, and August. It is a most beautiful perennial which is quite worthy of cultivation by the horticulturist. The flower resembles those of Melilotus and Trifolium repens, but in the Sainfoin the carina or keel does what the alae or wings did with it in the latter case, springing back after being pressed down. The alae are reduced and just cover the claw of the carina, not allowing the removal of honey laterally. The insect settles on the carina, which is a lever for downward rotation, and its elasticity causes it later to recoil. The stigma is prominent and when the flower is visited by a bee it touches the bee's abdomen, in older flowers protruding i £ mm. beyond the carina. Cross-pollination is accomplished, the flowers being attractive, and the calyx tube is short (2-3 mm.). The vexillum is broad and ascends obliquely, being a fulcrum or lever for the bee's head when pushing back the carina with its legs. Honey and pollen are both accessible to short-lipped bees. The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidae), Diptera(Syrphidae); Lepidoptera, Green-veined White Butter- fly (Pieris napi\ Lycana, Zygoma, Euclidia glyphica, Plusia gamma. SAINFOIN 27 The pod is winged and crested, spiny, and may be dispersed by aid of the wind or animals, or merely by dehiscence or falling when ripe. Sainfoin is a chalk plant indulging in a lime soil, and found also on SAINFOIN (Onobrychis vicia-folia, Scop.) Photo. H. Irving oolitic rock soils, or where fodder has been grown, where it may, when on cold clay soil, &c., persist for a short period. The fungi, Rhytisma onobrychidis, Ramularia onobrychidis, Sainfoin leaf-spot, infest it, and it is galled by Cecidomyia onobrychidis-, whilst a beetle, Bruchus canus, also lives on it. 28 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Onobrychis, Dioscorides, is from the Greek, onos, ass, and brucho, bray, the animal being said to bray for it. The specific name vicia- folia means vetch-leaved. Sainfoin is from the French, sain, wholesome, foin, hay. Cinque- foil, Cocks-comb, Cock's-head, Lasting Grass, Meadow Patch, Medick Fitch, French Grass, Hen's Bill, Lucerne are the only names. To expatiate on the value of this plant a pamphlet was published upon it in 1671, when it was spelt Saint Foine. It was said to be found among the herbs and grass in the manger where our Lord was born. It suddenly opened its flower to form a wreath around His head. This gave rise to the practice of decking mangers at Christmas with moss, sowthistle, cypress, and holly. It was introduced into this country as a fodder plant in the seventeenth century from the Continent, where it had long been cultivated, and excellent hay is made from it. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 88. Onobrychis viciee folia, Scop. — Stem tall, erect, leaves paired, pinnate, leaflets entire, 12-15; flowers crimson, in a raceme, with pink and white lines, on long peduncles, calyx woolly, pod twice as long as the latter. Dropwort (Spiraea filipendula, L.) This plant is quite unrepresented at present in early deposits. It is found to-day in the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, North Africa, North Asia. In Great Britain it is absent in N. Devon, S. Somer- set; it occurs in the whole of the Channel, Thames, and Anglia pro- vinces, and in the Severn province, except in Monmouth; in Wales, only in Carnarvon, Flint, and Anglesea, but in the whole of the Trent province; in W. Lanes and throughout the H umber and Tyne pro- vinces, but not in the Isle of Man; in Scotland and Berwick, Edin- burgh, Fife, Mid Perth, and Forfar, from Caithness it ranges southward, up to 1200 ft. in Yorkshire. It is found in the West of Ireland. The Dropwort is a much more xerophilous plant than the Meadow Sweet, and grows most luxuriantly in upland pastures on the sides of dry hills, where it can shelter beside the protecting branches of shrubs and hedge-plants. Dropwort has the same sort of habit as Meadow Sweet, but the foliage is different, and is much divided, coarsely toothed, the leaflets being numerous, oblong, and deeply cut, giving them the appearance rather of Milfoil. It is dark-green in colour. The flowers are in corymbs, not so numerous or crowded as in the Meadow Sweet. The petals are cream-colour and in bud externally rose-coloured. The capsule is not spirally twisted, but straight. DROPWORT 29 This beautiful plant is usually 2 ft. in height. It is in flower in June, July, and onwards up to October. It is perennial and is repro- duced by division. No honey is secreted, but only pollen. The insects alight on the stigma and cross-pollinate the plant. The petals are bent backwards and downwards during the expansion of the flower, and are attached by very narrow stalks so that they hang down under their own weight and DROPWORT (Spircea filipendula, L.) a bee's weight when visited. Before they open, the stamens are bent outwards, and 9-12 broad styles spread out in the centre into a hori- zontal plane forming a disk around which the stigmas stand directed upwards and outwards. As the inner stamens remain directed upwards till they open, this causes the plant to be self-pollinated. It is visited by Halictus zonulus, H. sexnotat^is, Eristalis arbustorum, E. nemorum, Helophilus floreus, Syritta pipiens, Trichius fasciatus. The seeds are few and contained in a follicle, and may be dispersed around the parent plant by the wind or by browsing animals. Dropwort is a lime-loving plant, preferring a lime soil, and may 30 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES be found upon chalk or calcareous rocks as well as upon stiff clayey beds on Boulder Clay or Upper Lias containing much lime. The fungus Triphragmium filipendulce develops on it, and the winter spores are beautiful objects under the microscope. A moth, Paramesia aspersana, lives on it. Filipendula, Dodonseus, is from Alum (Latin), thread, pendula, hanging, because the knob-like roots or tubers hang from fine thread- like&fibres. Spiraa is the Greek name of the Meadow Sweet, a plant of the same genus. This lovely wildflower is called Dropwort, Fillyfindillan, Lady's Ruffles, Meadow Sweet, Walwort. The name Dropwort was applied to it because it was used in cases of strangury. The tubers have been used in times of scarcity as food. It was supposed to cure stone in the Middle Ages. By the Doctrine of Signatures it was used because it is hard, with Cromwell seeds, which were beaten up together. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 94. Spirtca filipendula, L. — Root tuberous, stem erect, leaves pin- nate, alternate, smaller deeply serrate, flowers white in a cyme, petals pink externally, large, not crowded. Oak-leaved Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala, L.) Remains of this rare but interesting plant are found in Late Glacial beds in Edinburgh and Perth. It is found in the Arctic and Alpine regions of the North Temperate and Arctic Zones. In Great Britain it occurs in Stafford, Carnarvon, York (Mid, W., and N.W.), West- morland, Mid and East Perth, Forfar, South Aberdeen, Easterness, Argyle, Cantire, North Ebudes, West Ross, Sutherland, Orkney, that is from Carnarvon and Stafford to Orkney, ascending to 2700 ft. and descending to the sea-level in N. and W. Ireland. The Oak-leaved Mountain Avens is a local plant, which is restricted in England and Scotland to the mountain ridges of the Pennine and Highland groups, where it grows on rocky heights, mainly limestone rocks. The Gentians, Saxifrages, and other rare alpine and subalpine species are found in the same spots. This rare alpine flower, like many others that adorn the hills, is dwarf but delicate and has a large and beautiful flower. From the resemblance of the leaves to those of the Oak, on a small scale, Liniueus gave it the first Latin name. The leaves are stalked, oblong, toothed irregularly near the base of the stem, and woolly. OAK-LEAVED MOUNTAIN AVENS The flowers are large, with white petals, and, as indicated by the second Latin name, these are eight in number. The sepals are long, and covered with black, glandular hairs, like the scapes, which are also hairy and glandular. This choice little plant is never more than 9 in. in height. It is in flower in June, July, and August. It is a perennial and propagated by division. One may find it in many rock-beds in the garden. The Mountain Avens is androdicecious. The hermaphrodite flowers are usually feebly proterogynous like Avens, the stigmas matur- ing first. The stigmas rise when the flower opens, are sometimes covered over by the inner sta- mens even for some time after the outer anthers have opened,1 and these flowers are proteran- drous, the anthers ripening first. The flowers are large and con- tain honey, which is concealed. Long hairs are developed on the fruit as a feathery down to aid in dispersal by the wind. The carpels are numerous. This handsome species is a rock plant, being found only on limestone rocks, and is there- fore a lime-loving plant. A moth, Grapholitha com- plana, is the only insect which infests it. Dryas, Linnaeus, is from the Greek, drus, oak, to which its leaves have a resemblance. The second Latin name refers to a characteristic of the flower, which has 8 petals. The plant is called Mountain Avens and Wild Betony. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 96. Dryas octopetala, L. — Stem decumbent, woody, leaves stalked, downy white below, oblong, crenate, flowers white, petals 8, sepals equal 8, achenes with feathery awn. 1 The outer open first, and insect visitors touch the stigmas and anthers on either side, and establish crossing. When no visitors occur the styles bend outwards and touch the inner anthers, and self-pollination occurs from this cause and the later pendent position of the flower. Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings OAK-LEAVED MOUNTAIN AVENS (Dryas octopetala, L.) FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Salad Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba, L.) Those who have searched for this plant have failed as yet to meet with seeds in Glacial or other beds. The distribution to-day shows that it is a plant of the N. Temperate Zone found in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, and the Himalayas. It is widely dis- persed, but local in Great Britain; thus it is found in the whole of the Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces. It is only found in N. Wales in Denbigh, Flint, and Anglesea, but throughout the Trent, Mersey, Humber, and Tyne provinces, though not in the Isle of Man; and in Scotland, not in Ayr in the W. Lowlands, Selkirk and Berwick in E. Lowlands; in E. and W. Highlands it occurs generally except in Mid Ebudes; in the N. Highlands, except in W. Ross and W. Sutherland. It is not found in the Orkneys in the Northern Isles. It ascends to 1600 ft. in Yorks, and in E. Scotland extends from Perth to Berwick. It is rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Salad Burnet is a hill-side plant, fond especially of chalky districts, but growing elsewhere where lime abounds with Dyer's Weed, Musk Mallow, Dropwort, Field Scabious, Cotton Thistle, Wild Thyme, Sheep's Sorrel, Box, Musk Orchis, &c. Suberect and branched, the stems are numerous, subangular, and reddish, with leaves, with leaflets each side of a common stalk, which when bruised smell and taste like cucumber. The stipules or leaflike organs are toothed. In the upper part of the flowerhead are female florets, in the lower male, and in the centre both, the upper pistils being crimson, the stamens below pendulous, and red with yellow anthers. The calyx is square with membraneous sepals. The florets are in small, green, rounded heads. The fruit is an achene. The height of the plant is about 2 ft. Flowers can be found in July. It is a perennial plant, and increased by root division. This is one of the anemophilous flowers whose pollen is wind- dispersed. There are some male florets below, some female above, some hermaphrodite in the centre. There is no honey. The stamens are numerous. The numerous, long, thread-like stigmas and anthers project from the flower, the anthers on long, thin, white, yellow, or red pen- dulous anther-stalks. Odynerus parietum and some few flies settle on it. The i -seeded achenes or fruits, 1-3, are enclosed in the hollow, KEY TO PLATE XXXV No. i. Salad Burnet (Potertum Sanguisorba, L.) a, Vertical section of flower (enlarged), showing disk lining the calyx-tube, ovary,, A perigynous stamens, ^ind tufted stigmai,, with 3 sepals. £, Flower, with sepals and stamens exserted. r, Flower, with stigmas exserted. d, Achene (strlate). e, Upper part of plant, with pinnate stem-leaves and flowers in various stages pistillate l stammate^roui/d the margin. No. 2. Field Scabious a, Floret *nlargrd. with cun-shaped in- Cycflucel, an-l bn>tle-lik-.: tecti. <* -calyx crowning toe latter, ft, Section of floret, with epip^talous stamens, c, Involucel and calyx, with pistil with bristies and style, with corolla removed. I $' Section of involucel enclosing ovary, frowned by calyx with brisrie-hke teeth !(|n!arged). e, Upper part of plant, with pinnate leaves, and -fl^werheads^axillary and terming i^i bud and with flowers in stagnate c tw 1 V£ . No. 3. Ploughman's Spikenard co|l.; a, Achene, with pappus and ligul from ray. £, Inner scale of involucre. <:, Outer scale of involucre. d> Tubuiar or disk floret. . Salad Burnet (Poleriiini Sanguisorba, L. ). 2. Field Scabious (Scabiosa a>~vensis, L. ). 3. Ploughman's Spikenard (Inula squarrosa, Bernh.)- 4. Cotton Thistle (Onoponion Acanthinni^ L.). SALAD BURNET 33 4-winged calyx-tube or winged receptacle, and are thus dispersed by the wind. When there are 3 achenes they are triangular. Salad Burnet is distinctly a lime-loving plant, requiring a lime soil, but may be found commonly on such rock soils as those of the Rock- Photo. Flatters & Garnett SALAD BURNET (Poterium Sanguhorba, L.) bed of the Middle Lias, which is mainly arenaceous, though it under- goes changes which make it largely calcareous in part. Two fungi grow on this plant, Phragmidium sanguisorbce and &cidium poterii. It is galled by Eriophyes sanguisorbce. The moths, the Reddish Buff Moth (Acosmetia caliginosa), Gnoplws pullata, Paramesia aspersana, Nepticula poterii, Selenia tetralunaria, Essex Emerald (Geometra smaragdaria], feed on it. Poterium, Linnseus, is Greek, poterion, for a drinking-cup, as it was used in wine, Pliny tells us. Burnet is from Brunette, brown, from VOL. IV. 49 34 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES the colours of the flowers, especially in Great Burnet. Sanguisorba (sanguis, blood, sorbere, to absorb) is Latin for blood-stanching. This plant is called Burnet, Pimpernel, Pimpinell, Salad Burnet. " Of pympurnalle to speke thenky zet, And Englysch y-called is Burnet." It was formerly used in tankards. It was put in a preparation made for festering wounds, and was one of the herbs used in "Save", of Chaucer's time. It is nutritious and very astringent. Sheep are said to thrive on it. It has been sown with clover. The bruised leaves smell like cucumber and taste like the skin. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 02. Poteri2im Sanguisorba, L. — Stem erect, angular, leaves pin- nate, leaflets ovate serrate, flowers apetalous, in heads, crimson above, calyx 4 -cleft, smooth, stamens below, with drooping filaments, fruit quadrangular, veined. Field Scabious (Scabiosa arvensis, L.) Though found at the present day in the Northern Temperate and Arctic Zones, in Arctic Europe, Siberia, North Africa, there is no earlier trace of this plant as there is in the case of Devil's Bit Scabious. In Great Britain it is not found in Cardigan, Mid Perth, Westerness, Main Argyle, Cantire, the Ebudes, West Ross, E. Sutherland, Caith- ness, Hebrides, Orkneys, or the Shetlands. The Field Scabious is not so often found in the valleys and low- lands generally as its near ally, Devil's Bit Scabious, being addicted to a much drier habitat. It is a plant of the mountains and hills, growing very often on dry banks in the open fields, but generally only in upland districts. It is occasionally to be found, however, in the cornfield, where it grows gregariously. Field Scabious is taller than Devil's Bit Scabious, but it has much the same habit, though it grows in clumps, and is not scattered across the meadows as the latter often is. The stem is simple or branched, rough, leafless above, and hairy at the base. The lower leaves are simple, entire, opposite, roughly hairy,1 egg-shaped, coarsely toothed, the upper stalkless, clasping, with the lobes divided nearly to the base into four. The flowerheads are blue, terminal, and borne on stalks. The 1 The hairs are long and simple, long and dark glands, and numerous. FIELD SCABIOUS 35 calyx is cup-shaped, and made up of radiate teeth edged with hairs. The receptacle is tubular, as long" as the calyx. The plant is often 2 ft. high. It blooms from July to October. The plant is perennial and propagated by seed. The flowers are conspicuous, and in fine weather this plant is visited by many insects, and one is kept quite busy on a summer day within sight or smell of this delightful flower in noting the visitors that come and go in quick succession. It is cross- pollinated owing to its proterandrous and dicho- gamous flowers, while in the absence of insects it is self-pollinated. There are 5 florets in each head, making a hemi- spherical head, and they become larger from the centre to the margin. The tube is long, but the honey at the base is ac- cessible to insects be- cause it is widened above. The anthers become ripe slowly, occupying several days in the process from the margin to the centre. They project 4-5 mm. above the corolla, and in spite of this not a single stigma ripens till they have all opened; but when they do they do so rapidly and simultaneously, and occupy the place of the anthers, and bees, &c., can cross-pollinate them at a single visit. The whole head is first male, then female. In other flowers the florets are female only, the stamens rudimentary. Self-pollination usually is impossible, but in some flowers the females are less numerous. The flowers are visited by Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera. The fruits are beaked, and to a great extent may be dispersed by animals. Field Scabious is a sand plant, delighting in a dry sand soil. FIELD SCABIOUS (Scabiosa arvensis, L.) 36 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Several small fungi may be found infesting this Scabious, as Perono- spora violacea, Bremia lactnca, Ustilago scabiosce, U. flosculorum. A Hymenopterous insect, Andrena hattorfiana, and the Lepidoptera, Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (Sesia bombiliformis], Parasemia sannio, GrapJiolitha quadrana, Nematois scabiosellis, feed on it. The generic name is a Latin word denoting scurfy or scabby, the plant having been thought useful in curing scaly eruptions. The second Latin name refers to its preference for cultivated land. This gay-flowered species is called Bachelor's Buttons, Billy Button, Black Soap, Blue Buttons, Bluecaps, Blue Men, Broadweed, Cardies, Clodweed, Clogweed, Curl-doddy, Egyptian Rose, Gipsy Flower, Gipsy Rose, Lady's Cushion, Pincushion, Scabious, Seabridge, Scabril. Lyte says it was named Scabious " of old tyme because it is given in drynke to heale scabbes ". Field Scabious is astringent, and has been used for coughs, asthma, fevers, epilepsy, &c. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 149. Scabiosa arvensis, L. — Stem erect, branched, leaves at base simple, serrate, downy, stem-leaves pinnatifid, flowers lilac, outer larger, unequal, 2-15pped. Ploughman's Spikenard (Inula squarrosa, Bernh.) Local but well dispersed, Ploughman's Spikenard is found at the present day in Europe from Denmark southwards and Western Asia, but not in any early deposits. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, and Thames provinces, and in Anglia generally, except in Hunts; in the Severn province; in S. Wales, except in Brecon; in N. Wales, except in Montgomery; in the Trent province; in the Mersey province, except in Cheshire; in the Humber, except in S.E. and N.W. Yorks ; and in Westmorland. Ploughman's Spikenard is a plant of the uplands, especially common in the western counties, where there are hilly regions generally. It grows on the open hill-side, as well as in woods and copses where there are stony banks, with Hawkweed and other Composites, such as Wall Hawkweed. 1 his is an erect, rigid, tall, and simple-stemmed plant, growing in scattered clumps. The stem is herbaceous and leafy. The leaves are downy below, with coarsely-toothed margin, lance-shaped to egg- shaped, dark-green. The upper leaves are entire. The flowerheads are yellow, in corymbs. The phyllaries or whorl PLOUGHMAN'S SPIKENARD 37 of leaflike organs on the outside are lance-shaped, the inner ones linear, acute. They are bent back. The rays of the flowerheads are small, and not much longer than the involucres or whorls of bracts, which are unequal. The pappus or hair is red, and the fruit is hairy. The ray florets are divided and in a single row. The height of this plant is about 2 ft. It is in flower in July and August. It is a decidu- ous, herbaceous peren- nial, propagated by seeds. The ray florets may be female or neuter, ligu- late, with slender style lobes, while the florets of the disk are tubular and bisexual, with the lobes of the style short. This plant is visited by many insects, Apidae, Halictus leucozomis, H. cylindricus, H. macula- tits, H. albipes, Nomada solidaginis, Sphegidae, Serceris. The fruits are pro- vided with pappus, which is rough and in one row, and they are thus adapted for dispersal by the wind. Ploughman's Spike- nard is a rock plant, growing on barren, rocky ground on rock soil, or on sand derived from the rocks of chiefly older date, or on calcareous soils. Two moths, Gelechia bifractella, Pterophorus lithodactylus, feed on it. Inula, Horace, is derived from the Greek Helenion, a plant sup- posed to have been the elecampane, and the second Latin name refers to the squarrose nature of the leaves and bracts of the involucre. This plant is called Cinnamon Root, Fleawort, Ploughman's Spike- Photo. Hatters & Ga PLOUGHMAN'S SPIKENARD (Inula squarrosa, Bernh.) 3 8 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES nard. Gerarde says of the first: "In English it may be called the cinnamon roote ... by reason of that sweete and aromaticall savour which his roote conteinneth and yieldeth ". It was supposed when hung up in a room to drive away gnats and fleas. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 154. Inula squarrosa, Bernh.— Stem tall, downy, leaves dull-green, ovate, lanceolate, downy, dentate, flowerheads yellow, terminal, in a corymb, scales of the involucre reflexed, pappus red. Cotton Thistle (Onopordon Acanthium, L.) The present distribution of this plant is Europe and Siberia, and it is merely an introduction in N. America. There is no evidence as to its occurrence in early deposits. In Great Britain in the Penin- sula province it is absent from S. Somerset, in the Channel province from \V. Sussex; it occurs throughout the Thames and Anglia pro- vinces; in the Severn province not in Gloucs; whilst in Wales it is found in Carmarthen, Pembroke, Montgomery, Carnarvon, Denbigh, and Flint, and it is found in the Trent province generally, except in Derby, not in Mid Lanes in the Mersey province, in the H umber province not in S.E. or SAV. Yorks, in the Isle of Man, in Lanark, Roxburgh, Berwick, Hacklington, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, E. Ross. Elsewhere it is probably not native, and is an alien or denizen. The Cotton Thistle, where it is a native, is a plant of dry places, and elsewhere it is merely a casual found in waste places, in gardens, and where it has been sown by man consciously or unconsciously, like many other plants which now have a sort of temporary home with us but whose native origin is under suspicion. While not a true thistle, the Cotton Thistle is even taller than the Marsh Thistle, and with its fine heads of bloom and whitish foliage and stems it is far more imposing, With spreading branches it thus forms quite a magnificent orna- ment for gardens. The woody stems are freely continuously winged. The leaves are egg-shaped, oblong, stalkless, wavy, decurrent, toothed, covered both sides with woolly down, and very spinous. The flowerheads are numerous, terminal, purple, upright, in a nearly round involucre, with spreading awl-like phyllaries or whorls of bracts. The receptacle bears scales. The tubular florets are com- plete. It is 4 to 10 ft. in height. The flowers bloom in July and August. The plant is biennial, reproduced by seeds. The flowerhead is much like that of Carduus but does not bear COTTON THISTLE 39 chaffy bristles. The tube is 10-12 mm., and honey rises in the cylin- drical throat 3-4 mm. This is divided above into 5 linear segments 6-8 mm., which continue to be straight. The length of tube does not HT1 COTTON THISTLE (Onopordon Acanthium, L.) prevent honey being reached, and is due to the development of the involucre which protects the buds, and makes the heads conspicuous. They bend outwards more and more. The branches of the style are closely parallel 3-4 mm., and have wart-like knobs on the outer margin. In the second stage (hermaphrodite) they turn outwards and are accessible to insects. There is a ring of short hairs i mm. below the 40 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES point where they fork, pointing upwards, and they sweep the pollen out of the cylinder, which is 8-10 mm. long, 1 mm. wide. Pollen lines the cylinder in the first stage, and in the second the style projects with 2 rows of papillse 5-7 mm. above the corolla divisions. The filaments are sensitive, protecting the pollen. When an insect touches them they contract and the anthers do so also, so that pollen is squeezed out upon the stigma, which does not lengthen. Many flowerheads are pollinated by bees' visits simultaneously. The visitors are Hymenoptera, Megachile, Osmia, Cazlioxys, Stelis, .-Indrena, Halictus, Bombus, Psanimophila; Lepidoptera, Vanessa, Satyrus, Macroglossa\ a beetle, Coccinella, and a Hemipterous insect Capsus. The fruit is provided with several rows of barbed and toothed pappus or hair, which assist in dispersing the fruits by aid of the wind. This handsome thistle is a sand-loving plant, addicted to a dry sand soil. A beetle, Apion onopordi, and the flies, Trypeta lapp&, Urophora macnira, Eusina sonclii, Acidia heraclei, are to be discovered on it. Onopordon, Pliny, is Greek from onos, ass, and perdo, break wind; and Acanthium from acanthos, spine,, Cotton Thistle is called Argentine Thistle, Asses' Cotton, Down, Oat, Queen Mary's, Scotch, and Silver Thistle. It is called Queen Mary's Thistle because her attendants brought it to Fotheringay, and Down Thistle because it is covered with wool or down. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 172. Onopordon Acanthium, L. — Stem tall, winged, leaves rough, cottony both sides, oblong, flowerhead large, purple, involucre sub- globose, phyllaries spreading, imbricate, spinose. Autumn Gentian (Gentiana Amarella, L.) One of the Arctic types of plants, there is, nevertheless, no evidence of the occurrence of this plant in early deposits. Its present distribu- tion is the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Siberia, Dahuria. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, and Thames provinces, except in W. Kent, E. Essex; in Anglia, except in Hunts; in the Severn province; in S. Wales only in Pembroke; in the whole of N. Wales; in the Trent province, and in the Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces, except in the Isle of Man; in the E. Lowlands, except in Peebles, Selkirk, and KEY TO PLATE XXXVI No. I. Autumn Gentian (Gentiana Amarella^ L.) at Section of j-lobed corolla, with epipet- alous stamens. £, Calyx (j-lobed), with pistil (corolla removed), and 2 bent-back stigmas. , by 3 valves, with 3 horn.i -^lit intp^o. and seeds within t with 6ne r, Sart of:ptant, w«hdtr*A capsule a, Spikelet, florets, b, l$|Wft with an- thers exserted f dm tfl f. Plant, showinj age glumes, tufted foli- of panicle, FLOWERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES PLATE XXXVII I. Sheep's Sorrel {Riiniex Acetosella, L.). 2. Box (/liijcns sentpcrvirens, L.). 3. Musk Orcliid (Hcnniniuin Monorcfiis, Br. ). 4. Fragrant Orchis (ffabeitaria conopsca, Benth.). 5. Sheep's Fescue (Fcstuca oi'ina, L. )• BOX 51 the upper ones more stalkless, and with an acid taste. The stipules or leaflike organs are torn and silvery. The flowers are deciduous, in leafless panicles, drooping, branched. The male flowers exceed the female. The flower-stalks equal the sepals, which are without knob-like points on the midrib. They enclose the seeds, which are yellowish-brown. The 3 sepals are ascending. Sheep's Sorrel is 18 in. in height. It flowers in May, June, and July. The plant is perennial, reproduced by division of the roots. Like other Docks with a long stigma it is anemophilous, pollinated by the wind. The early flowers are proterogynous, the later ones homogamous. There are complete female flowers, or dioecious plants. Sheep's Sorrel is, however, usually dioecious, the male flowers being very small. The fruits are winged and wind-dispersed. This plant is essentially a sand-loving plant, growing on sand soil, such as Marlstone, Glacial sands, &c. A cluster-cup fungus, Ustilago Knhneana, forms a rust on the leaves. This Dock is a food plant of several insects, e.g. a beetle, Apion hiimile, several Lepidoptera, Forrester Moth (Ino statices], Autumnal Rustic (Noctiia glareosa], White -spotted Pinion (Gelechia diffinis}, G. velocella, Nepticula acetoscc, Light - feathered Rustic (Agrotis cinerea), and two Homoptera, Aphalara exilis, A. calthce. Acetosella, Linnaeus, is from the Latin, acetus, acid, sharp. The names in common use are Bread-and-cheese, Cuckoo's Meat, Cuckoo's Sorrel, Sour Dccken, Lammie Sourocks, Sour Leek, Ranty Tanty, Sheep's Sorrel, Sheep's Sourack, Sooracks, Soorocks or Souracks. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 271. Riunex Acetosella, L. — Stems many, leaves sagittate, tapered, plant dioecious, sepals ascending, little enlarged, ovate. Box (Buxus sempervirens, L.) There is no trace of this rare upland shrub in any early deposits in Great Britain. It is found from Belgium southward in Europe and in N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, as far east as the W. Himalayas, in the N. Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it is found only in four counties — Kent, Surrey, Bucks, Gloucs — and elsewhere it is only naturalized, being perhaps not indigenous in the last. The Box in its native state is confined to hills of chalk, or oolite, 52 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES where it grows in thick and lofty masses covering a wide area. Else, where it is found planted in woods and plantations, and is frequently used in gardens and elsewhere as a hedgerow shrub, the practice having originated with the Romans, and having been revived under the auspices of Dutch gardening. This is an erect, arching shrub or tree, with a hard, woody main stem, with soft bark, and numerous drooping branches. The leaves Pilot Box (Buxus sempervirens, L.) are egg-shaped-oblong, with a notch at the extremity, with the margins of the leaf-stalks hairy, the leaves opposite, shining,1 leathery, evergreen. The stomata are immersed with 4 rows of palisade cells. The flowers are green (the plant is monoecious), in spikes in the axils, with 4 bracts below; the female flowers above the male have 4 sepals, which are blunt. The stamens are long, the anther-stalks being strong, the anthers egg-shaped, arrow-shaped. The styles are 3, spreading, not falling. The capsule is egg-shaped, wrinkled, with 6 seeds, 2 in each cell. 1 These may serve to throw off snow in winter in order to prevent the plants from being weighed down and so cause the branches to crack. Many other evergreens, as Holly and Yew, as well as the Ivy, have the same polished surface. BOX 53 Box grows 8-15 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom in April. Box is an evergreen shrub, easy to propagate by cuttings, and useful for edging or Dutch gardening for parterres, &c. Being a monoecious plant the flowers are unisexual, in heads. The female terminal flower with 3 bracts is surrounded by male flowers with i bract, and with honey in both sexes. There are 4 hypogynous stamens with stout anther-stalks, and the anthers open towards the centre in the male flowers. The stamens are projecting, the anthers in pairs. In the female there are 3 styles, spreading and grooved. The flowers are crowded. The stigmas mature first. The pollen is dry and dust- like. The hive bee moistens it with honey and brushes it on its hind- legs. The fruit opens explosively, the inner layer of the pericarp separates from the outer and U-shaped, folded layer, as in the Violet, causing the propulsion, the capsule becoming dry and tense. Box is a lime-loving plant, and almost limited to the chalk forma- tion, growing on a lime soil. A cluster-cup fungus, Puccinia buxi, attacks the leaves, and Box is galled by Diplosis buxi. Two Homopterous insects, Psylla buxi, Pinnaspis buxi, and a Heteropterous insect, Gonocerus venator, are found on it. BuxuSy Pliny, is the Latin name for the plant, and the second Latin name refers to its perennial character. This neat shrub is called Dwarf .Box, Box-tree, Bush-tree, Dudgeon. In regard to the last, which is the root or wood of Box, " Turners and cutters, if I mistake not the matter, so call this wood Dudgeon, wherewith they make Dudgen-hafted daggers ", according to Gerarde. Box was used for hedging, being easy to clip and cut, a practice in vogue since Roman times called topiary work, a friend of Julius Caesar's inventing the method. The wood is close-grained, and used for wood engraving, mathematical instruments, combs, pipes, flutes, inlay work, as in Evelyn's day, wheels, swivels, pins, pegs, nut-crackers, button moulds, weavers' shuttles, rulers, boot-trees, rolling-pins, pestles, tables, chessmen, screws, bobbins, spoons, knife-handles. The Dwarf Box was cut into animal shapes in gardens, £c. It has been used in medicine for colic, fever, madness. Corsican honey was derived from the Box, it is said. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 275. Buxus sempervirens, L. — Evergreen tree, branched, leaves shiny, alternate, oblong, flowers in axillary clusters, anthers sagittate. 54 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES Musk Orchid (Herminium Monorchis, Br.) In spite of its distribution to-day as an Arctic plant in Temperate and Arctic Europe, except Spain, Siberia, and the Himalayas, there is no record of this Orchid in early deposits with others of its kind, though, it is true, as a rule chalk plants do not occur. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province only in N. Somerset; in the Channel province it is absent from S. Wilts, Isle of Wight, but occurs gener- ally in the Thames province; in Anglia everywhere except E. Suffolk, E. Norfolk, Bed- ford, Hunts; in the Severn province in E. Gloucs. It is thus distributed in S. and E. England from Norfolk, Cam- bridge, and Gloucester to £5 ' Sussex and Kent. The Musk Orchis, even more than the Bee Orchis and kindred species of the chalk -formation, is restricted to the neighbourhood of those lofty hills or downs of South and East England which form so characteristic a feature of the landscape. Musk Orchis has a slender flowering stem, with lance-shaped, paired radical leaves, oblong, acute. The stem -leaves are solitary. The bracts equal the ovary, and are green. The flowers are green, all turned one way, in a slender loose spike, with green egg-shaped sepals, the petals lobecl each side, not so broad, but longer. The lip is 3-lobed, narrow, the middle one the longest and narrowest, and entire. There is no spur or rostellum. The tubers are Jike a bed- post, hence the first Greek name. Musk Orchis is 6 in. in height. It flowers in June and July. It is perennial, and propagated from tubers. The floral mechanism is like that of Orchis, but the flowers are smaller, and there is no rostellum. They are pollinated by flies, which Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings MrsK ORCHID (Herminium Monorchis, Br.) FRAGRANT ORCHIS 55 bear away the pollinia or pollen-masses on their legs. There is no honey, but the flower is strong-scented, especially at night. The disks are large, and the stalks of the pollen-masses are short. The pollinia are attached to the joint between the femur and the trochanter of the first pair of legs. The flowers are visited by numerous insects — : Hymenoptera, Terastichus, Diptera, Coleoptera, Malthodes, Braconidae, Pteromalidc?. During the day it is visited by ichneumons and flies and small beetles. The seeds are numerous, small and light, and the dispersal is effected by the agency of the wind. This sweetly-fragrant Orchid is a lime-loving plant, and found on lime soil, growing chiefly on limestone or oolite, especially the chalk. Herminium, R. Brown, is from the Greek kermin, knob of a bed- post, from the shape of the tubers. Monorchis is from the Greek monos, and orc/iis, so called from the single tuber. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 294. Herminium Monorchis, Br. — Stem erect, radical leaves lanceo- late, 2; flowers green, musk-scented, in a slender spike; sepals green, ovate; petals longer, no spur. Fragrant Orchis (Habenaria conopsea, Benth.) This pleasant-scented Orchid is another Arctic plant, also a member of the chalk flora in England, of which no early record appears. It is found to-clay in N. Temperate and Arctic Europe, in Siberia, Dahuria, and W. Asia. In Great Britain it does not grow in N. Devon, S. Somerset, Hunts, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Carnarvon, Flint, Isle of Man, Haddington, Westerness, E. Sutherland, or the Hebrides, but is found up to 2000 ft. in the Highlands. Mountainous districts as a whole constitute the favourite habitat of the Fragrant Orchis, and it is frequent on dry pastures in most parts of Great Britain. It occurs also in wet places, even in marshes or bogs in some places; but is perhaps more at home on the gently rolling slopes of a mountain range, where it obtains the humid and moist conditions it needs. This is a very tall, graceful, erect Orchid. The leaves are closely- sheathing. The tubers are spread out from a centre. The leaves are lance-shapecl, oblong, keeled, acute. The flowers are pink or purple or white,1 and very fragrant. The iip is trifid, divided into three nearly to the base, entire. The flowers 1 Butterflies n:ay be attracted by the red flowers, moths by the white forms. be found in 56 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES are in long, narrow spikes, dense or loose. The spur is bristle-like, and twice as long as the ovary. The bracts are equal m length to the ovary ^reen, 3-nerved. The sepals are spreading. Frao-rant Orchis is 18 in. in height. Flowers may Tune and July. It is a perennial, propagated by division of the tubers. In the group Gymna- denia the spur is wavy, the lip broad, 3-lobed, rounded. The anther cells are parallel, con- fluent with the column, the pollen masses dis- tant, and the rostellum placed between them, produced. The stigma is bilobed, swollen, and lateral. The spur is so slender and narrow that honey, though it rises half-way up the tube, is only reached by the long proboscis of Lepi- doptera, the Burnished Brass Moth (Plusia Chrysitis), Silver Y (P. gamma], Treble - bar (Anaitis plagiata], Large -yellow Under- wing (Tryphana pro- miba\ The flower is very sweet-scented. The seeds are light and small, and are thus dispersed by the wind. , growing in peat soil or FRAGRANT ORCHIS (Habenaria conopsea, Benth.) IS a humus-loving plant Fragrant Orchid humus soil. Habenaria, R. Brown, is from the Latin habena, thong, strap, from the shape of the tip, and conopsea is from the Greek conops, gnat, because it grows in situations where gnats are common. This plant is known as Long Tails, Lover's Wanton, as well as Fragrant Orchid. SHEEP'S FESCUE 57 Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina, L.) This upland grass is widespread, occurring at the present day in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Si- beria, Himalayas, N. and S. America, and the mountains of Australasia. Sheep's Fescue grows in every county in Great Britain, as far north as the Shetlands, at all elevations, and in Ire- land and the Channel Islands. This is a grass which is more or less confined to a sandy habitat, and though it will grow in the lowlands as in silty deposits of rivers, it shuns clayey formations, but grows on dry pastures and other spots where it can satisfy its sand- loving tendency. The stem is erect, growing in dense tufts with curved, bristle-like leaves, the upper ones narrow, flat, rough, with smooth sheaths, and a bilobed ligule. It is a tufted plant, forming a fine and durable turf. The whole plant is bluish- white. Photo. H. Irv SHEEP'S FESCUE (Festura ovina, L., var. duriuscula, Hackcl) 58 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES The panicle is narrow, one-sided, or all turned one way, with egg-shaped spikelets, 4- 12 -flowered, smooth, hairy, and purple. The flowering glumes are rounded, blunt, terminated with a sharp point, with short awns, viviparous, the awn shorter than the palea. The flowers have 3 stamens. There are hairs on the top of the ovary. Sheep's Fescue is i ft. in height. Flowers are at their best in June and July. It is a perennial grass, propagated by division. The floral symmetry is similar to that of Sand Fescue, the flowers being triandrous and 3-12 flowered, pollinated by the wind. The fruit is light, and adapted for wind dispersal in spite of the short awn. This is a sand plant, growing on sand soil or on barren rock soil, which is derived from granitic or arenaceous rocks. It is also char- acteristic of chalk soils. Barley-leaf Stripe, Pyrenophora trichostoma, is found to attack it, also a gall, Enura depressa, caused by a Hymenopterous insect. The Mountain Ringlet, Erebia epiphron, is found on it, also Anerastia lotela. Festuca is Latin for stalk, stem, or straw. The second Latin name means pertaining to sheep, because they will eat it, with the exception of the flowering stems. It is called Black Twitch, Fescue Grass. It is a suitable grass for lawns, forming short, thick turf, but is not a valuable meadow grass. