Part 9

The genus to which this plant belongs consists of thorough weeds. Their habitat is waste places, usually where the soil is made up of man’s refuse. The plants are fairly uniform in colour, from stem to leaf and flower. They are fertilized by the wind, so they have no need to put on showy colours to attract insects. The flowers are small, and the petals are entirely wanting; they consist of from three to five sepals, from two to five stamens ranged around the ovary, which is surmounted by the two or three spreading stigmas. Some are distinguished by unpleasant odours, and they have little to attract popular attention, although some have been used as potherbs--notably the species figured, and which rejoices in the alternative titles of “Good King Henry” and “All-good.”

Mercury Goosefoot (_C. bonus-henricus_) is a perennial with a thick fleshy rootstock, and erect channelled stems from one to three feet in height. The leaves are large, dark green, and of the shape that botanists describe as “hastate,” that is, like the head of an ancient halberd. These leaves are somewhat succulent, and in some places are used as a substitute for spinach. The ovary when ripe becomes what is technically known as a _utricle_, a thin loose case containing a single seed. In this species the seed is black, marked with small punctures. Flowers May to August.

All the other British species are annuals, and among them may be noted the Stinking Goosefoot (_C. vulvaria_), with spreading stems, small, greasy, mealy leaves, grey-green, and with an odour like rotten fish. Many-seeded Goosefoot (_C. polyspermum_), with several spreading branches, ovate leaves and many minute, rough, dark-brown seeds. White Goosefoot (_C. album_), leaves ovate, covered with a white mealy substance, upper portions _toothed_, sepals keeled, seed dark, shining, very minutely dotted. Red Goosefoot (_C. rubrum_), with erect, frequently red, stems, smooth and shining, leaves variable in form, and the character of the margin, sometimes toothed, sometimes entire, sepals not keeled. The name is from two Greek words, signifying Goosefoot, in reference to the shape of the leaves in some species.

=Burdock= (_Arctium lappa_).

The Burdock is a plant well-known to artists and boys; the former being interested in it as a fine foreground plant, the latter on account of its hooked bracts, which make the fruit-head an admirable instrument of torture, or an ornament for decorating some other person’s clothes. In its young state the plant is suggestive of the Butterbur, the fine bold lower leaves having a densely cottony underside as in that plant. But there the similarity ends, for in Butterbur there is no rising stem, whereas in Burdock this ordinarily reaches a stature of three or four feet. We encountered a fine specimen near Chessington, Surrey, in June, 1894, that had reached the height of seven feet three inches, and as it had only just commenced flowering it would probably put on a few additional inches before its growth ceased. The stem is stout, the leaves alternate, heart-shaped, thick. The flowers are in dense heads, like a thistle, but without any spreading rays. The involucre globose, of many leathery bracts ending in long stiff hooks, by means of which the ripe heads become firmly attached to the coats of animals, and the seeds are thus carried far and wide. Corollas, five-lobed, purple. Common in all waste places. Flowering from June to September. According to Hooker this is the only British species, but the “splitters” have made four or more species out of it.

The name is from the Greek, _Arktos_, a bear, from its rough appearance.

=Goosegrass or Cleavers= (_Galium aparine_).

Although Goosegrass has nothing else in common with Burdock it resembles it in the fact that its fruit “sticketh closer than a brother.” It is a plant of the hedge, where it forms dense masses, the whole plant--stem, leaves and fruits--being covered with flinty hooks. The rambling botanist, when playfully inclined, detaches a yard-length from the hedge and deftly throwing it against his unconscious companion’s back, causes a hundred hooks to catch in the warp or weft of his coat. It belongs to the Bedstraws, a genus comprising nearly a dozen British species, and distinguished by having minute flowers, yellow, white or greenish, calyx minute, a mere ring, the corolla four or five-lobed, honeyed. Stamens four, styles two, united at their bases. The leaves are borne in whorls of from four to ten, at distant intervals on the square stem. In _G. aparine_ the leaves vary from six to eight, the flower-cymes arise from their axils, the flowers are white, the fruit first green then becoming purplish. Flowers June and July.

