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Be sure to pull up the root, and you will find it covered with small bulbs or knots. From these knots the plant gets its name. |
The leaves near the foot of the Knotty Figwort stem are large and broadly oval, with short stalks. But those that grow further up the stem are narrower and more pointed, and they all have the edges cut like the teeth of a saw. |
Plate XXX: 1. Lady's Mantle 2. Dog's Mercury. 3. Common Nettle. |
1. Lady's Mantle |
The Lady's Mantle is a curious little plant and is common everywhere in summer. The beautifully shaped green leaves at once attract you, but the flowers are so small that you scarcely notice them. They are crowded into clusters at the end of short stalks, which branch many times from the main stem. These flowers have n... |
In the middle of these green sepals there is a yellow ring, and in the centre of this ring sits the tiny seed-vessel, sunk almost out of sight. There are four stamens, each of which stands out separately from this yellow ring. |
The root-leaves of the Lady's Mantle are rounded, and they are covered with a fine network of veins. Each leaf looks as if it had been folded into five or seven folds, and each fold is divided round the edge into scollops. The edge of these scollops is cut into sharp teeth. Sometimes you find a big diamond dew-drop lyi... |
You will also notice a frill of tiny pointed green leaves clasping the main stem wherever it forks. |
2. Dog's Mercury |
The Dog's Mercury grows abundantly in England and Scotland but is rare in Ireland. You find it during early spring in woods and shady places and thickets. |
This is one of our green flowers. It has no beautiful coloured petals to attract the bees or insects. |
The Dog's Mercury is a bushy, upright plant, with a stout, four-sided green stem, closely covered with pretty leaves. |
These leaves grow in pairs, on alternate sides of the stem: they are oval, and slightly hairy, and the edges are cut all round into sharp teeth. |
Where each leaf joins the stem a flower-stalk rises, and in the Dog's Mercury there are two kinds of flowers. On one stalk you find groups of small flowers clustered at close intervals round the stalk. Each of these flowers has three broadly pointed green sepals, which curl slightly at the tips. In the centre of these ... |
But you will find different flowers on another plant. These flowers have also three green sepals, and are without petals. But in the centre lie two hairy green seed-vessels, like small peas joined together, and on the top of these seed-vessels are two tiny green horns. |
3. Common Nettle |
What child does not know the Common Stinging Nettle? We have all learned to avoid it after having felt its sting. |
You find this Nettle everywhere in late summer and autumn. |
It has a four-sided stem, which is rough with bristly hairs. The leaves grow opposite each other in pairs with a good space between each pair. They are dark green and rather coarse, and are covered with a network of veins and with many stinging hairs. |
Close to the stalk the leaves are heart-shaped, but the tips are sharply pointed and the edges are deeply toothed all round. |
The flowers of the Common Nettle grow on slender stalks which rise between the leaf and the main stem. These flowers are green, and they are very small and unattractive. |
On one flower you find four green sepals and four yellow-headed stamens, but there are no petals and no seed-vessel. |
In another flower there is a fat green seed-vessel, with four sepals round it. |
Plate XXXI: 1. Purple Sea Rocket 2. Cuckoo Flower Or Lady's Smock 3. Marsh Cinquefoil 4. Water Avens |
1. Purple Sea-Rocket |
The Purple Sea-Rocket grows abundantly all summer on most of our seashores. It is a bushy plant with many branches, and you will recognise it by its thick and fleshy green leaves. The flowers are a pale lilac colour, like those of the Cuckoo Flower. Some of them grow on heads at the end of the main stem, and others hav... |
In this plant there are always buds in a cluster at the end of the stem, and those flowers that come out first grow further down the stem. |
Behind the lilac flowers there are four small brownish-green sepals. When these fall off, after the flower is withered, the seed-vessel which lies inside grows into a small green pod. The pod is in two pieces and looks as if it were joined in the middle. You will see a great many of these tiny pods growing on each side... |
The stem of the Sea-Rocket is very smooth and juicy. The leaves are long and feather-shaped, and they are cut very irregularly into fingers all the way round. |
2. Cuckoo Flower Or Lady's Smock |
The Cuckoo Flower is very common and grows all springtime in every meadow. |
The flowers are a pale purple or lilac. Sometimes you find them almost white. They have four petals, each of which has a slight nick in the outer edge. There are six stamens with yellow heads, which you can just see in the centre of the flower where the petals meet; and you will notice that two of these stamens are muc... |
The flowers grow in a cluster near the end of a stout stalk. After the petals and the small green sepals fall off, the seed-vessel, which is in the middle of the stamens, shoots up into a long thin pod. This pod is slightly curved, and is pale brown. |
The leaves of the Cuckoo Flower are of two kinds. Those that spring from the root, close to the ground, grow opposite each other in pairs of leaflets, on a stalk which has an odd leaflet at the end. |
But the leaves which appear further up the main stem are quite different They, too, grow in opposite pairs, but they are long and narrow like pointed straps, and are not nearly so pretty as those which are closer to the ground. |
3. Marsh Cinquefoil |
The Marsh Cinquefoil is not so common as many plants. It likes best to grow where there are high hills, and you find it all summer in wet ground among the peat-bogs. |
It has black roots, which creep a long distance among the mud, and from these roots grow beautifully shaped green leaves, and rather strange-looking flowers. |
These flowers have five small petals, which are a deep purple colour. So are the stamens, so are the seed-vessels. Even the sepals, which are bigger and longer than the petals, are a rich, dark purple, except at the foot where they join the stalk, and there they are greenish. |
The Marsh Cinquefoil has two rings of sepals. Those in the outermost circle are shaped like a narrow tongue. The inner sepals are much broader, and they end in sharp points. |
The flowers have each a stalk which branches from the main stem. Sometimes two flower-stalks will spring from the same part of the stem, and in that case there will be a large green leaf clasping the stem where they rise. |
These leaves are usually divided into three fingers, each of which is long and rather narrow, with sharp teeth all round. There are a few hairs on the upper side of the leaf, but underneath it is quite smooth. |
4. Water Avens |
The Water Avens loves moist places, and in summer you find it abundantly by the sides of ditches and streams. |
It is a delightful plant to discover, as both the leaves and the flowers are beautiful. |
The flowers grow singly at the end of slender stalks which branch from the main stem near the top. They are cup-shaped, with heads that are always drooping. |
The petals are bright orange-brown, tinged with purple, and outside these brilliant petals there is a calyx of deep purple sepals. These sepals are lined with bright green and have pointed tips, and there are many hairs all over them. |
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