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 341. Festuca ovina, L. — Stem erect, leaves setaceous, tufted, curved, radical leaves narrow, glaucous, panicle unilateral, awn shorter than palea, spikelets purple, glabrous. Section VIII FLOWERS OF THE LAKES, RIVERS, DITCHES, AND WET PLACES FLOWERS OF THE LAKES, RIVERS, DITCHES, AND WET PLACES The vegetation of the land is of one type, that of the water of another. This physical distinction, indeed, has a marked influence upon the forms of plants. Those that grow in water are aquatic or Hydrophytes. While land plants are directly exposed to the air, water plants are not, and the air dissolved in water sometimes contains a larger proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide than has atmospheric air. This is important, because plants respire by aid of the former and assimilate by aid of the latter under the action of light upon the chlorophyll, manufacturing their carbohydrates by its means. Ob- viously some waters contain more or less oxygen than others, and some stagnant waters are devoid of any aerating agent. The influence of water upon light, also essential to plants containing chlorophyll, is great. This influence is least in clear, greatest in dirty water. Depth here is of importance, and is connected with the absorp- tion of different rays of light, red rays being absorbed at the surface, ultra-violet in the lower layers. Water is more uniform in temperature than a land surface, but the different depths of water have different temperatures, hence the zonal distribution as in the case of light. The constituent salts and nature of water have a great influence on the flora of an aquatic formation. This, again, is dependent on the basin which is drained or the soil of the bed. Some water has lime- salts in solution, the carbonic acid in water dissolving the calcium carbonate, and so on. Then, lastly, the movement of water is a great factor in deciding its constituent flora. For some plants are floating, some submerged or attached, and some are attached to rock, some to a soil. If water is in a state of rapid motion it abounds in oxygen, if slowly moving it contains less, if still or stagnant still less. It is a means of dispersal of the seeds and the plants, and as the first plants, 62 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. like the first animals, undoubtedly arose from a liquid solution, plants have been largely spread over the earth by water. There are certain plants like Hydrocharis, giving its name to this type of Mora, which float on the surface, unattached, in fresh water, swamp-plants, in still water, sailing about, and with erect stems and leaves. Here, besides Frogbit, we may further include Bladderwort, Duckweed, &c., and Water Violet. These plants have the same specific gravity as the water. The shoots have long internodes, thin stems, stalkless or stalked leaves, with threadlike segments, as in Bladderwort and Water Violet, when submerged. Floating leaves are shield -shaped, egg-shaped, heart-shaped, as in Hydrocharis, Lemna. and the division is well shown in different types of Water Buttercup which have both types of leaves. The plant is secured by its root. Nutriment is largely absorbed by the stem and leaves. Many plants growing in water reproduce by division vegetatively, as Frogbit and Duckweed. The pollination of the Frogbit, Water Violet, and Bladderwort is effected by insects, and the Hornwort opens its flowers under water. Frogbit and others are perennial, and survive the winter by forming winter-buds or hibernacula, which sink in the autumn and rise again in the spring. The plants that grow on the loose soil of aquatic formations where the soil is quartz-sand are differentiated by the movement and salinity of the water, and chiefly flowering plants grow upon it. The roots are chiefly attachments, and the Mare's Tail has few or no root hairs, nor has the \Vater Violet. Zostera forms meadows on account of its long, creeping rhizomes or underground stems in purely saline waters, form- ing maritime vegetation. Most maritime aquatic plants are Algae. Belonging to what is called the Enhalid formation are the colonies of Zostera growing in salt water, and with Naias, unique amongst the flowering plants, Ruppia and Zannichellia are found in brackish water. In Zostera the leaves are ribbon-like and long, and the roots rhizome-like. Along some shores it forms a regular zone. In brackish water Ckara, Water Buttercup, Potamogeton, and Myriophyllum grow. The chief aquatic formations of flowering plants are known as the Limneca formation, so called from the prevalence of the fresh-water pond snail in it, and are submerged or have floating leaves. The chief types belong to the Pondweed, Water Pepper, Bur-reed, Water Lilies, Water Buttercup, Starwort, Water Celery, Sc. The Hydrophytes altogether number some 700, of which we describe 41, and of the Hydrophytes some 120 are lacustral. Here we include littoral, of FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 65 which there are 20, and we have also included many riparian species which form a link between Hydrophytes and marsh plants and are hygrophilous. Most are herbaceous perennials. The majority have creeping stems, and are of clustered, crowded growth, as Mare's Tail, Water Lily, Water Buttercup, Starwort, with creeping stems. A few, such as Naias, are annual. There are three types of plant-shoots, the rosette type, as in Lobelia; the Nymphcea type, as in Water Lilies, with long- stalked, floating leaves; the long-stemmed type with erect stem and internodes, completely submerged, as in Pondweeds, with floating leaves, as in Starwort (Callitriche verna). The leaf type is floating, as in Water Lilies, Polygomim am- phibium, Pondweeds, with broad entire leaves and bent margin, pores on the upper surface; and the blade is dorsi-ventral, red below, to retain heat, and the petiole or leaf-stalk adapts itself to the water, ofrowth ceasinof when the surface is reached. The Batrachian Ranun- o o culi are heterophyllous, and able to adopt a terrestrial existence if need arise. The submerged leaf may be zosteroid or ribbon-like, as in Bur-reed, some Pond-weeds, caused by deep or running water, some marsh plants acquiring them if necessary, and the Bulrush has current leaves half a yard in length. The elodioid leaf is narrow, flat, stalk- less, entire, as in Elodea, Mare's Tail, &c. The isoetoid leaf is linear, undivided, rounded, and tubular, as in Isoetes. The myriophylloid leaf is whorled, as in Water Milfoil, or consists of leaves divided into thread- like or linear segments, as in Dropwort and Stum. Most aquatics are pollinated above water. Water Lilies and Water Violet are pollinated by insects; Mare's Tail, Water Milfoil, and Pond- weed by the wind or water, and by water in the case of Zannichellia, Starwort, Naias. Subularia, Limosella, and some Batrachian or Water Buttercups, &c., are cleistogamic. The fruits or seeds are dispersed by the water. Reproduction is largely vegetative. Many plants develop hibernacula, as Pondweeds, Starwort, &c. Associations arranged in zones may be recognized as Algae, Chara- ceta, Nymphaeeta, Nuphareta, Batrachieta, Limneea, rosette forms, Lobelia, &c. The Hydrocharis and Limnaea formations merge into each other, and the ease with which water plants become helophilous is shown by the amphibious Polygonum ainphibiiun, by Water Cress, and the Water Plantain. Along the margins of the rivers tall clumps of sulphur blooms of Meadow Rue line the waterway. Water Fennel dangles its lace-like 51 66 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. form in the water. The white and yellow Water Lilies lend their floating tables to the nymphs of the pool. Water Cress grows in the smaller streams and ditches, in clear running water. Here Great Yellow Cress rears its tall, erect heads of yellow bloom in the canal or river. There Great Water Chickweed, late in the year, fills up the ditches with its brittle stems. Down by the banks of the river-side the Purple Loosestrife, with its trimorphic blooms, gives honey and pollen to the bees. Where the Great Hairy Willow Herb fills the bed of the stream with its tall stems with purple blooms comes the scent of apple-pie or lemon curd, delicious on a sweltering summer's day. Water Bedstraw makes a lovely show of white flowers by the pond- margins. The Hemp Agrimony grows in the wet copses or by the water-side, tall and fleecy -flowered. The Common Fleabane and Three-lobed Butterbur up and down the country line many a river-side close to the bank. Butterbur makes dense brakes with ample cover, where the streams have meandered and formed hollows along their course. Coltsfoot, too, grows on the clay banks, being equally proter- androus. Water Ragwort, with its handsome and large-rayed flowers, is scattered over most water meadows where the purple lances of the Marsh Thistle tower, in close rank, on the lower ground. Great Yellow Loosestrife and Moneywort, their golden -yellow blooms large and brilliant, are both Hygrophytes. Scorpion Grass hangs its pretty blue -and -yellow spotted flowers above the watery mirror of the pool, surveying its own rich beauty. Water Figwort, less striking in colour, towers by its side. Here and there the straggling clumps of Musk have their wide, yellow, trumpet- mouthed blossoms adorned with rose-pink honey-guides. Brook Lime with light-blue flowers, Water Mint with whorls of lavender-like bloom, and the shy Gipsy Wort adorn the marshy strips by the water-side or grow half-submerged, and close by is the dainty Skull-cap, blue-flowered and neat. Amphibious Knotgrass in the water yields a bright- pink flower, but on land is roughly hairy, long-rooted, and difficult to dis- pose of. Alder and Crack Willow give grateful shade by the water- side. Frogbit floats in the still pools and rarely blooms, its margin, rustics tell one, nipped by frogs! Flanking the sides of the pool the mellow Yellow Flag forms a fair girdle almost everywhere. In the water meadows Snake's Head Fritillary is found in dainty clumps with chequered flowers of a rare purple or white tint. Along the borders of the river Reeclmace, Bur-reed, Sweet Flag (how sweet the leaves smell crushed in the hand!), form a thick avenue. KEY TO PLATE XXXVIII \'a i. Meadow Rue p Tt'n'icfniw Jia-i'itm. L.) V , Achene, ribbed, with p^r- sistent style. /-, Leaf, 2-ter- nate v" leaflets ternate};" c .Upper part of plant, with leaf, and raceme w;th petaloid us and many stamens. yo. Olff** ^n,Bel 'itM trichophyllus, Chaix.) vFlowei-§lalk, w^i head of U S ri • Y\~< / It »X V j part p'fpia)f< ^it)i' submerged 'No, 3. White Water Lily (Castalia alba, Wood > a, Petaloid stamens. b, Berry, with rays of stigma. <:, Leaf, falsely peltate, d, Flowers in bud, showing se- floaitjng leaves 3-krbed (as in1 R. heterophylfajS) Weber=^. ruffians, Revjj an^' ''flowers with short "sepals, 5 pe »*^d leaves, and pals, petaloid petal^ petaloid ', stamens, and stigma. x- — <— Y «, Ifela\ smaller jha$ yellow .sepals. 'i>, StamenJwiih peta- i ioid filament. f/Jecfy, with j i^ong, 2 short, ^01^ glands rayed ^\tigrt^.jX/-Leaf. e.l\ \ between, and pistil. £,S^iqua. G etaloid sepals! Idid jstarnenjj, from below upwards, and seeds on reprafn^.^ c\ ^Rootgtuck, with radical "Wajt^ leaf, d. Upper p5rn>Cstart, with pinnate leaf, flowers, in racemes, and lower ones in fruit. '^A^ ^W$> Great Yellow ^er Craipl^y^ 'a amphibite.) Uruce; \ *^^^J^' Vn ri Andr^cium, wvtfc slaroens, honey an<^gyn^cium, with pistil (ovary, style, and st ma^. ^, Pod, with style and stigma, c, Stem, with le.it. 4, Upper part of plant, with stem leavtb and raceme of flowers, in various stages, with ^pods below.^on \ k stalks e-rew'nft FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES PLATE XXXVIII i. Meadow Rue (Thalictnim Jlanim, L.)- 2- Water Fennel (Ranunculus trichophyllus, Chaix). 3. \Vliite Lily (Castalia alba, Wood). 4. Yellow Water Lily (Xymphtea lulea, L.). 5. Water Cress (Kaiiicttla Nastui aquaticnin, Rendle and Britten). 6. Great Yellow Water Cress (Radicula amphibia, Druce). Water 'I him- MEADOW RUE 67 The surface is strewn with Duckweed as with confetti. Water Plantain rises out ,of the water with its panicle of soft-tinted flowers. The broad arrow of the waterway is marked by Arrowhead, and the tall, graceful umbels of the Flowering Rush make the artist feign to use his brush to catch their tints. Waving majestically in midstream, Bul- rushes hide the nest of coot or water-hen. Down there in the wet copse by the river bank is the Wood Clubrush half hidden by thickets of reeds. Meadow Rue (Thalictrum flavum, L.) This species is found in the Cromer Forest Bed (Preglacial), in Interglacial beds, as well as in Roman deposits at Silchester. At the present day it is found in Arctic Europe, Northern Asia, that is to say, the Arctic Cold Temperate Zone. In the Peninsula province it occurs only in N. Somerset, and in Wales in Radnor, Pembroke, Cardigan, Montgomery, Merioneth. In North England it is not found in Cheviotland. It occurs in Scotland only in Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, Lanark, Berwick, Edinburgh, Fife, Argyle, Dumbarton, Clyde Islands, Caithness, and is rare, being local also in Ireland. Meadow Rue grows by the sides of rivers, streams, and lakes, and is therefore a hygrophile and a plant of the lowlands. It is hardly a marsh plant in the usual sense, though it needs moisture; but it grows on banks where the soil is firm and never waterlogged. It grows above the line of Bur-reed, Flag, and Iris, with which it is associated, usually forming clumps, where the great Yellow Cress runs riot. It is an erect plant, branched, with furrowed stems, having much the appearance of Clematis, but it is more compact in the distribution of the leaves and branches. It has a tufted habit, and grows in clumps of 2 or 3 ft. in area, in a more or less shrub-like manner. The leaves have the leaflets arranged each side of a common stalk. Except Clematis this plant cannot be confused with any other British plant, and it differs from the Traveller's Joy in having no feathery appendage to its fruit, and in the absence of tendrils. The flower, sulphur-yellow, is made up of numerous feathery stamens and anthers. The leaves are smaller and closer. Meadow Rue is 4 ft. high, flowering from May to July or August, and is a perennial, deciduous, herbaceous plant. No honey is produced by the flowers, but abundant pollen; but though there are no petals and the sepals are very small, the stamens are many and conspicuous, and the plant is visited by pollen-seeking insects, Diptera (Syrphidae, Muscidae), Hymenoptera (Honey Bee). 68 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. The anthers open in the sun, closing in wet weather. The plant is autochorous, that is to say the achenes are dispersed by the plant's own agency. The achenes or fruit fall immediately around the parent stems. This graceful plant is a sand-loving plant, growing on sandy soil, derived from sandy or silty beds, rarely mixed with clay or marl, chiefly alluvium. Two species of cluster- cup fungus, or Puccinia, P. persistcns and P. tha- lictri, grow on this plant, and it is galled by Ceci- domyia thalictri. Cater- pillars of the moths, the Setaceous Hebrew char- acter Noctua c-nigrum, and Red Sword - grass (Calocampa vetusta), feed on it. The name Thalictrum is derived from the Greek t hallos, a shoot, and was bestowed by Dioscorides. The specific name flavum is Latin for yellow. The English name Meadow Rue refers to its rue-like leaves. This fine species is called False Rhubarb, Fen Rue, Meadow Rue, and Meadow Rhubarb. The last name is bestowed because of its laxative properties, so Lyte says, and because the roots are yellow, like rhubarb. When used with honey the leaves were said by Pliny to cure ulcers. A dye has been made from the roots for dyeing wool, of a yellow colour. The shoots have been used by country people in Bucks to boil in aie. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 2. Thalictrum flavum, L. — Leaves radical, alternate, no involucre, panicle corymbose, flowers erect, sepals imbricate, 4-5, achenes with I pendulous seed, carpels awnless. MKADOW RUE (Thalictrum flavum, L.) WATER FENNEL 69 Water Fennel (Ranunculus trichophyllus, Chaix.) Seeds of Batrachian Ranunculi, which come under the old aggregate Ranunculus aqiiatilis, have been found in some deposits, such as Pre- glacial, Early Glacial, Interglacial, Late Glacial, and Neolithic beds. To-day the distribution of this aggregate extends over Europe, West Asia, the Himalayas, N. America, or the Warm Temperate Zone. In occurrence it is absent from Cornwall in the Peninsula, South Hants and E. Sussex in the Channel province, but occurs throughout the Thames province; in Anglia it is absent from Northampton, but present in the whole of the Severn province, and absent from Notts in the Trent province, occurring in Carnarvon and Denbigh only in Wales, in S.W. and N.E. Yorks, Tyne province, and in Scotland in Dum- fries, Kirkcudbright, Hadclington, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, Clyde Islands, Sutherland, and the Hebrides. It is also found in Ireland. In all the Water Buttercups the leaves are much divided. There are two types. Those that float are rounded with 3-6 wedge-shaped lobes, which are inversely egg-shapecl or rounded. The submerged leaves, on the other hand, are linear, much divided, with numerous fine segments. There are other modifications of this type, some, as R. fluitans, having no floating leaves, but very long hair-like leaves (sub- merged) only when growing in quickly-flowing water. At the other extreme are plants, as R. kederaceiis, with few if any submerged or thread-like leaves, and only the rounded floating types of leaf. The types with two kinds of leaves may become stranded on land and then adapt themselves to such conditions, though as a rule the submerged- leaf type cannot succeed on land or the floating leaf under water. This species is an aquatic like other Batrachian Ranunculi, with thread-like submerged leaves, hydrophilous, preferring the still water of a pond or lake to that of running water, thus differing from Ranun- culus penicillatus. It forms clusters and groups growing in the centre of the poncl, and is associated with Water Cress, Water Persicaria, Pondweeds, Duckweed, Water Plantain, and the semi -submerged Celery-leaved Water Crowfoot. Water Fennel is adapted, like all aquatic plants, to growth in water, with linear leaves and slender stems which float readily in the water. Water Fennel is distinguished from other Water Buttercups by its small flowers, its rigid leaves which do not collapse when removed from the water, and the short compact flower-stalk. yo FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. When floating, the flowers do not rise at the utmost more than 2 in. from the surface. It is in flower from April to August, and is perennial. In the aggregate R. aquatilis the yellow base of each petal acts as a honey-guide, and on it stands an oblique tubercle or wart-like projec- tion, with a honey-secreting depression, which serves as a gland and re- ceptacle for nectar. There are few anthers (8-20 stamens), which open Plioto. G. B. Dixon WATER BUTTERCUP (Ranunculus fluitans, Lam.), an Allied Species to show the Habit in succession when the flower opens, being turned to the centre.1 The anther-stalks later, twisting over the honey-glands, become immersed in pollen, the stigmas developing, and coming in contact with the pollen on the anthers. Visitors alight on the middle of the flower or on its edge, and cause self-pollination or cross-pollination. When the surface of the water rises the flowers remain submerged, and are self-pollinated. The visitors are Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalis, Helophilus, Chrysogaster, Muscidae, Scatophaga, Hymenoptera, Apidse, Apis, Bombus, Coleoptcra, Chrysomelidae, Helodes. The flower is scented. 1 Next day the outer stamens move outwards and another whorl takes their place, and so on till all have opened. WHITE WATER LILY 71 The plant is dispersed by the agency of water or by animals. The achenes when ripe either fall to the bottom or float about on the surface of the water. The stems, &c., are likely to be dispersed by wading- and swimming-birds. Water Fennel is a Hydrophyte and aquatic belonging to the sub- merged and floating-leaf associations. No fungi infest the plant, nor do insects feed upon it. Pliny invented the name Ranunculus, which is a diminutive of the Latin rana, a frog, and so a little frog, the Ranunculus affording a habitat for little frogs in early spring; while trichophyllns is from Greek thrix, hair, phyllus, leaf. In Buttercup or Buttercop, cop means a head. Water Fennel, in allusion to its leaves resembling Fennel, is the only vernacular name. Unlike the terrestrial buttercups, which cause blistering, this plant is innocuous. Cattle have been fed on these Water Crowfoots by the Avon banks, and when freshly taken from the river cows enjoy it. In reference to the amphibious forms as a whole, Dr. Pulteney (a Leicester- shire botanist) showed that they are highly nutritious. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 5. Ranunculus trie hop hyllus, Chaix. — Submerged leaves not col- lapsing, petals 7-veined, buds globose, flowers white, with a yellow centre, carpels compressed. White Water Lily (Castalia alba, Wood) Seeds of the White Water Lily occur in Interglacial beds and recent alluvium. It is found in the Arctic and North Temperate Zone in Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia to Kashmir, and it is found in North America. This plant is absent from Devon, the Isle of Wight, N. Hants, Essex, W. Gloucs, Monmouth, Hereford, Pem- broke, Montgomery, Denbigh, N.W. Yorks, Durham, S. Northumber- land, Cheviotland, Isle of Man, occurring only in E. Lowlands in Edinburgh, Linlithgow, not in Stirling, Banff, Mid Ebudes, Caithness, and Orkneys, and up to 1000 ft. in the Lake district. It is found in Ireland. The White Water Lily is found in similar habitats to the Yellow Water Lily, but whilst the latter is often found in rivers, as well as ponds and lakes, the former is much more common in still waters. It has doubtless been planted here and there on account of its choice beauty, but in most localities is native. With the Yellow Water Lily, though they seldom grow intermixed, it forms a striking contrast. 72 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. Aquatic like the Yellow Water Lily it has much the same habit. It has too the same habit of opening and expanding its flowers, expanding at 7 a.m. or in the middle of the day, and letting them rest on the surface closed up about 4 p.m. or in the evening. The leaves are smaller, longer, incumbent or overlapping at the base, and less heart- shaped; 5-10 in. across; the stomata, contrary to the usual rule in terrestrial types, are on the upper surface. The flower has a double appearance, having a lance-shaped outline, the parts spirally arranged, the sepals, petals, and stamens passing into each other. The ovary contains many ovules, and the stigma lies above it. The embryo is small, the cotyledons remaining in the seed when the latter germinates. The seeds are heart-shaped, smooth, shiny, grey, and embedded in a slimy material after the capsule rots. There is a glandular pore at the base of the petals, and the stalkless rays of the stigma also extend beyond the margin. This plant lifts its flowers above the surface about 3—4 in. It flowers from July to August. The White Water Lily is a herbaceous perennial. The carpels, which are embedded in a thick receptacle, are arranged in a radiate manner. The anthers open as soon as the flower unfolds, or the next day. As they stand above the pistil and bend over it the pollen falls upon the stigma, and when no insects visit them the plant is self-pollinated. The flowers are sweet-scented, and a honey-like liquid is produced by the stigma. There is no nectary. Owing to the aquatic habit, creeping insects cannot enter the flower. It is pollinated by beetles of the genus Cetonia and by Glaphyridae. The stamens are inserted on the ovary. The fruit of the White Water Lily is dispersed both by water and by its own agency. After the expansion of the flower at the surface it recoils to the bottom, allowing the seed to germinate in the mud, and so is dispersed much like seeds of Vallisneria. The carpels possess air-cells facilitating the floating of the seeds. The capsules are edible. The plant is a Hydrophyte and aquatic, helping to form a certain type of water association — the floating-leaf association. The beetles that feed upon it are Donacia menyanthidis, the moths Hydrocampa potamogeti and H. nymphaata, and the Homopteron Rhophalosiphina nymphece. The name Castalia is that of a sacred fountain on Mount Parnassus, and alba means white, in allusion to the flowers. The English names are Alau, Bobbins, Cambie-leaf, Candock, A TYPICAL FLOATING-LEAF ASSOCIATION Photos. L. R. J. 11 or WHITE WATER LILY (Castaha alba, Wood), WITH WATER BUTTERCUP Note how the flower is raised above the surface of the water, and how the leaves have the margin turned up. YELLOW WATER LILY 75 Can-leaves, Flatter-dock, Water Lily, Nenuphar, Water Bells, Water Blob, Water-can, Water Socks, Water Rose. In reference to the name Candock it is called Water-can at Tamworth in allusion to the half- unfolded leaves floating on the water, which are thought to resemble cans. The leaf surface close to the stalks is raised, and the surface is generally convex, so that raindrops collecting run off at the margin, especially as the surface is waxy, which assists transpiration. The underside is purple, due to the presence of anthocyan, which turns the light rays into heat. The flowers of the White Water Lily are very beautiful, and the petals being numerous are apparently double, and sweet-smelling. They open at seven o'clock in the morning, and close again, when they lie on the surface, about 4 p.m., or relatively later in each case. The roots are astringent, and have been used in Ireland and Scot- land as a dye, dark-brown or chestnut in colour. Both flowers and root were once used medicinally, but are not now employed. All animals except pigs refuse it as food. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 17 Castalia alba, Wood. — Leaves orbicular, 2-lobed, entire, flower white, floating, rising above the surface, sepals 4, adnate, green at back, petals numerous, stigma yellow, stigmatic rays 15-20, fruit a berry, globose, Yellow Water Lily (Nymphaea lutea, L.) Fruits of the Yellow Water Lily are known from deposits of Pre- glacial, Interglacial, Neolithic, and Postglacial age. The Warm Tem- perate Zone is the limit of its distribution in Europe, Temperate Asia, and North America. It is absent from E. Cornwall, N. Devon, Isle of Wight, Radnor, Montgomery, Mid Lanes, Isle of Man, Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow, Stirling, Banff, Easterness, Westerness, Cantire, Mid and E. Ebudes, in W. Ross, E. Sutherland. It is found at 1000 ft. in Yorks, and occurs in Ireland. In most parts of the British Isles the Yellow Water Lily graces most pools and wide stretches of open still water. It is entirely aquatic and so a Hydrophyte, associated with Pondweeds, Arrowhead, Flower- ing Rush, and numerous other common water plants, such as Amphibious Knotgrass, Great Yellow Cress, and Water Crowfoot. Its broad leaves afford a resting-place in many a secluded pool for minute shell-fish, and shade the fish from the rays of the sun. They are of two kinds, one floating and thick, the other submerged and membranous. FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. YELLOW WATER LILY (Nymphcea lutea, L.), showing Reed Swamp and Floating-leaf Association As an aquatic this plant has floating leaves, with slender, long, rope- like rhizomes or stems, which are in reality little more than branches. The flowers rise up above the level of the water, and open during the sunshine and the daytime, and close at night and are submerged. The parts, which are numerous and merge into each other — e.g. petals, sepals, stamens — are spirally arranged. The shape of the carpellary organs, like a brandy bottle, has pro- YELLOW WATER LILY 77 vided an English name for this plant, whose stigma has numerous rays which do not extend to the margin. The flowers smell like brandy. The sepals and petals stand upon a fleshy disk surrounding the ovary with many ovules. The petals are small, the stamens inserted below the ovary. There is a nectary. The Yellow Water Lily is aquatic, and the flowers rise above the water level but 2—3 in. during the day. It flowers from June to August, and is a herbaceous perennial. The 5-6 yellow sepals have taken on the function of petals, the outer or underside secreting honey between them and the petals. The pistil is large and the stamens are numerous, but pollination by insects is accidental. The flowers are scented. The stigma matures first, then the anthers, commencing outwards. The visitors are beetles, Meligethes, various flies, and other beetles, Onesia (Muscidae), Donacia dentata (Chrysomelidse). The pollen- grains are large, rough, elliptical. The fruits are dispersed by the agency of water and the plant's own methods. After the flower has expanded at the surface it retires to the bottom to allow the seed to germinate when mature, in the mud at the bottom, being thus dispersed by an automatic, almost psychic, motion of the plant itself (cf. Vallisneria in some respects). See also Nymphcea (Castalia} alba. It is a Hydrophyte and aquatic, growing in the floating-leaf association. No fungi attack it. Galeriica nymphcea, Donacia crassipcs (beetles), and the moth Hydrocampa potamogcti visit it. The name Nymphcsa was given by Theophrastus, being from the Greek nympha, water nymph, lutea meaning yellow. The English names are Blob, Bobbins, Brandy -bottle, Butter Churn, Butter-pumps, Cambie-leaf, Candock, Churn, Clot, Clote-leaf, Water Colt's-foot, Flatter-dock, Yellow or Water Lily, Lily-can, Nenuphar, Water Blob, Water-can, Water Rose. The name Brandy-bottle alludes to the odour of the flower, or the shape of the ovary more probably, so also Butter Churn; and Candock is given from its broad leaves and the shape of the ovary, like a silver can or flagon. The Water Lily was considered inimical to sorcery, and in the Rhine district used with a certain formula. Pliny says it was used as an antidote for a love-philtre. The smoke of it burnt in a house was said to drive out crickets, and cockroaches also are killed by partaking of the roots bruised and rubbed in milk; but pigs are fond of the leaves and the root, though other animals will not touch it. 78 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 6. Nympheea lutea, L. — Leaves submerged, wavy, transparent, floating leaves coriaceous, flower yellow, globose, sepals 5, stigmas rayed, not reaching the margin, petals numerous, anthers hypogynous, linear, the fruit a berry. Water Cress (Radicula Nasturtium aquaticum, Rendle and Britten) ( = Nasturtium officinale] Common and widespread as this plant is, it is not found in any deposits in which seeds of recent plants are preserved. It is almost cosmopolitan, occurring in Europe, West Asia, North Africa, and it has been introduced into North America, and the colonies of the British Empire, even to the extent of choking some rivers in New Zealand. In the British Isles it is ubiquitous, growing in every vice- county of Great Britain, in Ireland, and the Channel Islands. In the North of England it grows at an altitude of 1000 ft. Water Cress, as a rule, is a Hydrophyte growing submerged, with its roots alone fixed in the mud along the margin of its habitat. But it may also be found growing as a hygrophilous or moisture-loving plant, out of the water on damp mud, at the margin, gravitating, like many so-called truly aquatic plants, between a life on land and a life in the water. It is to be found not only in ditches, ponds, and pools, but also in rivers and lakes. But, as a rule, it is most luxuriant and at its best in shallow running water. Water Cress is a large plant when allowed to grow rank, the stem being long but wavy and hollow, and it is seldom or never erect, but like all aquatic plants, when submerged grows lengthwise in, or in this case upon, the water, floating on account of its lightness. At the base it is creeping, and attains a semi-erect habit only at the upper extremity, where the flowering stems rise above the water. At other times it is dwarf, floating, or growing prostrate upon damp mud. It may be recognized by its leaves, with lobes each side of a common stalk, egg-shaped, oblong, leaflets slightly toothed, and nearly heart-shaped at the base, the white flower often finally purple, with petals twice as long as the calyx, with round pods with swollen valves, beaded, the pocl upturned, and the stigma small. The pods are longer than the flower-stalks, and the seeds are in two rows and flattened lengthwise. Water Cress is often as much as 4 ft. long or high. The flowering WATER CRESS 8 i stage lasts from May to July and August. It is a herbaceous perennial, increasing by seeds as well as by division. Two green, fleshy honey-glands are hidden on the inner side of the base of each short stamen. The shorter anthers open towards the stigma, which overtops them. The taller stamens stand at first on a level with the stigma, but are afterwards overtopped by it, and open towards the shorter stamens. The bee visiting the flower touches the stigma and the pollen-covered faces of 3 of the anthers (i short, 2 long). Plioto. Flatters & G, WATER CRESS (Radicula Nasturtium aquaticum, Rendle and Britten) When the weather is adverse, self-pollination is effected by the longer anthers. Water Cress is one of the numerous plants dispersed by its own agency. The seeds are dispersed by tension of the valves, the seeds being rounded and flattened lengthwise. It is a Hydrophyte and aquatic, and when growing on land prefers a sand soil, or sandy loam; or river- valley alluvium, free from peat. It may grow in the reed swamp in the submerged or half-submerged leaf- association. Water Cress is galled by Cecidomyia sisymbrii. No fungi infest it VOL. iv 52 82 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. so far as is known, nor any insects. Water snails are fond of it, e.g. Limnesa^ Planorbis, Succinia, &c. The old generic name Nasturtium, given by Pliny, is derived from nasus, nose, tortus, twisted, in reference to the hot character of the plant. The English names are Billers, Brooklime, Brown Cress, Carsons, Water Crashes, \Vater Cress, Eker, Water and Well Grass, Water Kerse, Rib, Teng-tongues, Well Grass, Well Kerse. The plant was said to drive warts away if laid on them. The Greeks used it as a salad and as a medicine. Pliny says it was used for brain troubles. In England it was first cultivated in 1801 or 1808. An aromatic oil which it contains renders it nutritive. The mineral salts which the plant contains render it nutritive. Water Cress requires running water, and, when cultivated, plants are bedded at intervals, in rows in the direction of the current. The beds should be kept free from mucl and other plants, and occasionally thinned out. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 24. Radicula Nasturtium aquaticum, Rendle and Britten. — Stem branched, erect, succulent, leaves bipinnate, lower larger, leaflets rounded, dentate, flowers white, twice as long as calyx, pod linear, curved. Great Yellow Water Cress (Radicula amphibia, Druce) This has not been found in a fossil condition. It is a native of the Warm Temperate Zone, found in Europe, North Africa, and Tem- perate Asia. In England it is found in Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Sussex, the whole of the Thames province, as well as in Anglia, throughout the Severn and Trent provinces, in Montgomery in Wales, but not in Mid Lanes. It is found in the Mersey district, throughout the H umber district, and in Durham. It is naturalized in a few parts of Scotland, as in Dumfries, and occurs in Ireland. Like its congener the Water Cress, the Great Yellow Cress is an aquatic plant, half hydrophyte, half a land plant, being amphibious, as the Latin specific name indicates. It is fond of damp watery places, and very often grows luxuriantly and tall in rivers and canals, or in lakes. It has been united with Horse Radish, a plant which, likewise, though terrestrial enough in our gardens, where it is difficult to eradi- cate it, is found more or less wild by water. The habit of this plant is much more like that of Water Cress than any other plant which grows in water, but it is more rigid, more erect, GREAT YELLOW WATER CRESS 83 and being taller it makes a greater show above water than Water Cress. It has almost entire broadly lance-shaped, sometimes coarsely- toothed, dark-green foliage, and being deeply rooted by means of long stringy roots, like a Water Dropwort, it spreads out from the banks for some distance in deep water, forming a fringe along a canal bank, or in shallow streams filling the channel entirely. It may be recognized by its Nasturtium habit, combined with the yellow flowers, the petals twice as long as the calyx, the flower-stalks spreading or turned down ; the pouch is egg-shaped, with a stigma with a pin-head, and the seeds are small, the silicules being ellipsoid and swollen, the pods being shorter than the flower-stalks, and there is no vein on the pouch. This plant grows to a length of 4 ft. It is in flower from June to September. It is a herbaceous perennial, and reproduced by seeds or by division. The structure of the flower is similar to that of N. sylvestre, in which at the base of the flower between every 2 stamens there is a green, fleshy honey-gland. In this there are 6 nectaries in a ring at the base. The anthers of the 4 longer stamens are nearly on a level with the stigma, the other 2 are deeper, and all are turned towards the centre. The anthers spread out when the flower is open, and open towards the stigma. Or they may make a half-turn and so avoid possible self-pollination. Visitors insert the head between the stigma and stamens, and each side of the head is dusted; while the insect remains in the same flower the same side touches the stigma, but if it visits others the opposite side may touch the stigma, and cross-pollination will follow, while if the same insect inserts its head into the same flower several times it may cause self-pollination. In wet weather the anthers of the long stamens touch the stigma and the plant is self- pollinated. It is visited by Hymenoptera (Tenthre- dinidae, Tenthredo], Diptera (Empidse, Empis, Syrphidse, Rhingia, Syritta, Eristalis], Great Yellow Water Cress is dispersed by the plant's own agency. The seeds are small, and are dispersed after the tension of the oblong pods, when dry, has caused the pod to open lengthwise, and scatter the seeds to a distance. It is a hydrophyte and aquatic, rooted in the alluvium of the river- or lake-bed in the reed swamp. There are apparently no fungal or insect pests that infest this plant. The second name amphibia (Latin) alludes to its amphibious habit. This plant is called Bellragges, Water Charlock, Laver. 84 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 25. Radicula amphibia, Druce. — Stem erect, tall, leaves pinnatifid, entire or dentate, flowers yellow, petals twice as long as calyx, pod straight, ovoid, shorter than pedicels. Great Chickweed (Stellaria aquatica, Scop.) Remains of this plant have been found in the Preglacial beds in Norfolk and Interglacial beds in Sussex, testifying to its antiquity. It is to-day found in the Temperate Northern Zone in Europe, North Africa, Siberia, Western Asia. In the Peninsula province it is absent from West Cornwall, and North Hants and E. Sussex in the Channel province. In S. Wales it is absent from Glamorgan, Pembroke, and Cardigan, and it occurs in N. Wales only in Flint and Denbigh, and not in Mid Lanes, but south of this it is general. It is uncertain whether it occurs in North England or Scotland, north of York, except in Stirling. The Great Chickweed is a good index of wet soil, for it cannot grow away from water. The plant is a hygrophile, without being a marsh or bog plant. It is found growing in tall clumps along a shaded ditch-side on the roadside, or lining the margin of pool or lake, or more extensively by the side of a stream or river. Here, itself white-flowered, it vies with the large puce flowers of the Great Hairy Willow Herb, or perchance with Water Bedstraw or Water Figwort. This is the largest and finest of the Stitchworts, being tall and leafy, but slender, brittle, and prostrate below, then ascending. The leaves are heart-shaped, with a long point, the lower stalked, the upper stalkless, and hairy along the margin. The branches are alternate, and the plant supports itself by aid of the surrounding vegetation. The flowers are large, white, in the axils, single, and distant; the petals are divided to the base, longer than the calyx. The capsule is larger than the calyx, on turned-back flower-stalks, and opens by five clefts. The seeds are reddish-brown and rough, about sixty in each capsule. The Great Chickweed is often as much as 3 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom in July and August. It is perennial, and may be in- creased by division. The flowers are larger than in Cerastium triviale, but of the same size as in Cerastium arvense and Stellaria Holostea. The number of insect visitors and the arrangement of stamens and pistil is intermediate, and as favourable to cross- as self-pollination. The flowers are proterandrous, the anthers ripening first. When no KEY TO PLATE XXX IX No. i. Great Chick weed (Slellarta ayuatiai, Scop.) \ •/ a. Capsule, opening by valves above, with seeds, b, Upper part of plant, with glandular stem, opposite leaves with flowers in the axils on long stalks, showing free sepals (side view), 5 petals (?-fid)V1o1: stamens, and pistil. No. 1. ^ (Ly thrum Saticaria, L.) a, Flbwer in section 4 short stamens, and pistil with 4-nd stigm;i, with calyx (\ \ \ (superior) below. /•. Seed, ., ' with tuft of haii b. (i&ksubf \ \ t xVVl tl !_ r-r-% y it Calves, with ™>er part of t, with hairy st^m, upp^r v. ^tem Cleaves, :ind llbwejfs // showing inferior long <-"-»vw/ \r^,J^>«*v*i i\..«*.j calyx, stamens (12) in 2 series, and style (short). i>, Pollen. -fTafer. shewing 4 aorbfe s lobe'^ khd' ^ starve/ s. -jL ' a, Tubular floret, with ex- serted style arms. ^, Cluster of florets, with involucral - x bracts bejow. c, { Ach«nV:," with pappus. < U^Vctfrt of plant, with j -foliol.tte leaves ^; and flowerheaxl^ /n terminal Fruit(diaymous;.showingtwo ' / J^JZ>u i -seeded cocci, c, Upper p.m of plant, with 4 leaves in a whorl and flowers in terminal ' ^yan$ axillary cymes. £K^\ m \ . , \ %N > V /V) > !^: a, Ligulate or ray ^floret. *, \tubytar '/ disk iiel6w^_afld barbeH pappus bristles, -with Scale.- i*, Receptacle, outer and No. 3. liuuerbur (Petasitcs evatus, H^—offi- dnalis, Mcench.) a, Tubular floret, withachene aud pappus, b. Leaf. (> pappus. Scape, with bracts <&>•%* flowerhead (female-) forming a and or ray floret, with achenc and pappus be b, Tubular or tidi floret, c. \AcheneJ jwithl I /pappus, d, 'Leaf, i Flowe^ead closed nd dropping, and expanded, scapte with leafy scales. Scatej, fvith !h/>vferhead in it sbbw ng pappus, form- (Settee io ayuafu-us, Hill..) cherie/ ydith pappus. Upper part of plant,, pinnate leaves, and fi heads in1 a corymb. 