=White Campion= (_Lychnis vespertina_).

On page 66 we gave a figure of _Lychnis flos-cuculi_, and descriptions of that species and _L. diurna_, the Red Campion. The present species was classed by Linnæus as a mere variety of _L. diurna_, the two being combined under the name of _L. dioica_. In general characters the White Campion agrees with the Red, but the calyx is more greenish, and the petals are entirely white (occasionally reddish). The plant is larger and more coarse than its diurnal relative--for, as its name signifies, _L. vespertina_ opens in the evening and is fertilized by night-flying moths. It is a fragrant plant, but its fragrance is reserved for its flowering time--not that its nocturnal visitors require the scent to direct them to the flowers, for they glow and gleam in the dark field and hedgerow from May to September.

=The Holly= (_Ilex aquifolium_).

The popular knowledge of the Holly has been gained chiefly about Christmas-tide, when its brightly varnished yet repellent leaves and its brilliant berries are much sought for household decoration. To most persons the flower is unknown; yet if they sought the holly in the woods or hedges any time from May to August they would probably find the white flowers produced in “umbellate cymes” from the axils of the leaves. The calyx is slightly downy, with four or five divisions. The petals are four in number, white, conjoined at their bases, or entirely separate. The stamens are four, one attached to the base of each petal; stigmas also four, attached to the ovary, without intervening styles. The fruit, with which we are all so familiar by sight, is technically a _drupe_, in which category are also placed the cherry and the plum, fruits which have the seed enclosed in a hard “stone” (or _endocarp_), surrounded by a fleshy _pericarp_. The holly-berries, as the fruits are called (though they in no wise resemble the gooseberry, which is a true berry), contain four of such stones. This is the only British species.

The name _Ilex_ is said to be of Celtic origin, and derived from _ec_ or _ac_, a sharp point, but this appears to us very unsatisfactory. Its old English name was _holm_, a word that has become fixed in some of our place-names for localities where holly is still abundant: such as Holmesdale, Holmwood, and Holmbury, all in Surrey.

If the smooth grey bark of old hollies be scrutinized closely one may find upon it a number of raised black cuneiform marks, not unlike the characters of the Chinese alphabet. They are really the fruits of a lichen, _Graphis elegans_. With care the piece of bark containing these curious marks may be cut out without defacing or injuring them.

=Charlock or Wild Mustard= (_Brassica sinapis_).

An upland cornfield in June with Charlock between the short corn-plants is a beautiful sight for the rambler, but the farmer may be pardoned if he fails to take the æsthetic view; for all that vegetable gold must be laboriously hand-picked, or “cleaned,” as he would probably express it. Charlock is a weed that keeps close to the farmer; that likes the comparatively light and dry soil of the ploughed field.

It is a hairy annual belonging to the cabbage tribe, which is a branch of the _Cruciferæ_ or Cross-worts, so-called from the four petals being arranged cross-wise. In this and the two following species the petals are bright yellow. To make the flower symmetrical there should be four or eight stamens; there are six, and it has been suggested that there were eight, but two have been suppressed. The fruit is an angular pod, with a straight beak, not persistent, and two hairy valves, but containing only one row of dark-brown seeds. Flowers from May to August.

There are many species of _Brassica_, two of which may be confounded with _B. sinapis_; they are:--

I. Black Mustard (_B. nigrum_). Stem bristly, upper leaves very narrow, lance-shaped, smooth, with entire or toothed margins. Pods awl-shaped, quadrangular. Beak short and slender, containing no seeds. Valves keeled. Seeds reddish-brown, oblong. Flowers June to September in hedges and wastes.

II. White Mustard (_B. alba_). Hairy, like _B. sinapis_, but the hairs pointing downwards. The upper leaves deeply lobed, lyre-shaped, the lobes being again cut and lobed. Stem marked with longitudinal incised lines. Pod short, no longer than the flat thin, or sword-shaped, ribbed beak. Seeds larger than the last, more globose, yellow. Flowers June and July in cultivated ground.

