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The Cowslip is the Queen of our meadow flowers. It is common in England and Ireland, and in many parts of Scotland. The spring, or early summer, is the best time to find it. |
The flowers grow, a dozen or more together, in a loose cluster, at the end of a stout, round stalk. Each flower has a yellow tube which is sunk out of sight in a swollen calyx-cup. This cup is a beautiful light green colour, with five sharp teeth at the mouth, and it is covered with soft hairs. Sometimes you find it ti... |
Round the mouth of the yellow flower-tube stand five small lemon-coloured petals, each with a V-shaped nick in the outer edge, and a bright, reddish-orange spot at the base. If you look at the back of a cowslip, you will see that the yellow tube is swollen just below the petals. |
There are five stamens, whose heads are just visible in the throat of the tube, with the tip of the seed-vessel amongst them. In some flowers this slender pillar comes a good way beyond the mouth of the tube, and the stamens are hidden out of sight. |
The Cowslip leaves are crinkled all over, and have swollen veins which are much raised on the underside. In the young leaves the edges are rolled very far back. |
3. Bog Asphodel |
This wiry little plant is fond of marshy places and wet bogs and heaths. It grows all over the country, and is in flower in late summer and autumn. |
The Bog Asphodel has a tall, wiry flower-stalk, near the top of which you find a spike of orange-yellow flowers. There are three narrow-pointed orange petals, and three orange sepals; but these are so much alike, you will not be able to distinguish between them. When the flower is in full bloom, these petals and sepals... |
In the centre of the star there are six stamens, with woolly yellow stalks and bright red heads. There is also a small pear-shaped green seed-vessel. |
Each flower has its own short stalk. Notice the tiny green leaves which grow at intervals on the wiry flower-stalk, tightly pressed against it. |
The leaves of the Bog Asphodel are like coarse grass. They have no stalks, and look as if they had been slightly folded together from end to end. Each leaf has long lines running from base to tip. |
Plate XIII 1. Honeysuckle 2. Yellow Water Iris 3. Daffodil |
1. Honeysuckle |
The Honeysuckle grows in all parts of the country. You will find its sweet-scented flowers in thickets and woods during summer and autumn. It is a shrub with long, feeble, woody stems. These stems twist themselves round young trees and hedges, which support the plant and raise it up towards the sun. |
The Honeysuckle flowers grow in loose heads at the end of the leaf-stem. They are shaped like long trumpets, and these trumpets are very narrow at the one end, and widen out at the mouth into two unequal lips. The lower lip is merely a long strap curled over at the end. But the upper lip is very much broader, and it is... |
After the flowers are withered, the seeds grow into clear dark crimson berries, of which the birds are very fond. |
The leaves of the Honeysuckle grow opposite each other in pairs. They are blue-green in colour, are very smooth, and have a network of tiny veins all over them. Each leaf is oval, and its edges are smooth all the way round. |
2. Yellow Water Iris |
The Yellow Iris with its lily flowers and sword-like leaves is found in summer-time by the side of ditches, and marshes, and ponds. |
In the Iris the petals and the sepals are almost the same colour. The flower has a short yellow tube which folds back at the mouth into three broad, handsome yellow sepals, beautifully marked with deep orange streaks. |
Between each of these sepals stands a small pale yellow petal. |
Rising from the centre of the flower are what look like other three pale yellow petals, with fringed ends which curl upward. These are really three branches of the slender column which rises from the seed-vessel, and they bend backwards over each sepal. Half hidden under each of these fringed petals, you can see the da... |
The yellow flower-tube stands above the seed-vessel. This seed-vessel becomes very large in autumn, and it bursts lengthways into three parts, showing rows of dark brown seeds tightly packed together inside. |
Before the flower opens, the Iris is enclosed in a green sheath. |
The leaves are sword-shaped, with long lines running from base to tip. They are smooth, and in colour they are a dim green. |
3. Daffodil |
The Daffodil is one of our loveliest spring flowers. It is found abundantly in woods, and in meadows and pastures in England, but in Scotland it does not grow wild, and it is doubtful whether it really does so in Ireland. |
The flowers grow singly on tall stalks. Each Daffodil is enclosed in a light brown sheath, which stands erect. But when the growing flowers have burst this covering, they droop their heads. |
Each flower has a short yellow tube, divided about half way down into six deep points. |
These points do not fold back, they enclose a long yellow trumpet, which is beautifully scolloped round the mouth. |
Inside this trumpet are six stamens with large yellow heads, and the slender stalks of these stamens cling to the sides of the yellow trumpet. There is also a short pillar rising from the fat green seed-vessel, which you can see outside the coloured petals, below the yellow tube. |
In the Daffodil, the sepals and petals are the same colour. |
The stalk of the Daffodil is slightly twisted, and has fine lines running up it. It rises straight from the centre of the bulb which forms the root. |
The leaves are long, narrow straps with blunt points, and they are thick and juicy. |
Plate XIV: 1. Sneezewort Yarrow. 2. Mountain Everlasting 3. Common Comfrey. |
3. Common Comfrey |
This tall, harsh-leaved plant is to be found all over the country in moist places, by the sides of streams and ditches, and by the roadside. It blooms in spring and autumn. |
The flowers of the Common Comfrey are not always the same colour. Sometimes you find them pale yellow, and in other places they are a rich purple, and the buds are pink. These flowers grow in drooping clusters on short little stalks which curve in a curious serpent manner before the buds open. |
The five petals joined together form a bell, which is cut into deep teeth at the edge. Within this bell, there are five stamens clinging to the sides, and from the seed-vessel, a long, slender white thread rises. You can see this white thread best after the yellow bell is withered, and the seed-vessel is left sitting i... |
The stem of the Comfrey is covered with hard, rough hairs. It has ridges running from top to bottom, and it is hollow in the middle. The leaves on the stem grow in tufts of three or four, without any stalks. They are narrow and pointed, with wavy edges, and are covered with hairs. |
Many other coarse leaves rise from the root. These leaves, too, have no stalks, and they are broad and hairy. |
1. Sneezewort Yarrow |
This sturdy flower is the parent of the snow-white Bachelor's Buttons, which grow in our garden: it is a cousin of the Millfoil or Yarrow. It is common all over the country, where you find it in meadows and ditches, and by the roadside. It blooms in autumn. |
The flowers resemble small daisies. You find about a dozen growing together on short stalks, near the top of the main stem. |
Each daisy consists of a disc which is closely covered with greenish-white tube-flowers. The mouth of these tube-flowers is cut into points which bend outward, and coming out of the centre of each tube, you can see the yellow tip of the seed-vessel, round which the heads of the stamens are placed edge to edge like a de... |
Round the outer edge of the disc there is a small circle of tube-flowers, each of which has a broad white strap, and these straps are nicked at the ends. |
Underneath these small daisies stands a circle of tiny green pointed leaves; these form a cup which protects the plant when it is in bud. |
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