hairs, which are sticky near the upper part of the plant. The
flower has a singularly neat appearance, altogether lacking the
ragged character of _flos-cuculi_. The petals, instead of being
deeply cut, as in that species, are merely divided into two lobes.
The calyx is reddish, with triangular teeth. The anthers and
stigmas are produced in separate flowers; occasionally flowers may
be found with both organs, but one or the other will be undeveloped.
The Red Campion is a plant of the hedge-bank and the copse, where
it may be found in flower from June to September. In Cornwall it
keeps fully in flower till the end of the year. This page was
written there a few days before Christmas, when the fern-clad rocky
hedgerows were lit up with great numbers of the flowers of Red
Campion and Herb-Robert.
The name Lychnis is from the Greek, _Luchnos_, a lamp or torch, the
application of which is obscure.
=Bluebottle or Cornflower= (_Centaurea cyanus_).
The Centaureas are closely allied to the thistles, and share with them
that hard-headedness which makes the thistle so good a type of the
canny Scot. The Bluebottle must not be sought in the company of the
thistles on wastes and in neglected corners of pasture, but, as one
of its folk-names indicates, in the cornfield. Beginning to flower in
June, it keeps up the display of bright blue until the reapers cut it
down.
Bluebottle is a composite flower, and it should afford interest to the
reader, when he finds the blossoms, to institute a comparison between
it and that of the Daisy or other of the Composites we have already
described.
The thin stem is but slightly branched, and the long lower leaves are
much cut up and very attenuated. Nearer the summit of the stems the
leaves are simpler, and reduced to a very slight width. The stems and
the under sides of the leaves are covered with loose cottony fibres.
The flower-heads have for involucre a number of greenish scales, with
toothed brown margins. The ray-florets are bright blue, their free ends
divided into five teeth; the inner or disc-florets are much darker. The
stamens are irritable, and if touched withdraw into the tube.
There are five other British species of _Centaurea_, of which several
are rare or extremely local in their distribution. The more frequent
species are:--
I. Black Knapweed (_C. nigra_). Leaves rough, entire or lobed, the
lower ones with stalks. The heads large and globose, as much as an
inch and a half in diameter. Involucral scales circular, brown,
toothed. Florets purple. Common in meadows and pastures. June to
September.
II. Greater Knapweed, or Hard Heads (_C. scabiosa_). The leaves are
deeply pinnate, like the lower ones of Bluebottle. Heads as much as
two inches diameter. Involucral scales cottony, with dark brown,
almost black, margin, and paler fringe. Florets rich purple. Waste
places. July to September.
=Round-leaved Mallow= (_Malva rotundifolia_).
The Round-leaved or Dwarf Mallow is not so well known as the Common
Mallow (_M. sylvestris_), though it is nearly as common. Its flowers
are small, and not nearly so conspicuous as those of _sylvestris_.
Like that plant it is found growing by the wayside and on waste places
where garden refuse, etc., is dumped. Our three species of _Malva_
are all perennials, and all possess tough fibrous stems. Those of
_rotundifolia_ are downy, and lie along the ground and bear many
lobed, often toothed, leaves, whose general outline is circular. The
flowers are clustered in the axils, and consist of a five-parted
calyx, to which is attached a kind of involucre of three bracts, and
five distant petals, their tips with a central notch. There are ten
styles, the inner surfaces of which are stigmatic; they curl about in
various directions, mingling with the numerous anthers, and so ensuring
self-fertilization. The fruit consists of a large number of one-seeded
carpels arranged in a circle, but easily becoming detached after
ripening. Flowers June to September.
[Illustration: =Cornflower, Blue-bottle.=
Centaurea cyanus.
--COMPOSITÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Dwarf Mallow.=
Malva rotundifolia.
--MALVACEÆ.--]
The other species are:--
I. Common Mallow (_M. sylvestris_). Its stems are erect, somewhat
hairy. Leaves more distinctly lobed. Flowers large, the petals
heart-shaped, pale purple (mauve). The anthers mature before the
stigmas, unlike _M. rotundifolia_, where both organs mature
at the same time. This brings out an interesting point in their
relations to insects, as shown by H. Müller. The styles, instead
of mingling with the anthers, hold themselves strictly above the
drooping stamens, and self-fertilization is impossible. To secure
cross-fertilization the flowers are large, and more showy than in
_rotundifolia_, and attract many insects, which bring and carry
pollen. June to September.
