Part 5
The Vetches are Leguminous plants, and the structure of the flowers is therefore very similar to those just described. The Vetches are chiefly climbing plants, and have pinnate leaves. The leaflets are numerous, and the leaf-stalk is continued for some distance beyond the leafy portion, where it becomes a clasping tendril, often divided into three or four branches. The Common Vetch is to be found in hedges and roadsides near cornfields, flowering from April to June. The flowers are pale purple in colour, and are produced singly or in pairs from the axils of the leaves. By some authorities this is not considered a true species, but merely a cultivated form of the Narrow-leaved Vetch (_V. angustifolia_). The seed-pods are slightly hairy, and from two to three inches in length. The name _Vicia_ is the term by which the plants were known to the ancients and appears to have the same origin as _Vinca_ (_see_ page 5).
There are no less than ten British species of Vicia, but as some of these are very rare, we shall refer only to some of the commoner kinds.
I. Slender Tare (_V. tetrasperma_). Stem very slender, about 2 feet in height. Flowers singly or in pairs, pale blue. Pods with three or four seeds. Hedges and cornfields. May to August.
II. Common Tare (_V. hirsuta_). Similar to foregoing species, but hairy. Flowers smaller, pods shorter, hairy, and containing two seeds only. In similar situations. These are both annuals.
III. Tufted Vetch (_V. cracca_). With creeping rootstock and angled stem, climbing or spreading; somewhat silky. The bright blue flowers are borne in a _dense_ one-sided raceme, to the number of twenty or thirty. The pod is beaked, about an inch in length, and contains a large number of seeds. Hedges and bushy places. June to August. Perennial.
IV. Bitter Vetch (_V. orobus_). Leaves in seven to ten pairs of leaflets, _without tendrils_. Stem erect, branched, hairy. The flowers purplish-white, ten to twenty, in loose one-sided racemes. Pod pointed at each end, containing four or five seeds. Rocky and mountainous woods on the western side of Britain. May to September.
V. Wood Vetch (_V. sylvatica_). Perennial creeping rootstock. Stems, 3 to 6 feet, scrambling and trailing over bushes and undergrowth. Tendrils branched. Leaves beautifully divided into six or eight pairs of leaflets. Flowers white, streaked and veined with purple, and borne loosely in a one-sided raceme, to the number of eight to eighteen. A beautiful species, found only locally in woods at high elevation.
VI. Bush Vetch (_V. sepium_). Creeping perennial rootstock, giving off runners. Leaflets, six to eight pairs. Flowers, dull purple, four to six in a cluster, not on a long stalk as in the Wood Vetch, but from the axils of the leaves, as in the Common Vetch. May to September. In hedges and bushy places.
=The Duckweeds= (_Lemna_).
The Duckweeds--Shakespeare’s “Green mantle of the standing pool”--are plants that are well-known to everybody, and consequently very few persons know anything of them. This is a paradox; but they are so common and so small that the average man or woman is content to know them in the aggregate, and cannot condescend to a more intimate acquaintance with individuals, or with the different species, yet like many other small things--“unconsidered trifles”--they are very interesting to the botanist; for these are among the smallest and simplest of the flowering plants. Taking up two or three plants from one pond and comparing them with some from another piece of water, we shall probably find a difference in them; but they are all possessed of a more or less flattened green body that floats on the water, and which we shall be inclined to call a leaf. It is not a leaf, however, but a plant that produces no leaves, though it has roots and flowers. To be more accurate we will call it a frond, from whose under-surface there goes down one or more simple unbranched roots, and in clefts of whose margin are simple flowers. The flower consists of an envelope or spathe (_see_ page 15), within which is a bottle-shaped pistil, with one or two stamens beside it. Some authorities contend that the pistil and each of the stamens is really a distinct flower similar to those in _Arum_. These flowers are so minute that they are rarely seen, and so are thought to flower only occasionally. The plant is chiefly multiplied by the production of new fronds from its edges. The four species figured give the whole of the genus, so far as Britain is concerned; but three others are known in foreign waters. The differences in the natives may be thus briefly enumerated:--
I. Least Duckweed (_Lemna minor_). The most frequent species. Frond not more than a quarter of an inch long, egg-shaped, the top flat and bright green, underside very pale green and slightly convex, with a single root. Spathe two-lipped, one much larger than the other. Stamens two, one maturing before the other; style long. Flowering in July.