1 AAX V s •; a, Tubular floret, with achene and pappus. t>t Feathery pappus. i, Acheitc, with pappus, a, Upper part; of plant, with winged bnfcily stern and leaves, ami flower- JU<# a, b, Corolla (rotate), with stamens with filaments con- nate below, large and small form, f, Upper part of plant, with upper opposite stem- leaves, and flowers in a pani- •/ cl'ed cyme, showing various stages, with stamens exserted m some. • FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES i. Thrcc-lobed Buttcrbur (Bide/is tripartita, L.)- 2. Coltsfoot (Tnssilago Farfara, L.)- 3- Buttcrl}ur (Pclasitss oratits, Hill; officinalis, Moench). 4- Marsh Ragwort (Senecio aqnaticns, Hill). 5. Marsh Thistle (CnictlS palustris, Wilkl.). 6. Great Yellow Loosestrife (Lysii/tachia vitlgaris, L.)- COLTSFOOT 99 prickles, for wind dispersal of its achenes. It is also furnished with hooks, which aid in dispersing the seeds by means of animals, the burs catching in the wool of sheep, &c. The plant is aquatic or semi-aquatic, and a peat-loving plant requiring a peaty soil, growing in the reed swamp. Two flies, Tephritis elongatula, Chromatomyia albiceps, are found on it. Bidens, Linnaeus, is from the Latin bis, twice, dens, a tooth, in allusion to the two or more teeth or awns crowning the fruit, and the second Latin name refers to the 3-lobed leaf characters. Water Agrimony and Bur Marigold Double-tooth are the common names in most general use. It has been used to dye linen and wool a yellow colour, yarn and flax being first steeped in alum water, dried, and steeped in a prepara- tion of this plant, and then boiled in it. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 156. Bidens tripartita, L. — Stem branched, branches opposite, leaves petiolate, trifid, flowerheads small, yellow, suberect, solitary, terminal. Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara, L.) This is an ancient plant, having been met with at Edinburgh in beds of Neolithic age. It is found in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, as far east as the Himalayas. In America it is an introduction. It is found in every part of Great Britain also, as far north as the Shetland Islands, and it ascends to 2700 ft. in the Highlands. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Coltsfoot is a pelophilous plant which grows on clay soils in damp situations, on banks in clay pits, on railway banks, by the sides of streams, and other places where there is a steady flow of water in the spring. The plant is prostrate in habit. The plant is soboliferous, with many long underground shoots, ending in suckers. It has burrowing stolons, by which it spreads extensively. The only aerial stem is the i -flowered scape. The leaves are broad, round to heart-shaped, angular, or lobed, downy or woolly-felted below, toothed. The stomata on the under surface are no doubt protected by the woolly felt. The upper surface is glossy or cobwebby, with the veins prominently hollow, and below they stand out under the felt. The leaves do not appear until after the scapes. JCO and FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. The scapes are downy, one or more, the flowerheads bright yellow, erect in bloom and in fruit, drooping in bud and after flowering. The scapes are covered by numerous oblong, closely pressed, smooth scales or bracts. The involucral bracts are in one row, with few outer shorter ones. The ray florets are in many rows, narrow, ligulate, the disk florets being bell-shaped, with 5 teeth. The stigma is club-shaped, the arms united below, papillose, with 2 small cones. The anthers ' . - Photo. B. Haiiley COLTSFOOT (Tussilaga Farfara, L.) have no tails. In the ray florets the fruit is nearly cylindrical, that of the disk florets imperfect, with pappus in one row. The pappus is snowy-white, soft, forming a globular clock when fully expanded, and readily dispersed when ripe. The hairs are slender, rough. Coltsfoot is scarcely more than 6 in. in height in flower. The flowers bloom in March and April. The Coltsfoot is a herbaceous perennial plant, propagated by division. The solitary yellow flowerheads or capitula are very conspicuous in the spring, being 20-25 mm. across when outspread, and have a distinct and strong smell, which with the honey they contain renders them especially attractive to early flying insects at a time when few flowers, COLTSFOOT 1 01 save the Sallow, are in bloom. The plant is monoecious. In the ray the florets are female (hence the fully-developed achenes at a later stage only in the ray). The disk florets are male. Both disk and ray florets are golden-yellow, and there is little to distinguish them at first sight, but those in the ray are ligulate, those in the disk bell-shaped. In the ray florets, which are numerous, over 300, there is a pollen brush which is not of any use in female florets, and it may be that there were originally male florets also, but this provision is not usual in female florets in this order. The disk florets are much fewer, about 40 in number, and alone contain the honey. The flowerheads close at night, and when there is rain, as a protection for the honey and pollen. When the ray florets have been visited and pollinated they do not wither as is usual at once, but remain fresh till the anthers have opened some days after. Insect visitors are numerous. The disk florets retain a rudimentary pistil. In the ordinary course the flowers are cross- pollinated, the proterogynous flowerheads ensuring this. Self-pollination without insects is impossible. The flowers are visited by the Honey Bee, Andrena, Hal^ct^ls, Diptera (JSombylius major, Eristalis tenax], Coleoptera (Meligefkes). The plant is provided with white silky pappus to aid the fruit in dispersal by the wind. Coltsfoot is a clay-loving plant, being confined to a clay soil. The leaves on the upper side are covered with a large " cluster- cup " fungus, Coleosporium sonchi, which is a beautiful object under the lens. The stomata lie below covered with felted down, which is greyish-white. A Hymenopterous insect, Mellimis sabulosits, Lepidoptera, Glaucous Shears (Hadena glaitca), Halonota brunichiana, Scopula lutcalis, Ptero- phorus trigonodactylus, are to be met with on this food plant. Tussilago, Pliny, is from tussis, a cough, with reference to its use in curing coughs. Farfara, Pliny, is a Latin name for the plant. The name Colt's-foot is given because of the shape of the leaf. It is called Ass's-foot, Bull-foot, Clatter-clogs, Clayt, Clayweed, Cleats, Clot, Colt-herb, Colt's-foot, Coughwort, Cout-fit, Cow-heave, Dishalaga, Dove-dock, Dummy Weed, Foalfoot, Foilefoot, Tushylucky Cowan, Hog- weed, Hoofs, Horse -hoof, Horse-hove, Son-before-the- Father, Sow F'oot, Tushalan. The name Son-before-the- Father is the name given because the flowers appear before the leaves. Wine made from it is called Clayt wine, and beer made from it Cleats, and these with the name Clayweed refer to its clay habitat. Colt's-foot, Cow-heave 102 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. (a cow hoof), Hoofs, Horse-hove, refer to the same resemblance be- tween the leaf outline and an ungulate hoof. On Easter Day in Bavaria the peasants made garlands of it and threw them into the fire. It has been considered a demulcent and pectoral, the leaves being mucilaginous. The plant has long been used for coughs. In Chaucer's day it was used in all stomachic com- plaints, for broken bones and the drye cohw (cough). The leaves are held to be expectorant. The leaves have been used since the days of Dioscorides to smoke through a reed to remove the mucus in the chest for catarrh, asthma, phthisis, but it is little used to-day. The cotton of the leaves wrapped in rag clipped in saltpetre has been employed as tinder. For coughs also a tea or syrup was made. The root dried and burnt has been used to keep away gnats. When the florets have done blooming, and the achenes with pappus enclosed in the involucre are moist, the heads hang down, as at night, but in the day and when it is dry they become light, and the scape is again erect and the pappus expanded as in the Dandelion. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 163. Tussilago Farfara, L. — Soboliferous, leaves large, cordate, angular, with dark teeth, cottony beneath, leaves appearing after the flowerheads, which are on scapes with scales, disk florets tubular, ray florets ligulate, drooping before and after flowering. Butterbur (Petasites officinalis, Moench) Unlike its near neighbour Coltsfoot, Butterbur is not found in early deposits. It is found in the North Temperate Zone to-day in Europe, North Africa, N. and W. Asia. It is found in every part also of Great Britain except the Isle of Wight, Glamorgan, West Sutherland, as far north as the Shetlands; but it is local, and ascends to 1000 ft. in Northumberland; and in Ireland it is also native. Butterbur is a paludal species, which grows in very similar places to Coltsfoot. It, however, frequents the near neighbourhood of water more consistently than the latter, and is found on the borders of rivers, streams, and lakes, forming dense brakes with its huge rhubarb-like leaves. Like Coltsfoot the Butterbur is soboliferous, with creeping under- ground stems. The stems are woolly scapes. The leaves1 are flat, large, kidney -shaped or heart-shaped, toothed along the margin, 1 Perfectly adapted to a habitat where moisture is abundant, water copiously supplied, and the shade considerable. BUTTERBUR 103 smooth, reddish, covered with a felt at the base, downy beneath, and very large. The leaf-stalks are long, round, finely -furrowed, sheathed below, channelled, and purple. They are usually softly and loosely hairy. The plant is dioecious, with male florets and female on different plants, the male florets being rarest, and in a dense egg-shaped panicle, the female ones loose and longer, the styles of the first being egg-shaped and stout, the female with the mouth obliquely blunt above. The flowerheads are carried on erect, stout scapes, white and woolly, with lance-shapecl scales, purple and ribbed. The plant is often several feet high, the flowering being about i ft. The flowers bloom in March and April. The plant is a herbaceous per- ennial propagated by division. In Petasites albus the plant is dioecious, and the male flowerheads are more conspicuous. In the fe- male capitula there are tWO kinds Of florets. Only BUTTERBUR (Petasites officinalis, Moi-nch) some in the centre pro- duce honey, and the stamens (usually absent) and pistil (with stigma with short hairs) are functionless, and around these are tubular female florets without honey or stamens. The male flowerheads are loose and of one sort of floret only, and possess honey, and a pistil with no stigma, but a style whose branches sweep the pollen out from the cylinder by means of the hairs, but they possess no papillae. The male capitula, with florets which are tubular below and bell -shaped above, also possess some functionless florets occupying the same place as the pistillate florets in the female flowerheads, which they resemble in not possessing a nectary or stamens, and in having a style and a narrow tubular corolla. There are also abortive female florets which, in reduced number and functionless condition, correspond in primitive io4 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. hermaphrodite flowerheads or gynomonoecious florets to the functional female florets. The pappus of the female florets is abundant, and adapts the achenes for wind dispersal. Butterbur is a clay-loving plant addicted to clay soil in moist hollows or sandy loam. It is covered with the same pretty fungus as Coltsfoot, Coleo- sporium sonchi. The moths, Botys alpinalis, the Butterbur, Hydrcscia petasitis, Halonota turbidana, live on it. Petasites, Dioscorides, is from the Greek petasos, a large, broad- brimmed hat, alluding to the foliage, and the second Latin name refers to its medicinal use. It is called Batter Dock, Bog Rhubarb, Bogs Horns, Burn-blades, 'Butter-bur, Cap Dockin, Cleats, Kettle Dock, Water Docken, Dunnies, Eldin, Eldin-docken, Ell-docken, Flapper Dock, Flea-dock, Gallon, Gaun, Lagwort, Pestilence Wort, Poison Rhubarb, Son-before-the- Father, Umbrella Leaves. It was called Pestilence Wort from a sup- posed remedy it formed for pestilential fevers. The name Son-before- the- Father is given because the flowers appear before the leaves. The name Bog Rhubarb is applied because the leaves are like rhubarb. It is called Bogs Horns because children use the hollow stalks as horns or trumpets. The name Butter-bur is given because people in the country wrapped butter in the large leaves. Eldin is a name given because it was used as elden or fuel. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 164. Petasites officinalis, Moench. — Soboliferous, leaves large, on long furrowed stalks appearing after flowerheads, downy, orbicular, reniform, flowerheads, lilac, in spike, plants dioecious. Marsh Ragwort (Senecio aquaticus, Hill) Fruits of this common paludal type have been found amongst others in Interglacial deposits at West Wittering, Sussex. It is found in the North Temperate Zone to-day in Europe and Siberia. It grows in every part of Great Britain except N. Aberdeen, ascending to 1500 ft. in the Lake district. Water Ragwort is a marsh plant, growing commonly in wet meadows that are continually submerged. But it also grows by the sides of lakes and rivers, and wherever there is water of a permanent nature. In similar spots grow Great Water Chickweed, Marsh Thistle, Water Mint, Alder, Crack Willow, and other hygrophytes. MARSH RAGWORT 105 The stems are not so stout as in some other species of Ragwort, but several small ones grow out of a short, often prostrate one, or the plant may be tall and erect, like Common Ragwort. The radical leaves are oval-oblong, entire, or rarely toothed, clasping, simple below, MARSH RAGWORT (Senecio aquaticus, Hill) and smooth. The stem-leaves have the lobes larger upwards and deeply divided. The flowerheads are rayed and spreading, with elliptical florets, borne on slender flower-stalks in a corymb. The corymb is very loose and variable in the number and arrangement of the florets. The fruit is smooth and ribbed. The plant is 2-3 ft. high. It blooms in July and August. It is a herbaceous perennial and propagated by division. io6 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. The flowerheads are large and as conspicuous as in the Hoary Ragwort, and the same arrangement of the flower holds good. The ray florets are female or absent, the disk florets being complete. The achenes are furnished with abundant silky pappus and adapted for wind dispersal. Marsh Ragwort is a peat-loving plant, and requires a more or less damp and peaty soil, such as that which is obtained in a marsh or bog. Marsh Ragwort is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Puccinia senecionis, A moth, the Wormwood Pug (Eupithecia absynthiata), feeds upon it. The second Latin name refers to its aquatic habitat. Ragwort is known in Ireland as " Fairies' Horse", and was said to £> have been sought for by witches when taking their midnight journeys. Burns in his "Address to the Deil " makes his witches "skim the muirs and dizzy crags on ragweed hags " with " wicked speed ". A similar legendary belief prevails in Cornwall in connection with the Castle Peak, a high rock south of the Logan Stone. " Here ", Mr. Hunt writes, "many a man, and woman too, now quietly sleeping in the churchyard of St. Levan would, had they power, attest to have seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights, mounted on the stems of the Ragwort." " Fairies' Horse " was applied because fairies were supposed in Ireland to ride to their scenes of merry-making on Ragwort. It was a Manx preservative against all infectious diseases. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 167. Senecio aquaticus, Hill. — Stem tall, radical leaves petiolate, subentire, glabrous, flowerheads large, yellow, in loose corymbs, rays spreading, fruit glabrous. Marsh Thistle (Cnicus palustris, Willd.) As in the case of other typical marsh plants this plant has been found in Interglacial and Neolithic deposits. It is found to-day in Arctic Europe and Siberia. The Marsh Thistle is known in all parts of Great Britain, even ascending to 2400 ft. in the Highlands. The name Marsh Thistle indicates to some extent the range of this species, which is so familiar a member of all marsh floras, with its tall tufted heads of purple bloom. But it is really common to all wet ground, growing in damp hollows in meadows and along the margins of lakes, rivers, and pools of all descriptions. The Marsh Thistle is one of the tallest thistles, erect, branched at MARSH THISTLE 107 the top and angular, clothed with white hairs and with numerous spines. It has usually one main stem, which is purple and green. The leaves MARSH THISTLE (Cnicus palustris, Willd.) run down the stem, and are rough, deeply divided to the base, and beset with numerous brownish prickles, stalkless and turned down, lance-shaped, with blunt broad teeth, and a palish-green midrib. The margins of the leaves bear the spines, which are purple at the base. io8 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. The stem is winged with interrupted, spinous, rudimentary leaves, which serve to protect it. The flowerheads are violet in an egg-shaped involucre, with egg- shaped to lance-shaped phyllaries, which terminate in a point and overlap. The florets are tufted and clustered, and rather small, and the involucre is slightly webbed. The limb of the corolla is 5-lobed to the middle. This graceful plant may be 3 ft. high. It is rarely in flower before July. Biennial, it is herbaceous and propagated by seeds. Marsh Thistle has a capitulum intermediate between C. arvensis and C. lanceolatus, in so far as it is possible to reach the honey, and in the variety of visitors. The throat of the corolla is i\ mm. The florets are tubular and complete. It is visited by Apis mellifica, Bombus, Andrena, Halictus, Mega- chile, Lindenius, Eristalis, Volucella, Syrphus, Sicus, Pieris, Hesperia, Satyrnsy P/ust'a, Agrotis, Strangalia. The achene is narrow, and provided with a feathery pappus for wind dispersal. This fine composite is a peat-loving plant, requiring a humus soil, and growing in peaty bogs, &c. Two fungi, Puccinia hieracii, P. dioicc?, infest it. Two beetles, Psylliodes picina, Larinus carlina, a moth, Coleophora therinella, are to be found upon it. The second Latin name refers to its habitat. It is called Bog- thrissel, Moss-thistle, Red and Water Thistle. It was said to counter- act the powers of darkness, and in Esthonia they place it in ripening- corn to drive away malignant demons. Elf lock, a disease in Poland amongst the poor, said to be due to evil spirits, disappears when one buries thistle seeds. If thistles are seen in a dream it is a good omen. "If the down flieth off Coltsfoot, Dandelion, and thistles when there is no wind it is a sign of rain ", and ;< Chaff, leaves, thistle down, or such light things whisking about and twining round foreshows tempestuous winds". In Suffolk — " Cut your thistles before St. John, You will have two instead of one". The tender stalks, if peeled, are eatable when boiled. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 171. Cniats palustris, Willd. — Stem tall, erect, purple, hollow, branched above, spinose, winged, leaves not hairy above, decurrent, thorny, brownish, flowerheads purple, small, terminal heads in a cluster, bracts purplish-green, ovate-lanceolate, corolla limb 5-fid to middle. GREAT YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE 109 Great Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris, L.) This is a marsh plant, not yet found in Glacial plant beds in the Northern Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, North Africa, N. Asia, and it is represented in Australia by a nearly allied species. In Great Britain it is not found in the Peninsula province in N. Devon, but is general in the Channel, Thames, and Anglia provinces, and in the Severn province generally; in S. Wales not in Radnor; in N. Wales not in Montgomery, Denbigh, or Anglesea; throughout the Trent and Mersey provinces, except Mid Lanes; in the Humber and Tyne provinces, except in Cheviotland; and in the Lakes pro- vince, except in the Isle of Man. It occurs throughout the whole of the W. Lowlands; only in Berwick, Edinburgh, Linlithgow in the E. Lowlands; in the E. Highlands, only in Fife, Stirling, W. Perth, Kincardine, S. Aberdeen; in the W. Highlands, in Dumbarton and Mid Ebucles. It is rare in Scotland and local in Ireland. The Common or Yellow Loosestrife, not so common really as the Wood Loosestrife and Creeping Jenny, is found here and there through- out the country by the sides of rivers and other tracts of running water, but owing to the drainage of the country it is less common than formerly. Other plants of this type are FYogbit, Snakeshead, Fritil- lary, and we may add the introduced Musk, which, once on the increase, is now again decreasing. It is also a plant of peaty woodland swamps, and grows frequently in ditches. The plant is erect in habit. Usually it is downy. The rootstock is creeping, and the plant is stoloniferous. The stem is erect, rather square in section. The leaves vary greatly in size, shape, and the amount of down. In one form there are 3 leaves in a whorl, in another 4. They are, if not whorlecl, opposite, egg-shaped or lance- shaped, dotted. As with most verticillate leaves there are no leaf- stalks. There may be black glands on the leaves below, or they may be hairless or downy. The flowers are golden-yellow with red spots at the base, in terminal or axillary panicled cymes, which are simple or compound. The corolla is more or less bell-shaped, the 5 lobes entire, egg-shaped, not fringed with hairs, without alternating teeth. The lobes of the calyx are lance-shaped, fringed with hairs, with red margins. The 5 anther- stalks are united below, and the stamens included. The capsule is round. The seeds are rough with a border, 3-angled. Great Yellow Loosestrife is about 3 ft. in height. The flowers IIO FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. bloom from July to September. It is a perennial, propagated by division, and is worth cultivating. There are three types of plant which have been found on the Continent. In one the flower is conspicuous, and is rarely if ever self- pollinated. This is a sun plant, occurring on embankments. In a second less conspicuous shade form self-pollination regularly occurs. In places of an intermediate character, as ditch banks, there are tran- sitional types. None of these forms contain honey. The petals in the sun plant are dark- yellow and have red spots at the base, like honey-guides, and are expanded or bent back at the tip, the petals be- ing 12 mm. long and 6 mm. wide. The anther- stalks are also red-tipped. The anthers are included, and the style is much longer, well projecting. If an insect visits the flower it touches the stig- ma first and cross-polli- nates the flower. In the absence of insects seed is not set, as the anthers are not level with the stigma and the flower is erect. The petals in the shade plant are of a lighter yellow. There are no red spots below. They are not so long or wide, being 10 mm. and 5 mm. respectively, nor do they expand so far, but are oblique. The anther-stalks are greenish-yellow. Here the style and the two longer inferior stamens are of equal length. Hence if the flower is not visited and cross-pollinated by insects, self-pollination may occur. In the third type the anther-stalks may be red, or the petals may be larger, or red and large.. Further, the corolla may be slightly reddish at the base, and in a fifth case the style may be longer than the longer stamens. The flowers are visited by pollen-seeking insects. An insect that is especially abundant where these plants are found is Macropis GREAT YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimachia vulgaris, L.) MONEYWORT 1 1 1 labiata', where it does not occur the plants are absent. The females are abundant on the sun plant. The flower is visited by Macropis, Halictus, Andrena, Odynerus, and a fly, Syritta pipiens. Macropis labiata is the chief visitor. The capsule being 5-valved and many-seeded, the seeds are shaken out by the wind at the top. Yellow Loosestrife is largely a peat-loving plant, requiring a moist peaty soil, either sandy or clayey. Two beetles, Crepidodera salicarice, Galeruca sagittarii, two Hymenoptera, Macropis labiata, Selandria luteola, two moths, Den- tated Pug (Collix sparsata}, Powdered Quaker ( Tceniocampa gracilis], are found on it. Lysimachia, Dioscoricles, is from the Greek hto, loose, mache, battle, or loose-strife; and the second Latin name suggests that it is common, but this is a mistake. Golden Loosestrife, Herb Willow, Yellow Loosestrife, Willow Herb, Golden or Yellow Willow Herb, Willow Wort, Yellow Rocket, are some of its English synonyms. The name is thus explained by Gerard: "An adaptation of the last name Lysimachia, which, as Dioscorides and Plinie doe write, tooke his name of a speciall vertue that it hath in appeasing the strife and unrulinesse which falleth out among oxen at the plough, if it be put about their yokes, but it rather retaineth and keepeth the name lysimachia of King Lysimachus, the son of Agathodes, the first finder out of the nature and vertues of this herbe, as Plinie saith ". The plant is cultivated, and is more deserving of notice than many others that are more popular at present. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 20 1. Lysimachia vulgaris, L. — Stem erect, branched, leaves lanceolate, acute, sub -sessile, in whorls, opposite, flowers yellow, in terminal panicle, or axillary, stamens united. Moneywort (Lysimachia Nummularia, L.) Common in damp places, and known as Creeping Jenny in the garden, Moneywort is a plant of the Northern Temperate Zone, found in Europe generally, and a garden escape only in the Northern United States. It is unknown earlier than in the present-day flora. In Great Britain it is absent from Cornwall in the Peninsular province, occurring in the Channel province; in the Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces generally, but in S. Wales not in Radnor, and in N. Wales in II2 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. Merioneth, Montgomery, Carnarvon, and Denbigh only; and through- out the Trent and Mersey provinces, except in Mid Lanes in the H umber; Tyne provinces, except in Cheviotland; in the Lakes pro- vince, except the Isle of Man; in the W. Lowlands, except in Kirk- cudbright, and it 'is found in Stirling. Watson considers that it is not native in Scotland, or beyond York and Durham in England, and it is introduced in E. Lowlands. It is not native in Ireland, and rare. Moneywort is a more or less common plant in damp places, such as marshy tracts bordering a river or lake, where there is some shade and shelter from trees, and it is also characteristic of moist woodlands, carpeting the banks of ditches and banks where natural glades or artificial rides allow daylight to enter unhindered. The habit of this species is very different to that of the Common Loosestrife, being trail- ing or creeping. It has numerous simple stems, branched, jointed, and channelled each side, or square. The leaves are roundish, opposite, heart- shaped, smooth, shortly -stalked, and decurrent. The flowers are large, yellow, solitary, axillary, and wheel-shaped. The sepals are egg-shaped to heart-shaped, bent back, and keeled underneath. The corolla is deeply divided. The anther-stalks are united at the base. Fruit is rarely produced. Being prostrate it is scarcely more than 3 in. in height. Flowers are found in June and July. It is a herbaceous perennial, reproduced by division. The flowers are conspicuous but prostrate, and though homogamous they do not set good seed, because the flowers of the same neighbour- hood are usually from the same stock. Otherwise the flowers are as in MOXKYWORT (Lysimachia Nummularia, L. ) KEY TO FI ATE XLI No. I. Moneywort (Lysimachia i\umwula> iu. L.) Upper part of plant, with ovate leavesy. in opposite pairs, flowers in the axils. with capsules with the calyx. calyx lobes, and fiow^rs"wfoh rotate corolla and 5 stamens, and pistil with long style. r4 h rn> :^ NQj(3. jScorpiou Gr,~'- (Myosotis s a, Salver-shaped open, shoeing insi petalous stamens. />, Ovary, with style, and capitate stig- ma, c. Nutlets, 4, with style. d, Upper ij>Jm ^f plant, with scorpioid ^mi with flowers 7 ( in various EJtag'es, and gamo- jtal^x enclosing and within i of 4 stamens (decimate) and pisli! stigma, and lor>( with 2- No. (Minnilus I .an. Donn) a, Portion of corolla to show 4 stamens. /$, Stigma, with 2 equal lamelUe. ,", Upper portion of plant, with pairea ovate sessile leaves, flowers in the axils, with 2-lipped corolla, and one flower with corolla fallen, and capsule in tubular $-angled calyx, with long persistent^ylk ; a, Corolla frotate), with 4 corolla-lobes, and 2 stamens exserted. /^, I'istil, with long style, within 4-tid oaJyjfe^A Capsule, with style)/ i^tKti calyx, d, Upper part of plant with opposite leaves a.nd flowers in axillary raceih e in fruit, wit ' .p-ned "16 snow .4 epipetalolis stamens with //long filanients, -exserted. b, //Ovary, ywh long style, and ll 2-fid stifetna. |V F^jwer, with jj gamosepaloufel hairy calyx, I bell-shaped, 4rlQbed corolla, ^atjd >iamens a.ul style, ex- sci-u.-d. d, SniPicn, with while an- tler cells. '.'.;• • ' par leaves,Tiiid flowers in' axillary whorls and u-rminal spik ( • ,y ' .iM.-ui. ! :\ ••%»». - : • • • -I. • - .'-h«; r k showing\ ^ cpipetatou-: 1 jitathehs, and v lobes of corij^ with purple dots, calyx and pa^t of corolla removed. .'/, Pistil, with style, and^-fid stigma, c, Corolla ana calyx, witty-stamens with- to* W\ tion^i; corolla, showiM alnnc ^aBn«n?> 2 long, ^enclosinK ovary and long style anH i-, >Jutlets with 4 [BajV Part :ehl^Ieav in pairs various stages capitate stigma^/ , with remains of styles. dt Leaf-margin, enlarged, show- in^ serrulate edpes. e, Part of plant, sbowmg floating leaves with oCrecc, "spike or stamens and scale. />, Pi&- tiliate flower, with ovary and 4-fid style and scale. <, Twii.% with petiole and sti pules. <-/, T\i:ig, with leaves and starninate catkin, anthers exported. ft Pistillate, fruit- ing catkin, on No. 6. (Iris Psnidacorus, L.) a, Stamen, with long filament and purple anthers. />, Seed. c. Capsule, opening, with seeds within. dt Leaves, on equitarit, ensiform. e, ring scape, with spathes, >wer with turned-back petals rolled in, '" Wild fcti peri- 3 petaloid, 3 , Pistil, ^vith 6 Myras-IXfcXlvdteciuni, with ^iwnarvgyxantrN^stami nodes. , d. Plant, with adventitious tofis and leaves, and with starninate (lowers in -:iiathe- in i^ud and e«- nded . FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES PLATE XLII I. Gipsywort (Lycopus eiiroftEits, L. ). 2. Skull-cap (Scutellaria galericulaia, L. ). 3. Amphibious Knotgrass °olygonntn aniphibhun, L.). 4. Crack Willow (Salix fragilis, L. ). 5. Frogbit (Hydrocharis t/torsns-ranic, L. ). 6. Yellow I1 lag (Iris Pseitd, Pistil, with ovary, style, and 3 stig- mas, c, Bulb, with roots. d, Scape, -with leaves, and bract, with flower with bell- shaped perianth. No. 2. Reed Mace ( Typha latifolia, L.) (moncecious) a. Stamens, with silky peri- anth scajes. b, Stalked ovary, with style and stigma (uni- lateral), c, Leaf, d, Root- stock, with roots, and sheaths. e, Spike of flowers, male above, female below, with bract. Bur Reed (Spargantttm ra»u>sum, Ci.rt.) (monoecious) a, Staminate flower, with 3 inner perianth scales and stamens. £, Pistillate flower, with ovary, style, stigma, and perianth scales, r, Drupe, with persistent style, d, Leaf. f, Inflorescence, with male and female flowers in round heads, male above, female below. No. 4. Sweet Flag (Acorus Calamus^ L.) a, Stamen and scale. l>, Flower, with pistil and sta- mens, t, Berry with pyra- midal top. d, Scape with spathe, turned over, and spadix (lateral) with bisexual flowers. Fruit not produced in British Isles e No. 6. Water Plantain (AlisitiaPlantago-aquatica, a, Whorl of achenes, with outer perianth-segments. r*toh rfji ' . - FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES \ PLATE XLIII I. Snake's-head Fritillary (Fritillaria Melea°ris, L. ). 2. Reed-mace (Typha latifolia, L.). 3- Bur-reed (Sparganium raniosu/n, Curt.). 4. Sweet Flag (Acorns Calamus, L. ). 5. Duckweed (Lemna minor, L. ). 6. Water I'lantain (Alisma riantago-aquatica, L.). SNAKE'S-HEAD FR1TILLARY 139 The flowers are solitary, and last five days, being erect in bud, then drooping, egg-shaped, pyramidal, bell-shaped. The nectary with con- cealed honey is a narrow green gland at the base of the petal, which causes an external protuberance. The corolla is swollen below, and bears the stamens at its base, with awl-like anther-stalks. They are twice as long as the pistil, and bear oblong, yellow or greenish anthers, which after they have opened are half as long, and then lie on a level with the stigma. The 3 styles are furrowed and downy, thickened, and spreading. The stigmas are softly hairy and simple. It is thus adapted for insect visits, and in their absence to self-pollination. The plant is protero- o-vnous, the stigma fc> J <^> ripening first. The fruit, a cap- sule, contains many seeds, and splits open, distributing them close to the parent plant. The plant is a sand plant, growing in sand soil or sandy loam, the alluvium of most valleys. Fritillaria, Lobel, is from the Latin fri- tillus, a dice-box, from the shape of the flowerhead. Meleagris, Dodonseus, is Greek for guinea-fowl, from the chequered pattern of the corolla. Names by which the Fritillary is known include Dead Man's Bell, Chequered Daffodil, Chequered Lily or Tulip, Cowslip, Crow- cup, Daffodil, Deith-bell, Drooping Tulip, Fritillary, Frits, Froccup, Guinea-hen Flower, Lazarus Bell, Leopard's Pheasant, Snake's -head Lily, Snake Flower, Snowdrop, Toads-head, Weeping Willow, Widow Wail. Lazarus Bell was originally Lazar's Bell, and the flower was so called from the small bell the lazar wore on his person. Leopard's Lily is doubtless Leper's Lily, and both from the chequered appear- ance also. It was called Death Bell from the dingy, sad colour of the flowers. The name Drooping Tulip is from the habit it has of drooping and its likeness to a tulip. Froccup is Frog Cup from its spotted flowers, and Guinea-hen Flower from the marking of the . Dr. Somerville Hastings SNAKE'S-HEAD FRITILLARY (Fritillaria Meleagris, L.) 1 40 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. flower. It is called Snake's-head Lily from the shape of the flower and the spotted petals. It is an ornamental plant which is cultivated and grown in gardens. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 303. Fritillaria Meleagris, L. — Flowering stem a scape with single flowers, leaves linear-lanceolate, flowers purple, chequered, campanulate, drooping. Reed-mace (Typha latifolia, L.) A common and familiar plant, associated with pond and aquatic life generally, our present knowledge of its range and history is derived from the modern distribution of the Reed-mace, which is the N. Temperate Zone in Europe (except Greece), N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N. America. In South Britain it does not grow in N. Devon, Cardigan, Mid Lanes, S.E. Yorks, Isle of Man. In Scotland it is found only in Wigtown in West Lowlands, not at all in the E. Low- lands, and not in S. Perth or Kincardine. In the W. Highlands it is found only in Clyde Islands, Cantire, and in N. Highlands in E. Ross, Caithness, and it is extinct again in the Orkneys, in the North Isles. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The common Reed-mace is a local but generally distributed aquatic plant, growing deeply rooted in the mud in ponds, pools, and lakes, generally in a more or less sheltered position. It is also found less commonly in rivers and by the sides of streams, as well as in fen and marsh land in the reed swamp, open or closed. While grass-like, the Reed-mace has a habit of its own, with tall, erect, unbranched stems, and leaves i in. broad and 3 ft. long, bluish. They are flat, linear, in two rows, blunt, and longer or taller than the flowerheads. The plants are monoecious, with male and female flowers on the same spike, the latter below, dark-brown or black, the former yellow. The anther-stalks are shorter than the anthers at first, then longer after the pollen is shed. The stigmas are long, lance-shaped, oblique. Reed-mace is 6-10 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom in July. The plant is a herbaceous perennial and propagated by seeds, forming a great ornament in ponds and even growing on dry soil. The flowers are wind-pollinated, monoecious. The yellower flowers above are male, with 2-5 stamens, the connective extending beyond the anthers, which are monadelphous. The flowers (both sexes) are surrounded by persistent membranous scales or hairs. The anthers open laterally, producing showers of pollen. The stigma is blunt, the REED-MACE 141 style being simple and stigmatic ventrally. The female flowers are brown, contain i carpel and a pendulous ovule, with the micropyle toward the base. The stigma ripens first. The small fruits, achenes, shortly stalked on a thread-like stalk, REED-MACE (Typha latifolia, L.) are fringed with hairs from the persistent perianth, and thus dispersed by the wind. The Reed-mace is a peat-loving plant, growing in a peat soil, and usually aquatic or submerged, rooting along the margins of ponds. The Reed-mace fungus, Epichloe typhina, is frequently to be found on it. Several beetles, Stilbus oblongus, Tclcmatophilus sparganii, T. caricis, T. typhce, T. schonneri, T. brevicollis, Donacia vulgaris. H2 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. D. cinerea, Thysanoptera, Thrips cereatum, Lepidoptera, Reed Wains- cot (Nonagria cannse), Bulrush (N, typkte), N. sparganii, Fenn's Nonagria (N. brevilinea], Gold Spot (Plvsia festucai), Chilo paludellus, Laverna phragmitella, a Heteropterous insect, Cliilacis typh'H:;f!/''"'iii, L.} ?<>»>us umbellatits, 1. (Sc/.t-f>n , • !a-fu.sir;.<, L.) istil, with ovary, wd; 3-: exserted anthers, n'. Stem, w;th leaves terminal brand -»UyiiK. with llov.c-i in clusters, ^c.1 _\ N^nwa^TvS /// iK :„..... „.!. . , ' FLOWERS OF THE LAKES AND WET PLACES PLATE XLIV I. Arrow-head (Sagittaria sa^illi folia, L.). 2. Flowering Rush (Bulonnts uiiibillafiis, L.). 3. Bulrush (Scirpiis lacuslris, L.). 4- Wood Club Rush (ScirJ>us sykaticiis, L.)- 5. Reed ( rhragin itcs foinmun is, Trln.)- ARROW-HEAD (Sagittaria sagitiifolia, L. FLOWERING RUSH 155 into the water, in which they do not sink but germinate in the mud at the side, the plant being dispersed by currents and by its own agency. Arrow-head is aquatic, and a peat- or clay-loving plant. This choice plant is infested by two fungi, ^Ecidium incarceration and Doassansia sagittaria. A beetle, Galeruca sagittarice, is found on it. Sagittaria, Lobel, is from the Latin sagitta, an arrow, and the second Latin name also refers to the arrow-shaped leaves. Arrow-head is called Adder's Tongue, Water Archer, Arrow-head. As to the second name Gerarde says, " Because it is good to pull out arrows " by Doctrine of Signatures! and as to the last he says, " Hath large and long leaves, in shape like the signe Sagittarius, or rather like a bearded broad arrowe-heade ". The rhizome is bulbous, and has been used as an article of food in China, and here it is cultivated. There are 3 types of leaf. The submerged type is ribbon-like, the floating leaves are oblong to heart-shaped, short, the erect, non- submerged aerial leaves are arrow-shaped. The first are extremely thin, and the chlorophyll granules are arranged according to the state of the light; they are flat and wave about in the water. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 315. Sagittaria sagittifolia, L. — Leaves on long petioles, hastate, erect, submerged petioles linear, flowers white, in whorls of 3. Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus, L.) This beautiful species, entirely aquatic, is found to-day in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. and W. Asia, N.W. India. It is unknown in early plant beds. In Great Britain it is absent in Corn- wall in the Peninsula province, but grows throughout the Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in S. Wales only in Glamorgan, Brecon, and Pembroke; in N. Wales Carnarvon, Flint, Anglesea; throughout the Trent, Mersey, and Humber provinces; in Durham only in the Tyne province; in Scotland only in Mid and E. Perth. Elsewhere it ranges from York and Durham to the South Coast. It is naturalized in Scotland, rare in Ireland. The Flowering Rush is one of the pictures of aquatic vegetation, which rises up in the mind's eye in recalling its main characteristics, as obtained from the point of view of the most beautiful species. It grows in canals, rivers, brooks, streams, and also in ponds and pools indifferently, in the reed swamp. r56 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. Like many other aquatic plants, the aerial stem is a scape with many sword-shaped, long leaves surrounding it, and giving it a grass- like habit. The leaves are 3-sided, spongy, twisted, and very sharp, Photo. II. Irvin- FLOWERING RUSH (Butomus umbellatus, L.) hence the first Greek name. The base of the stem is reddish, like the flower-stalks also. The leaves are sheathed at the base. The scape is smooth, round, bearing a single umbel of large numerous flowers (20-30 in an umbel), rose-colour, red, purple, the perianth-segments oblong at first with 4 grooves, then more or less heart-shaped. The bracts have a membranous margin. The involucre BULRUSH 157 is in threes, the corolla consists of 6 petals, and there are 9 stamens, 6 pistils, and later 6 capsules. Flowering Rush is 2-3 ft. high. The flowers may be sought in June and July. The plant is a herbaceous perennial, propagated by division. The flowers, which are on long stalks, forming a flattish umbel, are proterandrous, the anthers ripening first, the stigma soon after.1 There are 9 stamens, which are hypogynous, 6 in pairs, 3 opposite the inner segments of the perianth. The anther-stalks are awl-shaped, and the anthers are fixed by the base. The styles are short, and the stigmas stalkless. The follicle contains many seeds, which fall, when the stem is swayed by the wind, into the water, and are so dispersed. This handsome plant is aquatic, growing in lowland areas, with peat-loving or clay-loving plants. Butomus, Theophrastus, is from the Greek bous and temno, because the leaves cut the mouths of cattle; and the second Latin name refers to the umbellate inflorescence. This plant is called Flowering Rush, Water Gladiole. Gerarde says of it: " The water-gladiole or grassie-rush is of all others the fairest and most pleasant to behold and serveth very well for the decking and trimming up of houses, because of the beautie and braverie thereof ". ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 316. Biitonms umbellatus, L. — Scape radical, leaves radical, trian- gular, Ion IT, slender, flowers in umbels, rose colour with scarious bracts. O O' Bulrush (Scirpus lacustris, L.) Remains of the arctic Bulrush have been found in Preglacial beds in Norfolk and Suffolk, in Early Glacial beds in Norfolk, in Inter- glacial and Late Glacial beds, as well as in Neolithic deposits. Its present distribution is the Arctic, Temperate, and Tropical regions, being cosmopolitan. In Great Britain it does not grow in the Isle of Wight, Monmouth, Pembroke, Cardigan, Roxburgh, Linlithgow, Mid Perth, N. Perth, Banff, Easterness, S. Ebudes, but elsewhere ranges as far north as the Shetlancls, and occurs in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Bulrushes are widespread in these islands, forming a typical part of the landscape, one may almost say in every piece of water scenery. They form tall beds in the channels of rivers, streams, or ditches in 1 Or the stigma may not ripen till later. In some cases both mature simultaneously. The 6 anthers which alternate with the perianth-segments ripen first. The other three open later, and then the stigmas. 158 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. low-lying districts, and are a component part of the fen, marsh, and bog. And in addition they are common to the still waters of lakes, ponds, and pools, growing in the reed swamp. The tall, graceful stems and leaves of the Bulrush have a distinct habit of their own. The stem is erect, leafless, round, spongy, sheathed at the base. The leaves are long, floating, keeled or strap- shaped. The cymes of flowers are in terminal compound clusters, at first lateral, the stalkless cylindric spikelets having smooth fringed glumes, with Photo. A. R. Horwood BULRUSH (Scirpus lacnstris, L.) 3 stigmas. The nut is egg-shaped and brownish, longer than the 4-6 bristles. The Bulrush is 8-10 ft. high. The flowers are at their best in July and August. The plant is a herbaceous perennial, propagated by rnizomes. The flowers are bisexual. There are 6 perianth-scales in two rows, and 3 stamens. The style is 2-3 cleft, and falls. The flowers are proterogynous and wind-pollinated. The fruit is a nut, three-cornered, and when ripe it falls into the water and is thus dispersed. The graceful Bulrush is practically always an aquatic plant. A fungus, Puccinia scirpi, attacks the Bulrush. Three beetles, Erirhinus festucce, Donacia obscura, D. thalassina, and Lepidoptera, WOOD CLUB RUSH 159 Chilo cicatrice llus, Slender Clouded Brindle (Xylophasia scoiopacma)< are found on it. Scirpus, Plautus, is Latin for Bulrush, and the second Latin name indicates its normally lacustral habitat. This plant is named Bass, Bent, Bolder, Bullrush, Bumble, Club- rush, Frail-rush, Holrysche, Spurt Grass, Panier Rush. Lyte explains thus: " Bycause they use to make fygge frayles and paniers there- withal". In respect to the name Bass a writer remarks: "According to Kennett the term is also applied to a collar for cart horses made of flags". In Cumberland the word is applied generally to dried rushes. The name Bulrush is applied more commonly to Typka latifolia to-day. It is spelt pole-rush, poolrush, but bullrush probably means a big bush, bull being used to denote coarse or large. A horse's collar of straw or rushes is called a bumble barfan, as distinguished from the leather barfan, hence the name Bumble or Bumbles. It was called Frail-rush " from its use in making frails ", a light kind of basket made of rushes or matting, much used for fruit; the term is still in use in East Anglia for a shapeless, flexible mat basket. It has been used for making matting and chair-seats, or rush- bottomed chairs, mats, and hassocks; and it is used like reeds and grass- wrack, &c., for thatching. Bulrushes have also been used for packing casks and rendering them watertight. The roots are astringent, and were once used medicinally. Pack-saddles used to be stuffed with bulrushes. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 320. Scirpus lacustris, L. — Stem terete, no leaves, flower spikes in a terminal panicle, glumes glabrous, nut obovate, 3-angled. Wood Club Rush (Scirpus sylvaticus, L.) This is unrepresented in ancient plant beds. It is found in the North Temperate region in Europe (except Greece), North Asia, and Temperate North America. In Great Britain it is absent in the Peninsula province from W. Cornwall, and N. Devon in the Channel province; not occurring in Bucks in the Thames province; W. Norfolk, Cambridge, in Anglia; in the Severn province generally; in S. Wales only in Carmarthen and Pembroke; N. Wales, in Carnarvon and Denbigh; in the Trent province; in Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces, not in Westmorland or Isle of Man ; in the W. Low- lands, not in Wigtown, Lanark; in E. Lowlands, not in Selkirk, £? Roxburgh; in E. Highlands, not in N. Perth, Forfar, Banff, Elgin, 160 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. Easterness; in W. Highlands, not in Westerness, S. or Mid Ebudes; and in N. Highlands only in E. Ross. It occurs also in Ireland. WOOD CLUB RUSH (Scirpus sylvaticus, L.) Wood Club Rush grows in damp places in hollows in wooded districts, by the roadside in ditches, but usually where there is wood- land, and in the woodland districts as a rule. It grows on the borders of rivers where they have overflowed and left pools. REED 161 The stems are stout, leafy, 3-sided, solitary. The leaves are long, keeled, broad, and flat. The flowers are borne in compound branched cymes with slender branches, terminal, and the spikes are in stalkless and stalked clusters, with blunt-pointed, finely furrowed glumes. There are 6 barbed bristles. The nut is bluntly pointed, 3-angled, inversely egg-shaped. Wood Club Rush is 18 in. high. The flowers bloom from July up to September. The plant is a herbaceous perennial, propagated by suckers. The flowers are pollinated by the wind, and bisexual, and the floral mechanism is similar to that of the Bulrush. The fruit is a nut, which does not open, and falls to the ground when ripe. This Club Rush is a peat-loving plant, growing in peat soil or clay soil with some humus in woods. A fly, Agromyza nigripes, infests the plant. The second Latin name refers to its woodland habitat. It is called also Millet. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 322. Scirpiis sylvaticus, L. — Stem erect, with leaves flat, carinate, broad, lanceolate, spikelets in wide terminal panicle. Reed (Phragmites communis, Trin.) The Reed may be said to be ubiquitous in both time and space, for it is found in Britain alone in Preglacial beds everywhere, Inter- glacial beds in Hants, Sussex, Lines, Neolithic beds in the Thames o Valley, Yorks, Glamorgan. It is found in the N. Temperate and Arctic regions in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and in Australia. This common aquatic plant is found throughout Great Britain, except in East Sutherland, as far north as the Shetlands, and in the Channel Islands. The common Reed is one of those familiar aquatic plants which has a place in the popular mind on account of its very universality, and because it forms in itself a characteristic botanical formation, a reecl- swamp association. It grows in still water as well as running water, in lakes and rivers, nowhere more luxuriantly than in the meres of the E. counties or the tarns and lochs of Scotland, at two very different elevations. The stem is round, tall, graceful, erect, arising from a jointed creeping rhizome, and stoloniferous, with creeping shoots. The leaves are long, flat, broad, rigid, with the margins hairy, and bluish-green VOL. IV. 67 162 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. below. The leaf-sheath is round, turned one way, and smooth. In a wind the leaf turns partly round like a flag. The panicle is nodding, purple, soft and silky, branched, large, and dense, with smooth branches. The spikelets are 5 -flowered, the REED (Phragmites communis, Trin.) flowers longer than the glumes, and glossy. The empty ones are the flowering glumes, awl-shaped, and longer. The florets in the spikelet are distant, with long silky hairs which form a parachute. The Reed is 3-10 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. The plant is a herbaceous perennial, propagated by soboles or creeping REED 163 runners. The lower flowers are male, the others are bisexual, the panicles containing 3-6 flowers, being densely crowded. As in most other grasses the stamens are 3, the styles short, and the stigmas feathery. The lowest glumes are i-3-androus, the others 3-androus. The flowers are anemophilous, proterogynous. The fruit is enveloped in the glume, and this in long silky hairs, and is light, and adapted to dispersal by the wind. Photo. L. K. J. He REED (Phmgnriles communis, Trin.) The Reed is a peat-loving plant, luxuriating in peat soil or clay soil, and it is then a clay-loving plant. Two stages of Rust fungi, Puccinia phragmitis and P. trailii, attack the Reed, the other stage of each attacking species of Rnvicx in each case. Puccinia magnusiana and Ustilago grandis also infest it, and it is galled by Lipara lucens, Cecidomyia inclusa, Lasioptcris arnndinis. Reeds are a regular source of attraction to beetles, such as Phy- tonomus arundinis, and others of the genera Acnpalpns, Europhilus, Bembidiwn, Odacantha, slltophorus, Dromins, Alianta, Homalota, Hygrononoma, Tachyporus, Stenns, Snbcocdnella, Hippodamia, Ani- sosticta, Coccidula, Cereus, Donacia, Crepidodera. It is also visited by 164 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. the Lepidoptera Reed Moth (Macrogaster arundinis], Phragmatoscia arundinis, Reed Tussock (Orygia canosa), Obscure Wainscot (Lecania obsoleta\ Fen Wainscot (Calamia phragmitidis], Senta ulvce, Nonagria nenrica, Twin-spotted Wainscot (N. geminipuncta), Gold Spot (Phisia festucce), Chilo phragmitelhis, Elachista cerusella, a Heteropterous in- sect Teraticoris antennat^ls, and several Homoptera, Delphax pulchella, Liburnia pallidula, L. punctulum, L. unicolor, L. speciosa, L. Scotti, L. sniaragdula, Paramesus phragnntis, and flies such as Agromyza nigripes, Platycephala timbraculata, Lipara lucens. Phragmites, Trinius, is from the Greek phragma, fence, with reference to a spurious dissepiment at the nodes; and the second name indicates its universal character. This graceful grass is called Bennels, Bog Reed, Ditch Reed, Douclle, Pole Reed, Pull Reecl, Pull Spear, Reed, Speargrass, Spire, Streeds, Windlestraws. The name Bennels is applied to a kind of mat, made of reeds woven together, used for forming partitions in cottages, or laid across the rafters to form an inner roof. The name Douclle is " the root of the common reed grass found partially decayed in morasses, of which the children in the south of Scotland make a sort of musical instrument similar to the oaten pipe of the ancients ". The Reed was used traditionally by witches to fly upon. It is used for thatching, and a specimen thus used a hundred years ago is as fresh as if recently gathered. It is used for protecting sea embank- ments, for ceilings to cottages, verandas, rustic buildings, for plaster floors, for screens, and for hot-beds in kitchen gardens. \Vool is dyed green by the flowers. The roots have been used for liver complaints. Mats are made of it, and formerly it was used for pens for black-letter type. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 336. Phragmites commnnis, Trin. — Stem tall, erect, leaves rigid, flat, panicle spreading, loose, purple, male flowers below covered with silky hairs. Section IX FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, GARDENS, REFUSE - HEAPS, VILLAGE GREENS, FARMYARDS, ETC. FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, GARDENS, REFUSE - HEAPS, VILLAGE GREENS, FARMYARDS, ETC. Man during his operations in one direction or another, by agricul- ture, horticulture, building operations, quarrying, railway or canal transit, causes considerable disturbance in the balance of nature by the introduction, unconsciously (as a rule), of many plants which are called aliens, casuals, colonists, denizens, &c. Collectively considered there are some 1 100 aliens which come to us with seed from abroad, in cotton, &c., and are often to be found straying from mills where wheat is ground for flour, the small seeds being blown away in the winnowings. A few are called Viaticals, and may be found along our waysides, having travelled thus by various means, there being seventy of these. The former use of herbs in medicine is responsible for a number of these. Moreover, the carrying of corn with its complement of weeds along our highways, a necessary operation, causes the agrestal type of plants to find a place also along our highways and in those other places which are especially visited by man. Of these Mesophytes (treated in Section III) there are about 1 10, and a number of them are common to waste ground, as this last is often associated with the place of storage of cultivated plants. The distribution of this class of plants being entirely artificial, it should naturally come at the end of the series, followed by the equally artificially-placed mural plants which are allied to the natural Litho- phytes. These aliens cannot be regarded as identical with that group called Chersophytes, or waste herbage which grows on land formed by the cutting down of forests often removed from human habitations and on high land. At the same time it is allied to it, growing on dry soil, which is the usual characteristic of the soil of the waste places here 1 68 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. referred to. Such soil is usually dry, sandy, often loose, or in the case of farmyards moist and rich in nitrogen. These weeds are hardy, often woody-stemmed plants which oust the native plants. They are usually annual, often biennial, and while some are ephemeral and remain a year only, others become well-established for several decades, such as Mallows. Most of them are xerophilous and have hairy stems. A few are shade-dwellers, but the bulk live in the open and are sun-lovers. They are all hardy strugglers, and not only herbaceous plants, but even shrubs, are liable to be choked by an alien incursion of weeds. An Act to prevent the introduction of alien weeds into Ireland has been passed, and it is desirable that this be extended to England and Wales. Waste places as a whole are diverse in origin and character. We have selected a few of the types, and include about thirty-three species. We have first of all hedgerow plants, which owe their introduction largely to a former use in herbal medicine, such as Greater Celandine, which grows under the hedge bounding a cottage garden close to a village. Here also, and always close to a building, one finds Gout- weed, once used for gout, &c. Tansy is also found in the same sort of place. Strayed from the kitchen garden, again, we find Borage shel- tered amongst the protecting branches of a low -trimmed hawthorn. The Bitter-sweet, usually found in the hedgerow, comes up luxuriantly in allotments, though it is also perhaps native in the marsh formation. At the base of walls, where there is sand, one finds Common Mouse-ear (along with Chickweed, Sandwort, &c.) and Barley Grass, the last ubiquitous on waste sandy ground, with Barren Brome Grass, Rye, and Couch Grass. On sandy wastes, especially on dunes and roadsides, one finds Stork's Bill, and on hilly ground, Musk Thistle. Along a cart-road Viper's Bugloss may be found on chalky soils. Rail- way embankments are a fertile source of weeds, but we only enumerate two very common ones, Common and Creeping Toad Flax, which along the embankments near Reading hybridize. One of the most profitable pieces of ground to draw for cultivated weeds is a farmyard or a stackyard, and around the margins of either it is easy to find amongst others the following: Shepherd's Purse, ubiquitous and in flower all the year (in autumn with purplish flowers coloured by anthocyanin), Common Mallow, forming large and tall handsome, woody, shrub-like clumps, with clusters of striking purple blooms. Here, too, we find tall, sweet-scented Melilot, the stinking May-weed, Burdock, Spear Thistle (which grows in fields too), the lovely blue-flowered Chicory, Hawksbeard (common everywhere in GREATER CELANDINE 169 fields, &c.), and Dairy-maid's Dock. Around gateways many common plants, as Great Plantain, Swine's Cress, Knotgrass, are predominant. In quarries or allotments the Deadly Nightshade is occasionally found. Gardens shelter many weeds, such as Wormwood, Groundsel, Mullein, Red Dead Nettle and White Dead Nettle (the latter also on roads), Good King Henry, and Fat-hen; and on kitchen -middens, Hound's Tongue and Henbane. Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus, L.) The seeds of this plant which have been discovered in Interglacial deposits are both characteristic and in good condition. It ranges from Arctic Europe, W. Asia, W. Persia, and has been introduced in North America. It occurs in 96 vice-counties, everywhere but in the W.S.N. Highlands (except Clyde Islands), and in the Northern Isles, making 97, that is, from Inverness southward, probably in each case naturalized, and elsewhere as an escape. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Watson considered it a denizen. No doubt the Greater Celandine owes its distribution very largely to former uses to which it was put, e.g. to heal the eyes, and one may usually find it hiding beneath the hedge surrounding the cottage garden in the country or near a village. It is always found where there has been some human habitation at one time or another. In the same way it is one of the plants to be found on waste ground with poppies, vetches, and other casual plants, and amongst ruins. The Greater Celandine is a leafy plant, with leaves with lobes each side of a common stalk, rounded lobes, and rather slender stems, succu- lent and full of juice, easily broken, hence perhaps its choice of shelter under hedges, &c. It grows erect, and were its petals not so small might be taken for a yellow poppy. The juice serves to protect the plant from animals. Buds may be produced from the margin of the leaf. The leaves and stem are roughly hairy, and somewhat bluish-green, the leaf-stalk enlarged at the base. The flower- stalk is umbelled, and the capsules are linear, long, and contracted. Chelidonium refers to the supposed coincidence between its time of flowering and the swallow's appearance. The black seeds are shining with longitudinal rounded ridges. Greater Celandine is usually about 2 ft. high. It flowers from May to August, and is a perennial, deciduous, and herbaceous plant. When the flower opens the anthers open in the sun laterally, and the stigma also matures. It is taller than the anthers, so that insects 1 7o FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. alighting in the centre must first touch it and promote cross-pollination, while those that alight on the petals may cause cross- or self-pollination. The anthers close up in dull weather, and the stamens open inwardly and cause thereby self-pollination. No honey is produced, so that insects are pollen-seekers. The Greater Celandine is dispersed by its own agency. The pods readily open, and are jointed, and distribute the seeds around the Photo. Flutters & Gannett GREATER CELANDINE (Chelidonlum niajus, L.) parent plant. It is also dispersed by ants, the elaiosomes containing nutritive matter. This is a sand-loving plant, requiring a sand soil, and also in part a humus-loving plant, needing a slight amount of humus soil. No fungal pests are known. The visitors are Lepidoptera, Large Ranunculus (Poliaflavocinctd], Small Angle Shades (Euplexia hicipara], Tortrix semialbana', Homoptera Aleurodes proletella and Siphonophora chelidonii; Hymenoptera (Apidae), Bombits pratorum, B. agrorum, B. rajellus, Halictus cy lindriciis , H. zonulus, H. sexnotatus; Diptera (Syrphidse), Syrphus balteatus, S. ribesii, Syritta pipiens, Ascia poda- grica, Rhingia rostrata; Empidse, Empis livida. Dioscorides gave the name Chelidonium, which is derived from the KEY TO PLATE XLV / nL No. i. Greater Celandine •(Chelidonium majns, L.) ., Capsule, opening from be- low upwards, by valves, lowing seeds. l>, Seed, with crested raphe. <:, Upper part of plant, with pinnate leaf, and inflor- escence with flowers in umbel, showing 2 sepals, 4 petals, many V stamens, and pistil, and one umbel No. 2. Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursu-pastoris y Medjc.) " Mousc- with ip sta-// 2-fid petal, f, Flower, with S distinct sftpals and 5 p«t>ils- ^ Piifl^fel/ styles (fl7 ^ , jj Capsule, ontening abov.e, with , seeds being1 blown out, within calyx. / Seed. f, Root- stock, with robts,and branched stem, with lower leaves. >'., part of plai.i, with opposite leaves, and inflores- " f " i, L.; / // ^ ^ j V-1 ./- «, Vertical section of flower, siinwing calyx, petals, alter natiu-, pistil, with ovary, Ions; style, tassclled stigmas, and "ainthefs. P.K'/ c^ ^ \ /several niciicar .'. Upper j)art leaves lob-.-d it.. calyx, and papilic 't^r-f^t* corolla^, (with standard, &/*&*?> and ^eeL h P-i- *n ifeistent calyx. ct Op»er lu of plant with tnfbTjafe stipufc^f and -flowers or carpophore made up, of several carpels attached to rods, t-; Carpel, wi'h twisted awn. /, UpiX:r pa'-t <^f plant, with pinnatili-i loavi-s, and flowers in^Mtfefcted . vine showing 5 pctalsXand alte* nate scp-ils, « ith bracts below tin. cyme. ' FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. PLATE XLV [. Greater Celandine (ChcHdoniiiin majiis, L. ). 2. Shepherd's I'urse (Capsclla Bnrsa-pastoris, Medic.). 3- Mouse ear duckweed (Cerastium vulgatiim, L.). 4- Common or Marsh Mallow (.]/,//;•<* .y/restris, L.). 5. Stork's Bill (Erotiiiim ciciilarium, L'Heiit.). 6. Melilot (Melilotns (fficiiialis, Lam.). SHEPHERD'S PURSE 171 Greek chelidon, a swallow, in allusion to its flowering when these birds appear; and majus is Latin for greater. The English names are Celandine, Celidony, Cock-foot, Devil's Milk, Fellon-wort, Jacob's Ladder, Killwart, Saladine, Selendine, Swallow-wort, Tetter-wort, Wart-flower, Wartweed, Wartwort, Wret- weed. It is named Sollendine in Ireland, where it is used for sore eyes. In allusion to the name Celandine it was believed the swallow found it to be an eye salve, and used it for its young. The acrid juice gave rise to the name Devil's Milk. It was also named Kenning Herb, a kenning being an ulcer in the corner of the eye, which it was held to cure. Gerarde calls it Swallow-wort "because it first springeth at the coming in of the swallows, or dieth when they go away, for it may be found all the year, but because some hold opinion that with this herbe the dams restore eyesight to their young ones when their eye be put out ". Such was the peculiar belief our forefathers had about this peculiar plant. Thus further Coles, in The Art of Simples, says: " The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine, the Wesell knoweth well the virtues of herb-grace, the dove the verven, the dogge dis- chargeth his mawe with a kind of grasse ". Probably Pliny was the first to suggest the swallow legend, if he did not copy it from Aristotle. The yellow juice is poisonous, and by the Doctrine of Signatures was used in the Middle Ages as a remedy for jaundice. It was used to make a plaster for sores in the head or eyes, and a drink made from it was used for the blood. The root is bitter, and used medicinally in Cochin China by the natives. The juice is bitter, and used for ringworm, and it was said to destroy warts and cure the itch; but it is not employed now except by the unexperienced as an eye salve. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 20. Chelidonium majus, L. — Stem glaucous, delicate, with yellow juice; leaves pinnate; flowers small, yellow, in an umbel; petals 4, capsule linear, valved; stigma 2-lobed. Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic.) Unlike flax, which is equally a weed of cultivation, Shepherd's Purse is not known in any early seed-bearing deposits. It is distri- buted throughout all Temperate and Arctic Europe, North Africa, and Asia to the Himalayas, and has become introduced into all temperate countries. This ubiquitous variable weed is found in every vice-county in Great Britain, and ascends to 1200 ft. in some parts. 1 72 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Essentially a weed of waste places, Shepherd's Purse is a familiar sight wherever we turn on all ground which is not grass-grown, along our highways, in the farmyard, on waste heaps, in gardens, stableyarcts, and in the cornfield, or generally where open soil allows it to take a hold: and when it does so it comes up freely, flowering all the year Photo. H. Hanley SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic.) round and forming abundant seed. To the farmer it is a pest, to the botanist an instance of mutations of great interest. The Shepherd's Purse has the rosette habit, the leaves lying flat on the ground, in a circle around the base of the stem, which is more or less leafless above. The root is long, tapering. The plant is ex- tremely variable in the form of the leaves as well as in the shape and size of the pods. The stems are branched. The radical leaves are SHEPHERD'S PURSE 173 deeply divided nearly to the base, or they may be undivided, lance- shaped. The terminal lobe is often triangular. The upper leaves are clasping, auricled. The flowers are white, or reddish-tinged in winter, like many other plants, e.g. White Deadnettle. The flower-stalks are slender. The sepals are spreading and equal. The pods are triangular, inversely heart-shaped, wedge-shaped, or rounded. The stigma is not stalked. The style is short. The valves are smooth. The seeds are numerous, oblong, clotted, very small. The pod has no wings, as in Thlaspi, in which the plant was once placed. The radical leaves as well as the pods are extremely variable. This plant is often 2 ft. high, usually i ft. It is in flower all the year, and is a herbaceous annual, propagated by seeds. The anthers and stigma are mature at the same time. The flowers are small and inconspicuous. Honey is secreted in 4 nectaries at the side of the short stamens. The longer stamens are of the same length as the style. Hence, as would be expected, the plant is usually self- pollinated. Female flowers have been found as well as complete flowers, both on the same and on different plants. In the earlier flowers the stamens have been found to be incomplete, so that the above unusual conditions may be due to the variation in the thermal constant. The visitors are Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalis nemorum, Syrplins balteatiis, Syritta pipiens, Ascia podagrica, Melitkreptus scriptus, M. t i76 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. This plant is called Chickenweed, Mouse-ear Chickweed, Mouse-ear. Chickweed and this plant were formerly used under the same name, Murion. This species may be distinguished from C. glomeratum and C. semi- dec andriim by being perennial, while the others are annual, with hairs on the stem-leaves, much longer, not terminated by muscular glands. It is much larger and more spreading at right angles. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 52. Cerastiiim vulgatum, L. — Stem branched, jointed, tufted, leaves lanceolate, downy, dark-green, flowers white, petals not much longer than sepals, pedicels exceeding the latter, bracts with membranous margin, the tips glabrous. Common or Marsh Mallow (Malva sylvestris, L.) This has not been found fossil so far. It is found throughout the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, W. Asia, and is introduced into the United States. In Great Britain, though universal, it is not found in Cardigan, Stirling, Mid Perth, N. Aberdeen, Banff, Westerness, Main Argyle, Cantire, North Ebudes, Sutherland, Caithness, or the Northern Isles. Watson expresses doubt as to its being native in Scotland, where, indeed, it is rare. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Common Mallow forms a conspicuous object by the roadside, in or near villages and small towns, where it may be seen growing luxuri- antly, and in profusion along the sward which surrounds a farmyard, or on banks in the village, or on the village green. It is thus a weed of cultivation which has established itself in most parts of the country. In waste places it is associated with Dwarf Mallow, Melilot, Mayweed, Mugwort, Hawk's Beard, Goose Foot, Barley Grass, and many others. The stem is tall, erect, strong, and woody, branched, with leaves on long leaf-stalks, 3-7-lobed, kidney-shaped at the base, with lobes radiating from a common centre, the lobes shallow, the margin scal- loped, smooth above, roughly hairy below. The flowers are large, purple, axillary, with veins of deeper tint, the petals much longer than the calyx. The flower-stalks are slender, spreading, the fruit (enclosed in an aril) smooth, netted, with short style, and the seeds are numerous and kidney-shaped. This plant is very often 4 ft. high. The flowers may be gathered from May till October. Common Mallow is a perennial, deciduous, herbaceous plant COMMON OR MARSH MALLOW 177 As with Marsh Mallow, the flowers are proterandrous, the anthers ripening first, large and conspicuous, and visitors are numerous. There are honey-glands at the base of the stamens or petals not fully pro- tected. In the centre of the young flower a group of anthers surround the still unripe stigmas folded together, arranged in a cone-like form. The stigmas afterwards lengthen and project in the place of the stamens, and branch outwards to avoid self-pollination. The anthers after opening also droop. The honey is protected above from rain by hairs, which cause insects to wipe the pollen off on the anthers in young flowers to apply it to the stigma in older flowers. Before the stigmas are ripe, the ends of the anther- stalks curl outwards and downwards, and this pre- vents self-pollination. The visitors are Hymenoptera, Apidae, Ichneumonidse; Dip- tera, Stratiomyidae, Syr- phidse; Lepidoptera, Pieris rapa ; Coleoptera, Haltica. A bee, Che list oma nigricorne, is a pollen-seeker. The fruits are dispersed by the plant's own agency. The capsule is a typical SchizOCarp, and Consists of COMMON OR MARSH MALLOW (Malva sytoestrfs, L.) numerous carpels which break up when ripe, and are dispersed around the plant, the single seeds remaining in the carpels. This is a sand-loving plant, and subsists on a sand soil, and grows where it is barren and no other plants can compete with it. A fungus, Puccinia malvacearum, infests it, as it does the Holly- hock. The beetles, Trachys pygmaa, Lixus paraplecticus, Apion malvce, Podagrica fiircicornis ; a moth, Acontia Solaris, feed on it. The name sylvestris refers to its supposed woodland habitat. It is called Bread -and -Cheese, Cheese-cake, Cheese Log, Cheese-flower, Chock-cheese, Chucky-cheese, Custard Cheeses, Dock, Frog-cheese, VOL. IV. 58 Plioto. J. H. Crabtr i78 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Loaves-of- Bread, Marsh Mallow, Maul, Maws, Pancake Plant, Pick Cheese. The fruits resemble cheeses, hence some of the names. They have an insipid mucilaginous taste, and are eaten by children. " The sitting down when school was o'er Upon the threshold of the door, Picking from mallows, sport to please, The crumpled seed we call a cheese." —Clare. Because children use it like Dock when stung by nettles, it was called Round Dock to cool (and so fancifully cure) the parts affected. As it was employed in fomentations, it was called Marsh Mallow, which is really Mash Mallow. On account of its demulcent properties it was retained in the Materia Medica. It was formerly employed for bladder troubles, calculous concretions, stone, gravel, &c., coughs, and for hoarseness. A mallow is used by the Chinese, when the leaves are dried as food. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 64. Malva sylvestris, L. — Stem tall, woody, branched, leaves palmate, 7-lobed, crenate, flower large, purple, veined, in 3-leaved involucre, carpels reticulate, rugose, fruit-stalk erect. Stork's Bill (Erodium cicutarium, L'Herit.) The very characteristic seeds of this plant are unknown in a fossil state. The Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, North Africa, Siberia, Western Asia, as far east as N.W. India, is the limit of this plant's distribution. In Great Britain it is absent from Roxburgh, Mid Perth, W. Perth; and in Wales it ascends to 1200 ft. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Stork's Bill is one of the familiar plants of the seaside, where it grows in association with other dry-soil or xerophilous plants, such as Hop Trefoil, Hound's Tongue, Plantago Coronopiis, Hawk's Beard, and others. Inland it is found on the sandy soil of commons, waste places, golf-links, and places where the grass is turf-like, often on heaths; and it comes up also amidst the typical alien flora of the farm or garden. This plant has a habit like Sandwort Spurrey, which also grows with it, being prostrate, with stems bent downwards, several from the root, thick, hairy, branched, with leaves with lobes each side of a STORK'S BILL 179 common stalk, the segments being divided nearly to the base, stalkless, and narrow. The stipules or leaflike organs are lance-shaped and membranous, the upper entire, the lower divided into 2 nearly to the base. The flowers are in umbels of 3-6 and rose-colour, with fugacious or falling petals, hairy at the base, and longer than the calyx. The flower-stalks exceed the leaves in length, and are many-flowered. The petals are unequal. The capsule is ribbed and beaked, the seeds are STORK'S BILL (Erodhim cicutanum, L'Herit.) oblong, brown, the long awn becoming spiral finally, but influenced by hygroscopic deviations. The plant is 9 in. to i ft. high. It flowers in April and the five succeeding months. It is a perennial. The five inner stamens are rudimentary and produce no pollen. The flowers are proterandrous, the stamens ripening before the stigma. In the absence of insects the plant possesses the power of self-pollina- tion, as the anthers lie close to the stigma, and is self-fertile. Honey is secreted as in Geraimun. Only the five outer stamens produce pollen. Though the plant is prostrate it is rendered conspicuous in the sun, turning its petals to the sun, opening at 7 a.m., the petals falling by noon. The upper 2 or 3 petals bear path-finders or fine black lines, and the lower are lengthened and serve as an alighting place. The flowers are visited by Hymenoptera (Apidse, Apis mellifica) and Coleoptera; the last fall off unless they cling on tightly. The Stork's Bill is dispersed by its own agency. The seeds are 180 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. expelled from the pod by an elastic movement, and are drawn into the ground by a similar hygroscopic arrangement. The carpels do not open but are contracted with the seeds still enclosed, the awn remaining attached. The layers of the cell-wall consist of lamellae of different densities and refractive indices. In the one the cells are elongate and woody in concentric series, being light and dark alternately. These last are the edges of the lamellae. The parallel lamellae in two series are inclined to the axis at different angles, or wind spirally in opposite directions around the lamellae. The expansion of the cell-wall tissue during imbibition is caused by the swelling of the striae of less density, and the imbibition of the water in all probability sets up spiral tension, producing a twisting motion. Further single cells roll up as shown by Francis Darwin. Or the twisting of the awn may be clue to the difference between the contraction of the woody fibres and the com- paratively soft parenchyma or thin- walled cellular tissue, in which the cells are not much longer than broad. The more complete lignifica- tion of the outer cells, which contract more than the inner, may be the reason, the spiral twisting being due to the curving of the woody bars with the hollow side upwards. Moistness regulates the amount of the twisting of the awn, which twists and untwists with variation in atmospheric humidity, being thus hygroscopic. The fixing of the awn during the process of untwisting causes the seed to be driven into the ground. The seed vessel is so sensitive the arista or awn curls up under the influence of the heat or moisture of the hand. The elastic movement of the seed to promote dispersal is one of the most inter- esting examples of sensitiveness. Stork's Bill is almost entirely a sand plant, growing almost always on sand soil. By the sea-coast it is a halophyte, living on a saline soil. The Brown Argus (Lyccena astrarclie] feeds upon it, also Geotoimis piLiictulatus and H eterogaster 2irtic troth. • i - FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. PLATE XL VI I. Goutweed (sEgopodiuin I\>tf^niria, I..}. 2. Stinking Mayweed (Anthcniis Coltda, 1,.). 3. Tansy (Tanacclnin z'ttlgare, L.). 4. Groundsel (Sciiecio vulgaris, L.). 5. Burdock (Arctium minus, Bernh.). 6. Musk Thistle (Canhins niitans, L.}. STINKING MAYWEED 185 ALgopodium, Linnaeus, is from the Greek aix, aigos, goat, and pans, podos, a foot, from the shape of the leaf. Podagraria, Lobel, is derived from the Latin word for gout, podagra. The plant is called Achweed, Aise, Aiseweed, Aishweed, Wild Alder, Ground Ash, Ashweed, Axweed, Ayshweed, Bishop's Elder, Bishop's Weed, Dog Eller, Dwarf Elder, Wild or Ground Elder, Farmer's Plague, Garden Plague, Goat-weed, Goutweed, Gout-wort, Herb Gerard, Jack-jump-about, Jump-about, Kesh, Setfoil, Weyl Esh, White Ash. The name Wild Alder is applied from a superficial resemblance to the leaves of the Aider. The name Farmer's Plague, &c., refers to the difficulty of eradicating it; so, too, Garden Plague. The common name Goutweed is due to the reputed virtue of the plant in curing gout. The name Herb Gerard is given because St. Gerard was formerly invoked against gout. Goutweed was introduced and much cultivated in the Middle Ages. The smell is like Angelica. It used to be eaten as a spring salad. In spite of its reputed use for gout it was not so employed in Chaucer's time. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 125. sEgopodium Podagraria, L. — Rhizome creeping, stem erect, hollow, furrowed, leaves ternate, serrate, radical, unequal at base, flowers white, in terminal umbel, bractless, fruit ovoid. Stinking Mayweed (Anthemis Cotula, L.) A familiar cornfield pest (to the farmer at least), Stinking Mayweed is found in Europe, North Africa, Siberia, West Asia, and has been introduced into North America. It is unknown in early deposits. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia and Severn provinces, except in West Gloucs and Monmouth; in Wales in Brecon, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Anglesea; in the Trent, Mersey, H umber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces, except in Westmorland; and in Dumfries, Lanark, Roxburgh, Had- dington, Edinburgh, Fife, Dumbarton, Hebrides. It is thus rare in the N. of England and in Scotland. It is common in Ireland, except in the N.W. of Ireland. Watson regarded it as a colonist. Stinking Mayweed is confined almost entirely to cultivated ground, being common in cornfields and other arable tracts, and also on waste ground, in gardens, and allotments. It may be found near hayricks or cattle-sheds, stackyards, and farmyards, being always a follower of the plough. i86 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. This plant generally grows in a solitary manner, with one or more at most associated. The stems are erect, with few branches. The leaves are stalkless, alternate, many times divided nearly to the base, with linear, awl-shaped segments, smooth, and dark-green. The florets of the receptacle are yellow, those of the ray white. The receptacle is conical. The phyllaries are bristle-like, and shorter than the disk florets, which are flat. There is no pappus. There is a scale between STINKING MAYWEED (Anthemis Cofula, L.) each two florets. The fruit, an achene, is strongly ribbed on the back. The height of the stem is i ft. The Stinking Mayweed flowers from June to September. It is annual, and multiplied by seeds. The ray florets are white and neuter, with neither stamens nor pistil; the disk florets are flattened, bisexual, the tubes terminating in 5 teeth. The flowers are strong-scented, with a disagreeable smell. The flowers are conspicuous, and the plant is likely to be cross-pollin- ated frequently when not (as is usual) growing amid corn. The fruit is winged or ribbed, assisting in its dispersal by aid of the wind. The disagreeable taste and smell, in which it differs from Matricaria inodora, may serve as a protection against animals. TANSY 187 A sand soil is the chief requirement of Stinking Mayweed, but it is also satisfied with rock soils of many different types and ages. A beetle, Apion sorbi, and three moths, Chamomile Shark (Cucullia ckamomill&)t Eupcecilia anthemidiana, and Lozopera smeathmanniana, live on it. Anthemis is from the Greek anthos, a flower; and Cotula, Brunfels, is a Greek word for a small cup or hollow vessel. The names by which it is chiefly known are Balder Brae, Baldeye- brow, Camomile, Dog's or Stinking Camomile, Camovyne, Dog or Horse Daisy, Dog-bincler, Dog-fennel, Dog-finkle, Flowan, Hog's Fennel, Jayweed, Madder, Madenwecle, Marse, Marg, Mathes, May- weed, Morgan, Murg, Poison Daisy. Balder's Brae, i.e. Baldur's Brow, refers to the white brow of Balclur, the popular northern deity, given in Sweden. The prose Edda speaking of Balclur says: "So fair and dazzling is he in form and features that rays of light seem to issue from him, and thou mayst have some idea of his beauty when I tell thee that the whitest of all plants is called Baldur's Brow ". This plant was once used for hysteria, haemorrhage, swellings, scrofula, rheumatism. It is acrid. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 158. Anthemis Cotiila, L.— Stem branched, erect, furrowed, angular, leaves bipinnatifid, glabrous, linear segments, flowerheads white, with yellow disk, ray florets without styles, phyllaries with membranous margins. Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare, L.) Usually associated with cultivation or gardens, this plant has been met with in Early Glacial beds at Beeston, Norfolk, at the base of the Arctic freshwater bed. It is found in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Siberia, N.W. America, and has been introduced into the United States. It is general in Great Britain, but is not found in Cardigan, Flint, Mid Lanes, Linlithgow, Main Argyle, Dumbarton, and is often naturalized. In Scotland it is doubtfully wild, and certainly not so in Ireland. Tansy is one of the plants whose status is very doubtful. It may be found by the side of a stream in an apparently native station, or by the roadside at a distance from a house, or along the hedgerows, in fields of corn, where it has been said to be a pest, difficult to eradicate. At other times it turns up on waste ground, and is then undoubtedly a straggler from elsewhere. It is often to be seen growing in cottage gardens. i88 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. The robust, upright, usually simple, smooth stem of the Tansy, with its leaflets divided almost to the base with finely toothed segments, is very characteristic in its habit. It grows in bushy clumps, excluding all other tender vegetation. The small yellowish flowerheads are arranged in a terminal corymb, the florets are all tubular, or if ligulate longer than the others, and are flat or slightly convex, like buttons. There are no bracts upon the flower-stalks. The inner bracts of the involucre are blunt, the outer not so long, tough, with a mem- branous margin, scarious. The fruit is inversely egg- shaped and 5 -ribbed. The stems are usually 2 ft. high. Flowers may be sought in July and August. It is a herba- ceous perennial, increased by division of roots, and often cultivated. There are several hundred florets which form a flat disk, with no ray florets. It is thus, in spite of the ab- sence of the latter, ren- dered conspicuous and ac- cessible to insects, which can pass over the whole surface and cross-pollinate many florets together, which pollen-seekers find an advantage, and this causes the flower in turn to be much sought after. The honey is easily got at, because the tube is only i mm. deep. The style aids the simultaneous cross-pollination by insect visitors. It has a capitate tuft of spreading hairs, and in the first stage presses the pollen out of the cylinder, raising it so that it is swept off by insects, and in the second stage the two lobes spread out with papillae on the inner side. Tansy is visited by the Hymenoptera, Apis, Colletes, Hahctus, And?'ena, Sphecodes, Dinetus, Mellimis, Crabro, Odynerus; Diptera, Odontomyia, Eristalis, Syrphus, Syritta, Melithreptes, Sarco- phaga; Lepidoptera, Polyommatus, Vanessa, Hadena, Botys; Coleo- TANSY (Tanacetum vulgare, L.) GROUNDSEL 189 ptera, Coccinella\ Hemiptera, several species of Thrips\ Neuroptera, Panorpa. Though there is no pappus the achenes have a membrane, and are aided by this means by the wind in their dispersal. This plant grows on sand soil, being a sand-loving plant, or on alluvium on sandy loam. A fungus, Puccinia tanaceti, the sun-flower rust, may be found on the leaves. Three beetles, Chrysomela graminis, C. menthastri, Adimonia tanaceti', a Hymenopterous insect, Colletes fodiens ; several Lepidop- tera, Ringed Carpet (Boarmia cinctaria], Essex Emerald (Geometra sniaragdarid}, Cleodora striatella, Pterophorus diclirodactylus, Dicro- rampha alpinana, D. tanaceti; a Homopterous insect, Phytocoris iihui; and 4 Heteroptera, Camptobrochis tubcscens, Orthocephahis nnitabilis, Macrocoleus niolliciilus, and M. tanaceti, are found on it. Tanacetmn, Pliny, originally Athanasia, or immortality, of which it is a corruption, is from the Greek, thanatos, death; and the second Latin name emphasizes its universal character. Tansy is also called Bachelor's Buttons, Buttons, Bitter Buttons, English Cost, Fern (Parsley, Scented), Ginger, Ginger-plant, Joynson's Remedy Cheese, Tansy. It is called Scented Fern from its fern-like leaves and scented smell, and Bitter Buttons from the shape of the flowerheads and bitter taste of the whole plant. The smell is strong and aromatic. The plant is very bitter, and is regarded as a stimulant and carminative. The seeds were supposed to be sudorific. It is said to drive away bugs. A distilled water and bitter for stomach complaints are made from it. The young leaves are shredded, and used to give colour and flavour to puddings, omelets, and cakes. The curled variety is used for garnishing. It is frequently grown in the garden. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 6 1. Tanacetum vulgare, L. — Stem erect, rigid, leafy, dark-green, leaves bipinnatifid, leaflets serrate, flowerheads numerous, yellow, corymbose, terminal, outer florets longer than phyllaries. Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris, L.) Common and widespread, but obviously connected with the pursuit of agriculture, Groundsel is not represented in ancient deposits. In the North Temperate and Arctic Zones it is found in Arctic Europe and N. Africa, and it has been recently introduced into other parts in the Temperate regions of the globe. Groundsel is found in every part 1 9o FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. of Great Britain as far North as Scotland, and it is found in Northum- berland growing at altitudes of 1000 ft., and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Groundsel is so familiar a plant and so cosmopolitan that one ^an hardly describe its habitat in brief, for it is found in a great variety of stations. It is essentially, however, a plant of cultivated ground, coming up in cornfields, turnip fields, in the farmyard, stackyard garden, and on every de- scription of waste ground, being one of those domi- nant species that ousts all else in its neighbourhood. The plant is erect in habit. It may be downy or hairless, and is an extremely polymorphic species, numerous forms having- been described by Professor A. H. Trow. The plant is succulent, with numerous fibrous root- lets. The stem is branched from the base, and gland- less, like the rest of the plant. The leaves are deeply divided nearly to the base, half-clasping, the lobes distant, oblong, blunt, variable, with acute, irregu- lar, coarse, unequal teeth, like the rachis and auricles. The lower leaves are stalked. The flowerheads are few, small, drooping, hairless in a clustered raceme, oblong, cylindrical, and after flowering conical. The florets are all disk florets and yellow. The outer phyllaries are very short, and closely pressed, with black points, dark, egg-shaped to awl-like, many. There are usually no ligules. The fruit is ribbed, silky. Groundsel is about a foot in height. It is to be found in flower all the year round. Propagation is effected by fruit, the plant being an annual and herbaceous. In the Alps it is perennial. The capitulum is made up of 60-80 florets. They are all usually tubular, bisexual. The tube is 3^ to 4 mm. long, the throat i to rj GROUNDSEL (Senecio vulgaris, L.) GROUNDSEL IQI mm. long-. Honey rises in the tube as far as the throat, and can be readily obtained by short-lipped insects. The flowerheads are small, 4 mm. across, and are not generally rayed, so that they are not con- spicuous, and few insects save Syritta, Pyrocoris, Halictus, Hcriades, visit it. The plant is frequently self-pollinated. Hairs at the tip of the style sweep out the pollen grains, and they lie on the edge of the stigmas and fall on the inner surface when they separate. The plant is self-fertile. But fruit produced by cross-pollination has been shown by Bateson to be more vigorous than that derived from self-fertile plants. The fruit is provided with pappus, and adapted for wind dispersal. The achenes have short, closely-appressed hairs which secrete runners. It is largely a sand-loving plant, and addicted chiefly to a sand soil. There are two minute fungi which are to be found upon it, Thielavia basicola and Coleosporium senccionis. The plant is galled by Urophora macrura. The other stage of the second fungus grows on fir trees. A beetle, Longitarsus holsaticus\ 6 Hymenoptera, Colletcs fodiens, C. daviesana, Andrena tridentata, A, denticulately Nomada solidaginis, N. jacobaea\ 4 Lepidoptera, Silver Y-Moth (Plusia iota), P. pulchrina, Lime Speck (Eupithecia centureata), Wormwood Pug (/f. absynthiata)\ a Heteropterous insect, LO/>HS snlcatus; and two flies, Tit erica Westermanni and Chromatomyia albiceps, visit it. Senecio, Pliny, is from senex, Latin for an old man, from its white pappus; and the second name (Latin) refers to its ubiquity. Groundsel is called Bird Seed, Chickenweed, Chinchone, Grinning Swallow, Grinsel, Groundsel, Grunsel, Grunclsel, Grunnishule, Sen c ion, Simson, Swichen. Grinning Swallow is a corruption of groundsel or grunswelge in Scotland, gruncliewally, grundiewallow. The Scottish Highlanders use it for the evil eye. Groundsel was said to have been the Virgin's bed. The plant has been used as a charm against ague. In the fifteenth century it was cultivated, and used for various complaints. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 165. Senecio vulgaris. Stem erect, branched, glabrous or downy, leaves half-clasping, lobed, dentate, not viscid, flowerheads yellow, in drooping heads, rayless, outer phyllaries short, with black points. FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Burdock (Arctium minus, Bernh.) Hardy and dominant, this plant has not been recognized in the early deposits preceding the present day. It is confined to the Temperate Zone, and found in Europe, and N. and W. Asia. It is introduced in N. America. In Great Britain it is absent in N. Devon, in the Peninsula province; N. Hants, in the Channel province; E. Kent, in the Thames province; Bedford, in Anglia; W. Gloucs, Worcester, in the Severn province; in Wales, in Glamorgan, Pembroke, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea. In the Trent province it occurs in Leicester and Derby; in the Mersey province, not in Mid Lanes; in the H umber province, not in S.E. or N.W. Yorkshire; in the Tyne province, in Cumberland; not in Renfrew and Lanark in W. Lowlands; in Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Fife, West Perth, Forfar, S. and N. Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Easterness, Clyde Is., W. Highlands except Dumbarton, Ross, W. Sutherland, Hebrides as far north as Skye. Burdock is a common weed found in waste places and on the borders of cultivated fields. It owes its wide distribution to its hardi- hood, and in the struggle for existence ousts, like many Docks and other quick-growing and sturdy plants, the smaller tenderer species. This plant is tall and erect in habit. The species, as denoted by the specific name (mz'nus), has leaves and flowerheads not so large as those of the other species. The central stem is nodding, and with the branches bears scattered small heads, the terminal one being solitary. The leaves are heart- shaped, large, stalked, the radical leaves being coarsely toothed. The leaf-stalks are hollow, slightly angular, nearly round in section, and slightly furrowed. The flowerheads are in a corymbose raceme on short stalks, globular, cottony, greenish, webbed in fruit, are slightly contracted at the mouth, and are not umbilicate. The phyllaries are not so long as the florets, awl-like, the inner row as long and gradually awl-like, more or less cylindrical. The upper part of the floret is as long as the lower. The fruit is brown with black blotches. This plant may be 3-4 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. Lesser Burdock is biennial, and reproduced by seeds. The tube of the corolla is narrow, the limb bell -shaped, with 5 slender lobes. The filaments are papillose. There is a long terminal appendage to the anthers, and the cells have a slender BURDOCK 193 awl-like tail. The arms of the style are united below, downy below, blunt The throat of the corolla is 3 mm. long, the teeth erect, triangular, i mm. long. Honey is abundant, and lies in the tube to BURDOCK (Arc/turn minus, Bernh.) half the depth or more. The style arms are I mm. long, the papillae colourless, and the outer surface, which is of a violet colour, is covered with short, sharp hairs directed obliquely upwards. This prevents the honey being spoilt by rain or creeping insects, and has another signific- ance also. For the hairs extend some way below where the forks of VOL. IV. 59 1 94 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. the style commence, and end in a ring of longer hairs. The style projects from the anther cylinder 1-2 mm. below the ring of longer hairs, and the 2 stigmatic lobes are spreading. Hence pollen cannot fall on the stigma, and the plant is usually cross-pollinated. The visitors are Boinbus agrorum, Halictus longulus. The burs are provided with hooks which catch in the coats of animals and are thus dispersed, the plant on recoiling shooting the burs a distance. The achenes are also provided with a pappus and can be dispersed by the wind. A sandy soil in which there is some little humus best suits Burdock, which is to be found on a variety of rock soil, and may be frequently met with also on a clay soil. A fungus, Puccinia hieracii, may be found on it, and it is galled by Tephritis bardance. The moths Agrotis rlwniboidalis, Depressaria arenella, also the Ghost Swift (Hcpia/2is humuli\ Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago], Argyrolepia badiana, Parasia lappella, Pterophorus galactodacty lus , and the ilies Trypcta cornuta and Chromatomyia nigra are found upon it. Arctium, Dioscorides, is from the Greek arctos, bear, from the coarse texture of the involucres; and the second Latin name refers to the size of the heads. The plant has been used as a remedy for rheumatism. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 1 68. Arctinm minus, Bernh. — Stem tall, nutant, branched, leaves large, cordate, stalks hollow, flowers in rounded heads, purple, in raceme, on short stalks, phyllaries less than the florets. Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans, L.) This plant is found throughout the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, and has been introduced into North America. It is unknown in any early beds. In Great Britain it occurs throughout the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; not in Radnor or Cardigan in S. Wales; Mont- gomery or Merioneth in N. Wales; throughout the Trent, Chester, H umber, Tyne, Lakes districts, except in the Isle of Man; in Lanark: not in Peebles, Selkirk, or Linlithgow in E. Lowlands; in Stirling, Kincardine, and Perth; Elgin, N. Ebudes, Ross, and Shetland; or from Skye and Moray southward, ascending to 1600 ft. in Yorks. The Musk Thistle is a conspicuous denizen of waste ground, rubbish heaps, growing near houses, and generally being a decided MUSK THISTLE '95 follower of man. It also grows largely on sandy, hilly ground, hybrid- izing with other species and growing gregariously. It is tall, erect, the stem being grooved, with wavy wings, very spinose, and cottony. The leaves at the base run down the stem. They are spinous, lance-shaped, hairy, with woolly veins below, and deeply lobed. The spines serve as a protection against animals. The flowers are drooping, purple, with lance-shaped acute phyllaries. Photo S. Crook MUSK THISTLE (Carduiis nn/ans, L.) The scales taper to a rigid point. The outer phyllaries are turned back. The florets are tubular, complete, and have scales at the base. The height varies from 2-3 ft. Musk Thistle flowers in July and August. It is a herbaceous annual and multiplied by seeds. The flowers are bisexual, with tubular corollas, the tube widened at the top, and short, so accessible to short-lipped insects. The anthers bear linear appendages, and the style arms are united to form a column with a ring of hairs at the base. The flowerheads are large and con- spicuous, and there is abundance of honey and pollen. The plant is visited by Bombus hortorum, B. pratonuu, B. rcsta/is, Ila/ictns cv/iu- dricus, H. malachnrus, and the Narrow-bordered Five-spotted Burnet (Zyg&na lonicera). 196 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. The Musk Thistle is provided with abundant threadlike pappus to assist in the dispersal of the achenes by the wind. The Musk Thistle is a sand-loving plant, fond of sand soil, and is abundant on Great Chalky Boulder Clay and Marlstone, which afford arenaceous and somewhat chalky subsoils. It occurs also on limestones commonly and chalk. A fungus, Bremia lactuca, is found on the leaves of this and other thistles. The beetles Psylliodes chalcomera, Sphteroderma testacea, Rhinocyllus latirostris, Lepidoptera, Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui}, Grapholitha scutulana, a Hemipterous insect, Monantkia cardui, and the flies Cheilosia cynocephala, Uropkora solstitialis, feed on this plant. Carduus, Pliny, is Latin for thistle, and the second Latin name refers to its nodding heads. This plant is called Queen Ann's Thrissel, Bank, Buck, Musk, and Scotch Thistle. It is called Musk Thistle because of its scent. To divine who loved her most, a young woman took three or four heads of thistles, cut off their points, and assigned to each thistle the name of an admirer, and laid them under her pillow. The thistle which first put forth a fresh sprout denoted the man who loved her most. It is lucky to dream of thistles, and to be surrounded by them is propitious, foretelling one will have before long some pleasant intelligence. It was sacred to Thor and worn about the body, and said to be useful in healing. The dried flowers have been used to curdle milk. The seeds are used as bird-seed. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 169. Carduus nutans, L. — Stem single, grooved, winged, leaves lanceolate, spinous, decurrent, downy, flowers purple, red, in drooping heads, solitary, scales tapered to a rigid point, cottony, the outer ones recurved, pappus rough. Spear Thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus, Willd.) Unlike the Musk Thistle the Spear Thistle is found in Interglacial beds in Sussex, and Neolithic beds at Edinburgh and in Fife. It is now a plant of the North Temperate Zone, found in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, and it is introduced in N. America. In Great Britain it is universally common. The Spear Thistle is found on waste ground in or near villages and towns, about houses or farmyards. But it is also widely dispersed else- where, growing in fields and meadows, on upland pastures and hillsides, and in valleys. It is a familiar sight with other thistles by the wayside. KEY TO PLATE XLV1I I. S] (Cnicus lanceolatus, a, Tubular floret, with ac with feathery pappus.,, :•/>, Achene, with pappus. Pappus, enlarged. ,-/, Upper part of stem, with wings anJ pinnalifid leaves with cotton below, and spinose lobes, and P.owerhead with cottony ovoid N.....™™*,. (Silyinim marianum, tiaer t 1 1 . ) 4NTnbular floret, with achene and many-seriate pappus, b, Achene, with pappus, c, Upper part of plant, with pinnatifid spinose leaves, and flowerhcad with involucre, long spines, and outer ics with spinous te ' No. 3. Chicory (Cichorium Intybns, L.) Ligulate floret. I; Achene, scale-Mice pappus. «;, Upper part of plant with flowerheads in axils, the lower expanded, showing style arms. involucre, with jfcpipose ph Htt, 5. Hound's Tongue " noglossum officinal*, L.) funnel- open^o shW ep r£en$)\'A 4 nutle^ _* intent calyx, ened bolder of nutlet _ hooked bristles. stamens. fi. Calyx, g-«.> sepalous. cndosmg nutlcto with long pt^rsisto.nt style, and 2-fid stigmas. £, 4 nut- lets, with persistent style. •<• visitors are less varied. It is visited more particularly by long-tongued bumble bees and honey bees, butterflies, and flies, Bombus terrestris, B. agrorum, B. lapidarius, B. campestris, Megackile, Polistes gracilis, Eri- stalis tenax, and E. arbusforum, E. nemorum, Pieris brassica, Hesperia. The pappus is feathery, and the achenes thus well adapted to wind dispersal. This handsome Thistle is more or less a clay-loving plant growing on a clay soil, but will also subsist on sand soil or sandy loam. It is infested by the cluster-cup fungi Puccinia hieracii, P. cardui. Three Hymenoptera, Andrena filipes, A. denticulatus, Megackile ligniscea; Lepidoptera, Conchy Us dubitana, Myelois cribrella, Gelechia aciuninatella, Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui\ Catoptilia scopoliana, Cnephasia octoinaculana, Argyrolepia cnicana, Xanthosetia kamana, Depressaria arenella, D. propinquella, D. Carduella, &c. ; and the flies Lonch&a nigra, Ckeilosia variabilis, feed upon it. Cnicus, Tournefort, is Greek for a thistle-like plant, and the second Latin name refers to the shape of the leaves. Names by which it is known include Bow Fistle, Bur, Cheese, Dashel, Marian, Quat Vessel (Bank, Bell, Bird, Blue, Boar, Bow, Buck, Bull, Bur, Horse, Scotch Thistle). The first name was given because goldfinches feed on the seeds. Boar Thistle refers to the strong prickles. Children blow the pappus, saying: " Marian, Marian, what's the time of day? One o'clock, two o'clock, it's time we were away". ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 170. Cnicus lanceolatus, Willd. — Stem tall, winged, leaves hairy, lanceolate, decurrent, obovate, pinnatifid, lobes spinose, bifid, flower- heads purple, scales woolly, spreading, lanceolate, involucres ovate, pappus feathery. Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum, Gaertn.) The distribution of Milk Thistle is limited to Europe from Holland southwards. It is unknown in early deposits. It is, moreover, not a native of Britain, and in Scotland and Ireland is quite rare. The Milk Thistle is really only an introduction. It is found on waste ground, or in gardens where it has been sown with garden MILK THISTLE 199 seed, or dispersed in the same way as weeds, such as Mallow, Tansy, Wormwood, Chicory, Borage, Mullein, and other casuals. The stems are thick at the base, branched, rather tall, with cottony down, ribbed, furrowed, and leafless above. The radical leaves are spreading and prostrate, tripinnate, sinuate, shining, with spinose margin, and with white, net-like veins, the stem-leaves clasping the stem. The flowerheads, which are large and solitary, are purple and globose. The phyllaries are leaf- like below, closely associated, then spreading and bent back, spinous at the margin, leathery, broad, and with one long ter- minal spine. The receptacle is fleshy and hairy. The fruit is oblong, transversely wrinkled, black, with white pappus, grow- ing obliquely. The seeds con- tain oil for emulsion and are used as bird-seed. The plant grows to a height of 5 ft. The flowers open in July. Like Cotton Thistle it is a herbaceous triennial, and may be reproduced by seed. It is worth cultivating. The flowers contain honey, and the tube is long and slender but enlarged above. The flower- head is like Carduus, rather large, rose-colour, with anther -stalks united into a sheath. Being of casual occurrence, c the number of visitors are wanting. The achenes are large and provided with a pappus, whi them to be dispersed by aid of the wind. Milk Thistle is more or less a sand-loving plant or ad sand soil or sand loam. Silybum, Dioscorides, is the Greek name for an edible marianvs, Linnaeus, is from the Virgin Mary, and refers to a leger that drops of her milk fell on the leaves and caused the spottu Thistle is a common name for it, in allusion to the markings (whi veins or spots) of the leaves and the milky juice. From its numeroi MILK THISTLE (Silybm 200 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. sharp prickles it was recommended for " stitch " or pain in the side. The achenes are large and contain oil, formerly used for emulsion, and have also been used as food for goldfinches and other birds. The plant was formerly cultivated, the young leaves being used as a salad in spring, or boiled. The young stalks were peeled, and soaked in water to make them less bitter. The second spring the root is eaten like salsify, and the receptacle is pulpy, tasting (and being- eaten) like artichokes. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 173. Silybum marianum, Gaertn. — Stem stout, rigid, branched, leaves oblong, wavy, amplexicaul, with white veins, sessile, glabrous, flowerheads purple, involucral spines recurved, appressed below. Chicory (Cichorium Intybus, L.) Like other cultivated or casual plants, our knowledge of its range and age is derived from its present-day distribution in Europe. N. Africa, Siberia, N.W. India. In America it is only an introduction. In Great Britain it is found throughout the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces. In S. Wales it is absent from Brecon, Radnor; in N. Wales from Montgomery and Merioneth. It is found throughout the Trent province, but not in the Mersey provinces, the H umber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces. It is rare in England, im- probably native in Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. Chicory is a casual plant which is always more or less a follower of man, being associated with weeds of cultivation. Sometimes it is found in towns, in areas fenced in as building plots, or in a cornfield, or perchance a fowl-run in an orchard. This beautiful wild flower has a thick, yellow, milky, spindle-shaped root. The stem is rough, tall, rigid, wiry, twig-like, woody, with wide- spreading and ascending branches. The lower leaves have lobes each side of a stalk, turned backwards, slightly rough; the stem-leaves are smooth or nearly so, alternate, lance-shaped, clasping, entire, and axillary, paired, and more or less stalkless. The flowerheads are of a beautiful blue colour, open in sunshine, but soon fading. They are stalkless, paired, borne in the axils of the upper leaves, or terminal. Linnaeus said they opened at 5 and closed at 10 at Upsala. Kerner, at Innsbruck, found them open at 6-7, closing at 2-3 p.m. The involucre is double, with lance-shaped phyllaries, broad at the base, and the outer ones are covered with a glandular fringe of hairs. CHICORY 201 The stem is often 3 ft. high. The flowers are tall, blooming in July up to September. Chicory is a herbaceous perennial plant, pro- pagated by division, coming up yearly in the same place, and worthy of cultivation. In dull weather the flowerheads are closed, as at night also, but in the sun they expand 30 mm. The tube is 3 mm., and the limb 13 mm. long, and by this means it is rendered conspicuous in spite of the few flowers. The flowers are similar in plan to those of the Dandelion and Hawkweeds, but the branches of the style are more curved, making two spiral turns. If insects do not visit it, it pollinates itself. The honey bee, Andrena, Halictus, Osniia, Diptera, Syrphidae, Syritta pipiens, Eristalis tenax, Lepidoptera, the Clouded Yellow Butterfly (Colias edusd), and a beetle, Ma- lachius bipustnlatus, visit it. The pappus of the crown of minute, erect, blunt scales assists in dis- persing the achenes by the wind. Wherever it is found the requirements of Chicory are sand soil, as it is prac- tically a sand-loving plant growing on sand soil or gravel, as well as on chalky soils or Oolite, where it may at least be native. A fungus causing Chicory disease, Pleospora albicans, attacks it, as well as Puccinia hieracii. Two beetles, Cassida sanguinolenta, Lacon murimts\ a Thysanop- PlKXO I.. R. } Ho, CHICORY (Cichorium Inlybus, I-)- 202 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. terous insect, Thrips physapus; 3 moths, Coscinia striata, Feathered Brindle (^Aporophyla a^lstralis}, Marbled Clover (Fleliothis dipsaceus)\ and a Homopterous insect, Orthocephalus saltator, are found upon it. Cichorium was the Latin name, and Intybus is Intubus or Endive. This beautiful Composite is called Bunk, Chicory, Wild Cicory, Succory. Chicory is also called Barbe de capucin. The plant served as a floral index. In Germany, a girl, "after waiting day after clay for her betrothed, at last sank exhausted by the roadside and expired. Before long a star-like flower sprang up on the spot where the maiden's heart was broken and she breathed her last, and it was called the Watcher of the Road." The plant is used for chicory for adulterating coffee. The root is roasted and crushed. The root is boiled and eaten, and the leaves also when blanched. It was formerly used in skin troubles and chronic disorders, and as a cooling medicine. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 176. Cichorium Intybus, L. — Stem tall, rigid, striate, bristly, branched, lower leaves runcinate, upper clasping, flowerheads blue, numerous, axillary, subsessile. Hawk's Beard (Crepis virens, L. = C. capillaris, Wallr.) This common Composite is known from Neolithic beds at Reclhill, near Edinburgh, so there can be no doubt as to its being native. It is found in the North Temperate Zone from Denmark southwards in Europe, and in the Canaries. In Great Britain Hawk's Beard is found in all parts from Caithness to the south coast. It even ascends to a height of 1350 ft. in Derby. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Hawk's Beard is a common weed in many different types of habitat, but perhaps the most certain place in which to search for it is waste ground, where with Groundsel and Shepherd's Purse one is almost certain to find it. It also grows in gardens and along the roadside. It is very frequent along most hedgerows with Nipplewort, and grows commonly on all cultivated ground, in cornfields, &c. It is found as well on wall-tops and the roofs of mud and thatched houses. Very commonly confused with other Composites, Hawk's Bearcl may be known by the shape of its flowerheads, small fruits, in- volucre, and the clasping leaves. The stem is erect, branched, angular, finely furrowed, with radical leaves like the Dandelion. HAWK'S BEARD 203 narrower, with a purple midrib, clasping stem-leaves, which are acute toothed, with the inrolled margins and the lobes bent back. The flower-heads are yellow, numerous, in a downy involucre, with the outer bracts narrow, linear, widely spreading or closely associated the inner ones smooth within. The fruit is shorter than the pappus' which is silky. Hawk's Beard is 6 in. to 3 ft. in height. Flowers may be found in June and July. It is an annual, herbaceous, and increased by seeds. The flowerheacl is large and conspicuous, and the plant is visited by many insects. The corolla is lio-u- £> late, bell -shaped, yellow, the florets being herma- phrodite. The stamens are borne on hair- like anther- stalks with the anthers united into a cylinder. The arms of the style are slen- der, the upper part hairy, and as long as the stamens. The 2 stigmas are turned back. The visitors are Hymenoptera, Panurgus, Rhophites, Dasypoda, An- drena, Halictus, Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalis, Melithrcptus, Syrphus, Cheilosia, Conopidae, Sines, Coleoptera, Mordellidae, Mordclla. The white pappus is in many rows, and assists in the dispersal of the fruit by the wind. Hawk's Beard is addicted to a sand soil, and is more or less strictly a sand-loving plant. Like other Composites, Hawk's Beard is attacked by a fungus, Puccinia hieracii. A Hymenopterous insect, Halictits vitlosiilns, is found upon it. Crepis, Pliny, is from the Greek crcpis, a kind of boot; and the second Latin name means green, fresh. It was called Hawkbit because the hawk was supposed to pluck it and smear its eyes with it to improve its vision. Photo. J. HAWK'S BEARD (Crepis vircns, L.) 2o4 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 178. Crepis virens, Wallr. — Stem erect, furrowed, glabrous, branched, radical leaves lyrate, stem-leaves linear, sagittate, flower- heads yellow, outer phyllaries linear, inner glabrous inside, fruit shorter than pappus. Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum officinale, L.) This is one of the southern types, not usually found in ancient deposits. To-day it is found in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, eastward to Asia, and it has been introduced into the United States. In Great Britain it has been found in the Peninsula province, Channel, Thames, Anglia provinces; Severn province; not in Brecon, Radnor, or Car- digan, in S. Wales; Montgomery, in N. Wales; Trent province; Mersey, Humber, Tyne, Lakes provinces, except I. of Man; E. Low- lands, except Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh; E. Highlands, except Stirling, S. Perth, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Easterness. It is rare in Ireland. Hound's Tongue is really a plant of the fields, but is found com- monly in waste places. It grows by the sea-coast on sandy dunes. It is to be found surviving on the kitchen-middens of old houses. It is often extensively spread in parks and similar places. Its status at best is that of such plants as Burdock, Borage, Comfrey, Henbane, Deadly Nightshade, and others. The first Greek name, and its English equivalent, refer to the characteristic shape of the leaves of this plant, which is upright, tall, and leafy, the stem being rarely branched at the top, angular, very downy, with short close hairs, with long root, radical leaves, stalked, egg-shaped to acute, downy with silky, greyish, closely appressed hairs, both sides, the stem-leaves stalkless, lance-shaped, and heart-shaped below. The reddish, purple -veined flowers are borne in long cymes, on curved-back flower-stalks which are downy and alternate. The calyx lobes are blunt, shiny within. The corolla is half as long as the calyx, and funnel-shaped. The capsules are flat, prickly, and catch in the wool of animals. The plant is 2 ft. . high. It flowers in June and July, and is biennial, propagated by seeds, and worth a place in the garden. The corolla is monopetalous, and the mouth is closed by 5 scales, which are purple, swollen above, on the edge of the tube, and half as long as the limb, and perforated. The anthers are below the nectaries. HOUND'S TONGUE 205 which form a roof above, on short anther-stalks, oblomr and green The style is tapered, and not as long as the stamens, which are included The stigma is blunt and notched. Hound's Tongue is thus adapted to cross-pollination with insect-visits, but self-pollination without. The nuts are covered with spines or short-hooked prickles which aid in their dispersal by animals. Hound's Tongue is sometimes a halophyte, living on a saline soil, at others a sand-loving plant, when it is found on sand soil. Several beetles, Meli- getkes marinus, M. obscurus, Longitarsiis anckusa, L. quadriguttatus, Phyllotreta 4 -pustulata, Teinodactyla holsatica, and a fly, Napo- myza lateralis, are found upon it. Cynoglossum, Dioscorides, is from the Greek, cuon, dog, glossa, tongue, from the form or texture of the leaf. The second name refers to its use in medicine. Dog's - tongue, Gipsy Flower, Hound's - tongue, Rose Noble, Scaldhead, are all names bestowed upon it. Turner, to explain the name Hound's Tongue, says: "it is good against the biting of mad doggs ". It was supposed to have the power to prevent dogs barking at a person if laid beneath their feet, and Gerard says that " wild goats or deer, when they be wounded with arrows, do shake them out by eating of this plant, and heal their wounds ". It has a smell of mice. Being astringent it was used in medicine. Hound's Tongue is narcotic. In Chaucer's day the plant was recommended for stuttering. It was held to be antiscorbutic. Cattle refuse it. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 213. Cynoglosswn officinalc, L. — Stem erect, stout, downy, leaves downy, lower oblong, stalked, upper lanceolate, narrow below, rlowers purplish-red, veined, nuts flattened, prickly. HOUND'S TONGUE (Cynoglossmn officinale,L.) 206 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare, L.) This plant is found in the Temperate Northern Zone in Europe, N. Africa, and W. Siberia, and has been introduced in N. America. There is no trace of it in any early deposits. In Great Britain it is not found in Hunts, Cardigan, I. of Man, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Westerness, Main Argyle, Dumbarton, Cantire, N. Ebudes (or only in Clyde Islands, and Mid Ebudes in W. Highlands), Sutherland, Orkneys, Shetlands, but elsewhere generally. It is an alien or colonist in Scotland. Viper's Bugloss is essentially a plant of cultivated ground or of waste ground. It occurs, though rarely, in woods, where it is only an escape from these habitats. It is associated with Mayweed, Worm- wood, Chicory, Mullein, Yellow and Creeping Toad Flax, and many other casuals and aliens. It is an erect plant with a very softly-hairy, wart-covered stem, armed with prickly bristles, with narrow, lance-shaped, stiffly-hairy stem -leaves, which are stalkless, narrow below, with a single rib. The name Bugloss, from two Greek words, is given in reference to the roughness of the stem and leaves, like an ox's tongue. The flowers are like Lungwort, pink at first, then blue, and so variegated. They are borne on four or more lateral, scorpioid cymes, and all turned one way. The calyx is longer than the tube of the corolla, as are also the projecting stamens. The cymes are bent back. The nutlets are angular and rough. The plant is 2 ft. high. It flowers in July and August. Viper's Bugloss is a herbaceous biennial plant increased from seeds. The flowers are conspicuous. Honey is accessible to many different insects. The flower is funnel-shaped, tubular, and is narrower below, inclined obliquely upwards, which guides the visiting insects. There are 5 stamens, the lower part adhering to the corolla, one remaining in the tube dividing it into two, while 4 are projecting and form a landing- stage for insects, which dust their abdomen with the pollen, the flowers being proterandrous, turning their pollen-covered side upwards. The stigma is small at first, less than the tube, but becomes longer than the anthers, projecting 10 mm. beyond the tube, being divided into two short branches at the end. The honey is secreted by the fleshy base of the ovary. The mouth of the corolla, where the anthers lie free, is large enough for bees to insert their heads, and for small bumble bees to insert more than half their bodies, some entering bodily. VIPER'S BUGLOSS 207 The flowers are visited by the honey bee, Diptera and Hymenop- tera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera. In addition to the large complete flowers there are smaller ones. The nutlets are dispersed, after the carpels have split up into four, just round the parent plant, and so help to form clumps. VIPER'S BUGLOSS (Echium vulga Viper's Bugloss is a lime-loving plant and grows largely on lime soil, or is a sand plant and found on sand soil. One stage of a fungus, Puccinia rubigo-vera, grows on Viper's Bugloss. It is much frequented by beetles, such as Meligethes incanus, M. serripes, M. murinus, M. exilis, Longitarsus anchttsec, /.. nashirtn* L. e.rotetns, Coccinella nintabilis, Ccntoryuchns cchii\ by several Lepi- doptera, Odontia dentalis, Anescychia bipnnctcl/a, Depressaria rotnn- 2c8 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. delta, Coleophora onosmella, Marbled Clover (Heliothis dipsaceus), Small-angle Shades (Euplexia lucipara). Echiiim, Dioscorides, is from the Greek name of the plant or a similar one, and the second name suggests that it is of common occur- rence, which is not generally so. Bugloss means Ox Tongue because of the roughness of the leaves. The name Viper's Bugloss is bestowed because there is some fanciful resemblance between the seeds and a viper's head, or the spots on the stem like a viper's skin. Blue Bottle, Blue Weed, Wild Borage, Bu- gloss, Viper's Bugloss, Cat's-tail, Blue Cat's-tail, Viper's Grass, Iron- weed, Langdebeef, Our Lord's Flannel or Our Saviour's Flannel, Snake Flower, Snake's Bugloss, Viper's Herb. Lyte explains the name Viper's Bugloss by the following quaint legend: "For as the ancient Nicander writeth, Alcibiades (being asleepe) was hurt with a serpent; wherefore when he awoke he saw this hearbe, he tooke of it into his mouth and chewed it, swalowing downe the juyce thereof; after that he layed the herbe being so chewed upon the sore, and was healed. It is very good against the bitings of serpents and vipers, and his seede is like the head of an adder or viper." Even Gerarcle recommends it as an ophifuge, "as it keepeth such from being stung as have drunke it before, the leaves and seeds do the same ". This mythical remedy is of course arrived at by the logic of the Doctrine of Signatures. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 219. Echium vulgare, L. — Stem simple, erect, rough, upper leaves lanceolate, sessile, narrow below, radical leaves ovate, stalked, flowers red then blue, in scorpioid cymes, lateral. Bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara, L.) Poisonous and rather addicted to artificial habitats, this plant has none the less an ancient history, being found in Preglacial beds in Suffolk and Interglacial beds in Sussex. At the present day it is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, West Asia, as far east as India; and in North America it is an introduction. In Great Britain it does not grow in Cardigan, Brecon, Radnor, Mont- gomery, Merioneth, Peebles, Selkirk, Aberdeen, Banff, W. Highlands except Clyde Islands and Ebudes; N. Highlands except E. Ross, i.e. elsewhere from I slay and Ross southward. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Bittersweet is a plant of waste ground as well as a common hedge- KEY TO PLATE XLVIII No. I., bittersweet (Solatium Dulcamara, i,.) , \ a, Transverse section c-f berry, showing many seeds. b, Section of flower, showing calyx, corolla cut bsck,'epi- j \ petalous stamens forming cone over ovary, with long style, with obtuse stigma, c. Seed, d, Upper part of plant, with flowers in a cyme, show- ing 5-fid corolla, and aijther cones, with exserted style, also No. 2. Deadly Nightshade - V/ Lower jpart of bell-shaped corolla, with stamens inserted iflrjtfi . anthers','^ filardents incurved abovy, intrors^. \ <-Gty;xf with 2-!obed bwry 'm -section, 2-celled, witlv many • reniforrn seeds! c, Upper partsx~ ^ of plant, witli ova/e 'ca\(.-, and ^Htary flowers in axil of V , unequal paired leaVes, wrtt} /^ It-af opposite cyme, and ci;ste! and 5-lobed calyx, an<* in) with berries. centre 5 stamens, and exsenW ! \ vf<-(.l ; tailing out. ,; Upper ot plant, showing sinuate ve§l^nd( Aofasinjapkf ilousjurceeJate enclose? capsize) i corolla/ 5-lobedK -s half exserted. No. 4. Mullein (Verbasatm Tkapsus, L.) a, Corolla, opened out, show- ing epi petalous 5 stamens, with bearded filaments and confluent anther cells. /', Pistil, with style and stigma, - with 2 lamella*, c, Capsule, opening by 2 valves and per- sistent calyx. , by p; rsi-tent ^a^,\)^-;!:>( ijf.jj /ni • . ' I •.•.>)*: FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. PLATE XLVIII I. Bittersweet (Solatium Dulcamara, L.). 2. Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna, L. ). 3. HcnUuie (Hyoscyamus niger, L.). 4. Mullein (I'erbasann T/iafsns, L.)- 5- Creeping Toadflax (I.inan'a refills, Mill.). 