Part 17
The Wild Carrot (_Daucus Carota_) of the same order is also common in pastures. It is an erect plant, with a tap root, and a branching stem from one to two feet high. The lower leaves are two or three times pinnate, with segments pinnately divided into narrow lobes. The upper leaves are much smaller, with narrower divisions. The umbels are large and terminal, on long stalks. The rays are numerous and crowded; the middle ones being shorter, with pale purple flowers; and the outer ones longer, with white flowers. After flowering the rays close together, forming a dense, globular mass, or an inverted cone, concave at the top, thus more or less covering the fruits, in which they are aided by the long, narrow lobes of both the primary and secondary bracts. The fruits are covered with little hooked prickles.
The Devil's-bit Scabious (_Scabiosa succisa_--order _Dipsaceæ_) is very common in the pastures of almost all parts of Britain, and much resembles the Field Scabious (p. 290) in general habit. Its stem is erect, branching, from one to two feet high. The radical leaves are stalked, ovate or oblong, and generally quite entire; and the stem-leaves, which are few, are of the same general form, but are sessile, and sometimes slightly toothed. The heads of purple-blue flowers are on long peduncles, and each one is surrounded at the base by about three whorls of bracts which decrease in length inwards, the outer and longest being about as long as the flowers. The flowers of the head are all nearly of the same size and form. Each one is enclosed in a tubular whorl of united bracts with small teeth. This whorl might easily be mistaken for a calyx by those who are not acquainted with the general features of the flowers of this order, but the calyx is really combined with the ovary, its four bristly teeth being very conspicuous round the top of the fruit. The corolla is tubular, deeply cleft into four lobes; and four stamens are inserted into its tube. The fruit is small and seedlike, and does not split. This plant flowers from July to September or October.
Coming now to the _Compositæ_, we have a considerable number of meadow flowers to describe; and we assume that the reader has already made himself acquainted with the nature of the flowers of this order as given on p. 175. If such is not the case, we advise him to refresh his memory with regard to them, in order that the terms used in the following descriptions may be thoroughly understood.
Our first species is the Rough Hawkbit (_Leontodon hispidus_), which is very abundant in all parts of Britain except the extreme north, its rather large, yellow flower-heads being often mistaken for those of the Dandelion that are frequently seen in company with them on pasture land. Its specific name is due to the short, stiff hairs, often more or less branched, that clothe all parts of the plant. The leaves are all radical, long and narrow, decreasing in width towards the base, and either coarsely toothed or deeply cut into pointed lobes. The flower-stalk widens immediately below its solitary head, which is surrounded by hairy bracts--two or three whorls of short ones without, and a whorl of long ones within. All the florets are ligulate or strap-shaped, and yellow. The fruits are long achenes, narrower towards the top; and the pappus consists of a few short, outer hairs, surrounding about twice the number of brown, feathered ones three or four times as long. The flower stalks vary from a few inches to a foot or more in height, and the flowers bloom from June to September.
Equally abundant is the Autumnal Hawkbit (_Leontodon autumnalis_), which is also found in pastures. It is a very similar plant in many respects, but may be easily distinguished by its smaller heads of flowers on branching stalks. The flowering stems are erect, from six to eighteen inches high, each with one or two branches bearing a few small scales and a single head of flowers. The involucre consists of several rows of smooth, closely-overlapping bracts, and is narrowed at the base into the enlarged upper part of the stalk. The florets are all ligulate, as in the last species; and the pappus consists of brown, feathery hairs, all of the same length. The flowers appear during August and September.
The Meadow Thistle (_Carduus pratensis_) is abundant in some of the southern counties of Britain and Ireland, but is rarely seen in the north. Nearly all the leaves of this plant are radical, and these are long, narrow, and covered with cottony hairs. The few leaves of the stem are narrow, with short teeth that are only slightly prickly. The stem itself grows from twelve to eighteen inches high, and is usually unbranched, with a single head of flowers; sometimes, however, it has one or two branches, each terminating in a flower-head. The involucre is globular in form, covered with cottony hairs, and composed of closely-placed bracts. The flowers are purple. The plant grows chiefly in moist pastures, and flowers from June to August.
The Black Knapweed or Hardhead (_Centaurea nigra_) is a very common flower of meadows and pastures, flowering from June to September. Its stem is erect, tough, branched, from a few inches to three feet in height. The leaves are long and narrow; the upper ones entire or nearly so, and clasping the stem; and the lower coarsely toothed or divided into lobes. The flower-head has somewhat the appearance of a purple thistle, but the involucre is not prickly. The latter consists of an almost globular mass of closely-overlapping bracts, the visible portions of which are dark brown or black fringes. The florets are generally all equal, but the outer ones are sometimes larger than the others, and sterile.