The genus bears the Latin name for the Cabbage, the wild form of which is _B. oleracea_, a wild plant on the sea-cliffs of South-west England and Wales, from which have arisen the cultivated varieties known as Scotch-kail, cow-cabbage, savoys, brussels sprouts, red cabbage, white cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.

=Common Cow-wheat= (_Melampyrum pratense_).

Quite a number of our common plants have been distinguished in popular nomenclature by the prefix “cow,” and as a general rule it would appear to have been applied in depreciation, as in the parallel cases of “dog,” “horse,” and “hog,” to signify coarseness or worthlessness. In the case of the Cow-wheat our forefathers had a notion that if its seeds were ground up with wheat the bread made from the flour would be black. One of the species (_M. arvense_) affects cornfields, and its seeds are like black grains of wheat, and from this fact the genus gets its scientific appellation from the Greek, _melas_, black, and _puros_, wheat. In addition the plants themselves turn black when dead and dry.

I. Common Yellow Cow-wheat (_M. pratense_) is an annual, partially parasitic upon roots, like Eyebright. The leaves are almost stalkless, very narrow, with even margins, and produced in pairs. The flower follows the general structure of the Scrophularineæ (_see_ pp. 33 and 50 _ante_). The calyx is five-toothed, the corolla tubular, straight, dilated at the mouth and two-lipped, the upper with the edges turned back, the lower three-lobed. The four stamens will be found close under the upper lip, with the small stigma. It should be noticed that in this species, which is common in dry woods and on heaths, the pale yellow flowers assume a horizontal position, whilst the capsule is more deflexed. May to September.

II. Small-flowered Yellow Cow-wheat (_M. sylvaticum_) is a rare species, found in alpine woods from Yorkshire northwards. It has a small deep yellow corolla, which is borne more erectly than in _pratense_. Other points of difference will be found in the curved corolla-tube, and in the position of the capsule, which is not deflexed. Flowers July and August.

III. Purple Field Cow-wheat (_M. arvense_). This is a local species whose distribution in this country is restricted to Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Herts, and the Isle of Wight. Where it occurs it is a conspicuous item in the cornfield flora, by reason of its large spikes of flowers with their many colours. The bracts are reddish-purple, the corolla rosy, with yellow throat, and the lips a full pink. Flowers July and August.

IV. Crested Cow-wheat (_M. cristatum_). This also is a rare plant, confined to the Eastern counties of England, and affecting woods, copses, and cornfields. It has broad, heart-shaped, purple bracts, with long fine teeth. The flowers in a dense spike (not so large as in _arvense_); corolla-tube curved, yellow, the upper lip purple within. Flowers September and October.

=Sea Buckthorn= (_Hippophæ rhamnoides_).

Let us say at once that this plant is in no way related to _the_ Buckthorns, properly so called. It is another example of the readiness with which our fathers seized upon a mere superficial resemblance as justification for the partial repetition of a name, and to save them the trouble of finding a new one.

Sea Buckthorn is the sole representative in this country of the Natural Order Elæagnaceæ, and is a low shrubby tree, growing on sand-hills and cliffs on the East and South-east coasts from York to Sussex. The branches commonly end in a spine, which has brought the plant its alternative name of Sallow-thorn. The alternate leaves are a dull leaden green above, but the underside is covered with silvery scales. At first they are egg-shaped, but lengthen after the plant has flowered. The flowers are of two kinds, borne on separate plants (_diæcious_), one kind containing stamens only, the other a pistil alone. The staminate flowers are produced in clusters from the axils, and consist of two sepals with four stamens. The pistillate flowers are produced singly. The ovary is enclosed in the calyx-tube, and develops into the globose orange-yellow fruits. Flowers from May to July.

The fruits do not appear to be used in this country; though in Tartary they are said to be made into a pleasant jelly, and in the Gulf of Bothnia they are used in the concoction of a fish-sauce. Their flavour is decidedly acid.

