BRITISH WILD FLOWERS FLOWKRS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES PLATE L I. (irc.it Spcarwnrt ( Raniimulus Liu^u.i, L.) 2. Marsh Marigold ( Callha pahtstris, L.) 3. Grass of Tarnasstis (I\irnaisia falaslris, L.) 4. Sundew (Droscra totitndifolia, L.) 5. Water Dro[)woit (CEnatit/ieJistuIosa, L.) KEY TO PLATE L No. l. Great Spcarwort (Jta***CMi*s Lingvo, L.) a, Achene. d, Upper stem- leaf, and upper part of plant with stem-leaf, with axillary flower-buds, and one terminal flower, with 5 petals, and stamens on hairy flower- Marsh Marigold (CcUtha palustris, L.) a, Group of 8 follicles, with seeds, b, Seed, c, Upper part of plant, with stem-leaf, flowers in various stages, i expanded, showing 5 petal- oid sepals and stamens (in- definite), with central follicles. No. 3. Grass of Parnassus (Pamassia palustris, L.) a, Flower, on long peduncle, showing 5 petals, 5 stamens with 5 scales between, and central pistil. The 5 sepals alternating with petals can a be jus* seen. .&, Scale, with glands enlarged, r, Seed. d, Capsule, with valves and recurved persistent sepals. c. Flower, with upper stem- leaf, showing 5 s,-|,,ils /; Rootstock, with radical ; leaves (compare these with those of Valeriana ,„. d No. 5. Water Dropwort a, Flower (enlarged), from above, show- ing irregular petals, notched, indexed, 5 stamens, and pistil. />, Partial umbel, with pistils, showing 2 divergent styles. ct Flower, with calyx teeth, petals fallen, and pistil with spreading styles. '*- ;£& ••^••••KaflBflDH GRKAT SPKARWORT (Ranunculus Lingua, L.) MARSH MARIGOLD 9 cross-pollinate some stigmas, those alighting first on petals touching the anther and stigmas, either causing cross- or self-pollination. The flower being half-drooping may also be self-pollinated from this reason. The visitors are Flies, or Diptera, Syrphidae, Syritta, Cheilosia, Meli- tkreptus, Muscidse, Scatophaga, Antkomyia; Hymenoptera, Apidae, Halictus', Lepidoptera, Satyrus, Pamphilus. Spearwort is dispersed by its own agency. The achenes are aggre- gate, and dispersed around the parent plant. This handsome species is a Hydro- phyte or water plant and aquatic, or a Helophyte or marsh plant. A fungus, sEcidium ranunculacearum, forms orange-yellow groups of " cluster- cups " on the leaves. The specific name (once a genus) Lingua was bestowed by Pliny, and means a tongue, and was used in allusion to the shape of the leaves. Possibly Pliny's plant, however, was the Hart's Tongue. It is called also Spear Crowfoot and Sparrow Weed. The Lesser Spearwort was used under the name "flame" as a cure for "cankers" or ulcers. It is a poisonous plant, and the Lesser Spearwort is of the same nature. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 6. Ranunculus Lingita, L. — Stem- leaves entire, subserrate, sessile, stem erect, flowers large, yellow, carpels pitted, style broad with ensiform tip. GREAT SPHARWORT (Ranunculus Lingua, L.) Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris, L.) This is an Arctic plant found in Pre-, Inter-, and Late Glacial, Neolithic, and Roman deposits. It is a plant of the Cold Temperate and Arctic regions, found in Arctic Europe, North and W. Asia, as far as the Himalayas, and in North America. So widely distributed a plant occurs in every part of Great Britain, and in Scotland grows at 3400 ft. in the Highlands. It is found in Ireland. The Marsh Marigold is hygrophilous, i.e. fond of moisture, always confined to marshy tracts, where there are some lime salts in the soil. It io FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES is associated in spring with the early-flowering sedges, and sallows, and osiers, and with it grow the marsh-loving Horse-tail, and the pale lilac- tinted Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock. In such marshy tracts it forms big clumps which cover the water-meadows as with intertwining chains of gold. It prefers the damp hollows where it is half-rooted in spongy, watery ground. It is found also by stream-sides and in swampy woods. The Marsh Marigold has a prostrate or somewhat erect habit. The plant is dark-green, rank, hairless, forming conspicuous clusters with Photo. J. H. Crabtrce MARIGOLD (Caltha palustris, L.) attractive blooms. The rootstock is horizontal, short, the stem not rooting at the nodes. The stem may be erect or ascending. The radical leaves are long- stalked, rounded, heart-shaped, with two deep lobes at the base, and a narrow sinus, scalloped, toothed, glossy. The stipules are membranous, entire in bud, and enclose the leaf. The flowers are few, terminal, regular, large. Sepals of a bright yellow colour take the place of the petals. They are overlapping and close, unequal, round to egg-shaped. The follicles are spreading, with a very short beak, and many-seeded. Marsh Marigold is i-i^ ft. high. Flowers may be found from March to May, and this is a perennial plant. The flower is rendered conspicuous by the petaloid yellow sepals. There is an abundance of honey, which is secreted in two shallow MARSH MARIGOLD n depressions below the ovary, and is protected, as there are no petals, by a fold which helps to retain it. The plant is homogamous, that is to say the stigma and the pistil ripen at the same time, and in the ordinary course, as they are more or less on a level, self-pollination would result. But the flowers are much visited, and hence they are fre- quently cross-pollinated. Furthermore, the anthers open away from the centre or pistil, i.e. outwards, the outer series first. There are in some countries flowers which have no pistil, a further reduction of the floral axis, along with the ordinary type. The flowers are 40 mm. in diameter, and hence attractive. The visitors are Diptera (Stratiomyidae), Odontomyia, (Syrphidae), Cheilosia, Ascia, Rhingia, Eristalis, (Muscidse), Scatophaga, Anthomyia; Cole- optera (Nitidulidae), Meligethes\ Hymenoptera (Apidae), Andrena, Osmia rufa, Bombus terrestris, Apis mellifica, &c. The seeds are dispersed by the wind. The aggregate fruits con- sist of many follicles, with many seeds which are blown out by the wind when the follicle is ripe and dry. The Marsh Marigold is a peat-loving plant, being dependent on a more or less peaty soil, or acid humus, such as that afforded by a bog, or when alkaline by a marsh. Puccinia calthce is a fungus which infests it, as does Pseudopeziza calthcz. The beetles Donacia dentipes, D. lemnce, Prasocuris hannoverana feed on it, and the Homopterous insect Dorthesia urtictz. Caltha, given by Pliny, is the Latin name of some plant, probably the Pot Marigold, and palustris refers to its marshy habitat. The English name is from Mary (i.e. Virgin Mary), and gold, in allusion to its colour. This plant is called Bassinet, Blob, Boots, Bullflower, Butter-blob, Big Watercup, Great Butter-flower, Carlock-cups, Chirms, Claut, Crow Cranes, Crazy, Dandelion, Drunkard, Fire o' Gold, Water Goggles, Golden Cup, Gollin, Halcups, John Georges, Johnny Cranes, King- cob, Marsh Mallow, Mare-blob, Mayflower, Meadow Bouts, Moll-blob, Publicans and Sinners, Soldier's Buttons. In Oxfordshire Marsh Marigolds and Buttercups are called Publicans and Sinners. "The wild marsh marigold shines like fire." — Tennyson: alluding to the name Will (Wild) fire. It is called Open Gowan from its open flowers, as opposed to the closed flowers of the Lockin Gowan. It is said in Iceland that if the Marsh Marigold is taken with certain ceremonies and carried about it will prevent the wearer from 12 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES having an angry word spoken to him. It is very acrid and poisonous, and those who have eaten it have been affected by it. The buds are salted and pickled in the same way as capers. From the "petals" a yellow dye is extracted, after boiling- with alum. It is not eaten by cattle unless there is a lack of other herbage. Children use it for making garlands on May Day. The "petals" are often eaten by a beetle ( Ckrysomcla ). ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — ii. Caltha palustris, L. — Stems numerous, erect, leaves reniform, large, shiny, sepals yellow, large, petals wanting, follicles with short beak. Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris, L.) There are not any instances of the occurrence of Grass of Par- nassus in early beds. It is confined to the North Temperate Zone of Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, Western Asia, as far east as N.W. Hima- layas, E. and W. North America. It is found generally in Great Britain, but not in the Peninsula province in Dorset; and in S. Hants only in the Channel province; not in Kent or S. Essex in the Thames province; throughout Anglia; not in W. Gloucs, Monmouth, Here- ford in the Severn province. In Wales it occurs only in Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, and Anglesea; in the Trent province; throughout the Mersey, H umber, and Tyne provinces; and in the Lakes province generally, except in the Isle of Man. It is found in the whole of the W. Lowlands; not in Peebles or Selkirk in the E. Lowlands; or Stirling, N. Perth in E. Highlands; throughout the W. Highlands, except in N. Ebudes; and in the N. Highlands, except in W. Ross; in the North Isles, except in the Hebrides. It is found at 2700 ft. in the Highlands. This beautiful plant is one of the features of bogs in the autumn, when its white flowers are scattered in profusion over the flat water- meadows around more truly boggy tracts. It is found in such places as the Great Spearwort, Sundew, Bog Pimpernel, Water Violet, Bog Speedwell, Marsh Lousewort, Butterwort, Bladderwort, Bog Bean, Marsh Helleborine, Marsh Orchis, Cotton Grass, and other hygro- philous or helophilous plants frequent. 1 his is not a grass, but a delicate herbaceous plant, with few flowering stems, slender, erect or wavy, angular, bearing a single, clasping, stalkless leaf halfway up the stem. The radical leaves are stalked with a heart-shaped form. The plant has the rosette habit. I he flowers are of a beautiful cream or white colour, with free, GRASS OF PARNASSUS 13 blunt sepals. The veined petals have a short claw, and the honey is contained in fringed petal-like yellow scales or nectaries. There are 4 stigmas. The flower in sunshine is sweet-scented, but loses its scent at night. The Grass of Parnassus is about 10 in. high at its best. It is a late-flowering plant, blooming from August to October. The plant is a deciduous, herbaceous perennial, increased by division. Only 5 anthers are borne on the 10 stamens, the others are melli- ferous at the bottom, and are crowned by as many as 17 yellow globular glands, resem- bling honey, but dry. They may serve to attract flies. The immature an- thers lie near the conical ovary, which rises up in the centre and overtops them. They ripen first successively, and elongat- ing come to just above the top of the stigma, with the back to it, and open away from it, and as each does this another follows each day, and afterwards the stigmas on the sixth day develop. The nectaries are just opposite each petal, alternate with the stamens, and each is shortly stalked, with a broad, fleshy disk, secreting honey in two hollow depressions, or on the inner side, and they leave it fully ex- posed. The yellow-knobbed glandular bodies or staminodes surround the base of the ovary, and render the nectaries conspicuous, but they are dry though they look like drops of liquid, and flies are deceived by it, the smaller travelling round the flower, the larger resting in the middle, dusting their sides with pollen in younger flowers, cross-pollinating older ones if they pass out to them. The visitors are Eristalis, Helophilus, Syrphns, Melanostoma, Mclithreptus, Syritta, Sarcophaga, Pollenia, Tipula, Tentkrcdo, Ichneumonids, Pem- pkilus, Gorytcs, Coccinella. The capsule is many-seeded, and is membranous, allowing the ••I Photo. Flatters & Can GRASS OF PARNASSrs (Parnassia pahistris, L.) (probably var. condensata, Wheldon and Travis) i4 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES seeds to be emptied out by the wind. The seeds are minute and weigh only .00003 of a grain. Grass of Parnassus is a peat-loving plant and requires a humus or peat soil, which is to be found only in moist situations on a variety of rock soils. A cluster-cup fungus, Uromyces parnassue, attacks the Grass of Parnassus. Parnassia, Linnaeus, is from the Mount of Parnassus, and was called gramcu parnassium by Dodonaeus. The second name (also Latin) refers to its paludal habitat. Grass of Parnassus is called White Buttercups, White Liverwort. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — in. Parnassiapalustris, L. — Stem erect, short, radical leaves petio- late, cordate flowers solitary, white, large, petals veined, with claw, with scales or nectaries fringed with hairs, and yellow glands. Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia, L.) This interesting plant is found to-day, and not earlier, so far as we know, in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Siberia, Western Asia, East and West North America, from the Arctic Circle to Florida. In Great Britain it is absent from North Wilts, East (iloucs, W. Gloucs, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Flint, Mid Lanes, Linlith- gow, Stirling; and in the Highlands is found at 2300 ft.; but in many counties where it once grew it has disappeared owing to drainage, &c. Wherever the Sundew is found it is a certain sign of the existence, now or formerly, of a typical bog. It is a plant of the bog or heath, living the life of a Xerophyte, and is associated with such true bog plants as Grass of Parnassus, Cranberry, Rosemary, Bog Pimpernel, Lousewort, Butterwort, Bladderwort, Bog Myrtle, Bog Asphodel, &c. It prefers a shallow pool or wet ground in the middle of some upland bog, where it grows on spongy peat. The interest attaching to this peculiar plant refers not to its habit of growth so much as to its habit of capturing and assimilating its food, which in this case is organic. It is, in other words, insectivorous, attracting and imprisoning flies in, and by aid of, its glandular sticky leaves (hence the first Latin and English names), which close up when touched, being highly sensitive. The juices secreted1 in the hollow of 1 The secretion, which is shiny, giving the plant its name, is at the base of the glandular tentacles which enable the plant to capture its prey. Sir Francis Darwin found that plants fed on meat were more vigorous than those kept without animal food. See also Charles Darwin, Insectivorous Plants. SUNDEW 15 the leaf are able to digest the flies, just as food is digested by gastric juices in the stomach. The Sundew is not a tall plant, having long-stalked, rounded leaves (as broad as long, hence the second Latin name), fringed with glands and tentacles. The general shape is spoon-shaped. The racemose flower-stalks, with flowers all turned one way, are more or less erect. The flower-stalk is without leaves. The flowers are small SUNDEW (Drosera rolundtfolia, L.) and white, only opening in sunshine. In the autumn stoles with bulbs are put forth. This " plant-animal " is about 6 in. high. The flowers bloom in July and August. It is perennial. The flowers are cleistogamic. The stamens are numerous, and united with the petals, which do not fall. The anthers open outwards, and cross -pollination is thereby en- couraged. The flowers are in two series. The styles are bent inwards, and the stigmas are club-shaped. The anthers and stigmas ripen together. Insects, usually flies, are attracted to the glandular leaves, and imprisoned and slowly digested, and pollination may be assisted by the miscarriage of such efforts to utilize insect prisoners for food by their being attracted instead to the flowers. The capsule splitting opposite each loculus allows the seeds to be dispersed to some distance around the parent plant. 