II. Ivy-leaved Duckweed (_L. trisulca_). Frond thin and flat, nearly an inch long, tailed at one end, coarsely toothed at the other. New fronds emerge at right angles to the parent. Roots solitary. Stamens two; style short. June and July.
III. Thick-leaved Duckweed (_L. gibba_). Frond nearly round, narrowed at one end, large, almost flat, green opaque on top, greatly swollen beneath, whitish, clear, the cell-structure being very noticeable. Root solitary, stamens two. Flowers June to September.
IV. Great Duckweed (_L. polyrhiza_). At once distinguished from the others by its _bunch_ of roots from each frond. Upper surface slightly convex, dark green with seven nerves. Underside purple, as also the upper margins. Stamens two. Flower has been rarely, if ever, seen in this country.
Late in Autumn the fronds sink to the bottom of the ponds and ditches, and remain there hibernating till Spring, when they arise to the surface, and again vegetate. The name of the genus is the old Greek appellation of the plant _Lemna_, supposed to be derived from _Lepis_, a scale.
=Corn Chamomile= (_Anthemis arvensis_).
We have already described several species of Compositæ, and now return to that order to describe a type of flower very similar in general appearance to the Daisy (page 1). The Corn Chamomile is an annual plant; the lower portion of its stem is prostrate, sending up erect branches with alternate, prettily cut leaves, twice pinnate. The flower-heads are borne singly on long stalks, and the floral envelope (_involucre_) consists of a number of over-lapping scales (_bracts_), whose margins are dry and chaffy. The base (_receptacle_) upon which the florets are packed is convex and covered with little chaffy scales, which stand up between the florets. The disc-florets contain both anthers and pistil; the ray-florets are pistillate only. The whole plant is downy. It occurs in fields and waste places, flowering from May to August. Though somewhat widely distributed, it is a local plant. The name is an old Greek name for the Chamomile, from _anthemon_, a flower, probably owing to the profusion of its blossoms.
The other British species of the genus are two only:--
I. The Stinking May Weed (_A. cotula_). Ray-florets usually without pistils. The plant is smooth or hairy, _not_ downy, but the leaves are quite smooth, and covered with minute glands, which secrete a fœtid-smelling and acrid juice, causing swelling of the hands in persons clearing fields of this weed. The flower-stalks are more slender than in _arvensis_, and the involucral bracts are narrower at their tips. Fields, wastes and roadsides; very common in South of England, rare in the North. Flowers June to September.
II. The Chamomile (_A. nobilis_). Perennial. Branches spreading from the root, leafy and furrowed, hollow. Leaves woolly, aromatic. Flower-stalk long and slender; involucre downy and chaffy. The ray-florets are sometimes wanting. In great favour as a remedy for indigestion. Gravelly pastures and dry wastes in England and Ireland. Rare. It is not a native of Scotland. Flowers July to September.
=St. John’s Wort= (_Hypericum perforatum_).
There are no less than eleven native species of St. John’s Wort, all characterized by a neat habit, clean-cut leaves without stalks, yellow flowers in cymose clusters, and a multitude of stamens, which are more or less joined in several bundles.
