This pretty plant is common over most of Britain. You find it on dry
banks and by the edge of fields, and it blooms all summer and autumn.
The flowers are very interesting. They grow in a bouquet which contains
many flowers crowded together at the end of a stout stalk.
The centre flowers are a reddish pink colour, and have many tall
yellow-headed stamens standing up beyond them. The petals of these
flowers are joined together into a tube which is unevenly divided round
the mouth. If you open the tube gently, you will find that the stamens
are clinging to the inside.
Outside these pinky flowers there is a border of purply-blue
tube-flowers, and these are much larger than the group in the centre. At
the mouth of each tube there is a purple strap, and these straps stand
out like a frill round the bouquet.
Behind these flowers there is a double row of small pointed green
leaves.
The stem leaves are shaped like a feather, and they have long narrow
fingers growing up each side of a centre stalk. There is always a
solitary finger at the end of the stalk, and each finger is covered with
soft hairs.
PLATE XXXIV: 1. COMMON LING OR HEATHER. 2. BLACK KNAPWEED.
3. WILD THYME.