II. Musk Mallow (_M. moschatus_). Flowers not quite so large as the
last, rosy, clustered at end of erect stems. Leaves divided into
five to seven segments, which are nearly pinnate. Very slight odour
of musk when the leaves are passed through the hands. Dry meadows
and hedgerows. July and August. The Marsh-mallow belongs to another
genus (_Althæa_).
=Chicory or Succory= (_Cichorium intybus_). Plate 69.
The Wild Chicory is peculiarly a plant of the dry roadside,
especially in chalky districts, where it is a striking feature.
The rigid erectness of its stems is not pleasing, but the bright,
pale-blue flowers, attached to the stem without the intervention of
flower-stalks, arrest attention. Its thick, fleshy tap-root is the
substance that, when roasted and ground, bulks so largely in “The
finest French Coffees, as sold in Paris,” of our grocers. For this
purpose it is cultivated on a large scale in Germany and Belgium.
If reference be made to the figure of the Dandelion on page 20 it will
be seen that there is considerable resemblance between the leaves of
the two. The radical leaves of Chicory spread themselves out, rosette
fashion, upon the ground; the few that are scattered alternately up the
somewhat hairy stem clasp the latter with the two lobes at their base.
The flowers are usually in pairs. The involucre consists of two series
of bracts, the outer row being reflexed, and shorter than the inner.
The tubes of the ray-florets are split open, so that the rays are broad
and strap-shaped, with a straight end notched into five teeth. It
flowers from July to October.
The generic name is from an old Greek name for the plant, and a similar
word is in use in nearly all the languages of civilization.
=Vernal Wood-rush= (_Luzula vernalis_).
The Rushes as a whole (_Juncus_ and _Luzula_) form a group of plants
that is generally despised, except for weaving into mats, and, in other
days, for providing wicks for rush-lights. We have in the one genus
cylindric, in the other flattened grass-like, leaves, and inconspicuous
flowers of green or brown; and yet the evolutionists tell us on the
evidence of those flowers that the rushes are descendants of a noble
family--the lilies--who have in the struggle for existence taken to a
less showy _rôle_ in life, in order that they might be included in the
list of the surviving “fittest.” The truth of this will be apparent if
we take the flower of a present-day lily--a tulip or a tiger-lily will
do--and compare it with this Vernal Wood-rush. We shall find every part
of the lily reproduced in the rush-flower on a small scale, with the
greatest economy of materials.
The Wood-rushes (_Luzula_) are all perennial plants. Their leaves
are like the blades of soft grass, the edges fringed with long white
silky hairs. The floral leaves (_perianth_) are six in number, in two
series, and are chaffy in texture. Stamens six. The ovary is broad,
narrowing to the summit, upon which is the style, ending in three long
stigmas covered with minute raised points. The fruit is a one-celled,
three-valved capsule, containing three seeds at the bottom. In _L.
vernalis_ the flowers are chestnut brown, with the perianth-segments
shorter than the blunt-topped capsule, and pointed at the tips;
clustered in twos and threes and grouped in lax cymes. The radical
leaves are broad (¼ inch), soft and sparingly hairy. Woods and shady
places, flowering March to May. Other members of the genus are:--
[Illustration: =Chicory.=
Cichorium intybus.
--COMPOSITÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Broad-leaved Woodrush.=
Luzula vernalis.
--JUNCEÆ.--]
I. The Great Hairy Wood-rush (_L. maxima_) is much larger, the
leaves sometimes half an inch broad and a foot long, sparsely
hairy. Flowers paler, three or four clustered; cymes large,
compound. Woods and heaths. May and June.
II. Narrow-leaved Wood-rush (_L. forsteri_). Similar to _L.
vernalis_, but more slender and taller. Capsule pointed. Shady
places on chalk or gravel, not farther north than South Wales and
Oxford. April to June.
III. Field Wood-rush (_L. campestris_). Rootstock creeping. Leaves
very hairy. Perianth segments longer than the broad rounded and
spiked capsule. Flowers in dense clusters of three or four, in
short cymes. Heaths and pastures. April to June.
IV. Spiked Mountain Wood-rush (_L. spicata_). This and the next
are purely mountain species, restricted to an altitude of one to
over four thousand feet for _spicata_, and from three to over
four thousand for _arcuata_. The leaves are narrow, leathery,
and the hairiness is confined to the lower end. Flowers smaller
than the silvery, chaffy, awned scales (_bracteoles_) below
them. The perianth segments end in awns, and are longer than the
abruptly-pointed capsule. The cymes are densely flowered, drooping
and spike-like. Flowers in July.
