You will find the Greater Stitchwort in many places. It grows in grassy
meadows, in woods and in thickets, and also on rocks among the
mountains; and it blooms in spring or early summer.
The Stitchwort is a tall, slender plant, and the flowers are large and
very pretty. They grow singly at the end of short stalks, which usually
branch in pairs again and again from the main stem, oftenest where two
leaves join. These flowers have five snowy white petals, each of which
has a deep notch cut in the outer edge, and there are delicate green
veins all over the petals. Within the flower there are ten yellow-headed
stamens. Some of these stamens are long, and some are quite short; and
in the middle there is a fat green seed-vessel.
Behind these beautiful white petals grow five narrow pointed sepals,
which have very little colour. These sepals are like tiny scales,
slightly tinged with green, and they lie flat behind the white flower.
The stem of the Greater Stitchwort is not very strong, and it has always
a line of hard, short bristles, running up each side. The leaves are
like blades of grass, narrow and pointed, but they are harder than
grass, and the edges curl backwards. On these edges are hard bristles,
the same as those on the stems.
PLATE XVIII: 1. GOUTWEED. 2. WILD ANGELICA
3. YELLOW BEDSTRAW. 4. HEMLOCK WATER DROPWORT.