6. Common Toadflax (Linaria rn/^aris, Mill.). BITTERSWEET 209 row plant. Almost every road and lane is lined with its dark-blue and yellow lurid blooms in summer, climbing over the hedge. It is also found commonly along the sides of streams and water generally, where hedges flank them, for it is more or less a climbing plant. This is a rambling, climbing plant, with a wavy stem, woody, and much branched, usually smooth, with egg-shaped, heart-shaped leaves. - BITTERSWEET (Solatium Dulcamara, L.) the upper ones lance-shaped and spear-shaped, or clasping the stem. The stem is hollow and nearly round. The flowers are borne in drooping cymes, which are opposite the leaves. The corolla is purple, with two rounded green spots below each petal, the mouth black. The flower-stalks are swollen at the base. The calyx is purple, and does not fall. The corolla is wheel-shaped, with 5 lance-shaped segments, and turned back. The berries, at first green, are red when ripe, egg-shaped, and poisonous. The plant may reach a length or height of 20 ft., but is usually 3-6 ft. It flowers in June and July. It is a herbaceous perennial, reproduced by cuttings, and is worth cultivating. There is no honey in the flower, and it is therefore but little visited by insects. Rhingia rostrata examines the two round, shining, green 210 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. spots in a ring at the base, or in the middle, of the shiny violet corolla below each segment which serve as honey-guides, and then strokes the tips of the anthers with its labellse. The stamens are blackish-purple, inserted on the tube of the corolla. The anthers are yellow, and form a sub-conical tube round the pistil, with a pore at the end. The greenish knobs may be pierced and sucked by insects. The style is longer than the stamens, the stigma blunt and simple. The plant is visited by pollen-collecting Bombi and pollen-feeding Syrphidse. The berry, containing many kidney-shaped, tapered seeds, is dis- persed chiefly by falling ripe on the ground in winter, but occasionally is eaten by birds and man. The seeds are pitted and rough, white, cartilaginous. The plant is a sand plant growing in sand soil; or it may grow in saline soil by the sea-coast, when it is a halophyte, but it usually prefers a sanely loam with some humus in it. Bittersweet is infested, like the potato, to which genus it belongs, with a fungus, Phytophthora infestans, potato disease. Several beetles infest it, Pria dulcamara, Meligethes incanus, Crepidodera ventralis, Epitrix pubescens, Psylliodes affinis, P. dulcamara ; 2 moths, Gelechia costella, Acrolepia pygmaana; and a Heteropterous insect, Cymus glandicolor. Solanum, Pliny, is the Latin name for this or a similar plant. Dul- camara, Dodona^us, is Latin for Bittersweet, which is so called because the bark is first bitter then sweet. The following are some of the names by which Bittersweet is also known : Aw'f 'ood, Belladonna, Blue Bindweed, Bittersweet, Deadly Nightshade, Dogwood, Dwale, Fellon-wood, Fellonwort, Mad Dog's Berries, Bittersweet Nightshade, Wood Nightshade, Poison-berry, Poison Flower, Poisonous Tea Plant, Pushion Berry, Robin-in-the- Hedge, Skaw-coo, Snake-berry, Snake's Poison-food, Sweet Bitter, Terrididdle or Terrydivle, Tether Devil. The name Fellonwort is explained by Coles thus : " The leaves or berries stamped with musty bacon, applyecl to that joynt of the finger that is troubled with a felon, hath been found to be very sucessful for the curing of the same ". In mediaeval times it was used in witches' potions as charms and spells: " And I ha been plucking plants among Hemlock, Henbane, Adder's Tongue, Nightshade, Moonwort, Hibbard's Bane; And twice by the dogs was like to be ta'en ". — Ben Jonson, Masque of Queens. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 211 It was held to be a plant of ill omen, of which Gerarde says: " If you will follow my counsel, deal not with the same in any case, and banish it from your gardens, and the use of it also, being a plant so furious and deadly, for it bringeth such as have eaten thereof into a dead sleep, wherein many have died ". When dried the shoots are used for skin diseases. The berries are poisonous, causing vomiting. The roots smell like the potato, but are bitter when chewed. The leaves have been used for scurvy and rheumatism. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 223. Solanum Dulcamara, L. — Shrubby, woody, climbing, leaves cordate, upper hastate, flowers purple, with two green spots at the base of each segment, drooping, anthers yellow, united to form a cone, berries scarlet, poisonous. Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna, L.) This is one of those southern plants which rarely appear in the deposits containing seeds of ancient plants. The present range of Deadly Nightshade in the N. Temperate Zone is south of Denmark in Europe, N. Africa, and it is introduced in North America. In Great Britain it occurs in S. Wilts, Hants, W. Sussex; in the Thames province, except in Essex; Anglia, except in E. Suffolk, Norfolk, Hunts; in the Severn province, except in Worcester, Salop, Flint, West Lanes; in the Humber province, except in S.E. Yorks ; in the Tyne province, except in Westmorland. It is probably indigenous on chalk and limestone, being often naturalized near ruins, from West- morland to the south coast. In Scotland it is found near houses. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands, in so far as it can be called native anywhere. The habitat of this plant is undoubtedly artificial in the majority of cases, e.g. in quarries, along railway banks, &c. Watson says: "This plant possibly may be indigenous in some of the chalk or limestone districts. The roots are long lasting, and the seedling plants spring up freely in gardens; peculiarities which tend to establish the plant in localities to which it may originally have been carried by human hands. The localities on record for it afford not a few instances in illustration of the delusive manner in which superficial botanists have endeavoured to palm off the artificial as if genuinely indigenous localities." The stems are herbaceous, stout, numerous, branched, often purple, glandular above. The leaves are stalked, egg-shaped, entire, smooth, 212 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. and veined. There is a smaller leaf below each leaf, due possibly to displacement, the leaf-stalk being united below with following shoots as though arising from it. The flower-stalks are axillary, and the flowers are drooping, bell- shaped, dingy-purple, clammy, glossy, and veined. The berry is black, velvety, round, sweet, bilocular, with brown seeds. The Deadly Nightshade is 3-5 ft. high. It flowers in June and July. It is perennial, increased by division of the root. The flower is bell-shaped, drooping, monopetalous, tubular, enlarged I'hoto. J. H. Crabtr DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Atropa Belladonna, L.) below, spreading above, with a short tube. There are 5 anther-stalks, bent below the anthers, 2 shorter, thicker at the base, hairy, bent inwards at the top, and as long as the tube. The anthers are large and yellow, with slits, and double. The anther-stalks lengthen after the anthers are ripe. The pistil is grooved both sides with a honey- gland at the base. The stigma ripens first, and projects beyond the anthers. The style is thread-like, longer than the stamens, inclined downwards; the stigma is pin-headed, two-lipped, green. The plant is adapted for cross-pollination by medium -sized humble bees, bees visiting it and also Thrips. Honey is secreted at the base of the ovary, and protected by stiff hairs on the stamens. The fruit is a 2-lobed berry, which falls around the parent plant, or is dispersed by animals, birds, or man. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 213 Deadly Nightshade is largely a sand plant living on a sand soil, or may be found on chalk. A beetle, Crepidodera atropa, feeds upon it, and a moth, the Dotted Clay (Agrotis baja], Atropa, Linnaeus, is from the Greek Atropos, one of the Fates who cut the thread of life, in reference to its deadly poisonous nature; and Belladonna, Mathiolus, means beautiful lady. It is called Banewort, Belladonna, Naughty Man's Cherry, Daft- berries, Deadly Nightshade, Deaths-herb, Dwale, Deadly Dwale, Dway-berries, Jacob's Ladder, Mad, Manicon, Mekilwort, Great Morel, Sleeping Nightshade. It is called Daft-berries because the berries cause giddiness, and Dwale. " The frere with his fisik, this folk hath enchaunted, And doth men drink dvvale that men dredeth no synne ". — Piers Ploii'iuan. Dwale means opiate, that which dulls. Manicon is so referred to in Hudibras : " Bewitch Hermetic men to run Stark staring mad with manicon ". It used to be called Solamim somniferum, or Sleeping Nightshade. In Bohemia they superstitiously believe it a plant of the devil, who watches it, but may be drawn from it on Walpurgis Night by letting loose a black hen, after which he will run. In Italy it was used by women to give lustre to the eyes. The berries are sweet and poisonous. The leaves are dried and used as a drug. It is an anodyne for neu- ralgia, and enlarges the pupil of the eye, and is used for ophthalmic complaints. There is a legend that the berries of Dwale were mixed with the wine of the Danes who came with Sweno, by the Scotch when they held a truce, and that the latter afterwards fell on the Danes. The plant is narcotic. Goats feed on it. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 224. Atropa Belladonna, L. — Stem stout, branched, leaves ovate, flowers purple, campanulate, drooping, axillary, on short peduncles, berries black, poisonous. 2I4 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger, L.) Like Deadly Nightshade, this southern plant is of quite modern origin apparently. It is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N.W. Asia, and India. In Great Britain it grows in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, Severn provinces; in S. Wales, not in Brecon or Radnor; in N. Wales, not in Merioneth or Flint; in the Trent province; in the Mersey district, H umber, Tyne, Lakes province; in the W. Lowlands except in Dumfries or Kirkcudbright; in the E. Lowlands except in Peebles, Sel- kirk, Linlithgow; in Fife, Perth, Forfar, and Dumbarton. It is not native in Scotland, and occurs in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Henbane is nowhere common, but is found here and there in sandy dis- tricts on waste ground, such as kitchen middens; and Hound's Tongue, Mul- lein, Viper's Bugloss, Borage, Bitter- sweet, Deadly Nightshade are all of the same status. This fetid weed, so well distinguished by its mousy smell and the netted petals of the corolla, has an erect stem, slightly branched with radical leaves, wavy, divided nearly to the base, clammy, sticky, and hairy, light green or yellow. The upper leaves are clasping, stalkless, and the lower ones stalked. The flowers are yellow, with a net of purple veins, drooping, large, broadly funnel-shaped, and arranged in one or two rows on the side of the flower-stalk, nearly stalkless and axillary. The fruit is erect, enclosed in the calyx, which does not fall, 2-celled, membranous, many- seeded, constricted in the middle, with the lid near the top. The seeds are pitted, flattened at the side, brown, with ridges, enclosing oblong or round areas. The Henbane is about i ft. to 15 in. in height. It flowers in June and July. It is triennial, and propagated by seeds. Like Deadly Nightshade, it is interesting enough to grow in the garden. HENBANE (Hyoscyamus niger, L.) IN FLOWER HENBANE 215 The flower contains honey. The stigma and anthers ripen at the same time. The corolla is bell-shaped, plaited in hud. The hairv stamens are declinate, attached to the corolla base, with purple anthers and provided with slits. The style is simple, the stigma pin- headed and prominent, ensuring cross -pollination. At first the sti>- 0, Flo.Wer, showing calyx and labiate corolla with, arched upper', and lobed lower Up, with stamen's in throat, b, Stamen, wjth hairy anthers. , Upper part of plant, with upper stem-leaves, and flowers in axillary clusters. A 1^/5. Knot Grass (Polygonum L.) 1.4. Good King "Henry dium Bontts- .-^tnricus, L.) perianth-segments apd «, v Flower, "with peri- included stamte^$; b, anth-^egntents, 5 sta- ' 'I, with 3 styles: c, mens, ;and pistil, with , len. , Flower with 6 pen an th- segments, in 2 series, inner iootiird, and 6 included.-. b, Fruiting; perianth segment^ ,t66|^ed. ^ Ovary,, with 3 stylos Upper parf of plant, flowers in whorls ipper lower \ No. 7. Wall Barley ilcnieum murtnum, •wermggluS and awijed emjity K'iumets^ with stamens exsertecl,^nd pistil half hidden, of p'laujt, Thfjith flowers !u spike close, awo: J% i near/y ; caching the top of the spike. c/,. tH.,,-jf,,,,, „,,„•;„„,„ T.I XIJX OT Y33 i*q rtWUnn ,» -TP£ u\v van9wtm'b3trfi& _^_ FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. PLATE XLIX I. Purple (Go Dead Nettle (Laminm fitrpnreuiit, L.)- 2. White Dead Nettle (Laiiiiuin album, I..). 3. All good osefoot) (Chenopodinm album, L.)- 4- Good Kins Henry (C/ieiiofniiitnt /»'.'// us- //<•///•/< -us, L.)- 5. Knotgrass (Polygonum avicitlare, L.). 6. Dairy Maid's Dock (Kmnex oblusifoliits, L.). 7. Wall Barley (Hordetttn niiin'iiiini, L.). WHITE DEAD NETTLE 225 Lamium, Pliny, is the Latin name for the Dead Nettle, and the second Latin name refers to the purple colour of the petals. This common plant is known by the names of Red or Sweet Archangel, Badman's Posies, Black Man's Posies, Day Nettle, Dead Nettle, Red Dead Nettle, Deaf Nettle, Dee Nettle, Dog Nettle, French Nettle, Nettle, Purple Dead-nettle, Rabbit-meat, Tormentil.' Dead Nettle, Day Nettle, are meant to indicate its harmless character. A writer says: " It is far from being foetid as is the case with many others, so that by some for distinction this plant is termed the Sweet Archangel ". In Sweden it has been boiled as a pot herb. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 258. Lamiumpurpureiim, L. — Stem suberect, leaves stalked, cordate, crenate, flowers purple, corolla-tube straight, with hairs exceeding the calyx-teeth, lower lip with obcordate lobe. White Dead Nettle (Lamium album, L.) Like Purple Dead Nettle the White Dead Nettle is modern, so far as we know, and is found to-day throughout the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N. Asia, and is an introduced plant in N. America. In Great Britain it is universally common, but absent in Cardigan, Anglesea, Mid Lanes, I. of Man, N. Aberdeen, Elgin, Easterness, and is not found in the N. Highlands or North Isles except in Dumbarton. So it ranges from Moray to the south coast, but is rare and local in Scotland and Ireland. As remarked under Purple Dead Nettle, this species is much more truly indigenous or addicted to a truly wild type of station. At the same time, it is nowhere more common than on waste or cultivated land. Its favourite situation is under a hedge on a high bank, with a gentle, or even steep, slope to the south. The plant is prostrate, then erect in habit. The rootstock is creeping, branched, and the plant is stoloniferous. The stems are square in section, rooting and branching from the base, then erect. The leaves are heart-shaped to egg-shaped, with a long and narrow point, stalked, coarsely toothed, scalloped, rarely spotted or blotched with white. The lower leaves are long -stalked. The leaves and whole plant resemble the true Nettle, and this may be an example of protective resemblance. The two often grow together. The flowers are white, rarely pink, large, in whorls of 6-10, crowded above, distant below. The hairs in a ring on the curved corolla-tube, which is longer than the calyx, are oblique. The calyx is smooth or VOL. IV. 61 226 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. hairy, with narrow, straight, triangular to awl-like teeth, the points long and slender, as long as or longer than the tube, which is straight. The corolla-tube is swollen below. The throat is gradually inflated. The upper lip is vaulted, softly hairy. The lateral lobes are variable. The anthers are hairy, and the outer or the inner stamens may be the longer. The nutlets have no scales. The plant is i ft. high. It flowers in April up to September. It is a perennial propagated by division. Honey lies in the rather narrower portion of the tube. The vaulted upper lip amply protects it from the rain, and the ring of hairs also WHITE DEAD NETTLE (Lamium album, L.) serves the same purpose. The lip is broad above this narrower part, the tube expanding above; and this serves as an alighting place for insects, especially large bees, which are able to penetrate to the bottom of the narrow portion, whilst smaller bees cannot. The hairs near the base of the tube exclude creeping insects. The lower lip has lateral projections, rudiments of lateral petals of primitive Dead Nettles, which serve as levers for the insect, to push its proboscis down the tube. The anthers and pistil are covered by the arched upper lip, and this prevents them from yielding too readily, ensuring that pollen brought by the insect from other flowers is applied to the stigma. The stamens do not form a ring, and one is absent or rudimentary, and the 4 lie, 2 on each side of the pistil under the lip, 2 long, 2 short, ALL-GOOD (GOOSEFOOT) 227 in such a position that they touch that part of the bee's head that will in the next flower touch the stigma and not the eyes. The bee touches the stigma first, then the anthers, and so pollinates the stigma with pollen from a previous flower. The White Dead Nettle is visited by Bombus, honey bees, Antlw- p/iora, Eucera, Melecta, Halictus, Diptera, Rhingia rostrata, being specially adapted to humble-bees. The nutlets fall free around the parent plant when ripe. White Dead Nettle is a clay-loving plant and addicted to a clay soil, but is equally a sand plant and grows on sand soil, being common on Triassic, Liassic, and Boulder Clay rock soils. It is a food plant for several beetles, Meligethcs difficilis, M. kunzei, M. brunnicornis, M. pedicularius, and the Lepidoptera, Golden Y- Moth (Plusia iota], Speckled Yellow ( Venilia maculatd], and the Small Rivulet {Lygris alchemillata}, and the Burnished Brass Moth. The second Latin name refers to the white colour of the flowers. Other names for this plant are: Archangel, White Archangel, Bee- nettle, Blind Nettle, Day Nettle, Dead Nettle, White Dead Nettle, Deaf Nettle, Dee Nettle, Dumb Nettle, Dummy Nettle, Dunny Nettle, Nettle, White Nettle, Snake Flower, Stingy Nettle, Suck-bottle, Suckie Sue. In Italy the plant is assigned to St. Vincent. The leaves have been eaten in Sweden as a pot-herb. The smell is disagreeable when bruised. Boys make whistles of the stalks. It has been used in internal, lung disorders, the leaves being bruised for tumours and scrofula. It has also been used as a tea or herbal drink. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 259. Lamium album, L. — Stem erect, stout, leaves cordate, serrate, stalked, flowers large, white, with an oblique ring of hairs in the curved corolla-tube, upper lip arched. All-good (Goosefoot) (Chenopodium album, L.) This common waste-land species is another Arctic species not found in early deposits. It is found to-day in Arctic Europe and Temperate Asia, and is introduced in North America. It is found in every district in Great Britain as far north as the Shetlands, up to 1000 ft. in Yorkshire, and is found in the Channel Islands, ami in Ireland. All the Goosefoots except the maritime species are found on culti- vated ground, and to this All-good is no exception. It is common in gardens, allotments, on building ground, manure heaps, and in culti- 228 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. vated fields throughout the country, exhibiting numerous forms and intermediates which are an interesting but difficult puzzle to the beginner. The stems are erect, from a woody base, much branched, with spreading branches, which are smooth or with rounded hairs, veined, and angular. The leaves are flat, egg- shaped, or rhomboidal or triangular at the base, with few, blunt teeth, the upper ones entire, narrow ; and the name Goosefoot refers generally (as a translation of the first Greek name) to the shape of the leaves, the second name referring to the general mealy, whitish colour of some forms of it. There are alternate bands of colour. At night the young leaves become erect. The flowers are green- ish-yellow, in compound branched racemes, with or without leaves, 5- merous, apetalous, with- out a corolla. The fruits are smooth, nearly kidney- shaped, larger than the calyx, and enclosed by the segments. This plant is 2-4 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom between July and September. It is an annual and propagated by seeds. The stigma ripens first, and there is honey. The flowers are anemo- philous, pollen being transferred by the wind, the plant growing in colonies making this effective. It is also visited by pollen -eating Photo. B. Hanley ALL-GOOD (Chenopodium album, L.) GOOD KING HENRY 229 Syrphidse, Melanostoma mellina. The fruit is a utricle which falls when ripe around the plant, and being enclosed in a membranous calyx it may be partially wind-dispersed. All-good is largely a sand-loving plant growing on sand soil. A fungus, Peronospora effusa, attacks All-good. A beetle, Cassida nobilis; a Hymenopterous insect, J^axonus glabratus; several Lepi- doptera, Dog's Tooth (Mamestra suasa), the Nutmeg (M. chciwpodii\ Orache Moth (Hadena atriplicis], Dark Spinach (Eubolia comitata\ Plain Pug (Eupithecia subnotata], Pterophorns ptcrodactylns, Gc/ccliia atriplicella, Obscure Wainscot (G. obsoletella), G. nteviferella, G. hcr- mannella, Butalis chenopodiella, Coleophora anmtlatclla, Jlcliodincs rossella, Idcea straminata, feed on it. Chenopodiiim, Pliny, is from the Greek chen, goose, and potts, foot, because the leaves are like a goose's foot. The second Latin name refers to the white appearance, due to a mealy tomentum. This well-known plant is known by several common names, such as Biacon-weed, Dirtweed, Dirty Dick, Drought-weed, Fat Hen, Frost- bite, Hen-fat, Lamb's-quarters, Lamb's-tongue, Mails, Melgs, Midden. Myles or Milies, Milds or Miles, Muck-weed, Mutton-tops, Rag Jag, Wild Spinach. It was called Biacon-weed or Bacon Weed, because it denotes rich, fat land, and Dirtweed, Dirty Dick, &c., because it grows on manure heaps. It is sold in May by the countrywomen in Ireland by the name of Lamb's-quarters. " Boil Myles in water and chop them with butter, and you will have a good dish " is an old saying. The name Mutton-tops refers to the young tops or shoots. It was boiled and eaten like greens, and eaten as a pot-herb in Scotland. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 264. Chenopodium album, L. — Stem tall, erect, branched, leaves ovate, upper lanceolate, toothed, base triangular, flowers in distant clustered spikes, seeds smooth. Good King Henry (Chenopodium Bonus- Henricus, L.) Mercury as it was called, once so commonly a kitchen -garden weed, or herb rather, has no record in the ancient past to indicate its more than recent origin. It is found to-day in the Temperate Northern Zone of Europe and in Siberia, and has been introduced into N. America. It is not found in Cardigan, Mid Lanes, W. Highlands except the Clyde Islands, in the N. Highlands except in Ross and E. Sutherland, and not in the N. Isles, but elsewhere from Caithness 230 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. to the south coast; up to 1200 ft. in the north of England. It is common in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Good King Henry was so often cultivated at one time as a salad that it is now not uncommon near houses, and indeed it is to be found usually in one or more spots, at least, in every village, as well as in towns, growing in or near the churchyard, or within or hard by the yard of a farmhouse or other dwelling. It is almost always in evidence also on waste ground of every description. The stem is erect, pyra- midal, with widely-spreading branches or leaves below, tapering above. The leaves are flat, succulent, angular, on long, furrowed leaf-stalks, arrow-shaped or triangular, mealy below, bright -green, entire, and succulent. The stem is covered with wart- like projections, and has alternate red and green bands. The flower is green, apetalous, the flowers being compound, with a corolla arranged in a terminal taper- ing spike, leafless, with a GOOD KING HENRY (Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus} hollow, membranous calyx, and a long stigma which is bipartite, acute, and white. The fruits are smooth, exceeding the perianth. This plant is usually about i ft. high. It flowers in May up till August. It is perennial, and can be propagated by division. It is cultivated as Spinach. Good King Henry has very long styles and from 2-3 anthers, and is proterogynous, the stigma ripening before the anthers. Like other species it is anemophilous, or pollinated by the wind. The fruit is a utricle which falls when ripe, or being enclosed in a membranous calyx is wafted some distance away by the wind. Being addicted to a sand soil it is a sand-loving plant, and being cultivated is improved by humus. KNOTGRASS 231 Like other Goosefoots it is infested in summer by several bugs, e.g. 4 Heteroptera, Piasina quadrata, Lopus sulcatus, Calacoris cheno- podn, Orthotylus flavosparsus, and a Homopterous insect, Trioza chenopodii. The name Bonus-Henricus, Fuchs, is a translation of Guter Hein- rich, or Good Henry, given it by the Germans. This plant is called All-good, Elite, Smear Dock, Flowery Docken, Mercury Docken, Fat Hen, Good Henry, Good King Harry, Mar- kerry, Mercury, English, False and Wild Mercury, More Smere- wort, The Roman Plant, Shoemakers' Heels, Smiddy Leaves, Wild Spinach. Markerry was " used as a Spinach and always called Markerry ". In Flowery Docken, probably "flowery" is intended from the mealy leaves. In regard to the name False Mercury, Gerarde says: "It is taken for a kinde of Mercuric but improperly, for that it hath no participation with mercuric, either in forme or qualitie, except yee will call every herbe mercuric which hath power to loose the bellie ". " It is a common proverbe among the people, Be thou sick or whole, put mercurie in thy Koale ". The name Smear-wort refers to its use as an ointment. Smiddy Leaves " indicates the observation of one of its favourite habitations, viz. the nigh vicinity of the blacksmith's work- shop ". It was formerly used for wounds and to cleanse old ulcers. It has been and is still used as a Spinach, until the foreign variety was introduced. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 265. Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus, L. — Stem erect, leafy, simple, leaves sagittate, entire, triangular, mealy, flowers in terminal spikes, stigmas long, fruit exceeding the perianth. Knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare, L.) This ancient species is found in Interglacial beds in Hants and Sussex, Late Glacial, Neolithic beds at Edinburgh, Roman beds at Silchester. It is found to-day in Arctic and Temperate Europe, N. and W. Asia, and has been introduced into North America. It is found in every county except Main Argyle, as far north as the Shet- lands; up to 1800 ft. in Northumberland. It grows in Ireland and the Channel Islands. There is scarcely a gateway in close proximity to a barn or out- house, in a field, or attached to a farmhouse or ordinary dwelling. 232 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. around which Knotgrass does not form a wide uniform carpet many yards in extent. It is abundant wherever agricultural operations are conducted, and also on waste ground. This plant is widely spreading, trailing, twining, with numerous, branched, slender, finely-furrowed, smooth, jointed stems, with swollen joints. The leaves are variable, oval, lance-shaped, linear, alternate, issuing from the sheaths of the stipules or ocrese, which are mem- branous, white, shining, torn, red at the base, and 2 - lobed. The young leaves are erect at night. The flowers are apet- alous, without a corolla, in the axils of the stipules, in spikes which are long, loose, interrupted and leafy below the flower- stalks, jointed above, white, pink, red, or green, the calyx hollow, the lower green, half-spreading, the upper white or coloured. The 8 anthers are yellow, the fruit is brown, triano-ii- £? lar, finely furrowed. There are 3 styles. The plant is seldom more than 3-6 in. high. It flowers in April up till October. The plant is perennial, and propa- gated by seed. The flowers are small and inconspicuous, the plant being usually prostrate. There is little or no honey or scent, so that insects are few. The flowers are hardly 2\ mm. long, solitary, scentless, and self- pollination is effective. The floral mechanism is as in Fagopyrum. The 5 segments of the perianth with the function of the corolla serve as a calyx, the lower part being green, the extremities white or red, and they act as a corolla to make the flower conspicuous. The 5 stamens alternate with the perianth segments, and bend outwards, and three others bend inwards to the centre till the anthers stand just above the stigmas and at the same level, and are thickened at the base to KNOTGRASS (Polygonum aviculare, L.) KNOTGRASS 233 contain honey; but the flower only offers pollen. The flower is herma- phrodite and homogamous, and visitors by the position of anthers and stamens self-pollinate the flower as well as cross-pollinate it It is visited by Ascia podagrica, Syritta pipiens, Alelithreptus. It has cleistogamic flowers under the ochres, as well as subterranean cleistogamic flowers. The fruit is triquetrous and enclosed in the perianth, which may partly aid in its dispersal by the wind. Knotgrass is a sand-loving plant addicted to sand soil. This plant is attacked by 2 rusts, Uromyces polygoni, Ustilago utriculosa, in the flowers, and galled by Asychna czratella. Several beetles frequent it — Gastroidea polygoni, Spercheus emarginatus, Apion difforme, Gastropkysa polygoni; 3 moths, Brown Russet (Rnssina tene- brosa), Blood-vein (Bradyepetes amataria], and Asychna czratella\ and a Homopterous insect, Apkalara calthce. Polygonum, Dioscorides, is from the Greek polus, many, gonu, knee, from the numerous nodes, and aviculare, from Latin avis, bird, because it is used for bird-seed. The plant is called Allseed, Armstrong, Beggar- weed, Bird's Knot- grass, Bird's Tongue, Black Strap, Bloodwort, Centinode, Cow-grass, Crab-grass, Crab-weed, Cumberfield, Doorweed, Finzach, Iron, Knot, Pig, Swine's, and Wiregrass, Hogweed, Knotgrass, Knotwort, Mantie, Nine-joints, Ninety-knot, Pig-rush, Pig-weed, Pink-weed, Red Legs, Red weed, Red Robin, Sparrow -tongue, Stone -weed, Swine -carse, Swine's Skir, Tackers-grass, Surface Twitch, Way Grass, Wireweed. From the difficulty of pulling it up it is called Armstrong; Swine's Grass because, as Coles says, "Swine delight to feed thereon"; and " it is given to swine with good successe when they are sicke, and will not eat their meate. Whereupon the country people do call it Swine's Grasse and Swine's Skir", according to Gerarde. It is called Nine- joints because "of its great number of joynts ", according to Coles. By Doctrine of Signatures it was called Knotgrass from some pro- perty it was supposed to have of stopping the growth of children. So Shakespeare in Midsummer-Nigh? s Dream refers to it as the "hinder- ing Knotgrass", and Beaumont and Fletcher also, in Coxcomb, Act II, Sc. 2 : " We want a boy extremely for this function kept under for a year with milk and Knotgrass ". The seeds are used as bird-seed. The plant is astringent, and has been used in dysentery, haemorrhage, &c. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 267. Polygonum aviculare, L. — Stem procumbent, branched, leaves narrow, oblong, flowers in axillary clusters, stipules (ocrese) fringed. 234 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. Dairy Maid's Dock (Rumex obtusifolius, L.) Thougn not so distinctly a marsh plant as the Golden Dock, this species is found in Interglacial beds in Sussex and near London, in Late Glacial beds in the Isle of Man, and Neolithic beds in Edin- burgh. It is distributed to-day in the North Temperate Zones in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N.-W. India, and has been introduced recently in North America. This plant occurs in all parts of Great Britain, N.-W. Shetland, up to 1000 ft. in N. England, Ire- land, and the Channel Islands. Dairy Maid's Dock is a very common species, equally varied in its habitat. For while it is a typical follower of man, and found on all waste ground, it occurs in fields and meadows not only around hay- stacks and barns, &c., but in damp ditches and hollows, as well as by the wayside, where it is quite plentiful in shaded spots. It is also a regular component of aquatic formations, growing by streams, rivers, ponds, and in marshes. It is long-rooted, with a tall, erect, branched stem, furrowed, smooth, solid, jointed. The radical leaves are oblong, heart-shaped, egg- shaped, stalked, veined, the upper ones oblong -lance -shaped, those in the middle reddish, the leaf-stalks nearly round, below hollow, flat, slender. The flowers are greenish, the parts in threes, with 3 oval, entire petals, membranous at the margin, in a narrow panicle. The calyx is hollow, with 3 lance-shaped segments, membranous, the sepals net- like, containing the fruit. The fruits are 3-sided and brown, with oval valves. This plant is 2-3 ft. high. Dairy Maid's Dock flowers in June up till August. It is perennial, and increases by means of the root. The flowers are anemophilous, or pollinated by the wind, and bi- sexual. They are visited by Halictus cylindricus. The stigmas are large, tasselled. The stigmas ripen first. There is honey in the flower. The fruit or seeds are winged, and when they fall they are carried to a distance by the wind. This dock is semi-aquatic, and a peat-loving plant growing on peat soil, or a clay-loving plant when it is found on clay soil in fields and pastures. Two microfungi, Uromyces rumicis and Puccinia phragmitis, attack the leaves, also a mould, Peronospora effusa. It is galled by Diplosis DAIRY MAID'S DOCK 235 riimicis. Three beetles, Gastriodes viridula, G. polygoni, Mantnra rustica; two Hymenoptera, Prosopis cornuta and P. dilatata; and several Lepidoptera, Large Red-belted Clearwing (Sesia chrysidi- ormis), Chrysophanus chryseis, Clouded-bordered Brinclle (Xylophasia rurea), Bird's-wing (Dipterygia pinastri}, The Uncertain (Caradrinu alsines), Pearly Underwing (Agrotis saucia\ Stout Dart (A. rai'ida\ Wood Swift (Hepialus sylvinus], Bloodvein (Timandra amataria}, Purple - barred Yellow (Lytkria pnrpurarid], &c., are found upon it. The second Latin name refers to the shape (ob- tuse) of the leaves. It is called Batter Dock, Butter Dock, Celery-seed, Cushy - cows, Docken, Kettle Dock, Red Shank, Smair Dock. As to the name Docken: "When a boy gets stung by a nettle he searches for a dock- leaf, and rubs it on the wounded part, repeating the charm, Docken dock- an in, nettle nettle out ". This is the explanation of Cushy-cows or Curly Cows: " Children call the seeded plant Cushy Cows, and they milk it by drawing the stalk through the fingers". In Wilts, when exorcising the nettle sting with a dock leaf, children repeat : — " Out ettle In dock, Dock shall ha a new smock ; Ettle zhout Ha nannu ". An old remedy for boils was Dock tea. This plant is laxative. The roots powdered are used for cleaning the teeth. The leaves have been used for wrapping round butter and cream cheese. DAIRY MAID'S DOCK (Rumex obtusifoliut, L.) 236 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARAC- TERS:— • 270. R^lmex obtusifoli'us, L. — Stem tall, rigid, leaves ovate, cor- date, below obtuse, upper lanceolate, flowers in distant whorls, petals en- larged, upper sepal tubercled Wall Barley (Hordeum murinum, L.) Almost ubiquitous in some places, Wall Barley is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe from Scotland southward, and in North Africa. It is found in the whole of South Britain, but not in Brecon, Radnor, and Flint in Mid, and N. Britain in the Trent, Mersey, H um- ber provinces, except in S.-E. Yorks, Tyne district, only in Cumberland in the Lakes province. In Scotland it is found in Wigtown, Ayr, Rox- burgh, Berwick, Haddington, Edin- burgh, Linlithgow, Fife, Stirling, F~orfar, Kincardine, Elgin, Caithness, or as far north as Caithness, and in E. Scotland generally. It is very rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Wall Barley is a common plant in all waste places, growing in dense masses on ground awaiting building operations, along the boundaries of gardens, along the roadside, in towns as well as in villages. It also grows in cultivated fields, where it is better developed. The stems are numerous, sub- erect, prostrate then ascending, below leafy, jointed, with large nodes paler WALL BARLEY (Hordeum murinum, L.) WALL BARLEY 237 than the stem. The leaves are small, long, broad, bluish -green, downy, with inflated sheaths. The ligule is very short. The spike is flattened at the side, drooping, pale-green, flat, stout. The spikelets are in threes, overlapping, dense, with linear- lance- shaped glumes fringed with hairs in the middle spikelet, lateral, bristle-like, rough. The awr «s longer than the glumes, the flowering glumes are lance-shaped, the empty glumes thread-like. The plant is i ft. high. It flowers in June and July. It is annual, and propagated by seeds. The lateral flowers are male, those in the middle bisexual or hermaphrodite. There are 2 long, pointed nectaries at the base of the ovary. The anther-stalks are thread- like, the anthers yellowish -green and small. There are 2 styles, bent back and softly hairy, and the stigmas are nearly stalkless and feathery. The flowers are anemophilous, or pollinated by the wind. In Barley the flowers open between 5 and 6 a.m., at as low a tempera- ture as 12^° C. The middle florets are cleistogamic. The fruit adhering to the palea is light and adapted for wind dispersal, and the long awn may catch in wool, &c, and cause the seeds to be dispersed by animals. This common grass is a sand-loving plant growing on a sand soil. The Wall Barley Grass is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Us- tilago segetum and Pyrenophora trichostoma. The moths The Antler (Charceas graminis], Gelechia cerealella are found on it. Hordeum is found in Virgil as the Latin for barley, and the second name indicates the mural habitat. It is called Mouse, Wall, Way, or Wild Barley, Way Bennet, Way Bent, Rye Grass, Squirrel-tail Grass, Purr Barley, Pussies, the last referring to the habit boys have of putting the long-awned, flowering spikes down the sleeve. It is called St. Peter's Corn in Germany. So injurious is it to the teeth of horses that the best advertisement for an inn there, it was said, would be " Hay without any mixture of Squirrel Grass". ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 345. Hordeum murinum, L.— Stem glabrous, erect, leaves long, flat, glumes of middle spikelet ciliate, linear, lateral, spikelets imperfect. SOME GENERAL HINTS AND NOTES SECTION VII MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES The Effect of Altitude upon Plants.— For every successive rise m altitude of 300 ft. the tem- perature decreases by i° F. Hence the effect of altitude upon plants in the first place is to drive the southern species downward and the north- ern species upward. A point is reached above 2000 ft. when Arctic plants begin to become dominant, and at the highest elevations in the British Isles the vegetation is distinctly Alpine, consisting of such groups of plants as Saxi- frages, Pinks, and Willows. Another effect of altitude is to make the conditions as a whole moister, owing to the fact that moun- tains act as condensers of moisture. As a whole eastern, and a great part of southern, England has a rainfall of not much more than 20 in. per annum, and these are the lowland areas. The rainfall of the north and west and south-west is much greater, and in places amounts to 100 in., whilst in parts of the Lake district it may be as much as 200 in. Though the rainfall is so great in hilly dis- tricts the ground is not necessarily so satu- rated, for water finds its own level very quickly, and it is in the lowlands where it lies longest. Only in the hollows, or on some hill-tops, does the hilly tract develop boggy conditions. Else- where the conditions, especially the slopes and rocky summits with shallow soil, are suitable for dry-soil forms, and a large bulk of the plants are adapted to this state. Owing to altitude, again, especially above the deciduous- tree zone (1000 ft.), the ground flora is much more exposed to wind. A further effect of altitude (or the ex- istence of hills) is to determine the prevalent winds, and to regulate the distribution of valleys and rivers. Another feature is the exposure of plants to mist and fog. The clouding of the sky on hills has an influence on the light conditions. Lowlands and Uplands Compared. — The general conditions in the lowlands make for uniformity. It is true that wide associations occur also upon hills, as those formed by Heather, Cotton Grass, Sedges, Rushes, and some grass types, but these are, even when widespread, more or less discontinuous owing to physical structure, slope, &c., whereas in the lowlands these conditions are less variable. Moreover, lowland tracts vary little in altitude, so that the temperature and rainfall are more or less uniform. Thus we find in the lowlands wide expanses of forests, pasture, heath, arable, lowland moors, and aquatic vegetation on a grand scale, as formerly in the Fens. Hence there is a preponderance of southern types of plants. Clay plants in particular are charac- teristic of the lowlands, and those found upon marls and loams, or in other words, the vege- tation of the Agrarian Zone. The uplands, on the other hand, exhibit the opposite characteristics. The associations are not so homogeneous as in the lowlands. The sloping sides of hills are often unstable, the talus and debris moving downwards, and the soil is also of a more barren character, owing to the exposure of the surface to denuding agencies and the slight opportunity afforded for soil formation or retention. Hence not onlyclimatic but also physical factors cause the lowlands and the uplands to present entirely dissimilar types of vegetation, as may be recognized at once by comparing, for instance, the flora of the \\Vl>h hills with that of Bedfordshire. Prevalence of Bare Rocks in Hilly Tracts. — One marked characteristic of upland areas is the preponderance at high altitudes of bare rock surfaces. Moreover, an outcrop where soft and hard rocks are contiguous is as a rule diversified, and the hard rocks are exposed as hills or escarpments, whilst soft clayey or shaly 240 HINTS AND NOTES beds are weathered down rapidly to lowland conditions. It is usually where quarries have been made in the lowlands that rock surfaces are to be seen, and even these are less frequent than along a hillside itself. Rock may be exposed in a valley or level region, but except in the case of coal-pits and granite quarries this is unusual. Influence of Hills upon Drainage. — It has already been mentioned that a hilly tract may, in spite of a higher rainfall, have really less moisture relatively than a region with a smaller rainfall. The wind is a very important factor in this connection, its drying effect at certain seasons, when not itself moisture-laden, tend- ing to counteract the condensing effect of the mountain itself. It is only where hollows are formed in a hillside by the oozing out of underground water through porous strata or other causes that water remains upon a hill permanently. It is aided in this by the effect of bog-mosses such as Sphagna, and the rapid growth of moorland plants that help to retain the water in such pools or bogs. In the case of hills such as those formed by chalk or limestone, where streams do not carry the water away, the whole surface acts as a sort of sponge and water collects in under- ground reservoirs. In both cases the effect of carbonic acid gas in the water in dissolving the lime is to form pipes, fissures, and cavities in the rock, and to produce caverns, as in Derbyshire and elsewhere. The Limits of Agriculture. — As one ascends from the lowlands a noticeable feature is the absence of, or decrease in, the areas given over to cultivation. This is due largely to the same causes that control the existence of wild plants at high altitudes, such as increased cold, moisture, wind, a high degree of insolation, ex- posure, shallower and in general more barren soil. Also fog and mist may be prevalent. Watson indeed established a zone, called the Agrarian Zone, within which cultivated plants would grow and flourish, and above which they are unprofitable. This more or less cor- responds with the limits of growth of the chief deciduous tree types, as the Oak, &c., or looo ft. above sea level. This has a decided effect upon wild plants that are addicted to a mountain habitat. For up to that altitude both soil and vegetation have been more or less disturbed. At the same time also the soil conditions, where culti- vation has been carried on, in many cases have undergone considerable change, making the return of natural vegetation, when the land relapses into an uncultivated stage, less likely, and its substitution to a great extent by the followers of man and the plough the more probable. Dry and Wet Hills. — Mountains upon the older granitic, siliceous, or schistose rocks that reach a considerable altitude are frequently the habitats of true moorland or bog plants. There are, in fact, upland moors and lowland moors. In each case it is a sine qua non that peat of a considerable depth be formed. When the peat is waterlogged there is also a Sphagnum or bog-moss association, and a moss is formed. But since these conditions are really dependent largely upon soil characters, they have been treated separately under bogs. A peaty dry surface gives rise to a moorland with erica- ceous plants, such as Ling, Heath, and Mat- weed, whilst a Cotton-grass moor is largely intermediate in regard to the supply of mois- ture. The heaths that are developed on thin stony or gravelly soil at lower elevations cor- respond to the lowland moors, as do the upland moors to the upland heaths. Excluding these special types there are wet mountains or hills and dry ones, and the plants that are found upon the one do not as a rule occur on the other. Dry hills furnish such plants as Dyer's Weed, Rock Rose, Hairy Violet, the chalk or limestone on which they grow being naturally well drained. Marsh Mallow also grows on sandy rocky hills, and Hare's Foot Trefoil, Kidney Vetch, Silky Mountain Vetch, Sain- foin, Oak-leaved Mountain Avens, Salad Bur- net, Ploughman's Spikenard, Cotton Thistle, Wild Thyme, Clary, Sheep's Sorrel, Box, Musk Orchis, Sheep's Fescue are found also on dry hills. Yellow Balsam, Gentian, Fehvort, and Fragrant Orchis are found on wet hillsides, and Field Scabious, Dropwort, on damp clay, often, though not invariably, at high altitudes. Climate and Hills. — Hills have an important bearing upon climate. As one ascends 300 ft. there is a difference of i° F., so that the ther- mometer in the lowlands at 56° F. would read at the summit of a hill of 4500 ft. (the limit in the British Isles) at 41° F., a difference of 15 degrees. This has naturally a great effect upon plants in performing their various life functions. Germination to begin with is slow, and may never take place in many ill-developed seeds. Growth is maintained slowly by impoverished powers of assimilation, respiration, and trans- piration, for nutrition is scanty, and therefore reproduction must be hazardous, so that it is inevitable that montane plants differ in their seasons of flowering from those within the plains. Fresh types of plants succeed each other at different altitudes owing to these variations in temperature, &c. Thus the trees disappear at 1000-1500 ft., sub-Alpine plants MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES flourish up to 2000 ft., and above this range the Arctic and Alpine species. Rainfall and Hills.