Flowers Shown to the Children Part 13

1. COMMON EYEBRIGHT

This humble little plant is to be found everywhere on heaths and meadows and pastures. It blooms plentifully in summer and autumn. The flowers of the Eyebright grow in cl.u.s.ters of four to six at the end of the main stem. They are white, or pale lilac streaked with pink, and they are small and unattractive. The petals are joined together into a tube, with two lips at the mouth. The upper lip has two divisions, and the lower lip is cut up into three. They appear to be five unequal petals standing round the mouth of the tube.

Inside the tube are four purple-headed stamens, two long and two short.

You can see them appearing at the mouth of the tube, also the slender white point which rises from the seed-vessel.

The calyx is a green cup with four deeply pointed teeth at the mouth.

The tube of the flower goes down into the cup, and the five unequal petals stand round its mouth.

The Eyebright stem varies much in height. Sometimes you find it only about two inches from the ground, and in other places it has straggled eighteen inches high. These stems are very hairy.

The leaves grow opposite each other in pairs up the stem. They have no stalks, and the edges are cut all round into blunt teeth. They are rather hairy leaves, and are dark green and crinkled. In shape they are oval with a blunt point at the end.

2. WHITE DEAD NETTLE

The White Dead Nettle is fairly common everywhere except in the North of Scotland. You find it in waste places, by the roadside, and on ditch banks, and it blooms from spring to autumn.

This is a much more attractive plant than the Stinging Nettle we have all learned to avoid.

The flowers grow in beautiful whorls or circles round the stem. In this plant the flowers are snowy white, tinged with green, but in other Dead Nettles you find them rose pink or deep purple.

There are often as many as eighteen flowers on one whorl. The flower petals are joined together into a tube which stands in a shallow calyx-cup, edged with five very long, sharp teeth. The mouth of the white flower-tube is cut very irregularly. The upper part bends over like a hood, and underneath this hood are hidden the four long stamens.

The lower part of the flower-tube hangs down like a tongue, and it is fringed and rounded at the end. Amongst the stamens you see the slender forked point which rises from the seed-vessel.

The leaves of the White Dead Nettle are very similar in shape to those of the Stinging Nettle; but they are a paler shade of green. They grow in pairs close to the stem, with a good s.p.a.ce in between each pair, and the ring of stalkless flowers cl.u.s.ters round the stem beside them.

3. SPOTTED ORCHIS

This Orchis is common all over the country, where it grows in damp woods, on chalky banks, and in meadows and pastures.

You find it in summer.

The leaves are stained with purplish-black blotches as in the early Purple Orchis, but they are narrower and taper more to a point. Notice the small leaves which cling at intervals to the flower-stalk all the way up.

The flowers grow in a dense cone-shaped head at the top of the flower-stalk. The petals are pale lilac or nearly white, and are spotted or streaked with purple. They are curiously shaped. The broad petal, which folds back like a hanging lip, is deeply waved round the edge, and behind it there is a long lilac spur.

Two petals stand erect, and form a hood which covers the stamens and the slender column of the seed-vessel.

There are also three small lilac or white sepals which you will scarcely be able to distinguish from the petals.

The flower sits at the top of what looks like a swollen stalk, but is really the seed-vessel.

Where this stalk-like seed-vessel joins the main stem there is always a tiny purple or green leaflet.

PLATE XXVII: 1. RED BERRIED BRYONY 2. CHICKWEED WINTERGREEN 3. CUCKOOPINT OR WAKE ROBIN

1. RED-BERRIED BRYONY

The Red-Berried Bryony is very common in the South of England, where it climbs over the hedges and grows among the thickets. But it does not grow wild in the North. It is in flower all summer and autumn.

The stems of this plant are soft and easily broken, and they have not enough strength to keep the leaves and flowers upright. But at the bottom of each leaf-stalk, there are long curly green tendrils, and with these the Bryony catches hold of some stronger plant, which helps to support it.

The flowers are greenish-white in colour, and they grow in loose heads which spring from between the leaf-stalk and the stem.

These flowers have five separate greenish-white petals covered with a fine network of veins and with many transparent hairs.

At the back of the petals sits a green calyx-cup edged with five pointed teeth.

When the flowers are withered they are followed by groups of beautiful dark red berries.

The Red Bryony leaves are very large, and are shaped like a hand with five blunt fingers. The green colour is pale and bright, and each leaf is covered with short white hairs.

2. CHICKWEED WINTERGREEN

It is delightful to find the Chickweed Wintergreen as it is rather a rare plant. It grows in fir woods and on heaths in hilly districts, and it blooms all summer. There is no other plant at all like this Wintergreen, so you will have no difficulty in recognising it.

The stem is very delicate and wiry, and at the end it bears a spreading rosette of six long pointed leaves. These leaves are smooth and s.h.i.+ny: in autumn they are often tinged with purple.

You may find one or two solitary leaves lower down on the stem; if so, these leaves are quite small, and they are rounded at the ends.

The flowers look like white stars. They have five or seven long narrow petals with pointed tips. These petals lie open in a circle, and you can see five or seven thread-like stamens with tiny pink heads rising in the centre, round a small green seed-vessel.

The flower-stalks grow from the centre of the green leaf rosette. Each flower has a delicate pink stalk of its own, and you may find three or four stalks springing from the same place. But more often the flower is solitary.

3. CUCKOOPINT OR WAKE ROBIN

This is one of our most curious wild plants. It is common in England and Ireland, but rare in Scotland. It grows on hedge banks and in open woods, and blooms in late spring and early summer.

The large glossy leaves are arrow-shaped, and they are covered all over with dark purple blotches.

From amongst them rises a pale green twisted sheath, which is completely closed when in bud. Like the leaves, it is spotted all over with purple blotches, and the edges are stained a pale yellow-brown.

Inside this sheath rises a tall narrow purple cone, on a stout green stalk. Fastened round this green stalk are three curious collars.

First comes a collar of tiny green pear-shaped glands, of which n.o.body knows the use. Then comes a purple collar made up of stamen heads without any stalks.

And a little way below these there is a deep band of round green seed-vessels like small beads. These are hidden in the lower part of the green sheath; but in autumn they grow much larger, and soon burst open the covering sheath. Then they turn into beautiful scarlet berries.

These berries are very poisonous.

The root of the Cuckoopint is a rough brown k.n.o.b with many white rootlets hanging from it.

Plate XXVIII: 1. COMMON MARE'S TAIL 2. COMMON b.u.t.tERBUR 3. GREATER BURDOCK