The Meadow Sweet grows abundantly all summer by the side of streams and
in damp places. Many a time its delightful scent has tempted us to
gather it in handfuls.
The flowers are creamy white, and are very small, with a great many
yellow stamens in the centre. They grow in large clusters on short
branching stalks, and the buds look like tiny ivory balls set in small
green cups. You often see two or more branched stalks which shoot high
above the mass of open flowers, bearing a great many closed buds. When
the flowers are withered, the five green sepals fold back against the
stem.
The green leaves of the Meadow Sweet are dark and rough above, but
underneath they are covered with white down. They have a central
leaf-stalk, and on each side of the stalk grow a pair of big leaflets
and a pair of small leaflets alternately. Sometimes two pairs of very
small leaflets may come together, and at the end of the stalk you always
find one big leaflet which has several points.
The stem of this plant is hard, and it has lines running from end to
end. Where the flower-stalk and the leaf-stalk join this stem, you find
a curious green sheath, which seems to clasp them all together, and this
sheath has sharply cut edges.