— Hills exercise a decided influence in causing the moisture in the atmos- phere to be condensed and precipitated as rain. The position of the range of hills in relation to the wind is important, rain being precipitated to the lee of the hills. When the axis of the range is oblique, the effect upon the air current is similar to that of a less steep slope, and more so than in the case of a range at right angles, and the air ascends more slowly, rain being precipitated over a wider area. The snow-line on a hill necessarily also affects the atmospheric conditions and rainfall in such regions. The Exposure of Hills. —The direction of the hills is an important factor, especially in rela- tion to the prevailing winds, causing different effects upon different types of vegetation. Plants with the grass habit are less affected than those having the heath habit, for in- stance, the latter forming crescentic patches under certain conditions. The vegetation on the lee side of a hill is much more luxuriant than that upon the windward side. But the existence of a series of winds blowing from different directions is liable to obscure the in- fluence of prevailing winds. The effect of the direction of the range is again seen in the greater exposure of plants to the sun on the south and west sides, and their xeromorphic conditions of growth, less noticeable upon other aspects. Effect of Hills upon Types.— As one ascends a hill from the surrounding lowlands, one can readily notice a difference in the characters of many common types of plants. Such a plant as the Common Dandelion, in the valleys, has a tall and thick scape with a large flowerhead. The radical leaves are long and broad, with few lobes, or lobes not deeply cut back. The achenes are green as a rule. The root is thick and deep-reaching. The whole plant is, in other words, suited to conditions where there is a uniform and considerable supply of mois- ture, and a thick or deep soil. At 500-600 ft., the normal type of Dandelion is replaced by a form with a short narrow scape, a smaller flowerhead, and narrower, shorter, and more deeply-divided leaves. The fruits are reddish in colour. The root is short, often dividing at the extremity. The leaves are usually pros- trate upon the surface, rarely becoming caespi- tose or ascending. The types to be met with upon hills differ to a great extent from those of plants found in the lowlands. There is an increase in the members of the grass type, the rosette habit, &c. VOL. IV. 24I Aspect.— The chief types of natural habitat that affect aspect are sea-coasts, where cliffs have a definite aspect, hedgerows in fields, or roadsides. It is estimated that a southerly aspect has the effect of an increase of 2° to f C. near the surface, and this is proportionally more at higher altitudes. Slope, moreover, and its direction have an effect upon the temperature of the soil ; for radiation is more rapid upon a sloping surface than upon a flat surface. Hence the beneficial effect of a southerly aspect, especially in hilly regions. As a rule the western and southern sides of a hill or mountain are more suitable for plant growth, as the first is more uniformly moist, while the second has a higher average tem- perature, and the thermal constants of plants on such aspects are greater. Aspect thus has an effect upon the dispersal of plants by natural selection, the sun-loving plants seek- ing the sunnier aspects, the cold-lovers being found upon the north and east. Absence of Aquatic Vegetation upon Hills. — One result of the existence of hills is to delimit the areas given up to aquatic vegeta- tion. For such vegetation is more or less entirely confined to plains, valleys, or lowland-. generally. The hygrophilous types, such as those that form part of the moorlands, peat-bogs, cotton- grass associations, and others formed by Carices, Rushes, some Grasses, &c., are not aquatic types in the strict sense. Some exceptions must, however, be made to this general rule, for though lakes as a rule are lowland, yet there are a number of lakes, e.g. in Wales and the Lake District, that art- distinctly of upland type. And there are many lochs and tarns in Scotland which have a characteristic vegetation. Ascending and Descending Types.— Owing to the differences in temperature, effect of wind, &c., between the lowland and upland regions, there are several types of plant groups which may be distinguished as montane or descending and lowland or ascending. The montane plants are as a rule of wider range in the northern regions, and the lowland plants more widespread in the south. The montane plants include, first of all, eu-montane species, chiefly of Arctic type, as the Cloudberry. They seldom descend below the Infer-Arctic Zone, or about 1800 ft., win-re the temperature is 39° F. to 42° F. In Britain the eu-montane group ranges between 2000 ft. and 3200 ft. The general montane group is found at altitudes between 2000 ft. and 1000 ft., and is most common in the north generally speaking, as Juniper, Whortleberry, Cowberry, 62 a 242 HINTS AND NOTES &c. The sub-montane group is found at altitudes between 500 ft. and 1000 ft., and in general these plants do not ascend above to the Infer- Arctic Zone or descend below to the lowlands. They include Baneberry, Globe Flower, Wood Geranium, Bird Cherry, Rowan, Myrrh, Melancholy Thistle, Wood Club Rush, &c. Some are maritime plants, as Thrift, Sea Campion. The pseudo-mon- tane group includes plants intermediate be- tween the descending and ascending species, which may grow in the lowlands and on the uplands, as Bog Violet, Sundew, Grass of Parnassus, Cranberry, &c. The ascending species are more lowland types, and they include general-ascending and sub-ascending species, the latter rarely ranging above 150 ft., and including few northern types, as Rest Harrow, Hare's Foot Trefoil, &c. Some, however, are found at higher altitudes, such as Oak-leaved Mountain Avens, Gentians, Sheep's Fescue, &c. Habitats of Hillside Plants.— The habitats of plants that grow upon hills and dry pastures generally are less diverse than those which come under the other groups here dealt with. There is, however, up to the highest limits of cultivation, a certain diversity in wooded areas that counteracts the otherwise open character of the hillside, which is one of its most striking characteristics. The type of habitat, apart from wooded areas dealt with in Section IV, is generally speaking pasture. It may be a calcareous pasture, as that favoured by Rock Rose, Hairy Violet, Silky Mountain Vetch, &c. ; or it may be an upland neutral grass-land, where Dropwort, Field Scabious, &c., are found; or sandy, rather barren pasture, with Sheep's Sorrel, Sheep's Fescue, &c. The ground may be covered with rock fragments, with a shallow bare soil, and practically con- stitute a sandy heath, where Wild Thyme will grow. Where the ground is largely waste upland Cotton Thistle will be found, and other plants of more or less casual origin, with ordinary pasture plants of the lowlands. The wet hill pastures grade into moorlands, Cotton-Grass associations, or those made up of Sedges, Rushes, Grasses, and under favourable conditions Sphagnum bogs, &c. In ordinary wet upland pastures the Yellow Balsam and Gentians are found, with other hygrophilous or moisture-loving plants. These distinctions are important, as helping to determine the sequence of formations and the derivation of one from another. Habits of Hillside Plants.— The physical features of the habitat in the case of hills and dry pastures are as important as the other factors, such as climate, altitude, and soil. As a whole the tree type is less dominant, though Birch along with the sandy-soil form of the Oak, the Sessile Oak, the Pine, and the Yew are characteristic montane trees. The Box locally is also a hillside type. Scrub, however, is frequent upon the hills on certain soils. The Juniper, for instance, rises to a high elevation, and though dwarfed when exposed is otherwise suited to the upland generally. The Ordinary and Dwarf Furze form wide associations, as does the Broom. Other members are the Sloe, Hawthorn, Spindlewood, Cornel, Buckthorn, Rowan, the last abundant in the doughs of the Lake district. The undershrubs, such as Whortleberry, Ling, Heather, Crowberry, Cranberry, &c., form also wide associations with a typical habit or growth form, the heath habit. The adaptation of these plants to the special con- ditions of wind force is highly important, and should be studied in detail. The dry-soil conditions in a large measure give rise to numerous groups with the rosette habit, such as Hawkweeds and Dyer's Weed, &c. Many trailers are found in this type of habitat, such as the Rock Rose, Thyme, &c. These like the undershrubs are specially adapted to the particular wind conditions. The grass habit is largely represented, being well suited to the exposed character of hills. All these adaptations are in the main induced by the physical features of the hills and dry pastures. Height of Plants on Hills and Pastures. — It was remarked in Section IV that the upper limit of the tree zone in woodlands is largely influenced by the wind. This fact is shown by the manner in which trees are dwarfed in exposed upland situations, or are even (as again by the sea-coast, where wind is the cause also) bent in the direction of the wind, the branches spreading out horizontally in the opposite direction to the prevailing wind; so that not only is height influenced, but also direction of growth. The scrub is similarly affected when growing on hillsides, shrubs such as Hawthorn or Sloe being reduced in height. The trailing plants that grow on hills are also more prostrate than when growing in the lowlands. The Grasses are as a rule less tall than the lowland types, and amongst them there are allied species of lowland distribution that are normally more lofty, as Fescue Grass or Heath Hair Grass. Flowering Seasons of Hillside Plants. — MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND DRY PLACES 243 As a hill is ascended the temperature is lowered by i° F. for each 300 ft. Hence the montane species of flowering plants require a longer period of sunny weather before the thermal constants demanded by each species are respectively reached. The persistence of moist conditions or rainfall may also retard flowering to some extent, as also the effect of exposure and the wind. All these circum- stances contribute towards the generally late- flowering seasons of the plants of the hillside, a fact easily demonstrated by a comparison between a lowland and an upland meadow; and the well-known purple tint of the moors late in the summer or in autumn is a familiar illustration of this fact on a wide scale. The chalk hills of Boxhill and elsewhere furnish an example of the early flowering of a hillside plant, the Box. This may be due to the close habit of growth of the Box, the sheltered character of the habitat, and its southern origin and distribution. The Hairy Violet, another chalk species, like all the Violets is early, flowering also in June. In May the Rock Rose, Kidney Vetch, Clary, and Sheep's Sorrel are in flower, all but the last, it should be remarked, being chalk plants. June, however, is the principal month for the hillside plants to flower. Then we may find the following: Touch-me-not, Rest Har- row, Silky Mountain Vetch, Sainfoin, Drop- wort, Oak-leaved Mountain Avens, Wild Thyme, Musk Orchid, Fragrant Orchid, Sheep's Fescue. Many of these, again, are limestone or' chalk plants. In July, Musk Mallow, Hare's Foot Trefoil, Salad Burnet, Field Scabious, Ploughman's Spikenard, and Cotton Thistle flower, and the Gentians do not bloom till August. On the whole it is thus to be noticed that hillside plants flower late. Duration of Hillside Plants. — There are several reasons why the duration of hillside plants should be more or less uniform. In the first place, the late flowering of the plants of upland regions, which has already been pointed out, necessitates this; for it is impos- sible for plants that are subjected to conditions prevalent in highland regions to mature in the same manner as those that grow in the lowlands. Hence it is that with a few excep- tions the upland plants are perennial. They form frequently wide associations, which are generally made up of perennial plants, such as Grasses, Sedges, Heaths, &c. At higher elevations there are not many plants of annual or biennial duration ; for the ground is not open or broken, but taken up more or less continuously by plants of vigorous dominant growth. Cotton Thistle, the com- VOL. IV. inon Gentians, Touch-me-not, and Hare's Foot Trefoil are annual or biennial. It is thus clear that the hillside plants have adapted themselves to perennial conditions as a result of the factors that govern the upland floral regions. The Pollination of Upland Plants. —The uplands consist largely of pastures, and there is as a consequence a parallel between the conditions for insect life on the hills and the lowlands, where pastures are also predominant. The hills are, in fact, as much alive with the busy hum of the insects in spring and summer as the lowland meadows. This may be seen, indeed, in the existence of a large number of insect pests that live as larvas upon the hillside plants. The openness of the hillside contributes to the prevalence of insect life, for insects can wander at will unimpeded by any barriers as in woodlands, or where the type of habitat is restricted as in the case of a cornfield, a bog, heath, &c. The hillside plants as a whole have brilliantly-coloured flowers, conspicuous and attractive, as Rock Rose, Marsh Mallow, Kidney Vetch, Sainfoin, Field Scabious, Clary, Musk Orchid, Fragrant Orchid, &c. Salad Burnet, Sheep's Sorrel, Sheep's Fes- cue are pollinated by the agency of tin- wind. The Dispersal of Seeds of Hillside Plants.— The exposed nature of the uplands would at first sight appear to be a factor in the dispersal of hillside plants. As a matter of fact, upon the uplands there are extensive associations of a single species, such as Ling, Whortleberry. These as a rule occupy the higher zones, win-re the less dominant types are as a whole absent. There are, however, wide associations, as in wet and dry meadows of Sedges, Rushes, Grasses, &c. , at lower altitudes. Some of these may grow in such association, as Matweed, &c., as to exclude other types of plants with a different growth-habit. But even here, usually lower down there is a noticeable intermingling of other species. Amongst those with seed- dispersed by the wind are Weld, Rock Rose, Hare's Foot Trefoil, Sainfoin, Dropwort, Salad Burnet, Oak-leaved Mountain Avens, Ploughman's Spikenard, Cotton Thistle, Sheep's Sorrel, Musk Orchid, Fragrant Orchid, Sheep's Fescue, and some of these are dis- persed in part by their own mechanism to a shorter distance. Some arc dispersed by animal agency, as Dropwort, Field Scabious. The Hairy Violet is assisted by ants in the dispersal of its seeds. In Touch-me-not and Rest Harrow special contractile tissue enables the seeds to be jerked when ripe from the pod, as also in Kidney Vetch. Silky Mountain Vetch, and Box. 244 HINTS AND NOTES Soil and Upland Plants.— Hills, as has been explained, are largely the result, apart from denuding; agencies and river development, of uplifts or rearrangements of the crust, thus causing a diversity of rocks to be exposed at the surface. Many types of rock may thus outcrop within a short distance, and the plants of a single hill or mountain may thus be of very diverse types. As explained also else- where, the older sandy or siliceous types are mainly developed in the west and north, though modern arenaceous rocks occur in the east and south also. Central England, as a whole devoid of hills, is largely made up of clays, loams, marls, and eastward there are calcareous rocks and chalk, with peaty condi- tions in the lowlands. The Pennine Axis, and other regions in the west, and Lake district are made up of lime- stone. The plants that are described are found upon all these types of soil. Weld, Rock Rose, Hairy Violet, Kidney Vetch, Sainfoin, Drop- wort, Salad Burnet, Wild Thyme, Clary, Box, Musk Orchid are found largely on limestone or chalk, though sandy soil also suits some of these. A sandy soil suits Marsh Mallow, Rest Harrow, Hare's Foot Trefoil, Field Scabious, Cotton Thistle, Sheep's Sorrel, Sheep's Fescue. But Hairy Violet may be found on a sandy or a humus soil. Humus also suits the Gentians and Fragrant Orchid. Touch-me-not requires peat like the last to some extent. Silky Mountain Vetch requires a rocky stony soil. Method of Survey. — The reason for the sep- aration of hills, &c., from other types of habitat being mainly one of altitude, the method of survey in this case must be, in order to obtain satisfactory results, carried out by surveying zones of altitude. That is to say, a region from i-ioo ft., and so on upward, should be marked off by aid of an aneroid, or oro- graphic maps, or contours on an ordnance map. The altitudes of plants found between such zones will then be obtained, and it will be possible to determine by such data the exact range upward or downward of each species. The mode of survey of each piece of ground as an area should be done in the case of the types so far described on those lines, whilst bog and heath or moor may be surveyed, as also any aquatic vegetation, on the lines of the method of survey described elsewhere. There may be pasture (usually predominant), or corn- field, or wood, or roadside and hedges, which should be studied as already suggested. Other special points to be noticed, and of which data should be kept, are the effect of the wind force, the temperature, and the length of sunlight, rainfall, &c. The aspect and slope, the latter given in angles, and the char- acter of the soil, are all factors that should be noted and put down. The dry or wet character of the soil is important, and advanced students may estimate the water content. Any points that may be noted as to the influence of one species upon another are also of the highest importance. SECTION VIII LAKES, RIVERS, STREAMS, DITCHES, AND WET PLACES Terrestrial and Aquatic Vegetation. — Water has a more uniform temperature than the soil, and thus aquatic vegetation is more or less constant, for the chief zones of latitude. But adaptation to an aquatic life necessarily in- volves particular habits, &c. Many water plants are found all over the world. This may be due in part to the migration of water-fowl. Aquatic plants form open associations, but are not in this case so subject to the encroach- ment of other plants, except riparial types; and it is here that the invasional factor comes into play. Some plants in fact are amphibious, and can live in water and on land. Water plants derive their air through the water, so that they have wide air-spaces. The leaves are thin and much divided, because the light coming through the water is already diffused or broken. Some aquatic plants float freely upon the surface, as Duckweed; others are rooted in the mud, as Water Lily, and raise their leaves above water; whilst others are submerged. There are those that grow half in and half out of water, or at the margin. Thus the vegeta- tion of the water exhibits every transition to that of the land. Hydrophytes or True Aquatic Plants. — Aquatic LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 245 plants are distinguished from land plants in being submerged wholly or in part in water. There are also moisture-loving plants (see below), from which they are distinguished, hence the term Hydrophytes. Certain modifi- cations, briefly mentioned in Section I, are required by water plants to fit them for life in water. The watery element necessitates the increase, in size and number, of the air-spaces. The chlorophyll granules are aggregated in cells nearer the surface than in land plants to ac- complish photosynthesis more effectively. Water plants have a thin cuticle which is not cutinized or waxy, so that absorption takes place at all points, and stomata are not re- quired as a rule, or where present are on the upper surface, and do not open and close. The stems of water plants, owing to the support received from the water, do not require thickening, or a series of vessels of woody elements (xylem) for the conduction of water from the root to the rest of the plant, as absorption is possible at all points, so that the supporting tissues are reduced; but as it is necessary for the plant to convey food from the leaves the phloem is well developed. Since absorption is not confined to the roots, these are also not well developed, and may be absent, as in Bladderwort, or where present be merely organs of attachment, or serve to maintain equilibrium. Whilst many aquatic plants have primitive characters, some have highly-organized flowers, as Water Buttercups, and these are probably derived from earlier land types and have adapted themselves vegetatively to life in the water. A large proportion of Monocotyledons (over 30 per cent) are aquatics. Hydrophilous Types. — Between land plants that do not need a considerable amount of water and those that are aquatic there are intermediate types, which are distinguished owing to their demand for a greater or less amount of moisture. Those that are inter- mediate, such as meadow plants, woodland plants, cornfield plants, are Mesophytes, re- quiring a medium amount. There are others that require a larger amount of moisture, such as marsh plants and wet meadow types, and the riparial types of aquatic plants. Marsh plants, like water plants, are not able to transpire readily, and have emergency exits for the expulsion of water in drops at special points. Zonal Character of Aquatic Vegetation.— Aquatic vegetation shows a well-marked zona- tion or arrangement of different types in zones or parallel bands. This applies whatever be the character of the aquatic habitat — lake, river, &c. — though there may be an of one or more types, and the one may take the place of the other, showing the manner in which aquatic vegetation may invade the land, or vice versa. Of freshwater types of forma- tion there are four main divisions. These are based upon the relative force of the current, or the richness or otherwise of the water in mineral salts. Thus there are slow-flowing rivers which are rich in mineral salts (alkaline), and these are usually lowland. Then there are stagnant or foul waters, which are usually devoid of flowering plants, and are colonized by Blue- green Algae, as sewage waters. Some nearly stagnant waters may be rich in lime, and contain a characteristic phanerogamic flora. Where the water is poor in mineral salts, as in lakes and tarns in upland regions, usually on siliceous rocks, certain rare and local types, as Quillwort, Lobelia, Shore Weed, &c., grow. These upland lakes are usually moorland highland lakes. There are also quickly-flow- ing streams on hill slopes, which may either be rich or poor in lime, and each has its own particular flora. In all these cases the plants show a zonal arrangement. In the middle grow the plants that float or have floating leaves, as Duckweed, Water Buttercup. Around the central zone grow half -submerged or totally submerged types, as Pond weed, Hornwort, &c. ; whilst in what is called the third or Reed Swamp ann- otation grow the Reeds, Rushes, Sedges, Purple Loosestrife, &c. , which are only half -sub- merged. Uniformity of Conditions, or Diversity. Water preserves a more or less uniform tem- perature, and is less modified than land by the alternation of summer and winter, so that there are no aquatic Tropophytes, in the same sense at any rate as with land plants. The conditions of light are more or less uniform in freshwater formations, but are influenced by the weather in the shape of clouds, fog, and extremes of sunshine. Water and its Effect upon Plants. —Water may vary in respect of its constituent salts, and be either in general salt or fresh water. There is also an intermediate type which is neither saline nor fresh, but brackish, as along the coast in salt marshes or estuaries. Fresh water may be hard or soft, poor or rich in mineral salts. The water of upland lakes is usually poor in mineral salts, but peat bogs are usually charged with humous acids and acid in reaction. Other upland waters situated upon siliceous sandy rocks are poor in mineral salts, and clear or pure. It is in such pools or lakes that Desmids are especially 246 HINTS AND NOTES abundant. Diatoms, which require water with a good deal of mineral salts (alkaline), are found in more lowland situations. Flowering plants are equally susceptible to differences in the water. The Stoneworts or Charas luxuriate in water highly charged with carbonate of lime, and help to precipitate it, as do some mosses. Water may also vary in temperature, but in the British Isles there is little variation in this respect. Sea-water, however, is more constant in temperature than other waters, and is seldom frozen. The water of lowland ponds and lakes is not so readily frozen as that of highland lakes, &c. The depth of the water naturally influences the temperature, hence the zonal arrangements of plants, which are connected with the individual thermal constant. The state of motion of the water again is important. When motionless it may be actually foul, or merely stagnant, and in the first case few flowering plants will live in it. But some plants require stagnant, motionless water, as Bladderwort. Naturally such waters are rela- tively rich in mineral salts, and so are those that move but slowly, in which the pondweeds luxuriate. The quickly-moving waters are far less rich in salts, and so are the upland lakes and tarns. Much depends upon whether water is of aerial origin, or telluric, or underground. The aquatic element, beneficial as it is in many re- spects, however renders transpiration difficult, and the supply of oxygen is small except in running water; hence the distinctions between aquatic associations due to the aerating power of water. Then, again, light is impeded, and no light penetrates at the greater depths. The char- acter of the light is also different, for red and yellow rays are absorbed, and the light alters from white at the surface to a green colour below, hence the apparent colour of clear water is green, or, as in the case of the still deeper sea, blue. Hence the colour types of marine algae, red, brown, and green, the green colour in the first two being masked by colouring matter, anthocyan, &c. Altitude of Aquatic Vegetation.— There are distinct zones of altitude of the different types of aquatic vegetation. The maritime vegeta- tion or marine plants grow at sea-level. It is important to remember that inland water finds its own level and flows, unless enclosed as in a pond, lake, loch, lough, or tarn, regularly by a series of stages to the sea from the highest points to lower levels. This gives a division into highland and low- land aquatic vegetation. In the highland loch are found such plants as Awlwort, Alternate- flowered Water Milfoil, Starwort, Lobelia, Bladderwort, Shoreweed, various types of Pondweeds, Spike Rush, Floating Bulrush, Pillwort, &c., and White Water Lily, Float- ing Marshwort, Amphibious Knot Grass, and other Pondweeds are floating types ; whilst in the Reed swamp grow Bog Bean, Floating Bur Reed, Common Spike Rush, Bulrush, Prickly Twig Rush, Sedges, Reed, Manna Grass, &c. There are the upland quickly-flowing rivers, which again are poor as a rule in mineral salts, further differentiated by relative altitude. The lowland rivers are more or less stagnant or slow-flowing, and are richer in mineral salts. They form in the first case tracts like the Norfolk broads, very little above sea-level. The slow-flowing rivers are intermediate in altitude, and their vegetation differs from the last, being much richer in the forms of plant life. Transition of Aquatic to Marsh or Bog Vege- tation.— Aquatic vegetation is distinguished by the immersion of the plants entirely, or nearly so, in water. The land vegetation forms the opposite extreme, for water there, except in low-lying areas, does not lie near the surface except on clay soils. Thus the relative lie of the ground, and the porous or non-porous character of the soil, determines largely the gradation from a dry to a wet meadow. Be- tween these two types — aquatic and land plants — lies an intermediate series, the Hygrophiles or marsh plants and wet meadow types, into which the former may merge. Thus an aquatic formation may, through the marginal reed swamp, become a marsh formation laterally ; the latter may also, where peat is formed to a considerable depth, and the lime salts are gradually lost, become a bog or fen. The aquatic and fen or bog formations on a large scale are largely transitional in East Anglia, and the preference of each for alkaline water renders such transitions easy. Highland bogs, however, are poor in lime and richer in humous acids. Drainage and Aquatic Vegetation. — Tem- porarily a dry season or drought, especially in the case of pools or ponds, has a great effect upon the vegetation. Pools may dry up, as they have done almost everywhere, and a relic of a bog flora, with Sundew or Butterwort, disappear for ever. The felling of trees may artificially cause desiccation over a wide area, and conduce to the disappearance of marsh or aquatic plants in much the same way; whilst on the contrary, the destruction of a forest naturally and the water-logging of the area may give rise, as has occurred over and over again in upland areas, to a bog. But by far the most potent factor in disturbing the LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 247 stability of aquatic formations is the drainage of land. It may, of course, incidentally pro- duce fresh aquatic formations, as ditches and drains (and artificial canals are of the same type). But in very low-lying areas the forma- tion of dikes or drains, and the withdrawal of large sheets of water and their conduction into definite and restricted areas, destroys aquatic vegetation. This is what has occurred in the Fens, causing the disappearance of wide areas of aquatic, marsh, and fen vegetation. Lakes, Ponds, Pools, and Reservoirs.— En- closed tracts of water are as a rule still waters. But there may be an inflowing and outflowing stream, regulated frequently by a sluice. The disturbance of such waters is effected as a rule solely by the wind, or by springs from beneath or at the sides. Such tracts of water are normally sweet, though stagnant, but may be rendered foul by the percolation of sewage, by cattle, by waterfowl, or by the decomposition of leaves in the case of lakes, &c., in wooded areas. Lakes are either upland or lowland, and highland with a peaty bottom, or lowland and non-peaty. Ponds when stagnant may have a floating association of Lesser Duckweed only, with marginal wet-soil types, Rushes, Sedges. A clearer pool may have either Stonewort or Nitella on the bottom, Canadian Watervveed, Pondweeds, Water Lily, Water Buttercup, Manna Grass, Horned Pondweed, Celery- leaved Crowfoot, Amphibious Knotgrass, and be lined with Sedges, Rushes, Skullcap, &c. The zonation typical of the aquatic vegeta- tion is in a lake, pond, &c., cyclic or elliptic. A highland lake as mentioned contains few types, whilst a lowland lake richer in mineral constituents contains, in addition to the above, such plants as Hippuris (Mare's-tail), Horn- wort, Milfoil, Bladderwort, Water Soldier. Starwort, &c., submerged or nearly sub- merged; whilst floating forms include also Frogbit, Arrowhead, &c. ; and in the mar- ginal reed swamp also, Purple Loosestrife, Great Hairy Willow Herb, Creeping Jenny, Marsh Woundwort, Great Water Dock, Reed Mace, Bulrush, and Reeds. Reservoirs are artificial or natural, and are usually of lowland type with little or no peat, but occasionally along the margin, Shore- weed, Pillwort, &c., may be found. Hippuris, or Mare's-tail, is common in such aquatic habitats. Rivers, Canals, &c. — The aquatic vegetation of rivers differs little from that of streams, except in the greater width of the former, and the usually greater depth of the water. There are quickly-flowing rivers poor in mineral salts, and slow-flowing rivers richer in mineral salts in solution. The former are upland and the water hard as a rule, the latter lowland and the water soft. Some peculiar types are more at home in slow-flowing water than in still waters; but they exhibit different adaptations, having ribbon-shaped leaves in this case, as in the Arrowhead; and so does the common Pond- weed of the pond in running water. Here also grow Ranunculus circinahis, Water Dropwort, Canadian Waterweed, Bur Reed, Shining Pondweed, Perforate Pondweed, Bulrush, and at the margin Brooklime, Water Cress, Scorpion Grass, Marshwort, Great Hairy Willow Herb, Starwort, &c. Few floating-leaved types occur except where the marginal vegetation deflects the course and force of the current, as Water Lily, Duckweed, Amphibious Knotgrass. In tin; reed swamp many plants occur, as Meadow Rue, Meadow Sweet, Water Betony, Sweet Flag, Bur Reed, &c. Such plants occur also in canals. In swift-flowing streams with no lime-salts in solution occur Ranunculus Lenormuuli&w\ R. hederaccus, with Manna Grass, Starwort, &c. ; and in those with lime salts in solution other types occur. Streams. — Streams may be either upland or lowland. The former are the beginnings of rivers, and form torrents, cascades, and water- falls, in which chiefly ferns luxuriate, and lower cryptogams. In the lowlands streams form the tributaries of rivers, being fed by ditches and springs, between which they are intermediate. The stream may, as in tin- case of a river, form a boundary between meadows or pastures, and is thus frequently planted with low bushes; and in this way there is little or no scope for the reed su amp association, and in its place grow shade plants or hygrophilous types. There is usually too little water in a stream for the lowest zones of aquatic vegetation, but occasionally Stoneworts may be found, though, as they prefer standing water, and streams are frequently quick-flowing, they are not general in streams. But in the lowest zones there is frequently a close growth of the Canadian Waterweed. The chief pondweeds in a stream differ from those in the river, being composed of such species as Opposite-leaved Pondweed, I\>ta- mogeton crispus, small forms which do not require deep water. These have floating leaves. The Amphibious Knotgrass is less common in streams than in rivers, and so are the Duckweeds. Water Buttercups are per- haps more frequent in streams than in rivers, 248 HINTS AND NOTES the forms in the latter being larger. Rarely Water Lilies occur where the stream is wider at a bend. Manna Grass is abundant, and Flote Grass (Catabrosa aquatica) is not un- common. In what corresponds to the reed swamp may be found Meadow Rue, Water Cress, Great Yellow Cress, Purple Loosestrife, Great Water Chickweed, Great Hairy Willow Herb, Water Bedstraw, Fleabane, Coltsfoot, Butter- bur on the banks, Scorpion Grass, Water Betony, Musk, Brooklime, Mints, Gipsy wort, Skullcap, Yellow Flag, Bur Reed, Water Plantain, Sedges, and Phalaris arundinacea. Ditches. — The ditch is largely artificial, and thus no measure of the true aquatic vegetation of a district even on the small scale on which it is developed. It is thus of relatively modern date. But it is of importance as showing the types of vegetation that have once flourished in the district, for ditches afford the last resorts of the hygrophilous types that have been driven from the wet meadows, once marshes, &c. ; whilst a few are relics of true aquatic vegetation. The types of aquatic plants found in ditches are restricted in character. They include chiefly plants that grow in the reed swamp, and in fact the whole ditch may be filled up with such plants as Marsh Marigold, Water Cress, Great Water Chickweed, Great Hairy and other Willow Herbs, Water Bedstraw, Fleabane, Hemp Agrimony, Coltsfoot, Water Figwort, Marsh Thistle, Scorpion Grass, Brooklime. In some ditches Frogbit used to grow. Gipsywort may occur here and there, and Amphibious Knotgrass, the terrestrial riparial type. It is rarely that such large plants as Yellow Flag, Phalaris arundinacea, and Reed grow in ditches, indicating vestiges of more' extensive aquatic vegetation. Wood Club Rush is more frequent. Duckweed may fill up a stagnant ditch almost entirely. Fre- quently Marshwort (Slum erectum], numerous Sedges, and some moisture-loving Grasses, as Manna Grass, Poa trivialis, &c., may be found in a ditch. Starvvort, and even Cana- dian Waterweed, Water Violet, Milfoil, and Hornwort may be found in ditches of a par- ticular type. Wet Places. — There are certain spots, usually low-lying, or hollows at higher alti- tudes, that preserve a type of vegetation which exhibits a marked difference to that of the surrounding higher and drier ground. They may be the relics of former aquatic vegetation, of a marsh, a bog, or a wet heath, and as a whole are hygrophilous types. They may differ little in general character from a wet meadow, but usually contain some dis- tinctive species that stamp the flora as some- thing more specialized. Their connection with aquatic vegetation is clear, but they may be members originally of an entirely distinct formation. Such plants are Meadow Rue, Lesser Spearvvort, Creeping Yellow Cress, Land Yellow Cress, Great Yellow Cress, Hairy Bitter Cress, Bog Stitch- wort, Water Blinks, Waterwort, Square-stalked St. John's Wort, Great Hedge Lotus, Hyssop Loosestrife, Water Purslane, True Square- stalked Willow Herb, Least Marshwort, Cowbane, Water Parsnip, Marsh Cudweed, Bur Marigold, Meadow Thistle, Bastard Pimpernel, Brookweed, Tufted Scorpion Grass, Mudvvort, Water Speedwell, Round- leaved Mint, Peppermint, Water Germander, Bistort, Water Pepper, Water Dock, Osier, Loose - flowered Orchid, Marsh Orchis, Spotted Orchid, Butterfly Orchid, Spring Snowflake, Loose-flowered Soft Rush, Com- mon Hard Rush, Small Capitate Rush, Marsh Arrowgrass, Compressed Club Rush, Brown Club Rush, Oval -headed Sedge, Broad - leaved Water Sedge, Pink - leaved Sedge, Distant-spiked Sea Sedge, Cutgrass, Marsh Foxtail, Beard Grass, Tufted Hair- grass, Great Water Reed Grass, Flote Grass, Greater Fescue Grass, Meadow Barley. A number of these are members of different formations, but all agree in requiring a moist habitat. The Habits of Aquatic Plants.