V. Curved Mountain Wood-rush (_L. arcuata_). The smallest, rarest,
and most distinct of our native species. The stems do not exceed
about 4 inches, and are proportionately stout. Rootstock creeping.
Leaves short, narrow, leathery, slightly hairy. Flowers dark brown,
three to five in a cluster, in lax cymes; the perianth segments
extended into a point. Bracteoles pointed, not awned, not silvery.
Mountains in Scotland only. July.
=The Greater Dodder= (_Cuscuta europæa_).
There are two Dodders indigenous to this country, and we have the
misfortune to have introduced a third with flax-seed from abroad. The
one figured is the Greater Dodder, which is usually found clinging in a
tangle round the stems of nettles, oats, thistles, vetches, etc. This
close embrace is sinister in character, for, as may be guessed from
the entire absence of leaves and green-colouring matter, the plant is
a parasite. Its stem is a mere thread, varying from red to yellow in
hue, and having at frequent intervals bunches of reddish flowers.
These are very small, but if separated will be found to consist of a
four- or five-parted calyx, a persistent pitcher-shaped corolla of
similar parts, and stamens to match. Styles two, entirely within the
flower. This species is not found north of Yorkshire, and is everywhere
rare. It flowers from July to September. The common species, to be
found growing on thyme, heather, and furze, is,--
The Lesser Dodder (_C. epithymum_), with finer stems of a more
crimson tint, and the styles protruding. There is a variety of
this which confines its attention to the clover plant, and has, in
consequence, been raised to the dignity of a separate species by
some authors (_C. trifolii_). In addition there is the Flax-dodder
(_C. epilinum_), previously alluded to as having been introduced
from the Continent with flax-seed.
Owing to the serious nature of the attacks of this foreign invader
upon our flax-crops Professor Buckman was induced years ago to
experiment, with the object of elucidating its mode of growth. He
found that seeds of Dodder sown strictly apart from any host-plants
germinated in four days, and on the sixth a thread-like plant was
seeking a foster-parent, but by the eighth, not having succeeded in
its object, it died. Others were sown in company with flax-seed,
and in a few days the young dodders attached themselves to the
young flax-plants, made one or two tight coils round the victims,
whose growth soon lifted the dodders right out of the soil, and
thereupon the parasites sent aerial roots into the flax, and
their natural roots dwindled and perished. Thereafter its true
parasitical growth is most rapid, to the detriment of the foster
plant.
The genus is included in the Natural Order Convolvulaceæ.
=Corn Cockle= (_Githago segetum_). Plate 72.
Wandering through or round the cornfields any time from June to
September we are almost sure to find this beautiful flower. It is first
cousin to the Lychnis, already described, and in general structure
agrees with it, only differing from it in having a leathery calyx,
and in the absence of the crown of little scales which surround the
mouth of the corolla-tube in Lychnis. They produce honey, but owing
to the length of the tube it is only accessible to the long tongues
of butterflies and moths, who are instrumental in effecting its
cross-fertilization. The plant is an annual, with erect branching
stem, clothed with white hairs. The leaves are long and narrow, four
or five inches long. The woolly calyx is in one, strongly ribbed, with
five very long leaf-like teeth, that considerably exceed the petals in
length. The flowers are purple, and measure nearly two inches across.
This is the only native species; indeed, some writers consider it to be
only an introduced plant--a form of _Agrostemma gracilis_ that has been
altered by its continuous growth in our cultivated fields.
[Illustration: =Greater Dodder.=
Cuscuta europæa.
--CONVOLVULACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Corn Cockle.=
Githago segetum.
--CARYOPHYLLEÆ.--]
=Purple Medick or Lucerne= (_Medicago sativa_). Plate 73.
Though the rambler will find this handsome plant growing apparently
wild in the hedgerow and on the borders of fields, he must not too
hastily conclude it is a native. The species has been largely grown
here as a green fodder plant, for which it is highly esteemed, and it
has escaped from the fields and reproduced itself without man’s aid.
A glance at its flowers will show it is a leguminous plant. Its stems
are hollow, branched; its leaves trifoliate, with long-pointed stipules
at the base of the leaf-stalk. From the axils of the leaves arise long
stalks, whose free ends are crowded with the deep purple (sometimes
yellow) flowers. A peculiarity of this genus consists in the seed pod
being more or less spirally twisted. In the present species it is downy
and has two or three coils. It flowers from May to July.
