so long established on old walls and the roofs of out-houses that it
is quite a familiar object in a country ramble. As its scientific
name (from _semper_, always, and _vivum_, fresh, green) indicates,
it dies hard, and alike endures frost and drought. The story is told
of one that a botanist tried hard for eighteen months to dry for his
herbarium, but failing in his object planted it again, and it grew as
though nothing had occurred to interfere with its ordinary life. The
leaves are borne on the flowerless stems in the form of a rosette, the
oldest flat, the youngest erect; thick, fleshy, the edges purple, tips
sharply pointed. Flowering stems with alternate leaves; flowers dull
purple in cymes. Sepals twelve, petals twelve, stamens twenty-four, but
twelve of these are imperfect or aborted. Flowers June and July.
=Yellow Melilot= (_Melilotus officinalis_).
Occasionally on roadside wastes, railway banks and similar refuges
for the vagabonds of plant-life, especially if it be in the Eastern
counties, the rambler comes across a slender plant with loosely
trifoliate leaves on long stalks, and long narrow racemes of pale
yellow flowers. These flowers, considered individually, are seen to be
shaped like several we have already considered (_see_ page 43), with
a certain amount of variation, of course. This is the Common Yellow
Melilot, a plant that is not truly indigenous, but one that has been
cultivated in this country for a great number of years, and of which
some escapes from the meadows have settled like gipsy squatters on
the unenclosed wastes. But the field-path rambler is sure to come
across it in the meadows, so it is as well that he should know it.
It will be at once noted that the flowers are all drooping from the
flower-stem, and that when the petals drop off they reveal a similarly
drooping olive-coloured pod, which is small, egg-shaped and rough, with
transverse ribs. In the process of drying Melilot develops an odour
similar to that of the Sweet Vernal-grass that gives the pleasant scent
to new-mown hay. Flowers June to August.
There are two truly indigenous species:--
I. Tall Melilot (_M. altissima_), with _deep_ yellow flowers. Pod
compressed, covered with net-like markings, hairy, black when ripe.
Fields. June to August.
II. White Melilot (_M. alba_). More slender than the last, with
smaller _white_ flowers. Pod stouter, smooth, black. Waste places.
July and August.
The name of the genus is compounded of _mel_, honey, and _lotus_,
the name of another genus = the lotus with the sweet or honeyed
smell.
[Illustration: =Field Melilot.=
Melilotus officinalis.
--LEGUMINOSÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Juniper.=
Juniperus communis.
--CONIFERÆ.--]
=Juniper= (_Juniperus communis_).
Hitherto we have been considering plants that have stigmas and ovaries,
whether they had or had not a calyx or a corolla; but we must now
introduce our patient readers to a cohort of plants which contrive to
make an important figure in the world without either calyx, corolla,
stigma, or ovary. These plants are generally forest trees, most
important as timber producers, but their flowers consist solely of
anthers and open carpels containing the ovules, which are fertilized by
actual contact with the pollen-grains, instead of through the medium of
a stigma and style which have to be pierced by the pollen-tube. This
cohort contains the pines and firs; also the Juniper and the Yew.
Juniper is a dark foliaged evergreen shrub or small tree, usually four
or five feet in height, but occasionally attaining a stature of ten,
fifteen, or even twenty feet. It occurs on heaths and open hillsides,
sometimes in great profusion, as on parts of the North Downs in Surrey
and Kent. Its leaves are very narrow, pointed, and borne in threes.
Their midribs and margins are thicker than the intermediate portions,
and they have a pungent resinous odour. Each anther is borne on a
scale, a number of which are formed into a cone, and is four-celled.
The female flower consists of five or six scales united at their bases
to form a kind of involucre, within which are three naked ovules. The
pale yellow pollen is blown into this by the wind, and falls directly
upon the ovules. Having become fertile the seeds mature, and the
scales develop into a fleshy cone, outwardly resembling a berry, of a
blue-black hue with a glaucous bloom upon it. The pollen is shed in May
and June, but the fruit is not ripe until the following spring. This
is the only British species; its essential oil has long been used as a
diuretic and flavouring substance, notably for giving its distinctive
flavour to Gin, whose name is derived from _Genevrier_, the French for
Juniper.
=Stinging Nettles= (_Urtica_).
Surely, the reader says, we know a nettle when we see it, and certainly
know it when we touch it, without needing description or figure.