— The great difference between soil, which is a solid im- mobile substratum, and water, which is a liquid mobile solution, naturally enables one to distinguish as a rule between a land and a water plant at sight, even when the material is a dried herbarium specimen, since the difference in habitat is closely correlated with a marked difference in habit. The chief points of difference are the reduction in the roots, which are long and thread-like, or borne in whorls around a creeping rhizome, or subaqueous stem, or even absent. The stems and branches also are slender, herbaceous, differing in structure, and show every sign of reduction, being seaweed-like in habit in the case of submerged types, and in erect half-submerged types seldom thick or woody. The leaves differ in form, texture, and arrangement, being adapted to a floating or streaming habit, or of the grass type in the reed swamp as a rule. Riparial types of plants are most nearly akin to terrestrial types. The flowers also are seldom brilliant, and are frequently reduced or apetalous, many types of aquatic plants relying mainly on vegetative reproduction. LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 249 The adaptations to aquatic conditions in internal structure have been referred to. The adaptations in external form or leaf arrange- ment are exemplified by the finely-divided or dissected foliage of Water Buttercups, Water Dropwort, Water Violet, Milfoil, Horn wort, Bladdervvort. The carbonic acid gas in water is more abundant but less avail- able, hence the dissected type of leaf, which also offers less resistance to the current, and a greater relative surface exposed to the light, and for the absorption of oxygen. The ribbon type of leaf is an adaptation to the currents, and is found in Water Plantain, Arrowhead, Flowering Rush, &c. Another type is the clustered awl-shaped leaf, as in Water Lobelia, Shoreweed, Pill- wort, &c. Floating leaves may be orbicular, as in some types of Water Buttercup, Water Lilies, Frogbit, or ribbon-shaped, as in Manna Grass, Bur Reed, Bulrush. The Water Butter- cups and some other types have two types of leaves, adapted to either the submerged or floating position. The Height of Water Plants.— The aquatic plants have different conditions to contend with in regard to the height to which they usually grow. A land plant, whether it be a shade plant or a sun plant, obtains the neces- sary light, and other factors essential for growth and nutrition, more or less directly. It has no great period of subterranean existence to out- live after the seed has germinated before it reaches the surface and the light. Nor is the light variable in the character of the rays ab- sorbed, or in intensity to any considerable extent. Aquatic plants, on the other hand, have to struggle upwards in the dark after germina- tion, and the young shoots have to make some growth before they can obtain even a moderate degree of light. Hence they must attain a certain height under water before their chief functions can be adequately performed. This tends to make the submerged types generally of a uniform height in each zone, and those that struggle upward to put forth floating leaves also attain a more or less uniform length or height. Except in the case of the half-submerged types of the reed swamp, few become erect either below or above water. The tallest plants, ranging from 3-10 ft., grow in the reed swamp, and are erect or nearly so. But the floating plants and sub- merged types may attain a great length, though the visible height above water is trivial in comparison. The Flowering of Aquatic Plants.— As in the case of all moisture-loving plants, the season of flowering of aquatic plants is on the whole late. The riparial plants, the least immersed in water, flower relatively early in the year. The immersion of aquatic plants in water, colder than air, is responsible for the late stage at which the respective thermal constants of each plant are reached. It is an interesting fact that a large number of marsh and aquatic- plants have the leaves and stem coloured red by anthocyan, which transforms the light rays into heat. The earliest flowering aquatic or riparia! types are Coltsfoot and Butterbur, and Snakes- head Fritillary, which flower in March. In April a small number of others first commence to bloom, as Water Fennel, Scorpion (irass, Crack Willow; and these, save the fir>t, are riparial, or but slightly submerged, if at all. In May, Meadow Rue, Water C'ress, Water Betony, Brooklime are in flower. The follow- ing are found temperature flower in June, '.vhen tin- much higher, viz.: Yellow Water Lily, Great Water Cress, Creeping Jenny, Musk, Skullcap, Amphibious Knot- grass, Yellow Flag, Sweet Flag, Duckweed, Water Plantain, Flowering Rush. July is the principal month for aquatic plants to flower, and then one may find the blooms of the White Water Lily, Great Water Chickweed, Purple Loosestrife, Great Hairy Willow Herb, Marsh Bedstraw, Three-lobed Butterbur, Water Ragwort, Mint, Gipsywort, Frogbit, Reed Mace, Bur Reed, Arrowhead, Bulrush, Wood Club Rush, Reed. In August, Hemp Agrimony and Fleabane first come into flower. The Duration of Aquatic Plants. —Tin- great difference between land and water plants has an important effect upon the duration of the latter and their mode of seeding. It is much more difficult, in fact, for an aquatic plant to germinate, put forth aerial shoots, branches, leaves, flower, and finally fruit in a single season, flowering late a- Mich types do, and beginning to j^row upward late. The marsh plants and Hygrophiles generally are similarly retarded. It is then-fore unlikely that many aquatic plants should be annual. For the possible success of the flowering cycle, and maturing of seed, may not eventually result in the propagation of a new plant from seed next spring. Therefore the provision «\ perennial underground organs or roots or rhizomes is a great assistance to aquatic plants. The time taken in developing these must equal the ordinary life of an annual. Moreover, the reproduction of aquatic plants is very largely vegetative. Resting buds or hibernacula are formed ill winter by Frogbit. Pondweeds, &c. Naturally the aquatic element is for these purposes a distinct advantage. Normally, of course, growth is going on HINTS AND NOTES during the summer months, and the winter is, as in the case of most other plants, a period of rest. The vegetative cycle is broken in winter by the elaboration of such special structures. Many plants simply sink to the bottom, and in the spring rise again to the surface. The hibernacula drop off and sink to the bottom till the spring. Water Lilies die down to the rhizome. Only a small percentage of aquatics are annual or biennial, as Duckweed, Horned Pondweed and Awl-wort. The Pollination of Aquatic Plants. — The aquatic habitat of water plants affects all the phases of their life history. This applies not only to their vegetative organs, but also to the reproductive processes, or devices for the con- tinuity of the species. Some few aquatic plants hardly raise their flowers above water, or not at all as in the case of Zostera, and in Vallisneria, a sub-tropi- cal plant which has been found in the Canal at Manchester. The rest are more or less normal, the reproductive parts of aquatic plants being less altered than their vegetative portions. But there are some features in which they differ from land plants. Thus a number of them have very small (reduced) flowers, and few are sweet-scented. A large proportion have white or yellow flowers. The plants in the reed-swamp association are the most diverse, and most closely allied to land plants. Beetles help to pollinate the White Water Lily, and many are pollinated by small flies, as Water Plantain. Whilst cross-pollination is effected by insect agency in the majority of cases, a number are more liable to be self-pol- linated, as Great Yellow Cress, Great Water Stitchwort, Three-lobed Butterbur, Yellow Loosestrife, &c. Heterostylism is found in Purple Loosestrife and Yellow Loosestrife, which are trimorphic. In Great Hairy Willow Herb and Creeping Jenny the anthers and stigma are ripe together. The Marsh Bed- straw, Great Water Stitchwort, Brooklime, Amphibious Knotgrass, Flowering Rush, ripen their anthers first, before the stigma. Butter- bur, Frogbit, and Reed Mace are dioecious. Coltsfoot, Bur Reed, Bulrush, and the Reed mature their stigma first. Duckweed and Arrowhead are moncecious, and the former is pollinated by aquatic insects. The following are wind -pollinated: Crack Willow (visited also by bees), Reed Mace, Frogbit, Bur Reed, Sweet Flag, Bulrush, Wood Club Rush, and the Reed. The Dispersal of Seeds in Aquatic Plants.— The aquatic character of the habitat introduces new features into the mode of dispersal of the seeds. The seeds of submerged and floating plants must in these cases germinate in the mud at the bottom. Heavy seeds are more likely to be deposited not far from the plant, sinking to the bottom. But in some the seed- coat contains air vessels and the fruit or seeds float along, some even germinating at the surface of the water. In this case wind and water currents enter into their mode of dis- persal. Seeds of half-submerged plants in the reed swamp, which may fall into the water, are of this type, and one may note sometimes a scum of small seeds that have been drifted together by capillary attraction, and driven to the margin to germinate in the mud on the banks. The Water Lily seeds are surrounded by a spongy aril with air spaces, and at first float up to the surface. Afterwards, when the aril has rotted, the seeds fall again to the bottom. The fruits or seeds of the following are dis- persed by special agencies of the plants them- selves : Meadow Rue, Water Cress, Great Yellow Cress, Great Water Stitchwort, Purple Loosestrife, Marsh Bedstraw, Water Betony, Musk, Mints, Gipsywort, Skullcap, Fritillary, Wood Club Rush. Water Fennel, White and Yellow Water Lily, Brooklime, Amphibious Knotgrass, Bur Reed, Sweet Flag, Duckweed, Water Plantain, Arrowhead, Flowering Rush, Bulrush, are chiefly dispersed by aquatic agency, in some cases also by the wind. The wind assists Great Hairy Willow Herb, Hemp Agrimony, Fleabane, Three-lobed Butterbur (also, owing to its hooked fruits, dispersed by animals), Coltsfoot, Butterbur, Water Rag- wort, Marsh Thistle ; also Yellow Loosestrife, Creeping Jenny, Crack W7illow, Frogbit, Yel- low Flag, Reed Mace, and the Reed. Water Fennel, Scorpion Grass, Bur Reed, may be largely dispersed by animals. The Soil Equivalents of the Aquatic Habitat. — Though true aquatics, especially free float- ing types, are independent of soil, they, like the submerged and floating types which are anchored in mud or sand or gravel, &c., are to some extent influenced by the character of the substratum. Since the soil brought down by rivers and streams is of a particular character, it is natural that plants that live in the reed swamp, or upon the banks or low-lying ground, should be dispersed elsewhere where the conditions are similar. At the same time there is a considerable amount of peat or humus formed along a river margin, which is usually black and amorphous, and this is another requirement of such plants. Others are addicted to a clay soil. Meadow Rue, Water Cress, Great Water Stitchwort, Purple Loosestrife, Great Hairy Willow Herb, WASTE PLACES 251 Marsh Bedstraw, Hemp Agrimony, Fleabane, Coltsfoot, Butterbur, Water Ragwort, Marsh Thistle, Yellow Loosestrife, Creeping Jenny, Scorpion Grass, Water Betony, Musk, Mint, Gipsyvvort, Skullcap, Amphibious Knotgrass, Crack Willow, Yellow Flag, Fritillary Rush, Reed, require either sand, clay, or peat. Methods of Survey.— The particular form of aquatic vegetation will at once determine the mode of survey. In a pond or lake the vege- tation is generally concentric, hence the map- ping must be done on such lines ; whilst in a river, stream, or ditch it forms more or less parallel bands or zones, and should be done by making cross-sections (as indeed may be done in the first case). The division of aquatic vegetation into zones of floating, submerged, and reed-swamp asso- ciations renders it necessary to study them by these zones. Any one may be studied by itself, or all the zones together. In either case the dominance of any particular plant should be noted. Such points as the character of the mineral salts in the water should be studied by ad- vanced students. The rate or character of the current should be noticed. The juxtaposition of the different societies should be noted at different points. In the case of wet places they may be studied in the same way as meadows and pastures, and the tape or stakes may be used for mark- ing out squares to be studied one by one in detail. The zones that lie deepest in the water can only be studied by aid of a boat, and this may be a difficulty not easily overcome. The dredge may be used to examine not only the lowest zones of flowering plants but also the plankton, which occurs at the surface. SECTION IX WASTE PLACES Artificial or Natural Character of Waste Places. — The term waste ground or waste places is capable of more than one meaning. There are comparatively natural types of waste land, which, although following the destruction of forest lands originally, may be in their present stage untouched by man. But these types are hardly, if at all, represented in this country; and to all intents and purposes waste places denote pieces of ground that are associated with cultivation. Open Character of the Ground. — The waste places, as implied by the Latin names of many of the plants that are found there — e.g. arvensis, found on ploughed land ; agrestis, cultivated land ; sativus, segetum, sown — are characterized by their association with the plough or the harrow, &c. Watson called plants of cultivated ground agrestal, includ- ing Papaver, Agrostemma, Bromus secalinus, Veronica agrestis ; but these are more especially cornfield weeds. They share the same charac- ter, however, in growing upon open ground that is liable to be broken up and disturbed, and from which close-growing, spreading, and tenacious types, such as Grasses and other meadow plants, are continually being ousted. The plants thus have to compete with less severe conditions, and their struggle for existence is far less arduous. Waste ground possesses the same character, being open and frequently new ground, upon which may appear in their proper rotation alga.1, mosses, and flowering plants, or the latter may pre- dominate. It is natural that the relative openness of such stations may differ considerably, for if once allowed to return to a more natural and permanent condition the alien types disappear, and Grasses, &c., take their place; and the persistence of particular types in spite of this is a mere matter of adaptiveness, which some plants possess in a remarkable degree. Chersophytes.— The name Chersophytes is given to plants that grow in regions where there is a sufficiently moist climate to admit the existence of forest land or scrub, and on which, after this has been destroyed on dry soils, perennial dry-soil types may grow. They, however, are not steppe plants, though they may resemble them. In the eastern counties, which like the rest of the country were subjected to steppe conditions following glacial conditions, certain plants that may be regarded as steppe plants occur. And strpjM- conditions an- akin to desert conditions, which are similar in the character of the habitat to sand-dune formations, widely represented along the British coasts, both types of 252 HINTS AND NOTES formation (included together as Eremophytes) being dry-soil types. The Grape Hyacinth (Muscari racemosuni) is a steppe plant. The longer vegetative period and greater degree of humidity of chersophytic vegetation distinguish it from the steppe formation, and the bulbous and tuberous plants of the steppe are absent. A type of meadow in the Alps is characterized by the dominance of Festuca •vallesiaca and Kceleria vallesiaca. This last has recently been recognized in this country. It also includes Poa bulbosa. The Brome meadow on the Alps is dominated by Bromus erectus, common on certain dry calcareous pastures in this country also, and with it also grow Gal him Mollugo, Festuca rubra, F. ovina, F. pratensis, Carex verna, Prunella vuJgaris, Salvia pratensis, &c. These occur in similar situations in this country. Bushland or thorn bushland on dry soil consists of Barberry, Hawthorn, Rose, Bramble, or Juniper, and in Scotland of Gorse. This is due to destruction of forest in humid areas on dry soils. The affinity of this natural waste ground to waste places in the ordinary sense is clear. Fern heath with Gorse occurs in the south of England. These formations agree in the dry character of the soil and modified surface features. Hedgerows, &c., near Villages, Boundaries of Cultivated Tracts. — Taking first the areas immediately around the habitations of man, who is the chief agent in the introduction and dispersal of alien plants, there are the hedge- rows and other kindred spots in close proxi- mity to villages or towns, or the boundaries of cultivated tracts, where certain plants are usually to be found in a large number of similar spots, which occur around almost every village or town. The Greater Celandine is one of these plants. Go where one will, it is nearly always possible to discover somewhere on the imme- diate outskirts of a village, in the hedge of a garden, or at the base of a loosely-made wall, a number of individuals of this plant. It is common on sloping banks where other plants do not grow, and where the soil is bare of vegetation. Its acrid juices may make the soil unfitted for other plants around it. Gout- weed and Tansy are further examples. Borage, Comfrey, and Bittersweet occur in more open spots away from hedges, close to villages and gardens. These plants un- doubtedly owe their dispersal to artificial causes, being used as remedies for various complaints from the Middle Ages down to the present time. Bases of Walls, &c.— Walls, which will be described in greater detail in Section XII, are in themselves artificial, and support a number of characteristic mural plants that grow in the crevices or on the top, depending upon the rupestral type of habitat. At the base of walls, whether in villages or else- where, a certain type of habitat develops, which supports a typical florula akin to that of waste ground. The soil at the base is usually open. Water drips from the wall-top, forming hollows and loosening the soil. This is inimical to some plants, exposing their rootlets. Fragments of the brick or stone break off, or sand-blasts caused by sand from the macadam may undercut the materials. Weeds are removed, especially grass, and quickly-growing annuals and some ubiquitous perennials take their place. The roadscraper disturbs the ground periodically. Shepherd's Purse is one of the most common types, grow- ing at the base of the wall on open ground, and in a variety of similar spots, as on soil denuded for stone heaps, farmyards, &c. Common Mouse-ear Chickweed (also a plant of dry pastures) likewise frequents this habitat. Common Chickweed is another familiar weed along the roadside at the bottom of walls. Cut-leaved Dead Nettle often grows at the base of a wall where there is a good thick deposit of road grit. The Hedge Mustard is another plant that is especially fond of this habitat. The Great Plantain, Veronica agrestis, Wall Speedwell (also mural), and Barley Grass may also be found in such situations. The last is especially characteristic. Sandy Wastes, Dunes. — Certain areas with a loose sandy soil occur here and there which may be described as waste ground, in the sense that they are not open to cultivation and are left in a more or less derelict condition. The plants that grow in such places are usually characteristic of dry sand soil. They include such plants as Stork's Bill, Musk Thistle, mentioned here, and others such as Lotus tenuis, Fuller's Teasel, Evening Prim- rose, Hare's Foot Trefoil, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Vernal Whitlow Grass, Cornflower, Mallow, and many other plants of doubtful origin, such as Treacle Mustard, Lepidium Draba, Sisym- brium pannonicuin, &c. This type of mixed association is similar to the vegetation that may establish itself upon a fixed dune after the fixation of the sand by Marram has been completed. When this is the case a large number of inland plants commence to appear, and the ordinary mari- time vegetation of the sand dunes, which is not very extensive (in species), tends to dis- appear. The effuse or much - branched Oraches, WASTE PLACES Atriplex pattila and A. hastata, find a suitable habitat in the loose sand; and other common types are: Festuca rubra, Ononis repens, Lotus corniculatus, Erodium cicutarium, (\iu- calis arvensis (now rare inland), Rumex crispus, Senecio Jacobcea, Taraxacum erythro- spermum, Hypochceris radica/a, Sambucus nigra, Trifolium repens, T. pralense, T. arvense, Rubus rusticanus, Potenlilla reptans, P. anserina, Sedum acre (mural), Galium venun, Crepis virens, Hieracium Pilosella, Leontodon autumnale, Carlina, Cnicus atvensis, Myosotis collina, Thymus SerpyUum, Holcus mollis, Cynoglossum officinale, Anthyllis vtil- neraria, (Enothera biennis, the last common upon the Lancashire coast. The origin of these plants is diverse, many coming- from pasture or arable close to the sea. Cart-roads. — A cart-road is very similar to an ordinary roadside, along- which, as has been shown (Section VI), a number of plants are dispersed by artificial agency. The high- way, however, is regularly made up with macadam, whereas the cart-road is more or less left to itself, and the ruts and middle way alone are regularly used, whilst the intervening spaces are grass-grown, or loose or broken. Upon such spots a number of plants grow which are foreign to the pasture through which such cart-ways are made to reach the highway; also along roads that are primarily used for agricultural purposes. Naturally the character of the weeds so dispersed depends largely upon the character of the arable or pasture. It is an interesting study to trace the distribution of such weeds from their probable source, and the process by which this has been accomplished. The White Campion is one of the most prevalent plants distributed by this means. Viper's Bugloss is a handsome plant which is frequent upon chalky soils, but may be found elsewhere distributed by farming operations. The Corn- cockle, now rare in cornfields, is to be found by the side of a cart-track, or more frequently in some districts in or near a fowl-run, dis- persed in fowl corn. On sandy soils Knotted Hedge Parsley is often to be found on the side of cart ruts, its usual habitat being a hedge bank. Melilot is found on towing-paths and in other waste places. Mayweed is a common straggler along the cart-road. Wormwood is conspicuous in hedges along the borders of arable fields or the roads that lead from them. The Burdock, Chicory, Yellow Toadflax, and Hemp Nettle are others that should be men- tioned here. Railway Embankments, Canal Banks. -One of the most potent factors in the distribution of weeds of cultivation and aliens is the rail- way or the canal. The railway embankment, especially in low-lying areas, forms a direct barrier to the dispersal of seeds blown by the wind across country. The embankment, which is often lofty, thus tends to accumulate or "make a corner in" the seeds so dispersed. And although a great number of such seeds doubtless do not come to maturity, yet a large proportion evidently do survive; and once they have gained a foothold manage to persist in a remarkably successful manner. The same remarks apply to a canal, which, though not usually cut through embankments, affords the same means of dispersal, though the plants dispersed are not usually of the same species. The mode of dispersal along railways and canals is difficult to determine. Many plants, apart from the part played by the track as a barrier, are dispersed by falling out, or blowing out, of seeds from goods wagons. In the up- keep of the line, or the canal, horse traffic is responsible for the dispersion of fodder plants. The goods yard and the coal wharf are centres of distribution of such plants, and so are colliery sidings. The gardens maintained by railway employees along the line an- also important factors in the spreading of plants along the line. Plants commonly found on railway banks are the Toadflaxes (including hybrids), Melilot. Mountain Crane's Hill, Euphorbia (~v/>arissias, Anthyllis Vulneraria, Lamb's Lettuce, lirassica Xapus. Stackyards and Farmyards. — As the store- house of the crops, a stack vard is a centre of dispersal for the majority of agrestal plants, which grow up with the corn, and an- cut with it, the seeds falling out during cartage, or in the winnowing or threshing bring blown out in the process. The area around a stack is open, being kept clear of weeds, so that there is every possibility of the successful germination and growth of such plants. The farmyard forms a similar dumping ground for a number of pasture and arable soil plants that grow luxuriantly in the open ground, or near manure-heaps. The origin of such weeds differs from that of those of the stackyard to some extent (or rather tin- in- direct dispersal). Primarily they come from the meadow (as hay), or from the cornfield (as straw). Hay is used as fodder for live-stock, and in this way seeds in the refuse, or in the carriage of hay from the stack to tin- stable or cowshed, get dispersed. The same applies to straw. Hut tin- refuse hay and the stra\\ u-nl for bedding are utilized as a sort of binding for manure, and in this and the latter, when turned out in the farmyard, seeds retaining 254 HINTS AND NOTES vitality occur, and germinate on the moist and warm manure -heap. Apart from this, the wind-scattered seeds previously mentioned tend to grow luxuriantly in the refuse manure scattered here and there. The following plants are characteristic : Shepherd's Purse, Common and Round- leaved Mallow, Melilot, Black Mustard, White Mustard, Burdock, Spear Thistle, Chicory, Hawksbeard, Dairy Maid's Dock. Others are Scarlet Pimpernel, Veronica Tournefortii, Corn Sow Thistle, Poppies, Charlock, &c. Gateways. — The relationship of gateways to the highways, and their characteristic florula, have already been mentioned (under Section VI); but gateways are not confined to highways, though they are naturally more frequent there than elsewhere, comparatively speaking. The plants that occupy such ground owe their position on both sides of the gateway to their dispersal by much the same method as plants along the cart-road. The foddering of live stock around a gateway is again a constant source of distribution of plants characteristic of this type of artificial habitat. The following plants are generally to be found in proximity to gateways, viz. : Knot- grass, Great Plantain, Charlock, Wart Cress, Dairy Maid's Dock, Scentless Mayweed, Bur- dock, Groundsel, &c. Quarries, Open Workings, &c. — The quarry is an artificial exposure of rock, or loosely com- pacted or clayey beds, which is opened up for economic purposes. Compared with natural exposures of rocks in cliffs, or upon hills, or other places where there is a natural outcrop, the flora is on the one hand similar, or on the other dissimilar. The similarity is due to the colonization of such exposures by plants native to the par- ticular type of rock or soil. The form of the exposure determines the type of plants that will more or less naturally find a foothold there. In some cases crevice plants, or those that grow upon bare patches of rock, quickly appear, and flourish as luxuriantly as in natural exposures. The presence of springs or the dripping character of the rock will determine the presence of others. The dissimilarity be- tween the flora of a quarry and that of a natural exposure of rock, &c., is due to the presence of numerous weeds or plants, alien to the locality or rock soil, which occur in varying proportions in the former type of habitat. The mode of introduction of such plants is not easy to determine, for this may be diverse. It is highly probable, however, that the wind plays a considerable part in this respect. Rock- faces act as barriers to the further dispersal of wind-sown plants, as to the dissemination of the fruits and seeds. Probably the plants more or less native to the district are dispersed by this means. But in a quarry there are fre- quently a number of other plants, obviously brought from a distance — in some cases foreigners or true aliens — that are undoubtedly brought by other agencies. Chief amongst these is the horse traffic in quarries, and the dispersal of fodder plants for this reason. Birds may disperse some plants with indehiscent fruits, as quarries are favourite resorts of birds. Foxes and other mammals, e.g. rabbits, may do the same by carrying the seeds or fruit in the mud on their feet, in these last two cases from no great distance. Deadly Nightshade is sometimes found in quarries. Other plants are Dyer's Weed, Rose- bay, Anthyllis, Barbarea prcecox, Melilot, Flax, Senecio viscosus, Hare's Foot Trefoil, Trifolium incarnatum, T. ochroleucon, Lucerne, &c. Allotments, Gardens, &c. — Allotments and gardens are cultivated tracts which, however, have waste places contiguous to them, and the weeds in the garden are eradicated and turned out, unless they are burnt as manure, and per- petuate themselves upon the outskirts. The garden is a particularly suitable spot for the growth of the less sturdy, succulent herbaceous annuals with more dominant and vigorous plants that form wide associations. Their occurrence or frequency even in such spots is largely sporadic, their societies being small and discontinuous, and as a rule they do not form wide or large or permanent associations. The worst conditions that such plants have to contend with are periodical multi-annual eradication and the dominance of the cultivated plants. All the other conditions make for their perfection, and it is surprising that they have retained, so far as we know, their char- acters under such artificial conditions. There are a large number of plants common to garden ground, such as Wormwood, Groundsel, Milk Thistle, Mullein, Red Dead Nettle, White Dead Nettle, Fat Hen. Other common types are Cut-leaved Dead Nettle, Grey Speedwell, Henbit Dead Nettle, the terrestrial form of Amphibious Knotgrass, Fool's Parsley, Orache, Creeping Thistle, Twitch, Annual Meadow Grass, &c. Manure Heaps, Kitchen Middens, &c.— Apart from the manure heaps that are found in farm- yards, there are others in fields, &c., but both agree in the conditions which give rise to the appearance of the plants that are especially found in such places. To a slight extent a manure heap acts as a barrier to, or receiving- house for, the seeds of plants blown thither by the wind. But this does not account for the WASTE PLACES large number of alien plants that occur upon the manure heaps. Doubtless these are partly brought there in excreta; but others are de- rived from sweepings mixed with the manure, with garden seeds, &c. And some plants may also owe their occurrence to the fact that a manure heap is used as a refuse heap, and large numbers of plants may thus become established which may be found in the village or town of the district. On manure heaps such lovely flowers as Glaucium phceniceum, Rceineria hybrida occur' also Raphanus, Canary Grass, and the Little Nettle. Kitchen middens or waste heaps often found near houses or old ruins, where there i frequently a black soil, due to the accumulation of refuse in one spot, are characterized by plants that have in the past been used for herbal remedies or in medicine, as Hound Tongue, Henbane, Belladonna, Black Night- shade, Thorn-apple, &c. The Habits of Waste-ground Plants. — Various factors enter into the characteristic habits of waste-ground plants. The richness of the soil may, as upon manure heaps, &c., cause the plants to have a diffuse, much-branched habit. The height is in this case greater than usual. Such plants as Common Mallow and Fat Hen often attain a great size. The soil of a garden has the same effect. The openness of the soil is one cause of this. The hedge plants have the pyramidal or in- versely pyramidal habit, as Greater Celandine, Goutweed, Tansy, &c. The rosette habit is a common one where many plants grow close together, and where light is not well diffused. Such plants as Shepherd's Purse, Musk Thistle, Chicory, Mullein, &c., have this habit. This also is an advantage where the soil is dry. Common Mouse-ear duckweed has a grass habit, with the leaf margins recurved, and with a hairy stem. Many plants have the trailing or prostrate habit, but these are not found in the habitats in which many plants grow closely associated as a rule. They occur on sandy wastes, as Stork's Bill, or on banks, as Creeping Toad- flax, or on gateways, as Knotgrass. The succulent Dead Nettles have stems at first prostrate, which helps to strengthen the stem. Burdock, Milk Thistle, Belladonna, are bushy in habit. The Height of Waste-ground Plants. — Growing under variable conditions as regards the habitat, and the mode of association of the components of each florula, waste-ground plants vary a great deal in the height to which they are capable of attaining. This is largely dependent upon habit, and the relation of the latter to light. For where plants vary in re- spect of height, it is usually where the plants grow close together and have no elbow-room that they grow tall and lank, whilst where the ground is less occupied they are bushy and not so tall. From i in. to 3 or 4 in. is an unusual height, but is the usual limit of the trailing plants, as Stork's Bill, Knotgrass, Creeping Toadflax, though they may sometimes reach a much greater height. Six inches to a foot is the normal height of the rosette plants and those with a grass habit, as Shepherd's Purse, Mouse-ear, Chickweed, Stinking Mayweed, Groundsel, Hawksbeard, Henbane, Toadflax, Purple Dead Nettle, White Dead Nettle, Good King Henry, Wall Barley; but they may also, under abnormal or especially favourable con- ditions, become much taller. Greater Celandine, Goutweed, Tansy, Musk Thistle (to 3 ft.), Hound's Tongue, Viper's Bugloss, Fat Hen, Dairy Maid's Dock (to 3 ft.), range from 2 ft. upward, the habit being pyramidal. Others are 3 ft. or more, as Burdock, Spear Thistle, Chicory, Belladonna; whilst Mallow, Melilot, are 4 ft. or more, Milk Thistle 5 ft., Mullein 6 ft., Bittersweet as much as 20 ft., being a climber. Flowering Seasons of Wayside Plants.— The waste place is, as a rule, a dry habitat. The soil is sandy, seldom clayey. Everything in the habitat tends to promote the early flower- ing of the plants. But contrary to what we should expect, the majority of the plants do not bloom till fairly late. But there are two features that are connected with waste-ground plants and their flowering that to some extent explain this. Few, except the larger woody plants, as Mallow, are perennials. And in general it may be stated that the plants that are peren- nial flower early, annuals later, and biennials still later. Another feature is the almost perennial flowering period of some plants, as Shepherd's Purse, Groundsel, which may be found in bloom almost any month, and much the same may be said of Mouse-ear Chickweed, Hawks- beard, Purple and White Dead Nettle, &c. Relatively few flower in April, as Stork's Bill and White Dead Nettle generally, and Knotgrass. In May, Greater Celandine, Mal- low, Goutweed, Purple Dead Nettle, Good King Henry, flower. In June the majority come into bloom, as Mouse-ear Chickweed, Melilot, Stinking Mayweed, Spear Thistle, Hawksbeard, Hound's Tongue, Bittrr-\v< •.•[, Belladonna, Henbane, Toadflax, Dairy Maid's Dock, Wall Barley. A number do not even lower till July, such as Tansy, Burdock, 256 HINTS AND NOTES Musk Thistle, Milk Thistle, Chicory, Viper's Bugloss, Mullein, Creeping Toadflax, Fat Hen. These later-flowering plants bear more flowers or florets than the earlier-flowering plants, which opens up a hitherto unrevealed principle. The Duration of Waste-ground Plants. — Intimately connected as the flowering periods and duration of all plants are, as has been seen in the case of the groups of plants chosen to illustrate each habitat, no section reveals this more forcibly than the present one. The plants that make it up are of four types : annuals, biennials, triennials, and perennials, and the three former greatly exceed the last. It is to be emphasized here that the annuals do not bloom till June. They have to produce from seed all the organs necessary for plant- life with growth and power of reproduction ; whereas perennials have a root and rootstock and stem base already made, and in some cases the leaves persist, or at least the branches, whilst a fresh stock of radical leaves often arises in autumn to protect the new aerial stem or shoot of next year, e.g. Sisymbrium, Barbnrea, Bal- Juta, Rumex, &c., and in a mild winter these survive, and serve as an asset in spring. The annual plants described are Shepherd's Purse, Mouse-ear Chickweed, Melilot, Stink- ing Mayweed, Groundsel, Musk Thistle, Hawksbeard, Purple Dead Nettle, Fat Hen, Wall Barley. The biennial plants are Bur- dock, Spear Thistle, Hound's Tongue, Viper's Bugloss, Mullein, all plants that are clothed with down or hairs. Milk Thistle and Hen- bane are triennial. Belladonna is also appa- rently biennial in some cases. The perennials include Greater Celandine, Mallow, Stork's Bill, Goutweed, Tansy, Chicory, Bittersweet, Belladonna (usually), Creeping Toadflax, Toadflax, White Dead Nettle, Good King Henry, Dairy Maid's Dock. It is curious that in some genera only one species, e.g. Good King Henry, should be perennial, the rest annual. It is highly pro- bable that all were perennial at first. Pollination of Waste-ground Plants. — The mixture of waste-ground plants, which in many cases consists of plants distributed ow- ing to certain properties they possess, causes a considerable diversity in their degree of attrac- tiveness to insects, apart from the possession of honey, pollen, or sweet juices. As a whole the flowers may be said to be conspicuous and brilliantly coloured, and some, as the Mallow, are wide open and large. Rather large flowers or flowerheads are also not uncommon, as in Greater Celandine, Melilot, Tansy, all yellow, Musk Thistle, Spear Thistle, Milk Thistle, Chicory, Viper's Bugloss. Three poisonous plants, Bitter- sweet, Belladonna, Henbane, have noxious aromas, and so has Hound's Tongue, and ab- normal colours. The closed flowers of the Toadflaxes, and hooded flowers of the Dead Nettles, are all adapted to insect visits. Shepherd's Purse and Mouse-ear Chickweed, with inconspicuous small flowers, are adapted equally to self- or cross-pollination, and Stork's Bill also, as well as Groundsel. Goutweed, Stinking Mayweed, Burdock, Hawksbeard, all have more or less conspicuous, though not such brilliant or large flowers. In Mouse-ear Chickweed and Mallow and Stork's Bill the anthers are ripe first. The Musk Thistle is a dioecious plant. In the Purple Dead Nettle the anthers and stigma mature simultaneously, and the same applies to Knotgrass, which has also cleistogamic flowers. The Goosefoots, Fat Hen, and Good King Henry, the Dairy Maid's Dock, and Wall Barley are pollinated by the agency of the wind. The rest are adapted to insect visits, or failing such they are in some cases self-fertile. The Dispersal of Seeds of Waste-ground Plants. — The diversity of habitats of waste- ground plants is perhaps correlated with the different modes of dispersal of the seeds. As a whole the habitats are not open, and require special means for the dispersal of the seeds. The prevalence of annuals demands the pro- duction of a large number of seeds, and a large proportion of the plants, as the Docks and Goosefoots, produce a considerable number ot flowers. The gregariousness of many of the plants also within limited areas has an impor- tant bearing upon the mode of dispersal. The agency of man in distributing such aliens independently of the mode of dispersal to a large extent determines their distribution. Railways and canals are important agents in dispersal ; but principally there is the carrying on of agriculture and the carriage of crops from one spot to another, from the field to the stackyard. The manuring of ground also plays an extensive part in the spreading of aliens or other types of waste-ground plants. Some plants depend upon their own mode of dispersal, as Greater Celandine (which is also dispersed by ants), Shepherd's Purse, Mallow, Stork's Bill (in which the seed are dispersed by an elastic movement, and in which the long awn is hygroscopic), Melilot, Viper's Bugloss, Henbane (also wind-dispersed), Mullein, Creep- ing and Common Toadflax, Purple Dead Nettle, White Dead Nettle, Fat Hen (also wind-dispersed), Good King Henry (also wind- dispersed). In many cases the seeds of fruits are small ; and in other cases, as in numerous Composites, provided with hairs and dispersed WASTE PLACES 257 by wind, as Mouse-ear Chickweed, Goutweed (flattened fruits), Stinking Mayweed (winged achenes), Tansy (achene membranous), Groundsel, Musk Thistle, Spear Thistle, Milk Thistle, Chicory, Hawksbeard, Knotgrass, Dock, Wall Barley. The burs of Burdock are hooked and catch in the wool of sheep, and on recoiling are shot to a distance away. Hound's Tongue, Bitter- sweet, and Belladonna, are also dispersed by animal agency. The Soil of Waste Places.— The artificial character of waste ground to some extent causes the plants that colonize it to become independent of soil conditions. The variety of habitat ensures the variety in the soil as a whole. The proximity of some types of habi- tat to farmyards, and manure heaps in parti- cular, and the dominance of luxuriant, sturdy weeds upon them, may be due to the ousting of weaklings, or to the antipathy of other plants for richness of soil with abundance of nitrogenous materials. Quarries cut out of solid rock are excavated in various rocks giving diverse types of soil, and the alien plants grow upon the waste materials, which have little effect upon them apparently. By far the greater number of waste-ground plants described in this chapter are usually found upon sandy or loamy soils. A few re- quire some proportion of humus whilst toler- ating a sandy soil. These are, in general, hedgerow plants, as Greater Celandine. Some require clay or humus, as Goutweed, Spear Thistle (clay or sand), Purple Dead Nettle (clay), White Dead Nettle (clay or sand), Dairy Maid's Dock (clay or humus). Stork's Bill and Hound's Tongue, whilst growing on sandy soil, are frequently Halo- phytes, growing on sandy coasts in many dis- tricts. Viper's Bugloss, Creeping and Common Toadflax, grow also upon chalk or limestone, but on waste ground frequently upon sand. Methods of Survey.— Owing to the ephemeral character of waste ground there is not the same necessity to map exactly the vegetation of such tracts where plants vary from year to year, e.g. gardens, &c. But certain places are more permanent than others, and in such cases a survey may be made, as in the case of pas- tures and meadows. The mode of studying hedgerows near vil- lages is similar to that of hedgerows in gnu-nil (see Section VI). Sandy wastes may, how- ever, be carefully surveyed, square by square, as in the case of fields and other permanent continuous types of vegetation. Cart-roads can be dealt with in the same ways as roads, the casuals being especially noted. Railway embankments, canal banks, may be treated much in the same way as pas- tures, but the actual occurrence of the casuals or aliens is the particular object in view. Quarries should be studied to show the native flora and the casual flora under separate heads. The influence of the rock soil on the former should be studied carefully. Printed •it liriiain i'y K. & K. CI.AHK, I.IMIT THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. JHL iei989 lRET'DJUL.151989 Series 9482