1 6 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES Sundew is a peat-loving plant, and can only subsist in a peaty soil, which is obtained in certain moist hollows on hills and lowland grouna. Drosera, Cordus, is from drosos, dew, and the second Latin name refers to its rounded leaves. Sundew is called Lust-wort, Moor-grass, Moor-wort, Red Rot, Rosa Solis, Youth-wort. It is called Red Rot because " Sheepherds do call it the Red Rot because it rotteth sheep". The name " Rosa Solis " is also the name for a liquor prepared from it. In regard to the name Sundew Lyte says: "This herbe is of a very strange nature and marvellous, for although that the sunne doe shine not, and a long time thereon, yet you shall finde it alwaies moist and bedewed, and the small haires thereof alwaies full of little drops of water, and the hotter the sun shineth upon this herbe, so much the moyster it is, and the more bedewed, and for that cause it was called Rosa solis in Latine, which is to say in English, the dewe of the sun, or sun Dewe ". The Italian liqueur Rossoli is prepared from it in part. It is acrid and caustic, and curdles milk. The Sundew was supposed to remove warts and corns, and to take away freckles and sunburn, presumably in the last case by Doctrine of Signatures! This plant produces a stimulating spirit when distilled with wine. It was once used as a tincture. ESSKXTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — n 6. Droscra rotundifolia, L. — Leaves obovate, flat, with red glands, radical, petioles hairy, flowers small, white, on long stalks, seeds chaffy. Water Dropwort (CEnanthe fistulosa, L.) In spite of its tender character this plant has been found and identi- fied from seeds in Interglacial beds at West Wittering in Sussex. It is found in the North Temperate Zone at the present day in Europe and X. Africa. In this country it is found throughout the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces, except in the last in Monmouth; in Wales only in Glamorgan, Brecon, Carnarvon; Trent provinces; in the Mersey province, except in Mid Lanes; in the H umber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces; and in Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Ayr, Renfrew, Berwick, Mid Perth, or from Ayr southwards. It is rare in Scotland, but common in Ireland. \\ ater Dropwort is a hygrophilous or moisture-loving species which is found in most marshes, and in wet places where a marsh may once have existed formerly. It is also found in ditches, and on the borders WATER DROPWORT 17 of rivers, lakes, ponds, and other tracts of water; but most profusely in water meadows, in hollows once (or now) forming part of a marsh. As the second Latin name denotes, the stem and the leaf-stalks of this plant are fistular or hollow. It is freely stoloniferous, with Photo. Flatters & Garnett WATER DROPWORT (CEnanthe fistulosa, L.) creeping stems or shoots, and forms extensive beds where it grows for that reason, and being tall and erect they dot the wet meadows in summer over a wide area. The stem leaves have thread-like pinnae. The stalks exceed the leaves in length, these last being 2-3, pinnate, with leaflets divided into three nearly to the base. The flowers are white, in small umbels with few rays, stout flower- VOL. V. 64 1 8 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES stalks, and no bracts or leaf- like organs. The fruits are numerous, crowded, angular. The plant is 2-3 ft. high, and flowers from July to September. It is perennial, increased by stolons. As the first Greek name implies, the Water Dropwort (and others) has a smell like wine, which helps to make it attractive to insects. The outer flowers are male, and the plant is polygamous. The petals are in flexed or turned inwards, the styles are long, erect, and armed with points. It is arranged so that insects can cross-pollinate it. The visitors are Stratiomys, Empis livida, E. rustica, Ant her ix, Syritta pi pic us, Eristalis nemorum, E. arbustorum, E. sepulcralis, Luc ilia, Trichius fasciatus, Macropis, Heriades, The anthers and stigma ripen together in some flowers which are complete in the centre. The fruits are flattened, angular, and furrowed, and so the more readily dispersed by the wind, and being but slightly attached are easily detached by it or by passing animals. This is one of the peat-loving plants that require a peaty soil in which to flourish, and where the conditions are more or less perpetually moist. A beetle, Lixus paraplecticus, a moth, Depressaria nemosa, and a fly, Simulium reptans, feed upon it. CE nan the, Theophrastus, is from the Greek oinos, wine, anthos, flower, and the second Latin name refers to its fistular character. It is called Water Dropwort and Hemlock Dropwort. It is a poisonous plant like Wild Celery, Fool's Parsley, and other umbellifers. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 128. CEnanthe fistulosa, L. — Root fibrous, slender, with runners, stem hollow, leaves pinnate, shorter than the petioles, which are fistular, the lower ones flat, flowers white at first, pink, in few-rayed umbels, fruit with rigid divergent or spreading styles. Valerian (Valeriana dioica, L.) Widespread as a marsh plant Valerian is found throughout the North Temperate Zone in Europe generally. In Great Britain it is found in Cornwall and S. Somerset in the Peninsula province; throughout the whole of the Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in Glamorgan, Brecon, Montgomery, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, and Anglesea in Wales; in the whole of the Trent and Mersey provinces, except in Mid Lanes; and in the Humber, Tyne, Lakes pro- vinces, except in the Isle of Man. In Scotland it is found in Dum- KEY TO PLATE LI No. i. Valerian No. 2. Cranberry {Oxycoccus palustris, Pe f^fiiVlf r ; \f^ T\ 1 a, Staminate floret, v.ith 5 petals, tubular below, and stamens in centre. /', iillruu tiorct, showing cpr< with pistil, and inferior ov t, KruU, crowned by pappus. rf, Upper pai'fcNof plaint] with pinnatifid steni-^ej^es jfn posite pairs, with Hb^irfT-in cyme in various s jn, with putyle nlani«.-nt ?d^fl yellow ant^S^yiu Berry, ^•^ Plant, showin^j^Weeping rooting stem, alter^ai^avesj Nc. 3. St. Dabe^cf^iiSalk'. pabaeriapolifolia, R. & B.). (See VdC#Er Stamen,, \wuhSa3nJe4_ an- rs. A, pVftry, wrth style, 5^ ^P*rt of ring stem, with leaves, flowers drooping, with ( ^revolu«\/C;Orolla k>bes, and 4 sepal^ A^C^H *toges. OT Y3W - • FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES PLATE LI i. Valerian (I'aleriaiia diocia, L.). 2. Cranberry (Oxycotcus palustrts, Pers.). 3- St. Daboec's Heath (Dabacia folifolia, Don.). 4. Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tendla, Murr. ). 5. Water Violet (Hotlonia palustris, L.). VALERIAN 19 fries, Kirkcudbright, Ayr; in E. Lowlands in Roxburgh, Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Fife, Stirling, and W. Suther- land; and up to 2000 ft. in Northumberland. It is absent from Ireland. Valerian grows in moist places such as wet meadows, marshes, and bogs. There it is as common as Water Dropwort, Marsh Marigold, Joint Rush, Marsh Arrowgrass, Common Spike Rush, and many other paludal types of vegetation. Tall and graceful, Valerian has simple stems with egg-shaped, stalked, radical leaves, spoon -shaped, and VALERIAN (Valeriana dioica, L.) undivided. The stem -leaves are pinnatifid, or with lobes divided nearly to the base, few, obtusely and coarsely toothed. The stem is square in section. As the second Latin name suggests, the plants have stamens and pistils on different flowers. The first as well as the second has an inconspicuous calyx, with a prominent rim round the top of the ovary in the female. The flowers are tetramorphic. The corolla is mono- petalous, with small tube, and has either rudimentary or no anthers, or the corolla may be large or smaller, with no pistil or a very rudi- mentary one. There are 3 stamens, which protrude from the flesh- coloured petals. The flowers are panicled. The fruit is small, ribbed, and smooth. 20 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The Valerian is 1-2 ft. high. It flowers in May and July. It is a deciduous, herbaceous plant increased by division. The honey is secreted in a small pouch with a green, fleshy ring .', mm. from the base of the tube. The flowers are dioecious, stamens and pistils being on different plants, and are usually cross-pollinated. The male flowers are larger than the female, and are the first to be visited; but the female open first according to Kerner. The tube in the male plant is 2^ to 3^ mm. long, wider above; the female is only i mm., and the honey is accessible to short- lipped insects. The capitulum or head of the flower is not as conspicuous as in l^. offici- nal is. It flowers so early that the plant is exposed to much less competition. Insects are numerous but not varied. There are 4 kinds of flowers: i, male flower without rudiment of pistil and large corolla; 2, male flower with rudimentary pistil and smaller corolla; 3, female (lower with traces of anthers and still smaller corollas; 4, female flower with scarcely any trace of anthers and very small corollas. It is visited by . I pis nielli fica, Andrciia albic-ans, Eristalis arbnstornni, Rhingia rostrata, Tipula, Picris napi, Meligethes. The calyx of the fruit is provided with feathery hairs which aid in wind dispersal. This Valerian is addicted to wet land, and a peat-loving plant, re- quiring a more or less peaty habitat, such as that of a marsh or bog. Two little fungi may be discovered parasitic upon it. They are ( 'roiuyces I 'alcriamc and Synchytrium anreum. A Thysanopterous insect, Phltrothrips albif>cnnis, and a moth, Dcprcssaria pulchcriiuclla feed upon it. \\ilcriana may be from the Latin valcrc, tc be powerful or well, because.' of its medicinal effects, and the second Latin name refers to its (lid-clous character. This plant is an ornamental plant. It has been used for hysteria. Cats are fond of it, and rat-catchers also employ it. K-M.NTIAI. Si'Kcinc CHARACTERS: — 145. Valcriana dioica, L. — Stem erect, radical leaves ovate, petio- late, stem-leaves pinnatifid, with terminal lobe, plants imperfectly dioecious, flowers white or rose-coloured, staminate flowers larger. Cranberry (Oxycoccus palustris, Pers. = O. quadripetala, Gilib.) Though an Arctic plant the Cranberry has not been found in any early deposits. At the present day it occurs in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, but not in Turkey, in N. Asia, and CRANBERRY 21 America. It is local in Great Britain, found only in Somerset in the Peninsula province; the Isle of Wight, N. Hants, and Sussex in the Channel province; Surrey, S. Essex in the Thames province; E. Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Hunts in Anglia; but does not occur in Gloucs or Hereford in the Severn province; not in Radnor or Pem- broke in S. Wales; and in N. Wales, not in Montgomery or Merioneth; in the Trent province, not in Leics; in the Mersey province, not in Mid Lanes; in the H umber province, not in S.E. Yorks; but throughout Photo. Hlati CRANBERRY (Oxycoccus palustris, Pers. = O, qtiadripetala, Gilib.) the Tyne and Lakes provinces, except in the Isle of Man; in the West Lowlands, not in Wigtown; in E. Lowlands, not in Peebles, Selkirk, Haddington, or Linlithgow; in the E. Highlands generally, except in N. Aberdeen and Elgin; in Dumbarton, Cantire, North Ebudes, and E. Ross. It ascends to 2700 ft. in the Highlands. It is native in Ireland. Cranberry is a true bog-loving plant, growing at high elevations in spongy peat-bogs where Sphagnum and other bog-mosses grow. It is associated with Grass of Parnassus, Sundew, Wild Rosemary, Bog Pimpernel, Bog Speedwell, Butterwort, Bladderwort, Bog Myrtle, Bog Asphodel, and many others. 22 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The acid nature of the fruit is referred to in the first Greek name. The plant is a trailing evergreen, with a rooting angular stem, slender, and creeping. The leaves are egg-shaped, lance-shaped, coarsely- toothed, with turned-back margin, entire, and bluish-green below. The flowers are pink with a wheel-shaped corolla, and the flower- stalks are i -flowered, terminal, slender, long, and simple. The seg- ments of the red corolla are turned back. The stem is 3 in. high at most. Flowering is in full swing in June, right up to August. The flower is in bloom for nearly three weeks. It is a shrub, perennial, propagated by layers, and worth culti- vating for the fruit. The flowers are as in the Whortleberry, but the corolla is wheel- shaped, and the anthers, which are broad, are awnless. The stamens form a tube and are projecting, the anthers being yellow, and the filaments purple and pubescent. The corolla lobes are narrow and linear. The style is filiform, the stigma blunt. The stamens on the outside are closely ranked, and insect visitors must penetrate to the stigma between the anthers. The berry is edible and red when ripe, and is eaten and dispersed in this way. The Cranberry is a peat-loving plant which grows only in a humus or peaty soil, and is confined to certain woods and hilly moors. A beetle, Chailocnema saklbergi, two moths, Manchester Treble-bar (Carsia imbutata], Mesotype virgata, are found upon it. Oxycoccus, Cordus, is from the Greek oxys, sharp, coccus, fruit or berry, because of its acridity, and Cranberry is given because it is ripe when the cranes (as they call herons) appear. The second Latin name refers to the 4 petals. The names by which it is known include Bog-berry, Corn- berries, Cramberries, Cranberry, Craneberry, Cranna-berries, Craw- berry, Crawnberries, Crone, Crones, Fenberry, Fen-grapes, Marsh Berries, Marsh Worts, Moonog, Moor-berries, Moss-berries, Moss Millions, &c. The berries are sharp, and used in tarts and preserves. This rare heath is capable of cultivation. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 191. Oxycoccus quadripetala, Gilib. — Shrub, stem prostrate, filiform, rooting, leaves small, glaucous below, margins revolute, evergreen, flowers rose, terminal, corolla rotate, segments reflexed, berries scarlet. WILD ROSEMARY Wild Rosemary (Andromeda polifolia, L.) Though not found there at the present day this typical bog plant has been discovered in Late Glacial beds at Hailes and Corstorphine near Edinburgh. At the present time it is found in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic and Alpine Europe (not in Greece or in Turkey), Siberia, N. America. In Great Britain it is found in N. Somerset, W. Norfolk, Hunts, Stafford, Salop, Glamorgan, Cardigan, N. Wales, except in Mont- gomery, Merioneth, and Angle- sea; Derby; in the Mersey province except Mid Lanes; in the H umber province except in S.E. and N.W. York, Nor- thumberland; in the Lakes province except in the Isle of Man; in the E. Lowlands ex- cept in Wigtown, Roxburgh, W. Perth, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Ebudes. It is local in Ireland. Wild Rosemary is a bog plant which is at home only in those few tracts where peat bogs still exist. It is owing to drainage that they are becom- ing more and more scarce year by year. Wild Rosemary is found in the same habitats as the Sun- dew, Butterwort, Bladderwort, Bog Myrtle, and the Asphodels. The plant is an evergreen shrub, with a trailing, slender, leafy stem, which is woody, and rooting at the base. The leaves are lance-shaped, alternate, rolled back,1 bluish-white beneath, smooth, and stalked. The flowers are in terminal clusters, drooping, pink, the flower- stalks much longer than the flowers, which have 4 sepals, and a rounded corolla with 5 lobes, turned back. The capsule is erect, with egg- shaped seeds, which are made up of 5 lobes. The berries are edible. The plant is not usually more than, and usually much less than, 2 ft. 1 This is an adaptation to the physiologically dry conditions, as in other heath plants, and to prevent the stomata on the under side from being filled with water and so prevent respiration or breathing. WILD ROSEMARY (Andromeda polifolia, L.) *4 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES high. It is in llower from May to September, the berries maturing hue in the autumn. It is a shrub which may be propagated by layers. With its drooping flowers, which are small and purple, it is not very conspicuous. The stamens are ten in number, and not longer than the corolla, the filaments are bearded, and the short anthers are awned. The style is not divided into lobes, but the stigma is blunt or dilated, and the floral mechanism is much like that in / 'act'i 'niinn and Oxycoccus. The capsule splits up into 5 valves, and the seeds fall out and are blown away also by the wind. Like other heath and bog plants this is a peat-loving plant, and grows in a peat soil. The fungi Rhvtisuia andromcdtc and Exobasidium androniaitc attack Rosemary. „ Indromeda,) a name given by Linnaeus, is from Andromeda, a beautiful woman in mythology, daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia; and the second Latin name refers to the polished leaves. This rare plant is called Marsh Holy Rose, Moor-wort, Marsh and Wild Rosemary. The name Rosemary is given because it was for- merly placed with the Rosemary group. Many legends, &c., cluster around it. In Sicily they say it is beloved by fairies. An old Spanish proverb connects it with love, and has been thus rendered: ': Who passeth by the roscmarie And carcth not to take a spraye, For woman's love no care has he, Xor shall he though he live for aye". On St. Agnes' Eve it was used as a love charm. There is a proverb: " While rosemary flourishes the lady rules". It was used in the bridal crowns, and at the ceremony was dipped in scented water. Beaumont and Fletcher in the Scornful Lady ask: "Were the rosemary branches dipped?" Sprigs of it were once carried at funerals: " To show their love the neighbours far and near Follow'd with wistful look the damsel's bier; Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore, While dismally the parson walked before". Gay writes of Rosemary sprinkled on graves. Formerly it was much used at funerals and weddings, and garlands of Rosemary were laid on the biers of unhappy lovers. BOG PIMPERNEL 25 It was superstitiously held to assist memory, and regarded as the symbol of remembrance: " Rosemary is for remembrance Between us day and night, Wishing that I may always have You present in my sight ". Ophelia in Hamlet, addressing Laertes, says (Act IV, Sc. 5): " There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance ". At Christmas a decoction of it was said to make the old young again. The following was said of a gouty, crooked, old queen : " Of rosemaryn she took six pounde An grounde it well in a stownde"; "and they mixed it with water in which she bathed three times a day, taking care to anoint her head with ' gode balm ' afterwards. Soon her old flesh came away, and she became so young, fresh, and tender she soon began to look out for a husband ". Probably many of these refer to Rosmarinus. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 192. Andromeda polifolia, L. — Small evergreen shrub, stem fili- form, woody, rigid, branched, leaves lanceolate, acute, alternate, margins revolute, glaucous below, flowers rose-purple, in drooping raceme, ter- minal, tufted, fruit a dry berry. Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella, Murr.) Though a true bog plant it belongs rather to southern types (not northern), and has not been discovered up to the present in any ancient deposits. In the North Temperate Zone it occurs in Europe, south of Belgium, except in Russia, E. Siberia, N. Africa, and Tem- perate S. America. In Great Britain it is found in every part of the country except Middlesex, W. Gloucs, Roxburgh, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, W. Ross, E. Sutherland, more particularly in the west. It is native in Ireland. Bog Pimpernel, like many other paludal plants, has become scarce on account of agricultural improvements owing to drainage and cultiva- tion. It is a typical bog plant, growing on spongy, peaty wastes, as well as in less peaty tracts or marshes richer in lime, and in wet meadows and damp places caused by perpetual springs or the overflow from lakes and rivers. 26 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The stems are prostrate, ascending at the tip and rooting at intervals, creeping, numerous, round or square, smooth, branched with purplish joints. The leaves are opposite, nearly stalkless or but shortly stalked, small, egg-shaped, entire, smooth. The flowers are pink, large, borne on simple, erect, finally turned-back flower-stalks, i -flowered, in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are bell-shaped, large, with dark veins. The calyx is shorter than the corolla and dotted with red. The corolla is wheel-shaped or funnel-shaped. The BOG PIMPERNEL (Ana^allis ienella, Murr.) anther-stalks are connected below. The capsule opens by a transverse fissure in the centre. The cells where the capsule opens are linear and loose, but larger, more rounded elsewhere. The seeds are brown, flattened on one side, and toothed. Bog Pimpernel flowers from August to September. The height is about 3 in. It is perennial, propagated by division, and worth culti- vating. 'I he flower is similar in form to that of Scarlet Pimpernel, but red or pink with darker veins. The anther-stalks are united at the base forming a cylinder, the flower campanulate, and rather large, the corolla is wheel-shaped and erect, and the anther-stalks are very hairy, filling the corolla, to prevent the honey from being spoilt by rain. The WATER VIOLET 27 anthers are yellow, the style tapers, and is longer than the anthers, and the stigma is simple. It is not likely to be self- pollinated owing to the projection of the stigma. The capsule splits up transversely allowing the seeds to fall out around the parent plant. The Bog Pimpernel is a peat-loving plant, and requires a peaty soil. The second Latin name refers to its slender trailing or creeping stems. It is known by the name of Bog Pimpernel and Moneywort. It is a pretty flower and quite worthy of a place in our rock-gardens and bog-pools. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 206. Anagallis tenella, Murr. — Stem procumbent, leaves round, shortly stalked, ovate, not dotted, flowers pink, in the axils, solitary, filaments united below, corolla infundibuliform. Water Violet (Hottonia palustris, L.) This local, but widely -dispersed aquatic, once known in the London area, is generally found in the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, except in Spain, Greece, and Turkey, and Western Siberia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province in Somerset; in the Channel province, in S. Wilts, Dorset, N. Hants, Sussex; throughout the Thames province and Anglia; in the Severn province, not in Gloucs, Monmouth, Hereford; in Wales, only in Car- narvon, Denbigh, Flint, Anglesea; but throughout the Trent, Mersey, and Humber provinces; in Durham and Westmorland, from which last it ranges to the south coast. It is found in Down in Ireland. Water Violet is an aquatic plant, which is local but uniform in its habitat, frequenting the larger tracts of water in England and Wales, especially where still but not stagnant pools exist. It used to be found in Battersea Meadows, but is extinct there owing to drainage, and its occurrence is much more restricted than formerly. It is also a marsh plant, growing in wet, peaty hollows. There is no doubt that it was originally terrestrial, and that it has but recently adopted an aquatic habitat. Water Violet is a floating plant, with fine, white, capillary roots, which penetrate deep into the mud. The aerial stem is a scape, and leafless. The leaves are not perfect whorls, submerged, with leaflets each side of a common stalk, in tufts, and prostrate. The flowers are white, lilac, or pale-purple, and borne in whorls, stalked, growing on a long-stalked scape, which is naked and smooth. 28 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The flowers are in spikes. The corolla greatly exceeds the calyx, and is salver-shaped, the petals being notched at the extremity. The ob- long anthers are yellow. The raised aerial flower-stalks indicate the plant's former terrestrial origin. The seeds are oval, inserted in a receptacle within the capsule. The plant is i ft. in height, and flowers from July to August. It is perennial, propagated by seeds, and worth cultivating. The flower is dimorphic. The stamens and pistil are relatively in \V\ii-R YIOI.KT (Hullonia palustris, L.) Photo. H. IrvinK the same position as in Primula. The flowers of the Water Violet may be cleistogamic. Honey is secreted by the ovary. The tube is 4-5 mm. in both forms, the male and female organs standing, in one in the entrance, and in the other projecting 3-4 mm. When damp the pollen-grains in the long-styled form are spherules .oil to .014 mm. broad, and in the short-styled form they are .018 to .023 mm. The stigma is rough and velvety in the former, and the papillae are larger than in that of the latter, which is fairly smooth. Organs of equal height are touched by the same parts by insects seeking honey, cross- pollinating the flower legitimately. Those which feed on pollen do not thrust the head into the flower in short-styled forms, and do not touch KEY TO PLATE LII No. i. Box L.) alves, showing seeds. t>, Ovary, with style, and show- ing N^lyx-tetetH tyetow. c, Trifoliate leaf, d, Rarenu;, CXwith flelwers in various No. 2. Bog Speedwell No.^ .Marsh Rpci Rattle ( Veronica scutcllhtft* L».) \rCuicitl/iTis ptuii.'itns, L.) / x^ ^x^S! «, Cap;sute; 2.l6bed. ^Upnjc^ «, Capsule. //, Upper part '^AELjif plant, with opposite'. < ty JPW1* V^th-ijpper stem- lanceolate, toothed leaves, leaves pinnate, powers with axillary racenies, with bracts, h-x,ded upper lip' ^mj iobed and flowers and fruit with 1'^r lip, ffaniosepalouR calyx, and lower with corolla and capsule with ior ,t%io -™^ cojolla-lobes, with fringe, 5 starrie ' Andrcecium, with stamens, and gynse-i cium, with pistil and stigma. /;, CapsufeJ wiih persistent style. c, Section of bladder, showing external bristles, arid internal bristles, also lining of tentacles: and hollow ca,v^y, itlie whole resembling a water-flea, /x rf,^lpe, with bracts, andj flowers with personate labiate corolla, and calyx-lobes, e, Rootstock, with leaves (multifid), and bladders and aerial stetrv1 ^.Z-A _«Ji\_ a, Flower, with corolla removd, showing calyx, with stamens and pistil within. t>, Capsule; e~riC;Josed in calyx j jopening by valves. ft Plant, with rosetji of radical leaves, and sc^es with flowers showing ' - FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES PLATE LII I. Bog Bean (Menyant/ies trifoliata, L.)- 2. Bog Speedwell ( I'eron'ica scutellata, L.). 3. Marsh Red Rattle (Pcdicularis falustris, I,.). 4. Bladderwort ( Ulricularia vnlgaiis, L. ). 5. Butterwort (fingitidilti vulgaris, L. ). BOG BEAN 29 the stigma, which they touch only in long-styled forms, where they have to thrust the head to reach the pollen, and visits to several of these running cause illegitimate cross-pollination; and where it is more effective than in short-styled forms, because probably the latter are fewer and the former alone useful. It is visited by a Hymenopterous insect, Pompilus, and the flies Empis, Eristalis, Rhingia. The capsule is 5-valved and many-seeded, and opens below, allow- ing the seeds to fall out, and fall in the water to sink or float. As an aquatic plant it is not dependent on soil, but as a marsh plant requires a peat soil. Hottonia, Boerhaave, was named after Pierre Hotton, a professor at Leyden (d. 1709), and the second Latin name refers to its marshy habitat. Water Violet is called Bog Featherfoil, Featherfoil, Water Gilli- flower, Water Milfoil, Water Yarrow. The first name is in reference to its feathery leaves. The roots consist of white capillary fibres, which strike deep into the mud, and the leaves grow in tufts below the water, while just the upper part of the stem rises above it. Water Violet is attractive enough to be planted in ponds as an ornament. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 198. Hottonia palustris, L. — Flowering stem a scape, leafless, erect, leaves submerged, in whorls, pectinate, finely divided, flowers pink, lilac, whorled, in racemes, terminal, corolla salver-shaped. Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliata, L.) Being strictly paludal this plant is one of those widely preserved in ancient deposits, as in Preglacial beds in Norfolk, Early Glacial beds in Norfolk, Interglacial beds at West Wittering, Late Glacial and Neolithic deposits. To-day it is found in Arctic Europe, Siberia, Dahuria, N. and Wr. India, N. America, in the North Temperate and Arctic Zones. It is found in every county of Great Britain except Hunts, and it grows at 1800 ft. in the Lake District. The Bog Bean is a typical bog plant, growing only in the last resorts of the wild-fowler to-day, and not rarely surviving the drainage of its habitat wherever it grows. Damp hollows at the side of hills, wet meadows bordering streams, and true bogs or marshes are the places in which to search for this plant. The habit is more or less prostrate. The rootstock is matted, stout, creeping. The stem is ascending, leafy, round in section. The 3o FLOWTERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES leaves are ternate or 3-lobed, trifoliate (hence trifoliata). The leaflets are blunt, entire, with very short stalks, equal, inversely egg-shaped or oblong, wavy, the ultimate nerves having the tips free within the larger areoles. The sheath of the leaf-stalk is long and narrow, and not so long as the many- flowered scape. The flowers are in a raceme with a leaf opposite it, white or pink, or flesh-colour, the upper surface of the corolla clothed with beautiful whitish filaments, or densely fringed within or bearded. The flower- Boa BEAN (Menvanthes trifoliata, L.) stalks are long, the ultimate ones short, stiff, spreading. The bracts are short, blunt, and broad. The sepals are oblong, blunt. The stamens are reddish. The capsule is blunt-pointed, many-seeded, the seeds small, polished. The plant is i ft. high. It flowers, when it does flower, which it does not always do, in July, but I have seen it in bud in April. The plant is perennial, propagated from cuttings, and worth cultivating. Honey is secreted by the base of the ovary. The flowers are usually heterostylic or dimorphic, a long-styled and a short-styled form being found; but not everywhere, for in West Greenland plants of homomorphic type occur, with the pistil and stamens of the same BOG SPEEDWELL 31 length. No doubt the flower is rendered more conspicuous by the bearded surface of the corolla. The stamens, with purple anthers, are inserted on the tube, and the style is very slender, the stigma 2-lobed. The tube is somewhat funnel-shaped or bell-shaped, and accessible to most insects. The bearded filaments serve to keep out flies and pro- tect the honey from the rain. The papillae of the stigma in the long- and the short-styled forms differ. So does the pollen, as in the Primrose. Few insects visit the flowers, as they grow in rather secluded spots, and are hidden under herbage, &c. The capsule contains many seeds, dispersing them on opening partly by aid of the wind. Bog Bean is a peat-loving species, growing on peat soil or watery wastes overlying clay. The leaves are attacked by a fungus, Protomyces menyanthii. Two moths, Spilosoma urtica, the Light Knot Grass (Acronycta menyan- thidis], adopt the Buckbean as their food plant. Menyanthes, Dioscorides, is from the Greek men, month, anthos, flower; and the second Latin name refers to the trifoliate leaves. Buckbean is from buckerbeane, Dutch bocks boonen. It is called Bean Trefoil, Beckbean, Bogbean, Bog Hop, Bog-nut, Brookbean, Buck- bean, Marsh Claver, Marsh Cleever, Marsh Clover, Doudlar, Three- fold, Bog, Marsh or Water Trefoil. It is called Bog Trefoil because of its clover-like leaves, and Bog Hop because of its well-known bitter properties and place of growth. Bog Bean was said to be a tonic and febrifuge, or cure for fever. It has been used in place of Hops, and was formerly used for dropsy and rheumatism, whence its rarity in some districts. In Lapland they eat the powdered roots. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 212. Menyanthes trifoliata, L. — Stem ascending, terete, leaves tri- lobed, leaflets obovate, flowers pink, fringed. Bog Speedwell (Veronica scutellata, L.) Though an Arctic plant no seeds of this common bog plant have as yet been discovered in peat or other deposits yielding such remains. It is found in Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N. America in the Arctic and N. Temperate Zones. It occurs in every part of Great Britain except Merioneth, Linlithgow, northward to the Shet- land Isles. In Yorks it is found at the height of 2200 ft. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES Bog Speedwell is a hygrophyte, or moisture-loving plant, which grows in damp places, and was probably once more frequent, but owing to drainage is now local. It grows in marshy tracts and bogs with Bog Pimpernel, Asphodel, &c., and is found by the margins of pools, lakes, as well as in ditches, brooks, and rivers, where the ground is flooded. The habit is that of a trailer, the plant being seldom more than suberect. It gives off young shoots above the surface; the stem is subangular, smooth, and branched. A character- istic feature is to be found in the long lance-shapecl- linear leaves, slightly toothed along the margin, opposite, stalkless, and smooth. In a variety the stems and leaves are hairy. The flowers are borne on alternating racemes, which are axillary, loose, wavy, and many-flowered. The bracts or leaflike organs are lance-shaped. The flower-stalks are pen- dulous. The calyx is deeply cut. The corolla is wheel-shaped, white or pinkish, with purple veins. The capsule consists of two rounded lobes, which are flattened, with rounded, flat, yellow seeds. Bog Speedwell is often 2 ft. long. The flowers open in June, July, and August. The plant is perennial, propagated by division. The floral mechanism is like that of Ivy-leaved Toadflax, but the flowers are in axillary racemes, and the plant grows in boggy places where it is obscured by herbage, which helps to support it, and little likely to be cross-pollinated by insect agency very frequently. The corolla is white or pink, wheel-shaped, the 2 filaments are thicker in the middle, and the anthers are white. The style is drooping and white, the stigma also turned back and yellow. A. R Horwood Hoc, Si'KKim'Ei.L (Veronica scutellata, L.) MARSH RED RATTLE 33 The capsules on turned-back flower-stalks are margined and fringed with hairs, and adapted mainly for wind dispersal. The Bog Speedwell is a peat-loving plant, and requires a peat soil. The second Latin name refers to the shape of the capsule, shield- like or salver-shaped. This plant is distinguished from other species by the narrow, usually smooth leaves. The leaves are slightly toothed, and the flower-stalks loose and straggling, turned back in fruit. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 236. Veronica scutellata, L. — Stem slender, glabrous, leaves toothed, linear-lanceolate, sessile, flowers white or pale-pink in alternate racemes, axillary, capsule of two flat, rounded lobes, fruit-stalk deflexed. Marsh Red Rattle (Pedicularis palustris, L.) As an Arctic plant the occurrence of this plant in Neolithic beds in Edinburgh and Renfrewshire is quite what one would expect. It is general throughout the Arctic and Temperate Zones in Arctic Europe (but not in Spain or Greece) and N. Asia. It is found in all parts of Great Britain, except N. Somerset, as far north as the Shetlands up to 1800 ft. in the Highlands. It is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Marsh Red Rattle is a typical hygrophile, growing in wet marshy ground at the sides of pools where thick reed-beds are formed. It is also common to the sides of streams which have overflowed. Growing in true bogs with bog species it merges into the marsh and wet- meadow type of plant. It is a hemi-parasite living on grass roots. This plant is bushy, erect, and compact, with several ascending branches springing just above the base. The leaves have lobes each side of a common stalk, and the leaflets are deeply and regularly much divided nearly to the base, giving the plant very much the appearance of a bracken fern. The branches are purple-tinged, a feature of marsh plants. The whole plant is smooth. The flowers are large and reddish-purple or crimson. The calyx is much inflated, downy, ovate, egg-shaped, and divided into two deeply-cut lobes. The upper part of the corolla has a short, blunt beak, with a triangular lobe each side. The capsule is curved and longer than the calyx. The plant is 2 ft. in height very frequently. It flowers in June and July. It is annual, and propagated by division. It is quite worth placing in the bog-garden. 3* FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The flowers are like those of P. sylvatica, but the tube is shorter. They contain honey secreted at the base of the ovary. The corolla has a cylindrical tube with an enlarged throat into which insects thrust the head. The upper lip is 3-toothed, narrow; the lower, 3-lobed, serving as an alighting-place. The 4 stamens are concealed by the upper lip. The two posterior anther-stalks are hairy, and serve to protect the honey from the rain and flies, and the anthers are adherent by the close-set hairs near the base in Common Red Rattle, but not in this plant, as they are close together. The seeds, contained in a capsule which splits open above, are dispersed around the plant automatically or by the wind. Marsh Reel Rattle is a peat - loving plant, anel will only grow on a peat soil, or where there is clay with humus. A cluster-cup fungus, Puc- cinia paludosa, attacks the leaves. A beetle, Longitar- sus holsaticns, infests Marsh Lousewort. PediculariS) Gerarde, is from the Latin pcdicnhis, louse, because it was said to produce a lousy disease in sheep. The second Latin name refers to the marshy habitat. This plant is called Cock's - comb, Cow's - wort, Dead Men's Bellows, Rattle-grass, Lousewort, Moss Flower, Red Rattle, Suckies. The name Rattle-grass, according to Gerarde, is explained because the dry. somewhat inflated calices rattle audibly when shaken. Lyte explains Lousewort as follows: "In Latine Pedicularis, that is to say Louse herbe, in high Dutch Leuszkraut, by cause the cattell that MAKSII RKD RATTLE (Pedicitlaris pahtstris, L.) BLADDERWORT 35 pasture where plentie of this grass groweth become full of lice". But this is due to their poor condition. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 240. Pedicularis palustris, L. — Stem erect, solitary, purple, branched throughout, leaves pinnatifid, flowers crimson, calyx hairy, ovoid, 2-lobed. Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris, L.) Though paludal, there is no record of Bladderwort in early seed- bearing beds. The present range is Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, N. America, or the N. Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in the last in E. Gloucs, Warwick, Stafford; in Wales in Glamorgan, Radnor, Carnarvon, Flint, Anglesea; in the Trent province; in the Mersey province, except Mid Lanes; in the Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces, except in the Isle of Man; in the W. Lowlands, E. Low- lands, except Peebles, Selkirk, Linlithgow; in the E. Highlands, except in Stirling, S. Perth; in the W. Highlands, except in Cantire, Ebudes (S., Mid, and N.); and in E. Ross and the Northern Isles. It ascends to 1500 ft. in the Highlands. It is a native in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Probably few persons that have not made syste- matic botanical surveys, or visited special stations for certain plants, have had the good fortune to discover the elusive Bladderwort. Though typical of bog and marsh formations it is also found, more seldom now than formerly, in pools and ditches, and may also occur here and there in ponds, but its chief habitat is the bog-pools on the side of moist mountains. In this way it is common to either formations. The bladders are on short stalks. They are about one-tenth of an inch long. The green translucent utricles,1 as they are called, consist of two layers of cells, the outer large, and forming many-angled cells, with smaller rounded cells in the angles. The inside of the bladder is filled with absorbent processes in groups two long and two short.2 The lower side is straight, the upper arched, and in general form it resembles a water flea. Two sets of processes surround the entrance, two long and branched above, others straight in groups around the mouth, which has a collar within, with a flap which closes the cavity, and can be easily pushed aside by a minute aquatic insect or crustacean entering, but effectually closes it once the insect is within. The walls 1 Hence the first Latin name, and also the English name. The utricle or bladder in this plant must not be confounded with the utricle or fruit in sedges (also bladder-like in form externally). 2 See Charles Darwin, Insectivorous Plants. 