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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 nobody 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 knob with many white rootlets hanging from it. |
Plate XXVIII: 1. COMMON MARE'S TAIL 2. COMMON BUTTERBUR 3. GREATER BURDOCK |
1. Common Mare's Tail |
This strange-looking plant grows in many parts of the country, and its spikes are found during summer in ponds and ditches. The flowers are so tiny that you may scarcely notice them. They grow in a circle close round the main stem where the leaves join it, and they are greenish in colour. These flowers have no petals, ... |
The leaves of the Common Mare's Tail grow in circles up the stem at short distances apart. They are very narrow and pointed, exactly like short green straps, and you find from six to twelve of these strap-leaves in the same circle. |
2. Common Butterbur |
The Common Butterbur grows in wet places, especially beside streams. It is not found in the North of Scotland, but is common in the South country. The flowers appear very early in spring, before the leaves, and they are nearly withered by the time the leaves are at their best. |
The flowers grow closely crowded together in cone-shaped heads, near the top of a thick fleshy stalk. These flowers are made up of tiny pink tubes with toothed edges, and there is a row of long-headed pink stamens clinging to the inside of each tiny tube. Outside the head of flowers there is a thick bundle of narrow gr... |
You will notice the narrow green leaves which grow singly up this main stem. Sometimes these leaves become much broader at the tips, and when this is the case these leaf-tips are dark green and have toothed edges. |
The root leaves of the Butterbur are very large. They are roughly heart-shaped with sharply cut teeth round the edge. Each leaf is dark green and smooth above, but underneath it is woolly, and the short stalk on which it grows is hollow. |
3. Greater Burdock |
The Greater Burdock grows in waste places by the roadside and on the borders of fields. It is fairly common all over Britain and flowers in autumn. |
The Burdock is a low-growing bushy plant with strong stems. Growing close to the ground it has large coarse leaves not unlike rhubarb leaves. They are dark green, very wrinkled, and with slightly waved edges. |
The leaves which grow on the flower-stems are much smaller, and are long and rather narrow. |
The flowers are scarcely seen. They are made up of small rose-coloured and purple tubes, which are crowded close together at the end of stout round stalks. But these small flowers are completely surrounded by a ball of green bristles, so that you require to pull the bristles apart and look into the top of the green bal... |
Each of the bristles on this green ball ends in a tiny hook, and with these hooks they cling to whatever they touch. You often see these prickly balls sticking to the wool on a sheep's back. If you throw one at a companion it will hang to his clothes by its sharp little hooks. |
Plate XXIX: 1. Mouse Tail. 2. Ribwort Plantain. 3. Knotty Figwort. |
1. Mouse-Tail |
This little plant grows plentifully in the East of England, but it is not found all over Britain. It flowers in summer. |
You will easily recognise it by the curious way the seed-vessels grow. You remember in the Buttercup (Plate I.) there was a little hard knot of seed-vessels like a green raspberry in the centre of the ring of stamens? |
The Mouse-Tail is a cousin of the Buttercup, but the seed-vessels grow on a long pointed spike which shoots up in the middle of the flower, and is just like a mouse's tail. |
Each flower has five yellowish-green petals, shaped like pale yellow tubes, with a lip at the top. There are five long, narrow, yellow-green sepals, with little spurs at the bottom. And there is also a ring of stamens with yellow heads which stand straight up round the foot of the Mouse's Tail. |
The leaves are long and narrow, with a line down the centre. They are rather thick leaves, and they all grow in a tuft from the root. |
2. Ribwort Plantain |
Is there any child that has not played at 'Soldiers' or at 'Lords and Ladies,' with the flower-heads of the Ribwort Plantain? It is common everywhere, and flowers from spring to autumn. |
The narrow pointed leaves grow in a circle straight from the root. They are dark green on one side, and silvery green on the other, and have long 'ribs' running from the bottom to the top. From these 'ribs' the plant gets its name of 'Ribwort.' |
The flowers are closely crowded together in brown, cone-shaped heads. Each flower consists of a narrow white tube, with four graceful yellow points folded back at the mouth. |
The large yellow heads of the stamens stand up beyond the mouth of this tube, but you can scarcely see the tip of the seed-vessel which is hidden inside. |
When the flowers are fully out, you do not notice the white tubes; all you see is a big cluster of fuzzy yellow-headed stamens. |
There are four small green sepals at the bottom of the flower-tube, and these sepals are often stained with brown blotches. |
The stems are ribbed all the way up and are covered with short hairs. They are juicy and very easily broken. |
3. Knotty Figwort |
This uninteresting plant is abundant everywhere. It is found in damp, shady places by the side of ditches, and it is at its best in summer and autumn. |
At first you scarcely notice the flowers. They are small, dull green bells stained with brown, and are not at all attractive. But when you examine them, you find that the mouth of each bell is prettily waved all round the edge, and inside there are two long stamens and two short ones, as well as a fat green seed-vessel... |
There is a green calyx-cup with five teeth at the mouth, and as the small green bell soon withers and falls off, you oftenest notice this calyx-cup with a green seed-vessel sitting in the centre. |
The tiny flower-bells grow in loose clusters, which spring from between the leaf and the main stem. |
The Knotty Figwort is a tall and stout plant, with a four-sided stem which is curiously twisted. |
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