The Great Knapweed (_Centaurea Scabiosa_) is a somewhat similar plant, but usually larger, its stout, branched stem being generally two or three feet high. It may be easily distinguished by its larger flower-heads, the outer, neuter florets of which are considerably enlarged. As a rule the florets are all purple, but occasionally all are white, or the outer ones white and the others purple. The bracts of the involucre are broad, with a green centre and a dark, downy margin. The fruit is surmounted by a pappus of stiff, bristly hairs of about its own length. This plant is common in the south of Britain, and flowers during July and August.
Two species of Fleabane have to be noticed. They belong to the genus _Inula_, and are distinguished by a distinct division of the flower-head into disc and ray, and also by two minute 'tails' at the bottom of the anthers.
One of these is the Common Fleabane (_I. dysenterica_)--a woolly plant, abundant in the moist pastures of the southern counties, flowering from July to September. Its erect stem is loosely branched, from six inches to two feet high. The leaves are oblong and wavy--the lower ones stalked, and the upper clasping the stem with rounded lobes at the base. The flower-heads are yellow, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, arranged singly on the tips of the branches, or on stalks arising from the axils of the upper leaves. The florets of the ray are spreading, and much longer than those of the disc; and the fruits have a minute cup at the top, from the inside of which spring the hairs of the pappus. The smoke arising from the burning Fleabanes was supposed to kill fleas and other vermin; and the specific name _dysenterica_ is due to the fact that this species has been used as a medicine in cases of dysentery.
The Small Fleabane (_I. Pulicaria_) is a similar plant, but smaller (from six to twelve inches high) and less woolly. Its flower-heads are yellow, much smaller, on terminal and axillary stalks; and the florets of the ray are only slightly longer than those of the disc. The hairs of the pappus are not surrounded at the base by a little cup, but by a few minute and distinct scales. This species grows in the south-eastern counties of England, and flowers during August and September.
The White Ox-eye Daisy (_Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum_) is one of the largest and most conspicuous of our composite flowers, and is abundant in dry pastures all over Britain. The plant is generally smooth; and its erect stem, either simple or slightly branched, is from one to two feet high. The lower leaves are obovate, coarsely toothed, on long stalks; and the upper ones are narrow and sessile, with a few teeth. The flower-heads are large, and placed singly on long, terminal stalks. The bracts are closely overlapping, with narrow, brown margins; the ray florets white, strap-shaped, over half an inch long; and the disc florets numerous and tubular. The flowers bloom from June to August.
Our last composite flower is the Sneezewort (_Achillea Ptarmica_), which is common in the hilly pastures and meadows of most parts of Britain. It has an erect stem, one to two feet high. The leaves are sessile, narrow, with fine, regular teeth, and a smooth surface. The flower-heads are arranged in a loose, terminal, flat-topped corymb. Each is surrounded by an involucre of overlapping bracts; and consists of numerous little disc-florets, intermixed with small scales, and about twelve short, broad, white florets of the ray. The time of flowering is July and August.
The Common Centaury (_Erythræa Centaurium_), of the order _Gentianaceæ_, is a very common plant in dry pastures. Its stem is erect, simple below, freely branched towards the top, from six to eighteen inches high; and the leaves are ovate, spreading and closely placed below, narrow and more distant above. The flowers are rose-red or pink, in a dense corymb, with a calyx of five very narrow segments, and a corolla consisting of a narrow tube and five spreading lobes.
Of the order _Convolvulaceæ_ we shall note one species--the Small Bindweed (_Convolvulus arvensis_), so well known as a troublesome weed in cultivated fields. It has a creeping rootstock, and a twining stem, from a few inches to two feet in length, that sometimes climbs, but more commonly trails along the ground and over low-growing plants. The leaves are stalked, arrow-shaped, about an inch and a half long, with sharp, spreading lobes at the base. The axillary peduncles are usually forked, with a single flower on each of the two branches; and there are two small bracts at the angle of the fork, and another one or a pair above these, but some distance below the flower, on each branch. The calyx is very small, but the salver-shaped corolla is usually over an inch in diameter, either pink or pinkish white. The plant flowers from June to August.
The Meadow Clary (_Salvia pratensis_--order _Labiatæ_), shown on Plate IV, Fig. 6, is a rather rare plant, apparently to be seen only in the dry fields of Oxfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and the extreme south-west of England; but it is one of the most handsome of the Labiates. Its stem is erect, from one to two feet high. The radical leaves are large, stalked, ovate or cordate, toothed, and much wrinkled; and the stem-leaves few, ovate or lanceolate, acute, the upper ones sessile. The flowers are arranged in whorls of from four to six at regular distances, the whole forming a long, simple or branched spike. The calyx is divided into two lips, the upper of which has often three small teeth, while the lower is divided into two lobes; and the corolla is of a bright blue colour, about three times as long as the calyx, with a long, arched upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip. There are two stamens, each with a fertile and an abortive anther connected by a thin stalk which is fastened to the short filament in such a manner that it rocks. This plant flowers from June to August.