The species represented on our plate is one of the commonest, and occurs in copses and hedgebanks throughout the kingdom, as far north as Sutherland, flowering from July to September. It is very erect in habit, the stems two-edged, pale brown and smooth, two or three feet high. If the leaves are held up to the light it will be found that the veins (_but not the reticulations_) are pellucid, and that the leaf is thickly dotted with pellucid glands. The flowers are 1 to 1¼ inch in diameter. The calyx, corolla, and sometimes leaves are more or less marked with black dots and lines. The sepals and petals are each five in number; the ovary large, pear-shaped, surmounted by three long styles, which are longer than the ovary. The stamens joined in three bundles by their bases only. Sepals glandular.
Among the other British species are:--
I. Square-stalked St. John’s Wort (_H. tetrapterum_). Stem with four narrow wings, 1 to 2 feet, leaves broader than in _perforatum_, but the glands, veins _and reticulations_ are pellucid. Styles shorter than the ovary. Flowers dense, ½ to ¾ inch. across. Moist places, July and August.
II. Trailing St. John’s Wort (_H. humifusum_). Stems slender, compressed, prostrate, not exceeding a foot. Leaves small, oblong; glands pellucid; the margins are often marked with black glands, and are sometimes rolled back. Flowers, ½ inch across. Sepals unequal. Styles very short. Commons and wastes. July and August.
III. Small Upright St. John’s Wort (_H. pulchrum_). Stems slender, round, smooth, erect. Leaves heart-shaped, with pellucid glands. Sepals small, oblong, with black glandular teeth. Petals yellow, tinged with red, and edged with black glands. Styles short; anthers red. Flowers ¾ inch, loose panicles. Dry woods and heaths. June and July.
IV. Hairy St. John’s Wort (_H. hirsutum_). Stem erect, round, downy. Leaves large, _with short stalks_, downy beneath, pellucid glands. Sepals very narrow, half length of petals, with black glandular teeth. Woods and thickets, especially on chalk. July and August.
V. Tutsan (_H. androsæmum_). Stem shrubby, compressed, 2 feet high. Flowers few, ¾ inch across. Sepals unequal, glandular, except margin. Petals and stamens not permanent. Stamens in five bundles. Styles shorter than stamens. Hedges and thickets. July to September.
=Clovers= (_Trifolium_).
Everybody knows a Clover when he sees it; it is therefore unnecessary to take up our space with a general description. Their great value as pasture plants has caused their typical forms of flower and leaf to be well known; but we have so many native species, to say nothing of the introduced kinds, that few besides botanists and agriculturists are acquainted with their specific characters.
All the Clovers or Trefoils are Leguminous plants, and the structure of the individual flower is very similar to that of _Lotus_ and _Vicia_; but the flowers are much smaller, and are gathered into a conspicuous head. In certain species there are floral bracts, and in some these form an involucre. It is characteristic of most of the clovers that when the seed is set the petals do not fall off, but simply dry up and wrap round the pod. The name of the genus is Latin, and signifies _three-leaved_. The principal British species are:--
I. Subterranean Trefoil (_T. subterraneum_), so called from its singular habit of burying its pods in the earth when they are ripening. The plant has many creeping stems, covered with soft hairs. The heads of flowers are cream-coloured, and are produced in the axils. The individual flowers are long and slender; only a few in each head are fertile, and in this species the petals fall off early. The pod is a compressed orb. Dry, gravelly pastures. May and June.
II. Hare’s-foot Trefoil (_T. arvense_). Stems almost erect. Flower-heads numerous, dense, cylindric, softly hairy; flowers pinky-white, minute; teeth of the calyx longer than the corolla. Corn-fields and dry pastures. July to September.
III. Common Purple or Red Clover (_T. pratense_). (_See_ figure.) This is the clover so commonly grown in meadows as an important ingredient in the hay-crop. Its large oval leaflets are frequently marked with a whitish band that takes more or less of a quarter-moon shape. Its flower-heads are round, afterwards becoming longer than broad, purplish red in colour. Calyx-teeth slender, bristly, not longer than corolla. Top of pod dropping off when ripe. This is the clover Darwin made famous by showing that the cultivated forms must die out but for the humble-bees, whose tongues alone are long enough to fertilize its long flowers. Meadows, pastures and roadsides. May to September.