The name has been derived from the Greek _hippos_, a horse, and _phao_, to give light, from a supposed power of curing equine blindness; also from _hippos_, and _phao_, to destroy, from its fatal effects when eaten by horses; and from _hypo_, under, and _phao_, to shine, in allusion to the silvery underside of the leaf. The reader will kindly select that which seems the most reasonable--or reject them all.

=Meadow-sweet= (_Spiræa ulmaria_).

Our first encounter with the Queen of the Meadows, or Meadow-sweet, is an event to be remembered. It will probably be beside a shallow stream, and for a long distance we shall see the continuous line of thick clumps, with the handsome, much-divided radical leaves standing erect around the taller furrowed stems. Individually the creamy-white flowers are minute, but combined in large dense cymes they are very conspicuous. There is an airy grace about the plant that is particularly charming, quite apart from the attraction of its powerful fragrance.

Meadow-sweet has a short perennial rootstock, the leaves are interruptedly pinnate (_see_ p. 63), the terminal leaflet three-lobed. The undersides are downy and white. The stem-leaves are provided with broad-toothed stipules. In spite of their fragrance the flowers produce no honey, but, attracted by the sweet odour, insects visit them in great numbers, and from the closeness of the flowers cannot help fertilizing them. The calyx has four or five lobes, turned back; the petals are four or five, the carpels vary from five to nine, curiously twisted, and surrounded by a large number of stamens. It flowers from June to August, and may be found beside watercourses and in wet meadows, as well as by the sides of streams and rivers.

There is one other British species:--

The Dropwort (_Spiræa filipendula_), which grows far away from the haunts of the Meadow-sweet, delighting in high dry pastures, chalk downs, and gravelly heaths. He that has seen _ulmaria_ will not fail to identify _filipendula_ as the sister of the meadow queen, for though much smaller it is in general appearance very similar. The unopened flowers are rosy, but the inside of the petals is of the same creamy-white as in Meadow-sweet. It is not fragrant. Flowers June and July.

A third species, the Willow-leaved Spiræa (_S. salicifolia_), may occasionally be met in plantations; but it is not a native.

=Rest-Harrow= (_Ononis spinosa_).

The Rest-Harrow or Wrest-Harrow is one of those plants whose presence in the pasture is said to indicate its poverty or the neglect of the cultivator. In Sussex and Hampshire it is known as the Cammock. It is a perennial low shrub, sometimes creeping near the ground, and at others growing more erect. The rootstock often creeps underground, a habit to which the plant owes its popular name, as it is said to be so tough as to _wrest_ the harrow from the even tenor of its way. The more prostrate form is covered with viscid hairs; the more erect-growing plants are spiny. In the latter condition it is said that only donkeys will eat it, and hence its scientific name _ononis_, from _onos_, an ass, but it is open to question whether the ass has any fondness for it if he can get other food. The flowers are of the usual papilionaceous structure already described (_see_ pp. 7, 43, 48, 50, 52, 72), and may be borne either singly or in racemes. They are pink in colour; the petal known as the standard is very large in this species, and streaked with a fuller red. The pod is very small, and in the hairy form is not so long as the calyx. The flower does not secrete honey, but in spite of this fact, it seems to be chiefly if not exclusively fertilized by bees, who are evidently fooled by its resemblance to other flowers of the same form that do offer refreshment to insect visitors. The worker-bees, however, get pollen for their pains, but the males are sadly disappointed. Rest-Harrow will be found flowering in dry wastes from June to September.

There is another species, the Small Rest-Harrow (_O. reclinata_), an annual with spreading hairy, viscid stems, only a few inches in length, stalked rosy flowers not half the size of _spinosa_, and a hairy pod as long as the calyx, or longer. It is exceedingly local, and has only been reported as occurring on sandy cliffs in Devon, Wigton and Alderney. Flowering in June and July.

=Agrimony= (_Agrimonia eupatoria_).