The peculiar arrangement of the stamens above described is sufficient in itself to distinguish the genus _Salvia_ from all the other Labiates, and the importance of the peculiarity in connexion with the pollination of the flower is so interesting that we may well spend a few minutes in studying it before passing on to other species. In the first place it should be mentioned that the stamens of _Salvia_ are mature before the stigma, and that, as a consequence, self-pollination is impossible. The lower, abortive anthers of the two stamens are joined together and form a little valve which closes the throat of the corolla tube. Each one, however, has a notch in its inner side, and the two notches, meeting in the middle, form a little hole. When a bee visits the flower, it alights on the lower lip of the corolla, and thrusts its tongue through the hole to reach the nectar at the base of the tube. In doing this it pushes the abortive anthers backwards, and the upper, fertile anther cells, which rest under the arched upper lip, are thus made to swing downwards and forwards so that they touch the bee's back; and, if they are ripe, to deposit some pollen. After the pollen has been thus removed, the style lengthens and curves downward, bringing the stigma, which is now mature, to the position previously occupied by the fertile anther cells at the time they were made to swing downwards by the bee. Thus, if a bee which has previously visited a flower with mature anthers now comes to one in which the stigma is ripe, the pollen dusted on its back by the former is rubbed against the stigma of the latter, and cross-fertilisation is the result.
The Common Marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_) is an aromatic plant that often grows in great abundance on dry hilly pastures, especially in limestone and chalky districts. Its stem is thin and hairy, a foot or more in height; and the leaves are stalked, ovate, blunt, slightly toothed, downy, and about an inch in length. The flowers, which bloom from July to September, are of a rosy purple colour, in numerous globular clusters, the whole inflorescence forming a leafy panicle. The overlapping bracts are about as long as the calyx, and usually tinged with red or purple; the calyx has five, short, equal teeth, and is very hairy in the throat; the corolla is about twice the length of the calyx, and has four lobes, the upper of which is a little broader than the others; and the stamens are in two pairs, one pair longer than the other. It will be noticed that some of the flowers are larger than others, and that these are perfect, while the smaller ones have no stamens.
In the same order (_Labiatæ_) there is the Self-Heal (_Prunella vulgaris_), a very common plant in moist meadows, flowering from July to the end of the summer. The lower portion of the stem of this plant usually rests on the ground and roots at the nodes, but from this arises the erect branches, four to ten inches high, bearing pairs of oval or oblong, slightly-toothed leaves; and a dense terminal spike of whorled flowers immediately above the last pair. The lipped corolla is of a violet or purple colour, usually about half an inch long. During the flowering stage the spike is very short, but as the fruits ripen it lengthens out to about an inch and a half or two inches.
Coming now to the Plantains (order _Plantaginaceæ_) we have two species to note, both of which are very abundant on pasture land. One is the Greater Plantain (_Plantago major_)--a very low plant, with a short, thick rootstock, and a radical cluster of spreading or ascending leaves with grooved stalks. These leaves are ovate, nearly as broad as long, and traversed by five, seven, or nine strong parallel veins which converge into the stalk at the base. Each little flower of the long, slender spike has four sepals; a corolla with a tube and four spreading lobes; and four stamens that project beyond the corolla. The fruit is a small capsule which splits transversely when ripe. The plant flowers from June to August.
The other is the Ribwort Plantain (_P. lanceolata_), a somewhat similar plant, the leaves of which are narrow, tapering at both ends, with three or five strong, parallel ribs. Each flower-stalk bears a globular or oval spike from half an inch to an inch in length. This species also flowers from June to August.
There are a few summer-flowering species of Orchids that are more or less common in fields and pastures. One of these is the Marsh Orchis (_Orchis latifolia_), a plant so closely resembling the Spotted Orchis (p. 277) that it is sometimes regarded as a variety of the latter. Its tubers are palmately divided; and its stem, which is hollow, is usually from twelve to eighteen inches high. The leaves are large, sometimes spotted; and the spike of flowers is large, with leafy bracts longer than the ovaries. The flowers vary in colour from white to a deep purple, have a spur usually thicker than that of the Spotted Orchis, and a lip indistinctly divided into three lobes, with its sides curved backwards. The flower, which is represented on Plate VI, grows in moist meadows, marshes, and on moors, flowering during June and July.