Perhaps so, but the average rambler, for whom this book is primarily
intended, would certainly pass _Campanula trachelium_ as a nettle if
he encountered it before it flowered; and though he may know a nettle
by being stung, he cannot in that simple manner determine the species,
for there are three kinds occurring in England. We will, however, meet
the objection so far that we will not waste many words in a general
description, but deal more with the points of difference between the
species. All have a liberal supply of the stinging hairs, and green
flowers of two kinds. The staminate flowers consist of a four-parted
perianth enclosing four stamens with kidney-shaped anthers. Pistillate
flowers consist of a perianth and a single carpel, surmounted by a
brush-like stigma. The name of the genus is from the Latin _uro_, to
burn, in reference to the sensation produced by the stings.
I. The Great Nettle (_Urtica dioica_), is the species figured. It
is our largest native nettle, and attains the height of 4 or 5
feet, the stem rising from a branching perennial rootstock which
throws out runners. The large leaves are saw-edged, and apart from
the stinging hairs are downy. Flower spikes given off in pairs,
each spike consisting of either staminate or pistillate flowers
only; the pistillate more dense than the others. Hedgebanks
chiefly. Flowering from June to September.
II. Roman Nettle (_U. pilulifera_). Not so large. An annual; leaves
smooth but for the stinging hairs, margin entire or toothed. Male
flowers in panicles, female gathered in heads. Flowers larger than
in _dioica_. Under walls and among rubbish, near habitations,
chiefly in the Eastern counties, and near the sea. June to August.
III. Small Nettle (_U. urens_). The familiar annual plant of fields
and wastes. Leaves coarsely toothed, smooth but for stinging hairs.
Panicles containing flowers of both sexes; few flowered. Flowers
June to September.
[Illustration: =Great Stinging Nettle.=
Urtica dioica.
--URTICACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Cat’s Valerian.=
Valeriana officinalis.
--VALERIANEÆ.--]
=Cat’s Valerian= (_Valeriana officinalis_).
The Great or Cat’s Valerian will come under the notice of the rambler
whose way lies by the stream-side, through wet meadows or swampy woods.
Where it is found it occurs in abundance, and its pretty flowers massed
together in great heads will attract attention at once. It has a short
perennial rootstock, increasing by suckers, and narrow pinnate leaves,
those from the root soon withering. The stems are from two to four feet
high, bearing the broad corymbs of pink or flesh-coloured flowers. The
calyx is five-parted, and the lobes are at first rolled inward, but as
the fruit matures these lobes expand and assume the form of a circlet
of finely branched feathery hairs (_pappus_). The corolla is shortly
tubular, with five lobes. The stamens three, and the stigma two-lobed.
It flowers from June to August.
The roots have long been held in high esteem as a medicinal agent in
certain nervous affections; and in some places the plant is known as
All-heal, owing to its virtues. It has a warm aromatic taste, but when
drying it develops a fœtid odour, which acts as a charm upon cats.
If the reader would have cheerful nights let him plant Valerian in
his garden, and every cat in the neighbourhood will call to enjoy it.
Strange to say, rats are equally delighted with its fragrance, and
rat-catchers are said to use Valerian to assist them in attracting
their victims. Query: Had the Pied-piper a root of Valerian in his poke?
There is one other native species, the Small Marsh Valerian (_V.
dioica_), chiefly affecting boggy places. It has a creeping
rootstock, and the root leaves are egg-shaped, with a long
footstalk, whilst those of the stem are deeply lobed in pinnate
fashion, with a large leaflet at the tip. The flowers, which are
pink, are minute, and of four distinct kinds, which may be thus
enumerated according to the size of the corolla. 1. Large, with
anthers, but no pistil. 2. Small, with anthers and rudimentary
pistil. 3. Smaller, with pistil and rudimentary anthers. 4.
Smallest, with pistil, but no anthers. Flowers May and June.
The name is from the Latin, _valere_, to be in health.
=Yellow Toadflax= (_Linaria vulgaris_).
We have already dealt with one species of Toadflax (_see_ page 33),
and although in habit the Ivy-leaved is altogether unlike the Yellow
Toadflax, their flowers will be found to have the same structure,
and we must ask the reader to refer back for the description. The
Yellow Toadflax (_L. vulgaris_) immediately reminds one of the
Snapdragon (_Anterrhinum_), to which its raceme of flowers, bears close
resemblance; but the flowers themselves will be found to differ from
Snapdragon in having a long tail or spur. This spur is a hollow tube
in which honey is secreted to attract long-tongued bees, in order that
they may fertilize the ovules. The plant has a slender rootstock, which
creeps extensively underground, branching and sending up many stems.