36 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES are contracted in the entrance, and the flap is semicircular -so that it cannot be pushed aside. This is a floating plant, with much-divided leaves as in nearly all aquatic submerged plants, the branches and segments thread-like, and attached to them are numerous egg-shaped bladders or pitcher-like bodies assisting in floating and also in obtaining insectivorous matter for food. There are no roots. The flowers of this originally terrestrial plant are single, borne on BLADDERWORT (Utricitlaria vuJgaris, L.) Photo. J. Ward an erect scape, the corolla yellow, large, with a conical spur, in which is the nectary, the upper lip entire, equalling the palate, and the lower lip is rolled back. When the plant has flowered the bladders fill -with water and sink. The calyx is divided into two segments nearly to the base. There are only two stamens. The scape may be 6 in. long. The flowers bloom in June and July. It is a perennial plant propagated by division. In autumn the plant dies down, except the terminal part, and a bud is formed. An insect alighting on the lobes of the lower lip, visiting the flower, thrusts its proboscis beneath the upper lip to reach the honey. This is secreted in the spur in the lower lip, which is in 3 parts, the spur part fitting into the upper lip and lateral lobes, and the insect touches with BUTTERWORT 37 its back first of all one of the lobes of the stigma which project beyond the anthers. Their papillose surfaces are at first directed downwards and stand near the upper lip. The insect then touches the anthers, which open downwards, and is dusted with their pollen. The stigma is irritable, and capable of folding upwards immediately it is touched, so that pollen from the same flower cannot be applied to the stigma, and rows of hairs on its edge brush the pollen from the insect's head as it draws back. The flower is closed and accessible only to flies. The globular capsule opens by 2 valves, bursting irregularly, and allows the seeds to be dispersed in the water and to sink or germinate in the mud at the margin. Bladderwort is aquatic, and more or less independent of soil, though addicted to more or less upland peaty districts as a helophyte or marsh plant. A beetle, Phyllobrotica quadrimaculata, feeds upon it. Utriciilaria, Linnaeus, is from the Latin iitricuhis, a little bladder, from the bladder-like pitchers or floats, and the second name (Latin) suggests that it is of common occurrence, which, however, is not the case. It is known as Bladder-snout, Bladder-wort, Hooded Water Mil- foil. The latter name was applied because of the hooded flowers and finely-divided leaves. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 244. Utricularia vulgaris, L. — Stem submerged, floating, leaves pinnate, with filiform segments, flowers yellow, spur half as long as the lip, conical, upper lip equal to palate, margin of lower lip reflexed. Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris, L.) Butterwort is found in the Arctic and North Temperate regions in Arctic Europe, N. Asia, and N. America, but it is not found in any early deposits like other members of its association. In Great Britain it is absent in the Peninsula province from Cornwall, and in the Channel province occurs only in Dorset and N. Hants; in the Thames province only in Herts, Berks, Oxford, Bucks, Anglia; in the Severn province not in W. Gloucs; in S. Wales not in Radnor, Pembroke, Cardigan; in N. Wales not in Montgomery; in the Trent province not now in Rutland; in the Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces; W. Lowlands; E. Lowlands not in Selkirk; E. High- lands; in the W. Highlands not in Mid Ebudes; N. Highlands and North Isles. It is rare in the south of England, and ascends to 3 8 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 3000 ft. in the Highlands. It is a native of Ireland and the Channel Islands. When bogs were more numerous Butterwort was to be found in many different parts of the country, but chiefly, as now, in the north. It is fond of spongy pools amongst the wild morasses of the north, on the sides of hills, as well as at lower levels. It is associated with Sphagna, Drosera, Rosemary, Bog Pimpernel, &c. The plant has a rosette of 8 radical leaves, i J in. long, J in. broad, which are thick, greasy (hence the first Latin name), and fleshy. They are entire, coated with crystalline points and pale-greenish in colour, blunt, egg-shaped, succulent, pros- trate, the central hollow, with a short, broad stalk. The older leaves are flat or convex, rosette-like in form. The margins are curved inwards. The flowers are purple, large, nodding, with an awl -like spur, straight, as long as the petals, the upper lip divided into two, the lower into three. The scape is smooth and dilated. The corolla is gaping. The capsule is subglobose. The glandular hairs on the upper surface of the leaves are of two kinds; the larger glands are circular in outline from above, thick, finely divided by radial divisions into 16 cells containing a light-green secretion. They differ in size and in the length of the stalk. The fluid is sticky, and can be drawn out into threads 18 in. long. A leaf may bear as many as 500,000 glands. Insects that alight upon them are at once caught. The leaf margin curls over, bringing the insect so imprisoned to the centre, where the glands are more numerous. Not only are insects caught, but pollen, seeds, &c., adhere to the leaves. The insects are slowly "digested" by the aid of the fluid secretion. The plant is thus insectivorous. Butterwort is 6 in. in height. Flowers should be sought in May. The plant is a perennial, increased by division. Ihe flowers are open, conspicuous, and visited by bees. The stigma, which is not sensitive, i.e. does not move, is pushed up by the insect when it draws out its proboscis. A fly which enters the flower Bl'TTERWORT (Pitifruicitla vulgaris, L.) BUTTERWORT 39 rubs against the stigma with its back, and dusts it with pollen from another flower, so bringing about cross-pollination. When it retreats it pushes back the stigma. The capsule splits open, and thus allows the seeds to be dispersed around the parent plant. This curious plant, the Butterwort, is a peat -loving plant, and requires a peat soil. Pinguiculdy Gesner, is from the Latin pinguis, fat, because the leaves are thick and unctuous; and the second Latin name indicates that it is common, which is true only relatively, i.e. where bogs exist. Butterwort is also known as Beanweed, Bog Violet, Butter Plant, Butter-root, Clowns, Earning-grass, Eccle, Rot Sheep, Thickening Grass, Yorkshire Sanicle, Sheep-root, Sheeprot, Steep-grass, Marsh Violet, White Rot. It is called Sheep-root "because when turned up by the plough sheep greedily feed on it ", and Sheeprot because it was supposed that it caused the liver-rot in sheep, a disease common on wet land where the plant grows, and caused by the Liver Fluke, Distomum hepaticum. A writer says: "They call it white Rot, and not white roote, as Gerard saith, for the country people doe thinke their sheepe will catch the rot if for hunger they should eate thereof, and therefore call it the White Rot, of the colour of the herbe, as they have another they call the Red Rot, which is Pedicularis Red Rattle ". Beanweed was given it because it comes up like a bean in the spring. It is called Butterwort from the greasy feel of its leaves, as if melted butter had been poured on them. The name Earning Grass alludes to its property of acting as rennet, to "earn" meaning to curdle. Rot- grass is another name based on the supposed power of the plant to cause rot in sheep. Steep-grass refers also to the curdling property, "steep" being rennet in Lancashire and Cheshire, and Thickening Grass alludes also to the curdling property. Gerarde says the juice was rubbed in cows' udders when cracked. In the north in the time of Linnaeus they put fresh leaves in reindeers' milk and strained it, and after a day or two it became tenacious, as the whey and cream do not separate. It does not act on cows' milk in the same way. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 245. Pinguicula vulgaris, L. — Flowering stem a scape, leaves radical, in a rosette, oblong, fleshy, with recurved margins, with crystal- line points, flowers purple, corolla gaping, petals oblong, distinct. 40 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES Golden Dock (Rumex maritimus, L.) This is one of those marsh plants that commonly occur in ancient deposits, being found in Preglacial, Early Glacial beds in Norfolk, Interglacial beds in Suffolk, and Late Glacial beds in Suffolk. To-day it is found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. and W. Asia, N.W. India, N. America. In Great Britain it is found in Somerset, Dorset, Sussex, Kent, Surrey, S. Essex, Middlesex, Berks, Oxford, in Anglia except W. Suffolk, in Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, Salop, the Trent province, the Mersey and H umber provinces except in S.W. fhoto. Horwood GOLDEN DOCK (Rumex maritimus, L.) Yorks, or from Northumberland to Kent and Somerset; and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Native in marshes but rare, the Golden Dock has within recent years become widely distributed, in ballast and otherwise, around the shores of reservoirs and other tracts of water, as well as in waste places here and there. In the past it was dispersed doubtless with other plants by wildfowl. The stem is tall, erect, branched, reddish, furrowed, and rough. The radical leaves are stalked, oblong-lance-shaped, narrowed at the base, bluish-green, flat, wavy, scalloped, the upper leaves linear-lance- shaped, incurved upwards. The flowers are yellow, in a panicle with spreading branches, with 3 enlarged petals, with hair-like bristles on each side of a tubercle, as KEY TO PLATE LI II No. i. Golden Dock (Rumev inaritimus, L.) a, Flower, showing 2 rows of sepals, the inner toothed, and stamens within. £, Flower, with fruiting sepals, strongly toothed. <, Ovary, >vith 3 styles. C rple anthers,, withsn bract. *, Pistillate JWer, with ovary and 2-fid stigma, \v th- in bract. t\ Drupe (lenti- cular), ti, Section of drupe, \vith i -seeded stone, e, Seed (erect). /. -Spike (fruiting). ^, Terminal flowering branch w^th raceniv of male spikes .v, and female above, portion of foliage branch »1_ telM? lj 1 •! -5> (T-^ >V i'','' No. 4. Marsh Hellehorine (Helleborine longifolia, Rendle and Britten) a, Andrcecium, with pollinia, and gyn;ecium, with SmgmaL b, Ovary. c, Stem, with sheathing leaf. d, Scape, with stem-leaf and flowers in raceme, in axil of. bracts. No. ^ White Willow^ ', L.) X3» (Pfant «, Stammate rto\ver with scale, aiui 2 faKkSJ) Twijr, with foliage • bninch MWh 'leaves, and fertile cat- JtUL. c, Pistillate flower with 2 2-fid stigmas, and ovary, v wrfthin scale, rf", Twig, with startiinate catkins, and leaves. No. 5, Bp^g Asphodel (Nartkccittt* ossifragum, "sds-} a, Capsule, with 3 styles, within perianth, and seeds. b, Stamen, with villous f^fa- nient and orange anthers. c, Scape,' with flowers/ in raceme, showing perianth- ,, segments, stam6fa&jand pistil. '' Rootstock^ radical leaver Caps^T within shower th-segments in 2 rows each, with hfarjts below. •*-wcr, with brac^i and h-s«gmems, and sta (immature) \rtli tririd stigma. -A-, Rootstock, with roots, idwm^1 stem, anp; Asphodel (Xarthecium ossifraguin, IIuds.)> 6. Common Jointed Rush (Juncns articnlalns, L.). BOG MYRTLE 41 long as the petals, in dense whorls often running together. The nut is small, with elliptic sides and 3-sided. Golden Dock is 2 ft. high. Flowers may be looked for in July and August. The plant is perennial, and propagated by roots. The flowers are pollinated by wind. The stamens are six in number, with anthers fixed by their base, 3 thread-like styles, and large penicil- late stigmas. The flowers are hermaphrodite. The stigmas and anthers ripen together. The nuts are winged, and when they fall they are carried to a distance by the wind. Golden Dock is a helophyte or marsh plant growing in saline soil, and a sand-loving plant growing also in sand soil. Rumex, Pliny, is Latin for sorrel, and the second Latin name refers to its habitat, by the sea. Golden Dock is also called Small Water Dock. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 269. Rumex maritimus, L. — Stem erect, branched, leaves lan- ceolate, narrow at the extremities, flowers perfect, petals rhomboidal, in crowded whorls. Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale, L.) Though unknown in a fossil state in England Bog Myrtle is found in the Oak Zone in Gothland and elsewhere. In the N. Temperate Zone it is found in W. and N.W. Europe, N. Asia, and N. America. In Great Britain it is absent in the Peninsula province in Somerset; in the Channel province in N. Wilts; in the Thames province in Essex, Herts, Oxford, Anglia, but not in Northants; in S. Wales it is absent in Brecon and Radnor; in N. Wales; in the Trent province not occur- ring in Leics, and Rutland, or Derby; in the Mersey province not in Mid Lanes; in the Humber province not in N.W. York; in the Tyne province not in Durham; in the Lakes district; W. Lowlands; in the E. Lowlands only in Edinburgh; in the E. Highlands not in Stirling; W. Highlands, N. Highlands; in the North Isles, except in Shetlands, or from Caithness to Cornwall; elsewhere in the Highlands it is found at 1800 ft. It is a native of Ireland. Bog Myrtle in name indicates its habitat, which is essentially paludal, and the plant is a decided xerophyte, adapted to drought like other bog plants; as with other bog species, too, it is frequent also on moors where there is less moisture. The plant is shrubby, small though it be, usually smooth and erect, with lance -shaped, inversely egg-shaped, smooth leaves, which are 4- FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES more or less coarsely-toothed, and bitter in taste, shortly stalked, downy beneath. The flowers are in spikes, with bracts, the male ones in spikes crowded and erect, with broad, egg-shaped, hollow, leaflike organs, and red anthers, the female having red styles. The berry, a drupe, is 2 -winged, small, and lens-shaped. The plant is 2-4 ft. in height. The flowers bloom in May, June, and July. Bog Myrtle is a deciduous shrub, propagated by layers. The plant is usually dioecious, but the flowers may be complete. Photo. Dr. Somervillc Hastings BOG MYRTLE (Myrica Gale, L.) The flowers are in short catkins. The male has 2 bracteoles and 4 stamens, and the female has 4 bracteoles, 2 syncarpous carpels, and i orthotropous ovule. The flowers are pollinated by the wind. The styles are stigmatic all over. The anthers open outwards, and are fixed by the base. The pollen is powdery, held by the catkin scales till it is blown away. The drupe, containing a i -seeded stone, may be dispersed by birds or by the wind, being enclosed in a winged perianth. Bog Myrtle is a peat-loving plant, requiring essentially a peat soil. A beetle, Orckestes iota, several Lepicloptera, Light Knot Grass (Acronvcta menyantkidis], Sweet Gale Moth (A. myrica). Rosy Marvel {Noctua subrosed), Antithesia dimidiana, Tortrix viburnana, Anchy- lopera siculana, Peroncea lipsiana, Euchromia arbutella, Sericoris poli- tana, Powdered Quaker (Orthosia gracilis), Argent and Sable (Cidaria WHITE WILLOW 43 hastata), Coleophora orbitella, and a Heteropterous insect, Lygus spinohe, are found on it. Myrica, Theophrastus, is the Greek name for tamarisk, and the specific name is the same as an English name of the plant. Sweet Gale is called Candleberry Myrtle, Devonshire Myrtle, Dutch Myrtle, Gale, Gales, Gall, Gall -bushes, Gaul, Gawan, Gold, Golden Osier, Golden Withy, Gole, Goule, Gow, Goyle, Moor Myrtle, Moss Wythan, Myrtle, Burren Myrtle, Scotch Gale, Stinking Willow, Wild Sumac, Sweet Willow, Withwind, Withwine. As to Gale, there is a place called Gale moor, from the prevalence of the plant, near Whitchurch, Salop. It is called Sweet Gale from its sweet aromatic odour. Gall is so called from the plant having been supposed to be the gall in Scripture. Gerarde says as to the name Gaul: " This gaule groweth plentifully in sandy places of England, as in the Isle of Elie, and in the Fennie countries thereabouts, whereof there is such store in that country, that they make fagots of it and sheaves which they call Gaule sheaves to burne and heate their ovens ". The leaves are bitter and used in place of hops, but fragrant, and yield an essential oil. The catkins boiled are suitable for making candles. If not boiled a long time Bog Myrtle causes a headache. Calf-skins used to be tanned with it. It dyes wool yellow. It was used in Sweden to kill bugs and lice, and to cure the itch, and in Wales branches were laid under the beds for this purpose. It was used as a vermifuge. They use it as a garnish in I slay and Jura, and lay it between linen to perfume it and keep away moth. It has been used for besoms. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 281. Myrica Gale, L. — Bushy shrub, leaves lanceolate, obovate, serrate, catkins reddish, sessile, fruit with resinous glands, small. White Willow (Salix alba, L.) As with the Crack Willow there have been no traces of this tree preserved in early leaf or seed deposits. It is found in the N. Temp- erate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, N.W. India. In Great Britain it does not grow in N. Devon, E. Kent, Monmouth, Glamorgan, Cardigan, Carnarvon, Flint, Derby, Mid Lanes, S.E. Yorks, Isle of Man, Kirkcudbright, Haddington, Linlithgow, Mid Perth, N. Perth, Banff, Easterness, Westerness, Mid and N. Ebudes, N. Highlands, North Isles, but generally elsewhere. It is planted in Sutherland and the Hebrides. In Ireland and the Channel Islands it is perhaps never native. 44 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES As with the Crack Willow the White Willow is a sure indication of moist conditions, and its favourite situation is by the waterside, what- ever shape that may take, whether a stream, a lake, a marsh, or a bog. But it is also a lowland plant, and is absent from dry conditions generally. The White Willow is less lofty than the Crack Willow, with (in WHITK WILLOW (Srt//.r alba, L.) proportion) a stouter stem and the branches ascending, but tapering and spreading, the twigs olive-coloured, silky, and hard. The bark is fissured. The leaves are long, lance-shaped, finely toothed, bluish below, downy or silky both sides, and glandular. The leaves are arranged in spiral whorls. The stipules, or leaflike organs, are egg- shaped, and fall. The lowest teeth are glandular. The flowers are in slender lax catkins, with hairy stamens and deeply-cloven stigmas. The capsule is sessile. The scales of the catkins are linear, and not so long as the stamens. The plant is dioecious. HELLEBORINE 45 The tree is 80 ft. high. It flowers in April and May. It is a deciduous tree propagated by seeds. The flowers are adapted, as in S. Jragilis, to visits by insects, and are also pollinated by the wind, having been derived from such ancestors (see S. fragilis]. The honey is half-concealed. The seeds are fringed with white silky hairs, and are thus blown to a distance by aid of the wind. The hairs help to fasten the seed also when it has come to rest on the ground. Like other willows White Willow is a humus-loving plant growing on a peat soil, but is also a clay-loving plant (pelophilous) and will grow on clay soil. The margins of the leaves are galled by Eriophyes marginatus and Cecidomyia clausilia. A beetle, E later sanguineus (rufipennis)\ several Hymenoptera, Cimbex variabilis, Nematus caprecc; Lepidop- tera, Camberwell Beauty (Vanessa antiopa), Red-tipped Clearwing (Trochilum formiccefortnis]^ Striped Twin-spot Carpet (Cidaria sali- cata]\ several Homoptera, Idioceris adustus, I. ciipreus, I. herrichii, visit it. The second Latin name refers to the white colour of the tree, due to the pubescence of the leaves. This tree is called Duck Willow and White Willow. It is used for fencing-poles, crates, fuel, being pollarded like the Crack Willow, and the bark is used for tanning. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 285. Salix alba, L. — Tree, spreading, twigs pliable, leaves lanceol- ate, silky both sides, catkins lax, erect, capsule subsessile. Helleborine (Helleborine longifolia, Rendle and Britten = Epipactis palnstris, Crantz) There is no trace of this Orchid in a fossil state. It is found at the present day in Europe and Siberia in the North Temperate Zone. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province, but not in W. Corn- wall; in the Channel province, except in W. Sussex; in the Thames province, except in S. Essex; in Anglia, except in Hunts; in the Severn province not in Gloucs, Monmouth; S. Wales in Glamorgan and Carmarthen; N. Wales not in Montgomery or Merioneth; in the Trent province; in the Mersey, H umber, Tyne, Lakes provinces, except in the Isle of Man; and in Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, Fife, N. Ebudes. From Fife and Perth it is general elsewhere to the south coast; being local and rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 46 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES This orchid is almost entirely confined to watery places, being a typical hygrophyte, growing in wet reed beds by the side of pools, as well as in true marshes and bogs. It is associated with the Bogbean, Marsh Orchis, Grass of Parnassus, Cotton Grass, and other typical paludal plants. It has a slender but rigid, suberect flowering stem, slightly downy. The leaves are lance-shaped, acute, the upper ones terminated in a sharp point, clasping. The bracts or leaflike organs are not so long as the flowers. The flowers are in a loose spike, with green and purple flowers, and slightly drooping. The lip is scalloped, oblong, longer than the perianth, white, with reddish streaks. The calyx is purplish-green, with pale lance- shaped sepals, the petals white, with pink streaks. Marsh Helle- borine is about i ft. high. It blooms in July and August. The plant is perennial, and propagated by division. There are two staminodes each side of the terminal lobe. The single anther is stalkless and hinged to the top of the column. The lip has a hinged terminal portion, which by a re- bound causes an insect to fly upward when it leaves the flower and rub the rostellum, which exudes a sticky fluid and cements the pollinia or pollen- masses to the insect. It is visited by the honey bee, flies, Sarcophaga, Ccelopa, and Crabro. The lip is long, in two parts, with a narrow connecting hinge. The outer part closes the flower, but an insect on alighting presses it down. The capsule is pendulous, and, being light, the seeds are liable to fall out and be dispersed by the wind. This beautiful orchid is a peat-loving plant growing in an essentially peaty soil. Hellcborine is an old name applied in allusion to the supposed MARSH HELLEBORINE (Helleborine longifolia, R. and B. = Epipactis palustris) BOG ASPHODEL 47 resemblance to Helleborus, and the second Latin name refers to the length of the leaves. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 290. Helleborine longifolia, Rendle and Britten.— Stem tall leaves lanceolate, bracts shorter than the flower, flowers green, lip white and red and purple, label blunt, crenate calyx purplish-green. Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum, Muds.) Though a northern bog plant no trace of it occurs amongst the remains of Arctic plants found in North Britain and other parts. It is distributed generally in the North Temperate Zone north of the Alps, Pyrenees, N. Asia, N. America. In Great Bri- tain it is not found in N. Wilts; in the Thames province only in Kent, Surrey, Berks, Bucks; and not in Suffolk, Northants, in Anglia ; but elsewhere in E. Gloucs, S. Lines, Notts, Mid Lanes, S.E. Yorks, Haddington, Stirling, as far north as the Shet- lands, and up to 3200 ft. in the Highlands. It is found also in Ireland very generally. Bog Asphodel is a characteristic bog plant growing at high eleva- tions in wild morasses on mountain-sides, as well as in more lowland stations. As Watson says: "The drainage and enclosure of bogs and marshes no doubt must gradually banish this plant from many of its localities". It is rare in the south-eastern counties, abundant in Scotland. The flowering stem, at first prostrate, is then erect, surrounded at the base with many sword-like leaves, and so having the grass habit. The leaves are half as long as the stem, and have marked ribs. The flowers are a rich golden -yellow or deep-orange, large and spreading, with woolly anther-stalks. The slender flowering stem has one bract at the base, and is tapering; the flowers have very short Photo. Flatters & Gamett BOG ASPHODEL (Narthecium ossifragnnt, Huds.) 48 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES stalks, with 6 perianth segments, longer than the stamens, in which the anthers are deep -orange. The capsule is red, oblong, smooth, with 6 ridges and furrows, and longer than the perianth. Bog Asphodel has a stem 6-10 in. long. It is in flower in July and August. It is a perennial, propagated by division. There is no honey, but the flowers are conspicuous and scented. There are 6 stamens, 3 below the ovary, 3 on the perianth segments. The anther-stalks are woolly and awl-shaped. The anthers open inwards at the same time as the stigma, and are linear, deep-orange, on white anther-stalks. The style is short and the stigma blunt. The flower is adapted for cross-pollination by pollen-collecting bees and flies. The seeds are pale-yellow, very small, and the testa is 8 mm. long. The seeds are provided with hairy outgrowths, which aid in their dis- persal by the wind. Bog Asphodel is a peat-loving plant, and requires a peat soil, growing in bogs and marshes. Narthecium is from the Greek narthex, the name of a tall umbel- liferous plant, and ossifragum, from os, bone, frango, I break, refers to reputed properties. The plant is called Bog Bastard or Lancashire Asphodel, Yellow Grass, Knavery, Maiden Hair, Move Grass, Rosa Solis. As to the last, Ellis says: "This moor-grass, in the parish of Wing (Bucks) they call Rosa Solis, as it is distinguished by shepherds from other grasses, who know it by its three-square leaf rapier-like; for the blade, like that, is thickish and shaped somewhat in the flag kind, bearing a yellowish flower, like that of a daffodown-dilly, and seldom runs above a handful high in a spongy soft substance ". The names Lancashire Asphodel and Maiden Hair are to be explained thus: " In Lancashire it is used by women to die their haire of a yellowish colour ", Gerarde says. Parkinson says his friend Anthony Salter of Exeter told him they called it Knavery there. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 304. Narthecium ossifragum, Huds. — Flowering stem a scape with few leaves, erect, decumbent, leaves ensiform, ribbed, rigid, flowers yellow, racemose, capsule red, triangular. COMMON JOINTED RUSH 49 Common Jointed Rush (Juncus articulatus, L. = J. lamprocarpus, Ehrh.) This common marsh plant is known to us from its present distribu- tion alone, which covers the North Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia, Himalayas, N. America. In Great Britain it is found everywhere, except in Berwick, as far north as the Shet- Hioto. C. R. Mapp THE HABITAT OF THE COMMON JOINTED RUSH (Juncus articulatus, L. = J. lamprocarpus, Ehrh.) lands, and up to 2400 ft. in the Highlands, being a native of Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Common Jointed Rush is a semi-aquatic plant which grows near water, either in wet places, such as ditches, or by the side of brooks and rivers. It is also to be found on the margins of lakes and pools. But a more constant and certain habitat perhaps is marsh land where there is a continuous humid atmosphere. A favourite spot is a mountain bog, where it grows profusely in the streaming moisture of the mountain-side. This is a tall, erect, slender, and graceful plant, the stem flattened lengthwise. The leaves are jointed, hollow, with septate divisions internally, the pith not being continuous. VOL. V. 66 5o FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES The flowers are apetalous, without a corolla, borne in a much- branched panicle, which is erect, forked, the branches long, and flowers 4-8, clustered, and suberect. The 6 perianth segments are not so long as the shining erect capsule [hence the second (Greek) name], which is beaked and dark-brown. The inner segments are blunt. There are 6 stamens. The capsule is 3-chambered, and opens by 3 valves, alter- nate with the walls. The pericarp has woody layers which contract. The stem is 2 ft. high. The flowers open in June, July, and August. It is a perennial plant, propagated by seeds. Jointed Rush is proterogynous, and pollinated by the wind, like all rushes. There are 6-12 flowers, with 6 stamens. Each flower lasts a day. It is female in the morning, and later hermaphrodite. The capsule contains many seeds, splitting by 3 valves when ripe, and letting the small seeds fall around the parent plant or be dispersed by the wind. The Jointed Rush is a peat-loving plant and grows in peaty soil, being also a clay-loving plant and addicted to clay soil. It is attacked by a fungus, Entorrhiza cypericola; several Homop- tera, Liburnia quadrimaculata, L. reyi, L. lepida, and Cicadula fascii- frons; Lepidoptera, Bactra lanceolata, Argyrolepia baremanniana; Coleophora c stigmas. bt Glume. •'// c, Spikelet with glumes and ripe anthers exserted Upper part of stem, wi leaves; and spikelets in cy 5, Leaf, showing rough ed and 3-angIocl section. , FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES PLATE LIV I. Galingale (Cypenis longits, L.). 2- Common Spike Rush (Eleocharis faltistris, Roc in. and Schult.). 3. Cotton Grass (Eriophomin aiigitstifoliiun, Roth.). 4. I'rickly Twig Rush (Cladium Marisciis, Br. ). 5. Hummock Sedge (Carex panicttlata, L.). 