IV. Zigzag or Meadow Clover (_T. medium_). Leaflets more pointed than in _pratense_, and spotless. Stem branched in such a manner as to give it a peculiarly zigzag appearance. Heads larger, and of a deeper purple than _pratense_. Calyx-teeth half the length of corolla. Pod splitting lengthwise. Pastures, flourishing in lighter soils than _pratense_. June to September.
V. Soft Knotted Trefoil (_T. striatum_). Stem more or less reclining, downy or silky. Flower-heads both terminal and axillary, small, rosy-red, broader at the base. Calyx-tube swollen, ribbed, contracted at mouth, teeth not so long as corolla. Dry pastures. June and July.
VI. Rough Rigid Trefoil (_T. scabrum_). Stems rigid, prostrate. Leaflets rigid, toothed, the veins thickened. Flower-heads broadest in middle. Flowers small, the corolla white, calyx purple; calyx-teeth as long as corolla. Chalky and sandy pastures near sea. May to July.
VII. Dutch Clover (_T. repens_). Stems smooth, creeping, but not rooting. Leaflets often with a dark spot at the base, below a whitish band. Heads of flowers globose, all produced from the axils, on long stalks. The flowers white or pinkish, attached by short stalks, which are recurved after flowering, so that the pods are all drooping. Meadows and pastures. May to October.
VIII. Strawberry-headed Clover (_T. fragiferum_). Similar in habit to the last. Flower-head globose, of small purple-red flowers, much larger after flowering, when the calyces swell and take on a red colour, which increases size of head to an inch in diameter, and gives it a strawberry-like aspect. Meadows and pastures. July and August.
IX. Hop Trefoil (_T. procumbens_). (_See_ Figure on p. 47.) This must not be confounded with the Hop Trefoil of the farmer (_Medicago lupulina_), in which the flowers are borne in spikes (_see_ p. 73). The stems are downy, one growing erect, others all round it creeping. The flowers are pale yellow, crowded in the heads, the upper petal (_standard_) broad, and arched over the _straight_ pod, turning bright brown, which gives the head the appearance of a hop strobile. The pods are always so covered in this species, whereas, in _Medicago lupulina_ they are naked. Dry pastures and roadsides. June to August.
X. Small Yellow Trefoil (_T. dubium_). Stems slight, creeping, nearly smooth. Heads smaller, on long slender stalk. Flowers yellow, the standard narrow, keeled, turning dark brown after flowering and wrapped round the pod. Similar situations and date to last.
=Sain Foin= (_Onobrychis sativa_). Plate 49.
Still keeping to the Leguminous plants, we have here a handsome herb of aspect very different from that of the Trefoils. It is much cultivated as a fodder plant in dry fields, but will also be found growing wild on chalk-hills and downs. It is, however, suspected of being an escape from cultivation that has taken to an independent life. The plant springs from a perennial woody rootstock, and its stout downy stems are more or less erect. The leaves are pinnate, the leaflets in about twelve pairs and a terminal one. The flowers are in spikes, the standard broad; bright clear pink, veined with a deeper rosy tint. The pod is semicircular, wrinkled, and contains but one seed. Flowers June to August. The name is derived from two Greek words, signifying the braying of an ass, because that animal is fabled to bray after it when he sees but cannot reach it.
=Eyebright= (_Euphrasia officinalis_).