Another species--the Butterfly Orchis (_Habenaria bifolia_)--has (usually) undivided tubers; a stem from six to twelve inches high with two broad leaves near the base, and surrounded below by a few sheathing scales; and a rather loose spike of white or greenish flowers with narrow bracts about as long as the ovaries. The petals and upper sepals are arched, the lateral sepals spreading, the lip narrow and undivided, and the spur about twice as long as the ovary. This flower is not uncommon in moist meadows, where it blooms from June to August. A large variety, with greener flowers, is sometimes known as the Great Butterfly Orchis.
A considerable number of summer-flowering grasses are more or less common in fields and meadows. We have not space for the descriptions of these, but introduce illustrations of a few, including the Cock's-foot Grass (_Dactylis glomerata_) which appears on Plate IV.
XV
BOGS, MARSHES AND WET PLACES--SUMMER
The Crowfoot group of the _Ranunculaceæ_ contains two bog-plants popularly known as Spearworts on account of their spear-like leaves. One of these--the Lesser Spearwort (_Ranunculus Flammula_)--is abundant in wet places, especially the edges of muddy pools and ditches, where its buttercup-like flowers may be seen from June to September. It is a slender, smooth plant, with a branched stem, more or less decumbent at the base, from four to twelve inches high. Its leaves are narrow-oval in form, stalked, and either slightly toothed or quite entire; and the yellow flowers are about half an inch in diameter, on long peduncles.
The other is the Greater Spearwort (_R. Lingua_), a much larger species, varying from two to four feet in height, and flowering during the same months. It has stout, hollow, erect stems which throw off whorls of root fibres from the lowest joints; and the glossy, yellow flowers vary from one to one and a half inches in diameter. This species is not nearly so common as the other, but occurs more or less in most parts of Britain.
Taking next the cruciferous plants (_Cruciferæ_), we have first to note a few species of the _Nasturtium_ genus, including the Water-cress and the Yellow-cress. These are all smooth plants, with small yellow or white flowers. They may be distinguished from other crucifers by their loose calyx; simple, rounded stigma on a very short style; and their oblong or narrow pods with the seeds arranged in two rows on each side of the membranous partition. The species with which we are at present concerned are:--
1. The Water-cress (_Nasturtium officinale_).--A succulent plant, with a branched stem rooting at the base, growing freely in ditches, shallow streams and muddy places, and flowering from May or June to the end of the summer. Its leaves are pinnately divided into from seven to eleven wavy or slightly-toothed segments, the terminal one of which is usually larger than the others and nearly round. The flowers are small, white, in short, crowded racemes; and the pods are spreading, more than half an inch long.
2. The Marsh Yellow Cress (_N. palustre_), common in muddy places.--A slender plant with a fibrous root, and pinnate leaves with irregularly-toothed segments which are smaller towards the base. The flowers are yellow, about an eighth of an inch in diameter, with petals no longer than the sepals. They bloom from June to September. The pods are oblong, swollen, slightly curved, a quarter of an inch long.
3. The Amphibious Yellow Cress (_N. amphibium_).--An erect plant, two or three feet high, with fibrous root and creeping runners, flowering from June to September, moderately common on the banks of muddy streams. Its leaves are narrow-oblong, three or four inches long, deeply toothed, or cut into narrow lobes; and the flowers are yellow, similar to those of the other species, and similarly arranged, but with petals twice as long as the sepals. The pods are broad, only about a sixth of an inch long, with a rather long style.
In the marshes of the South of England we may often see the Marsh Mallow (_Malva officinalis_ or _Althæa officinalis_), of the order _Malvaceæ_, flowering during August and September. Its stem is hairy, with erect flowering branches two or three feet high; and the leaves are shortly stalked, thick, velvety, broadly ovate, and sometimes divided into three or five lobes. The flowers are shortly stalked in the axils of the upper leaves, or sometimes collected into a terminal raceme. Round each one is a whorl of several narrow bracts, shorter than the calyx, and united at their bases. The calyx is five-lobed; and the corolla consists of five broad, rose-coloured petals. This plant is shown on Plate V, Fig. 4.
The Marsh St. John's-wort (_Hypericum Elodes_--order _Hypericaceæ_) is a somewhat shaggy little plant, common in the bogs of many parts of Britain, more especially in West England and Ireland. It varies from a few inches to a foot in length; with prostrate stems rooting at the base; and rounded, opposite leaves without stipules. Both stem and leaves are clothed with white, woolly hairs, the latter on both surfaces. The flowers, which bloom during July and August, are of a pale yellow colour, and form a few-flowered, terminal panicle. They have five small, oval sepals, fringed with little red-stalked glands; five petals, about three times as long as the sepals; and many stamens, united to more than half way up into three bundles. (See Plate V, Fig. 6.)