It has been thought to be a cultivated variety of the next species, _M.
falcata_. The name _Medicago_ is from the old Greek _medike_, so-called
because it was introduced into Greece by the Medes. The following
species also occur in this country:--
I. Yellow Sickle Medick (_M. falcata_), with yellow (sometimes
violet) flowers, and a flat downy pod coiled in the shape of a
sickle or a ring. Dry gravelly banks, old walls and sandy wastes
in the Eastern Counties. June and July. This and _M. sativa_ are
perennials; the following are annuals:--
II. Black Medick or Nonsuch (_M. lupulina_). So much like
_Trifolium procumbens_, described on p. 49, that farmers have given
it the name of Hop-Trefoil, which properly belongs to the latter
species, from which this may be easily separated by noting that the
black kidney-shaped pods are naked, that is, not wrapped in the
dried flower. It should also be observed that the pods are marked
by prominent veins running throughout their length. Flowers small,
crowded, yellow. Waste grounds and cultivated fields. May to August.
III. Reticulated Medick (_M. denticulata_). Stems creeping.
Leaflets heart-shaped, toothed. Flowers yellow, in umbels. Pod
beautifully covered with network of veins; broad, flat, and coiled
into a spiral; edges with double row of spines. South and Eastern
Counties, and Ireland. May to August.
IV. Spotted Medick (_M. maculata_). Similar to last, but pod more
globose, network faint, the spines long and curved. Leaflets often
with black spot in centre. Leaf-stalk hairy. Gravelly pastures and
hedgebanks in England and South Ireland. May to August.
=Yellow Iris or Flag= (_Iris pseudacorus_). Plate 74.
Fringing our rivers, ditches and lakes, the Yellow Iris appears to
be defending them with drawn sword. Everybody knows the sharp-edged
leaves of this species, that may cut the hands of the gatherer if he be
not careful. Equally well-known are the bright blossoms that begin to
appear in May and keep up a succession until late in July; but probably
most of the unscientific readers who have honoured me with their
company thus far--and who have learned, I trust, to know the parts of a
flower at sight--would be incorrect in their description of this common
flower. Anyway, it will be worth their while dissecting a flower. The
parts of the flower are in threes, but the sepals are more petal-like
than the petals, and so are the styles. The sepals are in fact the
most striking organs; they are broad, and reflexed to form convenient
alighting platforms for a heavy humble-bee. The petals are narrow,
erect, or curved towards the centre of the flower, to be out of the way
of the broader, arching style, which is spread out and coloured like a
petal, with the stigmatic surface near the upturned tips. Beneath this
arching style lies the anther, similarly curved, and opening away from
the stigma.
Note the why and wherefore of this departure from orthodox arrangements
of floral organs. At the bottom of the flower-tube honey is secreted,
and to obtain this the flower is visited by humble-bees. In order that
his long tongue may reach the honey, the bee has to push his head and
back against the stigma and the anther. If he has previously visited a
flag-flower his back will be covered with pollen, some of which will
adhere to the stigma. He will also take away on his head and back some
of the pollen from the flower he is now visiting, and will fertilize
other flags with it.
There is another British species,--
The Stinking Iris, Gladdon, or Roast-beef plant (_Iris
fœtidissima_), with purple sepals, yellow petals and stigmas. Flowers
not quite so large as the last. Woods and copses. May to July.
[Illustration: =Lucerne, Purple Medick.=
Medicago sativa.
--LEGUMINOSÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Yellow Iris. Flag.=
Iris pseudacorus.
--IRIDEÆ.--]
=Marsh Orchis= (_Orchis latifolia_).