From the close-cropped turf of our commons and in meadows the bright eyes of this plant peep out through the summer. In such situations it is a very lowly herb, only an inch or so in height, but in some places, as in the pastures of the Highlands, it grows erect to a height of nearly a foot, with many opposite branches. The leaves are ovate, opposite, without stalks, and of a dark-green hue. The flowers are borne near the extremities of the branches. Some of the flowers are much larger than others, and in the larger the stigmas ripen before the anthers; in the smaller the anthers mature before the stigmas. The tubular calyx is divided into four sharp lobes. The corolla is white, streaked with purple, except the central lobe of the lower lip, which is yellow. This is the only native species of the genus--which is comprised in the order Scrophularineæ--though there are several varietal forms. Flowers from May to September. The name is from the Greek, _Euphraino_, to delight or gladden, in allusion to the pleasing contrast of its bright flowers with the dark foliage, or from its supposed efficacy for complaints affecting the eyes--its removal of these giving gladness.
The plant is--at least partially--a parasite, and preys upon the roots of other plants, which it robs. Probably the lowly forms to which we have referred may be less parasitic than those of greater stature; for if the seeds are sown in pots by themselves they will germinate and grow, but will never get large robust plants.
=Great Reed Mace= (_Typha latifolia_).
Of late years it has become the general error to call this plant Bulrush, a name which belongs by right to _Scirpus lacustris_. Every autumn the hawkers in London and other cities offer the cylindrical spikes of Typha for sale as æsthetic decorations, and call them bulrushes; but they are not the originators of the blunder. It is the artists who have done this thing, especially one Delaroche, whose picture of “The Finding of Moses” is of world-wide popularity. In that painting he depicted the future leader of his people rocking in his ark amid a forest of _Typha_. What more was needed to associate the word bulrush of the Bible (itself a blunder of the learned translators) with this plant?
There are two British species, perennial plants with long, narrow, grass-like leaves, the bases of which sheath the stem. The stamens and pistils are produced in separate flowers, but upon the same plant. The flowers have no perianth other than a few slender hairs. The staminate flowers occupy the upper portion of the well-known spike or “mace,” and consist simply of several stamens joined together, the anthers opening along their sides. The pistillate flowers consist of a stalked ovary with a slender style and a one-sided narrow stigma. The specific differences are as follows:--
I. Great Reed Mace (_T. latifolia_). Leaves as much as an inch and a half broad, in two rows, bluish-green. Flowering stem naked, 6 or 7 feet high. Staminate and pistillate spikes continuous, or but slightly interrupted. Growing in lakes and on the banks of rivers. Flowering in July and August.
II. Lesser Reed Mace (_T. angustifolia_). Whole plant smaller. Leaves half the width, dark green, grooved at lower end. Staminate and pistillate spikes separated by an interval. Stigmas broader. Ditches and pools. Less common than _latifolia_. Flowering July.
Name from Greek, _Tiphos_, a fen or marsh, from the habitat.
=Kidney Vetch= (_Anthyllis vulneraria_).
The Kidney-vetch or Lady’s fingers was celebrated from early times as a plant that was efficacious in the cure of wounds, and hence its specific name _vulneraria_. There is no doubt that this reputation was well-founded, for its bluish leaves are covered with silky hairs and its calyces downy. It is a perennial herb that affects dry pastures and rocky banks. From a woody rootstock arise several stems and a large number of radical leaves; these consist of a long terminal leaflet and two disproportionately small lateral leaflets. The leaves from the stems (caudal leaves) have a larger number of leaflets in pairs, as well as a terminal one. The flowers are borne in heads, with an involucre of leaflets, and the heads are chiefly in pairs. The calyx is membranous, and therefore permanent, the mouth oblique, with fine teeth. The petals are nearly equal in length, and typically yellow, but subject to considerable variation. After flowering the straw-coloured calyx becomes inflated, and the roundish smooth and veined pod with its solitary seed is hidden within. In some of the coast localities for this plant it will be found with flowers white, cream-coloured, crimson, and purple; this has been especially noted at the Lizard in Cornwall. It is ordinarily in flower from June to August. This is the only British species.
The name is the one in use among the ancient Greeks, and signifies _bearded flower_, which is obviously a reference to the woolly calyces.
=Ox-eye Daisy= (_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_).