If these get into a garden the owner is at first delighted with the
neat, bright appearance of the tufts of linear leaves; but by-and-by he
finds it has taken entire possession of the bed, and become extremely
difficult to extirpate. It is abundant in hedges and waste places,
flowering from June till October. Other species are:--
I. Round-leaved Toadflax (_L. spuria_) with egg-shaped or round leaves
and trailing branches: hairy. Corolla yellow, with purple throat and
spur greatly curved. Annual. Sandy cornfields. July to October.
II. Sharp-pointed Toadflax (_L. elatine_), with spear-shaped leaves and
trailing hairy branches. Corolla yellow, upper lip purple beneath. Spur
straight. Annual. Dry, chalky and gravelly cornfields. July to October.
III. Pale-blue Toadflax (_L. repens_). Perennial. Smooth. Rootstock
creeping. Leaves narrowly lance-shaped. Corolla violet, with darker
lines and yellow palate: spur blunt. Waste places, rare. July to
September.
IV. Small Toad flax (_L. minor_). Annual. Downy. Leaves narrowly
oblong. Corolla but slightly larger than the calyx, purple, the
lower lip white, and the palate yellow. Local, in sandy and chalky
cornfields. From May to October.
[Illustration: =Common Toadflax.=
Linaria vulgaris.
--SCROPHULARINEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Yellow Waterlily.=
Nuphar luteum.
--NYMPHEACEÆ.--]
=Yellow Water-lily= (_Nuphar luteum_).
In some districts, where the Yellow Water-lily floats on the bosom of
ponds and sluggish streams, it is known as the Brandy-bottle, partly by
reason of its unpleasant odour and partly on account of its flagon-like
seed-vessel.
It has a thick fleshy rootstock, which creeps in the mud, and is rich
in tannic acid; it is said to be a fatal lure to cockroaches if bruised
and soaked in milk. Some of the leaves are submerged, and these are
thin, but the floating ones are thick and leathery. The leaves are
heart-shaped, the lobes not far apart; the stalks somewhat triangular
in section, and traversed by a great number of fine air-canals, as
are the flower-stalks also. The most conspicuous portion of the
flower is the sepals, five or six in number, which are very large and
concave. The petals are much smaller, and number about twenty; they
produce honey at their base. The stamens are even more numerous than
the petals, in several rows, their blunt tips bent over away from the
many-celled ovary. The stigma is rayed. The fruit ripens above water,
and is, as we have indicated, flagon-shaped; the seeds are imbedded in
pulp. Flowers from June till August.
There is another species:--
The Lesser Yellow Water-lily (_N. pumilum_), which occurs in
Shropshire and in Scotland, from Elgin to Argyll, but it is rare.
Its oblong leaves are divided at the base, the lobes becoming
distant from each other. The petals are rounder than in _luteum_,
the anthers shorter, and the rays of the stigma reach to the
margin, which is lobed.
The name is from the Arabic for this or a similar plant, _naufar_.
The White Water-lily (_Nymphæa alba_), though constituting the
British representative of a distinct genus, is closely allied,
as, indeed, is the magnificent _Victoria regia_ of South American
rivers, with leaves 10 or 12 feet across, and flowers 15 inches and
more in diameter.
=Wild Teasel= (_Dipsacus sylvestris_).
We have explained (page 98) in what respect the Scabious differs from
the somewhat similar flowers of Compositæ, and to a considerable
extent that explanation will hold good for the genus _Dipsacus_, which
is united to _Scabiosa_ in the Natural Order Dipsaceæ. There is this
difference, however: in _Dipsacus_ the flower-bracts end in long,
straight, sharp points, and the involucel is four-angled. There are two
British species:--
I. Wild Teasel (_D. sylvestris_). A striking object in copse or
hedgerow; its stout, angular and spiny stems rising to a height
of 4 or 5 feet, and crowned by the prickly-cylindrical heads of
flowers. These heads have an involucre, consisting of from eight to
twelve slender rigid bracts, spiny, longer than the flower-head,
curved upward and ending in a fine point. The corolla is purple,
tubular, with four short unequal lobes. It is a biennial plant,
and only has radical leaves during its first year, sending up the
flowering stem the second season. These are stalked, lance-shaped,
with a stout mid-rib, which is armed with short curved spines. The
stem-leaves are opposite, not stalked, the lower couples joined
together by their bases, thus forming a large cup, in which rain
collects and drowns many insects that attempt to ascend the tall
stem. Flowers August and September. The Fuller’s Teasel (_D.
fullonum_), of so great importance to the cloth manufacturer, is
believed to be a cultivated variety of _sylvestris_, having the
involucral bracts shorter and spreading, and the scales of the
flower-heads hooked.