There are nearly forty British species of Orchideæ, divided into
sixteen genera; and in the space at our disposal it is impossible to
give anything like an adequate account of the group or of the specific
characters. An attempt will be made, however, to make the reader
acquainted with the general structure by means of three figures. The
first of these represents the Marsh Orchis (_O. latifolia_), a species
commonly to be met in wet meadows and marshy places, flowering from May
to July. The two tubers are _palmate_, that is, more or less flattened
like a hand, and terminating in finger-like processes. The leaves
chiefly spring from the summit of one of these tubers, the lowest
acting as sheath for the next, and so on, the tubular flower-stem
rising through all the sheaths. The leaves are oblong, and spotted with
purple. The inflorescence is a spike, the flowers crowded upon it, but
separated by the long three-nerved green bracts. The structure of these
flowers will be found to differ widely from all we have considered in
these pages. The perianth is placed above the (consequently _inferior_)
ovary, which is twisted. This twist, it will be well to bear in mind,
brings the flower “upside down.” The three sepals and the three petals
are equally coloured, and it is therefore convenient to speak of them
as the perianth. There is only one stamen, which is supported by the
pistil. Two of the perianth leaves combine to form a hood over the
stamen, and a third is greatly larger than the others, divided into
three lobes and hanging down like the lip of a labiate flower. This is
known as the _labellum_, and it is continued backwards and downwards
as a hollow spur, in which, however, honey is not secreted. At the
top of this spur, at the back, is the stigmatic surface, and above it
protrudes a fleshy knob, called the _rostellum_, which supports the
anther. This organ consists of two lobes, side by side, which open in
front, and reveal in each a mass of pollen grains tied together by
elastic threads and attached to a slender foot-stalk with a sticky
base. This is a tedious description, though we have made it as brief as
possible. The reader shall see the reason for it if he will conduct a
little experiment. We may premise that these orchids are fertilized by
long-tongued insects, who suck the juice through the tender skin lining
the spur.
Now for the experiment. Take a finely-pointed pencil, which we will
pretend is the head and tongue of a humble-bee in search of this
sweet juice. We push the point gently down the spur, when a part of
the pencil touches against the rostellum and presses it down, touches
lightly the viscid feet of the pollen masses (_pollinia_), and as the
pencil is withdrawn both come with it, and stick out from it like a
pair of horns. Be careful to hold the pencil in the exact position it
now occupies, and watch. The heavy heads of the pollinia are drooping
forward, but after a few minutes they cease to fall lower. Now push the
pencil into this other flower. _The pollen-masses go directly to the
stigma, and some of the pollen is detached._ If you are watching where
orchids grow it is no uncommon thing to see insects flying around with
these pollinia attached to their heads or tongues like a pair of horns.
It will be seen to be impossible for the pollen to fall upon the stigma
of the same flower, and from its elastic attachments it is impossible
that it should be carried by the wind to another flower, so that insect
agency is here an absolute necessity.
[Illustration: =Marsh Orchis.=
Orchis latifolia.
--ORCHIDACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Butterfly Orchis.=
Habenaria bifolia.
--ORCHIDEÆ.--]
=The Butterfly Orchis= (_Habenaria bifolia_).
This species is very similar in structure and habit to the Marsh
Orchis, but the tubers are more cylindrical in shape, the radical
leaves almost always restricted to two, the flower-spike lax. Flowers
white with a greenish tinge, the labellum and spur very long: fragrant.
The stigma two-lobed. Fertilized by moths. Occurs in meadows,
hill-sides and woods, flowering from June to August.
=The Bee Orchis= (_Ophrys apifera_).
In the genus _Ophrys_ we have three species whose flowers bear quite
startling likeness to a bee, spider and fly respectively. What is the
purpose of this counterfeit presentment it is difficult to conjecture.
It has been suggested that it might be to warn off or deceive insects,
as the flowers are self-fertilized, but Charles Darwin did not think
this was the probable reason. There is no spur in this group, there is
no rostellum, and the ovary is not twisted. The stalks (_caudicles_) of
the pollinia are so long and thin that the weight of the pollen masses
causes them to bend over and touch against the stigma, fertilizing it.
I. Bee Orchis (_O. apifera_). The labellum is very convex and
broad, three-lobed, of a rich velvety-brown colour, with a tail.
The sepals are pinkish. The spike has only about half a dozen
flowers upon it, with a large leafy bract under each. Hillsides,
fields and copses on chalk and limestone, chiefly in the South of
England and Ireland. June and July. (_Plate 77._)
II. Spider Orchis (_O. aranifera_). Similar to the last, but the
sepals greenish, labellum differently marked, and without a tail.
Similar situations to _apifera_, but much more rare. April and May.
III. Fly Orchis (_O. muscifera_). Sepals greenish, labellum narrow,
flat, brown, with a yellow-edged, squarish blue patch. Strikingly
like a fly. May to July.
The name of the genus is from the Greek, _ophrus_, an eyebrow, said
to refer to the markings on the labellum.
Several other British species in different genera from those named
bear similarly strange likenesses, such as the extremely rare
Lizard Orchis (_Orchis hircina_), but some of the foreign forms are
more remarkable still.