One of the prettiest of wayside plants is the golden-starred Agrimony, growing on the waste green flanks of the road and making it beautiful. It is a perennial plant, with a short woody rootstock, and “interruptedly pinnate” leaves, somewhat resembling those of the Silver-weed, the leaflets increasing in size as they near the terminal leaflet. The flowers are borne on that kind of inflorescence called a _raceme_, in which each flower is attached to the central stem by a stalk of its own. Were these stalks suppressed the inflorescence would be termed a _spike_, and indeed some authors have so described the flower-clustering of Agrimony. The flowers are little roses, and consist of a top-shaped spiny calyx, tubular, with contracted mouth and five overlapping lobes; five golden petals, ten or more stamens, and two carpels sunk in the calyx-tube, their styles and two-lobed stigmas protruding. They do not secrete honey, and are seldom visited by insects.

As the lower fruits ripen the raceme lengthens, and concurrently the calyx-tubes harden and assume a drooping position, owing to the downward curving of their little foot-stalks.

There is a variety with resinous-scented, larger, more crowded flowers, of local occurrence. Agrimony was formerly held in some repute as a medicinal plant, and from this circumstance it gets its name. The ancient Greeks had a word _argema_ signifying the affection of the eyes to which we apply the term cataract, and a plant which was reputed to cure argema they called _argemone_, a word which has since been corrupted into agrimony. “Yarb doctors” still give it a place in their pharmacopœia.

Agrimony flowers from June to September.

=Common Flax= (_Linum usitatissimum_).

Occasionally the rambler will find the Flax in cornfields and wastes, by oil-mills and in the neighbourhood of railway stations. Wherever it may be found it is an escape from cultivation. As a truly wild plant the “most used” flax is not known: in cultivation, as the parent of linen garments, it has been known from the infancy of the human race. To-day the exports of flax and linen from the United Kingdom are worth about £5,500,000 per annum. It is therefore a plant that would be entitled to respectful consideration when we meet it, even if it had no grace or beauty to commend it to us.

Common Flax is an annual plant, with erect slender stems about a foot and a half high. Its narrow lance-shaped leaves are arranged alternately and at a distance from each other. The flowers are large, and purplish-blue in colour. Five is the number dominating the structure of the flower: sepals, petals, stamens, glands, ovary (5 cells), styles--all in fives. It flowers in June and July.

There are three other species that are truly wild in Britain:--

I. Purging Flax (_L. catharticum_). A smaller species, half a foot high, with _white_ flowers, affecting heaths and pastures. It has opposite, very narrow leaves, and the unopened buds nod. Flowers June to September.

II. Perennial Flax (_L. perenne_). A very rare perennial plant with exceedingly narrow leaves, alternate on the numerous wiry stems. Plant about 2 feet high. The large bright-blue flowers, which may be found from June to September, are of two forms, long-styled and short-styled, like the Primroses (_see_ p. 2), and for a similar purpose. On chalky soils from Durham to Essex.

III. Narrow-leaved Flax (_L. angustifolium_). Leaves alternate, as narrow as in the last species, but smaller and not so plentiful. Flowers smaller and paler, petals smaller in proportion to the calyx. Flowers May to September. Sandy and chalky pastures, not farther north than Lancashire.

=Long-rooted Cat’s-ear= (_Hypochæris radicata_).

Cat’s-ear is one of those plants that are passed by the rambler as being “perplexing hawkweeds which no one but a German botanist understands.” It is not exactly a hawkweed, though it comes pretty close to that family, and roughly may be said to resemble them. Of the Composite flowers we have already dealt with, it will be seen that the Cat’s-ear has a blossom similar in structure to _Sonchus_ (page 114), _Taraxacum_ (page 20) and _Tragopogon_ (page 84). It has a perennial tap-root, from which arises and spreads a circlet of many rough hairy leaves, their edges scalloped; there are no stem leaves. The flower-stem is branched, each branch bearing but one flower-head. The involucral bracts are in several series, laid one over the other like tiles. All the corollas are strap-shaped, toothed at the free end, yellow. The pappus or down that surrounds the fruit consists of a row of feathery hairs, surrounded by an outer row of shorter bristles. The flowers are longer than the involucre. Flowers June to September. There are two other British species:--