II. Small Teasel (_D. pilosus_). This is a more slender plant,
the stem not so tall or stout, and the prickles ending in soft
hair-points. Leaves stalked, hairy. Flower-heads at first drooping,
then erect; smaller, rounder, hairy, the involucral bracts shorter
than the head. Flowers white. August and September, in moist
hedges; not so generally distributed as _sylvestris_.
[Illustration: =Wild Teasel.=
Dipsacus Sylvestris.
--DIPSACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Tansy.=
Tanacetum vulgare.
--COMPOSITÆ.--]
=Common Tansy= (_Tanacetum vulgare_).
Time was when every cottage garden and every kitchen garden had
its clump of Tansy, for it was a valued item in the housewife’s
pharmacopœia, and was all but invaluable in cookery. A belief is
entertained by some botanists that the Tansy-plants growing wild in
waste places by field and roadside throughout the country are garden
escapes, or their descendants, that have become naturalized.
The Tansy is a perennial, with creeping rootstock, from which arise
beautiful broad feathery radical leaves and flowering stems. The leaves
are very deeply divided in a pinnate or bi-pinnate manner, the segments
toothed. The angled stem reaches a height of about two feet, and then
branches off into a _corymb_ of flower-heads. Each flower-head is
enclosed in a half-rounded involucre of leathery bracts. There is an
outer row of ray-florets, but they are very short, and of the same dull
yellow colour as the disk-florets; they are pistillate only, whilst the
disk-florets are all staminate. Flowers during August and September.
All parts of the plant give off a strong aromatic scent when touched or
handled, and the taste is exceedingly bitter, a quality which caused it
to be used as a stomachic tonic and a vermifuge.
This is the only British species of the genus, whose name is said to
be a corruption of _Athanasia_ deathless; but probably it is not so
derived.
=Blackthorn, or Sloe= (_Prunus communis_).
It seems quite natural to use the two common names of this beautiful
shrub at different times. In the spring, before a leaf has unrolled
upon the spine-tipped spurs of its soot-coloured branches, we call
it the Blackthorn, for by contrast with its pure white stars its
thorns are black indeed. In the autumn, when we search the common, the
copse-side and the thick hedgerow for ripe bramble fruit, we only know
it as the Sloe. Then the plant is again in full beauty with its groups
of round plums, each finely coated with the purple bloom that is ruined
by a touch. Like the Whitethorn (page 17) and the Bramble (plate 30),
the Blackthorn is a rose, with the floral organs in fives. The fruit is
botanically a _drupe_: it is the result of a swelling up of the ovary,
the outer walls of which become succulent and pulpy, the inner hardened
into the “stone” inclosing the “kernel” or seed. The leaves are small,
elliptical, finely toothed, and in a young state the underside is
downy, but in the adult condition smooth. All the branches are spiny.
There are two forms with brown bark which have been at various times
regarded as separate species, or as mere varieties, but which Sir J.
D. Hooker ranks as sub-species, marking a stage in which varietal
characters have become permanent, but not sufficiently strong to hide
their connection with the parent form. These are:--
I. The Bullace (_P. insititia_), with larger and broader leaves,
underside downy in the adult condition; branches straight, only a
few with spines; the petals broader; the fruit more drooping, black
or yellow, larger, and less rough to the taste.
II. Wild Plum (_P. domestica_). Branches straight without spines.
Fruit larger, black. Leaves downy on the ribs of the underside.
The plums of the fruiterer and the “prunes” of the grocer are
cultivated forms of this species.
They all flower in March and April. The name is the old Latin
appellation for the fruit.
[Illustration: =Sloe. Blackthorn.=
Prunus communis.
--ROSACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Wild Hop.=
Humulus lupulus.
--URTICACEÆ.--]
=Wild Hop= (_Humulus lupulus_).