6. Great 1'rickly Sedge ( Carex viilfina, L.). GALINGALE Galingale (Cyperus longus, L.) This maritime sedge is not represented in any of the early deposits in Great Britain. To-day it is to be found in the North Temperate Zone in Europe, South of France and Germany, and in North Africa. In Great Britain it is found on the coasts of West Cornwall, N. Somerset, South Wilts, Dorset, Isle of Wight, East Kent, Pembroke, and the Channel Islands. This plant is a maritime species, which is very rare, and only found in the above counties growing in marshes by the sea, and not ever far inland. Galingale has a characteristic ap- pearance from its umbelled spikes. The rootstock is creeping. The stems are erect, few, slender, 3-sided, with many leaves below. The leaves are not numerous, spreading. There are 3 bracts below the rays of flowers, like the leaves but unequal, thickened below. The flowers are borne on a twice- compound umbel, with linear rays again becoming umbellate, both general and partial involucres, or whorls of leaflike organs, being long and un- equal. The spikelets are linear-lance- shaped, curved, in two rows, flattened, with reddish-brown glumes, with green keel or midrib, and paler margins. The stigmas soon fall. Galingale is 2-3 ft. high. Flowers are open in July. Galingale is a perennial, propagated by means of suckers. The flowers are bisexual. There are 1-3 stamens, the styles deciduous, not swollen at the base, and there are 2-3 stigmas. The embryo is embedded in endosperm. The GALINGALE (Cyperus hugws, L.) 52 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES flowers, like other Cyperaceae, are anemophilous, but insect visits are not excluded. The fruit is a 3-sided nut, which falls to the ground when ripe, being indehiscent. This handsome sedge is a peat-loving plant growing in peat soil. Cyperus, Theophrastus, is from the Greek for a kind of rush, and the second Latin name means long. Galingale is called Cypress, Cypress-root, Galangal. The roots are eatable, aromatic, bitter, and were formerly used as a medicine. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 318. Cyperus longus, L. — Stem triquetrous, tall, leaves lanceolate, flowers in umbels, lax, glumes red with a green keel. Common Spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris, Roem. and Schult.) The antiquity of this plant is shown by its occurrence in the Pre- glacial deposits of Pakefield, Suffolk, early Glacial beds at Beeston, Norfolk, Interglacial, Late Glacial, Neolithic, and Roman deposits at Silchester. At the present day it is found in the Arctic and N. Tem- perate Zones in Arctic Europe, North Africa, N. Asia, N. India, and N. America. It is found in every county in Great Britain, except Montgomery, as far north as Sutherland, and up to 1200 ft. in York- shire, as well as in Ireland and the Channel Islands. This is a typical marsh plant, growing along the margins of watery wastes, and covering large areas, with Arrowgrass, Sedges, and other paludal species. It is also common in wet meadows, bordering streams, and around ponds and pools. Common Spike-rush is a true hygro- phyte. The root is creeping, giving forth several leaves and stems in a clustered manner, and the plant has a tufted grass-like habit. The stems are stout or slender, flattened at the margin, with numerous leafless sheaths, the glumes beardless, lance-shaped and acute at the base, membranous and blunt transversely. The flowers are in terminal spikes, round, reddish -brown, oval, naked, with lance-shaped, acute bracts or leaflike organs at the base, the lowest glume half-clasping the spike, with anthers which come to a point. The nut is inversely egg-shaped, plano-convex, the margins smooth, with style egg-shaped below, shorter than the 4 bristles. Common Spike-rush is 8 in. in height. The flowers are in bloom in July. The plant is a perennial, propagated by suckers. The flowers COTTON GRASS 53 are pollinated by the wind, bisexual. There are 3 stamens, the style is deciduous, and there are 2 stigmas. The anthers are apiculate, coming to a point. The fruit is a nut flattened on the border and finely furrowed, which falls to the ground when ripe, not opening. This Spike-rush is a peat-loving plant, and addicted to a peat soil. Eleocharis, R. Brown, is from the Greek helos, marsh, and chairo, I delight, and the second Latin name refers to the habitat, marshy. It is also called Aglet-headed Rush. COMMON SPIKE RUSH (Eleocharis palustris, Roem. and Schult.) ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 319. Eleocharis pahistris, Roem. and Schult. — Root creeping, leaves and stems tufted, csespitose, the latter sheathed, glume surrounding the spike, fruit swollen at the top. Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium, Roth) This Arctic plant is found in Preglacial deposits in Norfolk and Suffolk, and at Hoxne, Suffolk, in Interglacial beds. To-day it is to be found in N. Temperate and Arctic Europe, except N. Asia, N. America. In Great Britain it is found in every part of the country except W. Gloucs, Montgomery, Mid Lanes. It is commonly dis- tributed elsewhere from the Shetlands to Cornwall and Sussex, and 54 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES up to 3500 ft. in the Highlands, as well as in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The upland bogs are characterized in some parts by the prevalence of Cotton Grass giving rise to a typical botanical association. Not only does this one grow at high elevations, but also in more lowland situations, and in marshes with sedges and orchids of a less special nature. The waving tufts of cottony bristles, borne on long, slender, drooping stems give this a peculiar habit of its own. The habit of the Narrow-leaved Cotton Grass is like that of the others, sedge- or grass-like. There is a long, stout rootstock. The stem is wiry, solid, rigid, bluntly 3-angled or nearly round in section, stout, smooth, leafy, not tufted. The leaves are nearly all radical, and variable a good deal in breadth, and are flat, and triangular above for more than half the length, channelled below, smooth, linear. The flowers are in a cyme, with solitary (or more) heads. The bracts are 2-3. The glumes are lead colour, egg-shaped, oblong, lance-shaped, with a broad membranous margin. The fruit-stalks are smooth. There are 4-12 spikelets, and the bristles are i to 2 in. long, three or four times as long as the spikes. The nuts are inversely egg- shaped, blunt-pointed. This Cotton Grass is 18 in. high. The flowers bloom in May and June. The plant is perennial, propagated by division. The Cotton Grasses are all pollinated by the agency of the wind. The flowers are perfect or bisexual. There are 3 stamens, and the style is as long as the perianth, which is represented by the bristles, and is not enlarged below, at length falling. There are 3 turned-back stigmas. When pollination has taken place the perianth or bristles get longer, and together form the cotton so characteristic of this group, which, owing to the crowded flowers in this form, are very conspicuous when full size. The nut is provided, moreover, with this light, silky cotton, a fringe of hairs, as a means of dispersal by the wind. The Cotton Grass is a peat-loving plant requiring a peat soil, rarely growing on clay soil, when it is a clay-loving plant. A beetle, Cryptocephalus biguttatus, Lepidoptera, Elachistes eleo- chariella, E. rhynchosporiella, Marsh Ringlet, Ccenonympha typhon, Glypkiptcryx haivorthana, Haworth's Minor (Celcena haworthii], are found on it. Ertophorum, Theophrastus, is from the Greek erion, cotton, and phero, I bear or carry, from the cottony heads, and angustifolium (Latin) refers to the narrow leaves. It is called Cat's-tails, Sniddle Flock, Moor Grass. The second PRICKLY TWIG RUSH 55 name is from its resemblance to flocks of wool. Sniddle is a generic name applied to sedges generally and to allied plants. The hairs have been used for pillow-linings since Pliny's day, as well as for cushions. The cotton is of too brittle a texture to weave, but it has been used for articles of dress in Germany, and for paper The country folk once used the cotton as wick for lamps. . *-SiS. ^f^< COTTON GRASS {Eriophorum angusti folium, Roth) ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS:— 323. Eriophorum angusti folium, Roth. — Stem rigid, rounded, leaves linear, flat, triangular above, peduncles smooth, spikelets corymbose bristles three times as long. Prickly Twig Rush (Cladium Mariscus, Br.) Though unknown in a fossil state in Great Britain, this sedge is found in Prussia in the Birch, Pine, and Oak Zones, and in Gothland. To-day it ranges in the N. Temperate Zones from Gothland southward, N. Africa, Siberia. In Great Britain in the Peninsula province it grows only in W. Cornwall and N. Somerset; in the Channel province only in Dorset, Isle of Wight, S. Hants; in the Thames only in 56 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES E. Kent; in Anglia not in Bedford; in the Severn province only in Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, Salop; in S. Wales it grows only in Glamorgan and Pembroke; in N. Wales in Carnarvon, Flint, Angle- sea; in the Trent province in Lines; Chester in the Mersey pro- vince; in the H umber generally, except in N.W. Yorks; in the Tyne province, except in Northumber- land ; in the Lakes province, except in the Isle of Man ; W. Lowlands, except in Renfrew and Lanark; in Berwick in E. Lowlands; Forfar in E. Highlands; in the W. High- lands it does not occur in Main Argyle, Dumbarton; W. Ross and W. Sutherland in N. Highlands. It is local in England from the Border southward. It is found also in Ireland. Prickly Twig Rush is a char- acteristic bog plant which grows especially in lowland districts near the sea, and most uniformly in E. Anglia. The first Greek name suggests (as does the English one) the rigid prickly character of the head of the plant. It has rounded stems, which are erect, stout, leafy, and smooth, with leaves which are long, rigid, 3-angled at the tip, rough on the margin. The flowers are borne in a dense corymb-like compound cyme, axillary or terminal, which is con- tracted, the flowers being collected One nut only is fertile. Prickly Twig Rush is 3 ft. in height. The flowers are in bloom in July and August. The plant is perennial, increased by division. The flowers are pollinated bv the wind, bisexual, or the lower male. PRICKLY TWIG RUSH (Cladium Mariscus, Br.) in dense spikes, 3 flowers in each. HUMMOCK SEDGE 57 There are about two flowers, with one fertile above. There are 2 stamens, with anthers coming to a point. The style is swollen at the base, and falls eventually. There are 2-3 stigmas. The fruit is a nut, which is 3-sided and does not open, when ripe falling' into the water or upon the ground quite close to the plant. This handsome sedge is a peat-lover, lingering only in peat soil at Wicken fen. Reed Tussock (Lcelia caznosa\ a moth, is found upon Prickly Rush. Cladium, P. Br., is from the Greek dados, a twig, and mariscus is Latin for a kind of rush. The plant is also called Shere- or Shear-grass, Lesch, Sedge, and Twig Rush. Turner says as to the name Shear-grass: "The edges of thys herbe are so sharpe that they will cut a mannis hande and have a certaine roughness which maketh them to cut the sower, of which property e the Northern men call it Sheregres. It hath a long stalke and thre square, and in the top of that is a sort of little knoppes instede of secies and floures much like unto oure gardine gallingal. The people of the Fenne countreys use it in for fother and do heate ovens with it." It was used for lighting fires at Cambridge. In the East it was said to have formed the Crown of Thorns. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 324. Cladium Mariscus, Br. — Stem half round, smooth, leaves long, rigid, serrate, triquetrous above, flowers in a panicle of 1-3 spikelets. Hummock Sedge (Carex paniculata, L.) The Hummock Seclge is found in the North Temperate Zone south of Sweden to the Canaries, and in W. Siberia. It is not found in any early plant beds. In Great Britain it is absent in the Peninsula province from N. Devon, but occurs throughout the Channel and Thames provinces; not in Hunts in Anglia; is general in the Severn district; in S. Wales it does not grow in Radnor; in N. Wales only in Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea; in the Trent province; in the Mersey it does not grow in Mid Lanes, but is general throughout the Humber and Tyne provinces; Lakes province in Cumberland; in W. Lowlands it does not grow in Renfrew; E. Lowlands, not in Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh; not in Mid or S. Perth in E. Highlands; in W. High- lands not in Mid or N. Ebudes; in N. Highlands not in E. Ross, E. Sutherland, but occurs in the Hebrides and Orkneys, and also in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Hummock Seclge is a paludal type of sedge, growing in large 58 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES clumps in wet places or by the sides of rivers, in damp woods, and also in marshes, amongst other common types, such as the Great Prickly Sedge and others. It has a clustered, bushy habit, with 3-sided stems, which are leafy and stout, rough above. The root is densely aggregated together, forming a tufted surface. The leaves are rough, long, and flat. The spikelets of the flowers are in a panicle with wide branches, the sterile male flowers at the top. The panicle is three times com- pound. The fruit is broad, egg-shaped, coming to a sharp point, swollen below, with nerved perigynia, the beak deeply cleft, and the glumes margined. Hummock Sedge is 3 ft. in height. The flowers expand in June and July. The plant is a perennial, propagated by suckers. The spikelets are bisexual, and male at the top only; the base of the style is swollen. The bisexual flowers are proterogynous, the stigma ripening first, and are pollinated by the agency of the wind. The fruit is a nut, which falls when ripe into the water or upon the ground. Like other sedges this is a peat-loving plant, growing in a peat soil. Two beetles, Cercus pedicularius, C. bipustulatus, and a moth, Elackista palndum, are found on it. In bogs it forms solid patches which serve as stepping-stones do on moist ground. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 326. Carex paniculata, L. — Stem thick, triquetrous, with many long rough, tufted leaves, spikes in a panicle, pale-brown, fruit many-veined, bracts setaceous, nut ovoid. Great Prickly Sedge (Carex vulpina, L.) This common sedge is found throughout the N. Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, Siberia, and N. America. It is not known in any early deposits. In Great Britain it does not grow in Cardigan, Isle of Man, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Roxburgh, Stirling, Mid and N. Perth, Easterness, Westerness, Main Argyle, E. Ross, E. Suther- land, Caithness, Orkneys, Shetlands, but elsewhere generally, and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. The Great Prickly Sedge is a common object wherever damp GREAT PRICKLY SEDGE 61 ground occurs. It grows in moist hollows by the roadside, around ponds, pools, and in ditches, as well as more generally and profusely in wet meadows, marshes, and bogs. The stems are few, 3-angled, with sharp, rough edges and convex sides, from a tufted base, and stoloniferous, with creeping runners. The leaves are rather broad and flat, glossy, and fairly long. The flowers are in a more or less cylindrical compound spike with many crowded flowers, the male ones above, spreading, with bristle- like bracts which are longer than the spike, and suberect. The fruit is egg-shaped, coming to a sharp point, plano-convex, pale-green, with an egg- shaped, brownish nut. The glumes are pale- brown, with a roughish awn. This tall sedge is i-i^ ft. or more in height. Flowers are found in May, up till August. The plant is a perennial, propagated by suckers. This common sedge has a floral mechanism similar to C. paniculata, and is likewise proterogyn- ous and pollinated by the wind. The fruit is a nut, and when it is ripe it falls to the ground close to the parent plant. Great Prickly Sedge is a peat-loving plant growing in a peat soil, or pelophilous and flourishes on clay soil. Beetles are commonly found on this and allied sedges, e.g. Dromius longiceps, D. sigma, Donacia obscura, D. thalassina, D. impressa, D. vulgaris, D. affinis, Chastocnema Sahlbergi. Several Lepidoptera are fond of sedges, such as Smoky Wainscot (Leucania impura), Small Wainscot (Nonagria fulva], Hydrelia incana, Gold Spot (Plusia festucce), Elachista gleichenella, E. kilmunella* E. rhynchosporella, E. Photo. Flatters & Garnett GREAT PRICKLY SEDGE (Carex vnlpina, L.) 62 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES clco:!iariella. The Homoptera Liburnia pullala, L. litgiibrina, Dicra* neura flavipennis, D. aureola also frequent them. The second Latin name means fox-coloured, in allusion to the colour of the Mowers. ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: — 327. Carex intlpina, L. — Stems numerous, rough, tufted, broad, spikelets in a compound spike, cylindrical, bracts long, setaceous. Section XI FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS1 The plants which are found on heaths and moors are those that require humus in a sour (or acid) and free state. The soil is barren and not rich in nitrogen that can be readily assimilated, and conse- quently unsuited for cultivation. The soil is not rich in lime, and in this respect differs from some marshes, but is similar to that of bogs, which indeed are usually interspersed amongst heaths and moors. But there are in some cases upland marshes which are comparatively rich in lime and peat. The soil of a bog or fen on deep peat, however, is acid, not alkaline in reaction. The raw humus covers a sterile subsoil of diverse character. Of ericetal species there are about 80, of which we describe 29 here. More than all other plants, even on wet soils, heath plants are xero- philous, and we see in them adaptations to physiologically dry con- ditions. Heaths are exposed to the wind like halophytic vegetation, and few trees grow on such tracts, except in the low moors. Many marsh plants grow there also. The adaptations to xerophytic conditions include a felt of hairs on the under surface of the leaf, as in the Creeping Willow, and this serves the purpose of keeping open the pores or stomata on the leaves, and at the same time depresses trans- piration. Papillae surround or project over the pores for the same reason in sedges. A coating of wax covers the leaf in the Rosemary and Cranberry (see last section). Many stems and leaves are excep- tionally thick, and the above are also sclerophyllous. Filiform or threadlike leaves are developed. Heaths, Ling, and Cotton Grasses are comparatively all but leafless. Some leaves present their edges to the light, as in Iris and Asphodel. The adaptation to dry conditions is connected with the soil char- acters. The soil is physiologically dry. There are, however, some genera which include marsh or bog species, and others that require a 1 Cf. Section X, where moors are dealt with in some detail in discussing bogs and marshes also. It is the wetter types of moors that are specially referred to there. VOL. V. C5 67 66 FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS medium supply of moisture, that do not grow in dry places, with the broadest leaves, which is not what one would expect. Qalium palustre has narrower leaves than G. Aparine, a mesophilous species. More- over, some heath plants can grow on dry warm soil and on cold wet soil, as Ling, Crowberry, &c. This suggests that there is some corre- spondence between the two types of soil, and that some of the factors of life in the case of marsh plants necessitate an economy in the use of water. There is a transpiration optimum, and marsh plants may have to depress their transpiration. A wet soil is cold, the roots can absorb no water if the temperature of the soil sinks below a certain degree, and the soil is thus what is called physiologically dry. This is seen in the later character of heath and moor or marsh plants, and in the fact that the flowers are in bloom much later than on dry soils. The plants are clothed with hairs, there- fore, to prevent an excess of transpiration over absorption, and this is accelerated by high winds. Respiration is affected owing to the soil being baclly aerated or lacking in oxygen, so that the activity of the aerial parts must be the less, owing to the less amount of oxygen absorbed by the roots by marsh plants. Hence the ability of Heaths that grow on heaths and dry warm soil to grow on moors, as a heath is just as badly aerated, with often periodically soaked raw humus or dry peat. Peat retains water more than other soils except clay. The cause of physiological drought here may also be due to the abundance of humous acids, &c., in moor soil or peat, which affect the roots and pre- vent or deter absorption, so that the plants wilt if transpiration is rapid. Though many plants of heaths and moors exhibit the above xero- philous characteristics, others are hydrophilous in character, and so are the adaptations to which they give rise in the flora. Transitional from marsh associations is the low-moor formation, which is characterized by humous acids in the soil containing vegetable accumulations, forming peat with Reeds, with much nitrogen. The water contains calcium and potassium compounds, and is thus like a marsh, often enclosing a marsh or adjoining it. Sedges grow in tufts, giving rise to sedgemoor, and other plants are Cotton Grass, Rushes, Arrowhead, Helleborine, Angelica, Bog- bean, Marsh Bedstraw, Marsh Willowherb, Grass of Parnassus, and Willow, Birch, Alder, Heaths, &c. Several associations can be recognized, as amblystegiata (from a moss), cariceta, eriophoreta, molinieta, junceta, &c. There are usually herbaceous perennials and a ground flora of mosses forming two layers below the former. Few are ligneous, and only a few are annuals, as FLOWERS OF THE . HEATHS AND MOORS 67 Rhinanthus. The flowers bloom late because of the cold atmosphere. Most plants are dense, tall, and tufted, a few are runners, such as Sedges and Bogbean, and Mosses may predominate. Grass-heath may be formed by Matgrass, Molinia, Sedges, Sweet Vernal Grass, Bents, and Ling. The soil is dry and not deep. The high-moor or heather-moor formation is characterized by the occurrence of bog mosses, and it is here that bogs are distributed amid the drier-soil Oxylophytes. The soil is moist and the air damp, and the moisture of the sphagnum moor is derived largely from this last and dew. The high- moor may follow a low-moor formation. Like some bogs the high moor is poor in lime salts, and the peat contains little assimilable nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium compounds, Sphag- num not being calciphilous. A sphagnum moor contributes to the steady descent of water, the mass exhibiting great capillarity. The plants die and fresh layers arise above it, forming a thick layer of spongy peat below, acid in nature. Peat is encouraged only by the presence of moisture. The moss rises high in the middle, and gradually grows at the margin. The soil formed is loose, and the species it nourishes have travelling shoots. Typical of this formation are Sedges, Cotton Grass, Silvery Hair Grass, Bog Asphodel, Arrowhead, Whortleberry, Cranberry, Rosemary, Cross-leaved Heath, Ling, Cloudberry, Sundew, Red Rattle, Dogwood, Bog Myrtle, Creeping Willow, and Sedges, Cotton Grass, Ling, Birch, &c., form special associations. The plants that produce peat are chiefly Bog-moss, Hair-moss, Bulrushes, Cotton Grass, Heath, Ling, £c. Forest moors originated from pools or lakes in forest regions, and exist now where the forests have disappeared as high-moor formations, and contain clay formed during the Ice Age. Following a tunclra formation open forest arose, and moors were formed, with Birch and Pines, and Oak came to form high forest, then Beech. There are notable differences between the low and high moors. The former have the surface covered with water, in the latter the plant subsists on moist soil or above water. Low moors have a flat, high moors a convex surface. The former is characterized by Sedges, Grasses, Rushes, Hypna; the latter by Bog-moss and Heath. A low moor is relatively rich in lime, a high moor is poor in lime. The peat of the low moor is black, and one cannot recognize the included remains; that of a high moor is light, and animals and plants in it are well preserved. While the peat in the former is heavy, rich in mineral 68 FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS salts, the latter is light, with few mineral salts. Low-moor peat is greasy and wet; high-moor peat is dry, and conducts acid salts well. On a low moor the soil is rich in flood material, on a high moor it is poor; and there are few fungi in the first, many in the latter. Myco- rhiza and carnivorous plants are rare on low moor and common on high moor. The high moor is obliged to depend for moisture on the atmosphere. A sort of lichen-heath develops in which Empetrum, Birch, Heath, Juniper, &c., occur, and Carex, Hair-grass, Mat-grass, and Rushes also occur, and in their absence Lichens. The dwarf-shrub heath is treeless, with dwarf evergreen shrubs, mainly ericaceous and small-leaved, stunted, and xerophilous. The temperature is usually low, and the atmosphere not dry. The soil is a quartz-sand mainly reconstructed during the Ice Age. Over this there is a layer of humus where Ling and Whortleberry form a thick dense scrub of not more than i ft. high, forming heather-peat or raw humus, acid and inimical to ordinary forest mild humus plants. Heather is the dominant plant, and is associated with lack of nutrient substances and a low temperature. Many plants are decumbent or prostrate, being frequently wind- swept, and the shoots are curved and brittle. Ling, Empetrum, Cross-leaved Heath, Broad-leaved Whortleberry, Thyme, &c., and of the pinoid type Juniper (deciduous, thin-leaved plants), Broom, Furze, are typical. These plants form the chief food of game, whose distri- bution is regulated by their occurrence. Several associations are made up by the dominant species, as Callunetum, Ericetum Ericae Tetralicis, Myricetum, Myrtilletum. On the heaths and moors we find the pretty deep-blue Milk wort growing in tufts, as radiant as some alpine flower. Grassy Stitchwort links its life with Furze or Broom. Tormentil, with its straggling flowers, forms tufts amid the tussocks. Spread over the turfy sward the creamy flowers of Heath Beclstraw betray the sterile soil. Cat's Foot is rare, and found on the lonely heath. Wall Hawkweed, with many another of this group (of which there are some 200 species), grows on the bare patches near the woods. Sheep's Bit Scabious on rocky heaths or hills chooses a hollow, in which its blue tassel-like blooms, with the graceful pendent bells of the Hare-bell, reflect the colour of the sky. The heaths, too, are clad in a wide mantle of Whortleberry, Cross-leaved Heath, Crimson Heath, and Ling. Where Furze grows the Dodder trails on it, sponging as a parasite, as do Eyebright and Red Rattle, and Common Sylvan Cow-wheat on roots KEY TO PLATE LV No. I. Milk wort Grassy Stitch wort vulgaris, L.) (Stellaria, graiiiinta, L.) No. 3. Pretty St. John's Wort a, 8 stamens, with connate fil- aments forming split sheath. 6, Pistil, style, and stigma. c, Flower, with 2 petaloid inner sepals, and petals, 2 outer united with lower hooded one, and combined with stamina! sheath. , Transverse section of capsule, twith 3 carpels, opening by septa, c, Upper (Hypericum pulchrum, L.) *, Pistil,' with 3 stigmas, lous calyx, and capsule open- in calyx,, with 5 glandular ing above by teeth. b, Upper part of plant with stem-leaves, in opposite pairs, and inflorescence, with flow part of ptent' with opposite ers in dichotomous cynu, leaves and flowers in ter- with 5 2-fid petals, alternate rainal and axillary cymes, with 5 sepals, 10 stamens showing petals twisted in bud, 5, distinct, with stamens in bundles, with pistil and stigraas. and pistil ( Ulex cufopceus, L.) «, Young furze plant, with cotyledons, and early 3-foliate leaves, later transformed into spines. />, Branch, with sgines: and papilionaceous flowers, showing standar^ \X wing ,, and Wcel, and ffi*^^- fertilized, showing the stigtna,^ and column of stamens. X-' a, Flower, with calyx, scpaioits*. with unequal t^£, corolla reftraved. to show stamens, xin column, with united filaments and stigma, with incurved style. />, L gume, with! ^^^/V * (style), i, Seed. / d/lto* with 3-foliate leaves, flowers, one pollinated, : ing papilionaceous coroll^ with standard, wings, and keel, and within the stamens w*ith: versatile aaiheifs and (Potenlilla erect*, HampeJ - rt,^ection of d.sk, and pistils witrt-long i -styles, on convex receptacle. /-, Section of achene. .'c, Roc»tsto9k, woody, with roots, and leaf-bases. ~yi, Upper part of plant with ••' sessile 3- foliolate^ leave's, a.nd flowers in cyme, \vtth dis- tinct petals, ami sepals. al- ternating, also stamens. • ^ VJ <"d *tji !>/JOd fit • •:>;<; ;• • 2 d 1 1 * • • FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS PLATE LV I. Milkwort (Polygala vnlgaris, L. ). 2. (Jrassy Stitchuort (Siellaria graininca, L. ). 3. Pretty St. John's Wort Hyferiatm pnlchrum, L.). 4- l''»rze ( Ulex cnrof