The Wild Hop may not unfrequently be seen in the copse and hedgerow,
especially in the South of England. It has a thick branching perennial
rootstock--in the cultivated plant called a “set”--from which are
produced several long, thin, but tough twining stems that turn with
the sun, and tightly clasp the nearest small tree or shrub. It has
no tendrils like the vine, but climbs like the convolvulus by simply
twining with the sun as it grows. Its lobed and coarsely toothed
leaves are very similar to those of the grape-vine, but very rough.
The leaves are in pairs, and at the base of the leaf-stalk is a pair
of long curved stipules. The Hop is what botanists term a _diœcious_
plant, because staminate flowers only are produced by one individual,
and pistillate only by another, making cross-fertilization imperative.
It is not the insects, however, that effect this crossing in the Hop,
but the wind. The flowers are all small; the staminate produced from
the axils of the leaves in long drooping panicles. They have no petals,
but there are five sepals and five anthers attached to their bases.
Each pistillate flower has a membranous sepal, an ovary, and two long
tapering purple stigmas. Two of these pistillate flowers are produced
in the axil of a green, broad, concave bract or scale. A number of
these twin-flowered bracts are united into a dense spike, and after
fertilization this develops into a large cone-like head of yellow
scales with resinous glands at their base, which yield a resinous
substance called _lupuline_. The true fruit is a little nut, which is
enclosed in the sepal under the bracts. It flowers in July and August.
It is the only British species. Beside their extensive use in brewing,
the flowers are frequently used to stuff pillows, their narcotic odour
inducing sleep.
=The Salad Burnet= (_Poterium sanguisorba_).
When “cool tankards” were more generally compounded than they are
to-day, Salad Burnet was a better-known plant, for, like Borage, it
formed one of the ingredients. It was used also in the salad bowl,
its leaves having a flavour very similar to that of cucumber. It is
a perennial, the rosette of radical leaves springing from a stout
rootstock. The leaves are all pinnate; the leaflets in pairs, coarsely
toothed, and a terminal leaflet. The stems are slender, branched, and
the flowers are gathered into a purplish head. They have no petals, and
are of two kinds: the upper ones have a four-lobed calyx with a narrow
mouth, from which two styles with brush-like stigmas are exserted; the
lower bear both stamens and stigmas, or stamens only. The stamens are
four in number, attached to the mouth of the calyx, and the anthers
hang out. The plant may be found abundantly in dry pastures, especially
in a chalk district, flowering from June till August.
The Rough Burnet (_P. muricatum_), found in cultivated fields in
the Midlands and South of England, is probably only a variety of
_sanguisorba_, owing its large size and roughness to the richer
soil it finds in the fields.
The Great Burnet (_P. officinale_), was formerly regarded as
constituting a separate genus, _Sanguisorba_, but it is very
similar to the Salad Burnet. Its flowers, however, are all alike,
and contain both stamens and pistils. It is much larger than Salad
Burnet, and its flower-heads more cylindric, longer, and of a
darker purple hue. The stamens, too, instead of hanging far outside
the calyx, are no longer than the lobes of that organ. The flowers
produce honey, and are fertilized by insects. The leaflets are
fewer and longer in this species. Its habitat is damp meadows, and
its flowering time the same as Salad Burnet.
The name _Poterium_ is the Latin term for a drinking-cup, in
allusion to its use indicated above.
[Illustration: =Salad Burnet.=
Poterium sanguisorba.
--ROSACEÆ.--]
[Illustration: =Ivy.=
Hedera helix.
--ARALIACEÆ.--]
=Ivy= (_Hedera helix_).
How common is Ivy, whether wild or cultivated! Yet how few are
acquainted with its flowers!
There is no occasion to say that the Ivy is an evergreen perennial
climbing shrub, nor to describe the form of the beautiful leathery
leaf. If there is one leaf that may be said to be thoroughly well
known to every British man, woman, and child, it must be the Ivy, for
it thrives in dark corners of towns as well as on the hedge-banks of
the country, and its foliage has been so well used in all classes of
ornamental work. And yet there are few leaves that are subject to such
great variation of form, though, with all its changes, one dominant
character runs through them all, except its upper leaves, which are
totally unlike. The Holly has prickly leaves for its lower branches,
but those that are above the heads of browsing cattle have “entire”
margins. So with the Ivy; its five-lobed leaves are for its trailing
and climbing branches, but when it has reached the top of the wall or
the tree it puts on simple lance-shaped leaves, and in September or
October crowns these shoots with its umbels of yellow-green flowers.