Part 44

All three of these flower at the same time, and grow in similar situations. Several intermediate forms occur, and thus it is often a difficult matter to distinguish between them.

We must here mention the Butterwort (Pinguicula) as a summer-flowering plant of marshy places; but this is a carnivorous species; and as such is described, together with other plants of similar habits, in Chapter XXIV.

In most parts of Britain we may meet with the pretty little Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella) of the Primulaceæ. It is a delicate, creeping plant (see Plate V, Fig. 7), only about three or four inches long, with a slender, decumbent stem; and very small, opposite, rounded leaves on short stalks. Its flowers are funnel-shaped, of a pale pink colour, on long, slender, erect, axillary peduncles. The calyx is cut into five pointed lobes; and the corolla is deeply cleft into five segments which are much longer than the calyx. The fruit is a globular capsule that splits transversely into two hemispheres, like that of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Ditches are frequently quite overgrown with the Water Pepper or Biting Persicaria (Polygonum Hydropiper), which is very much like the Spotted Persicaria (p. 205) of the same order (Polygonaceæ), but is much more slender, is creeping and rooting at the base, and more or less biting to the taste. Its stem is freely branched, from one to three feet high; its leaves narrow and wavy, with membranous stipules much fringed at the top; and the little pinkish-green flowers are in slender, drooping, interrupted spikes, leafy at the base.

Of the Orchidaceæ we shall note here but one species--the Marsh Helleborine (Epipactis palustris), which is widely distributed, and really abundant in places, flowering during July and August. It is very much like the Broad-leaved Helleborine described on p. 308, and represented on Plate II, but is not so tall, being only about a foot high, and its leaves are narrow. The flowers, too, are fewer than in the Broad-leaved Helleborine, and the raceme is not one-sided. The sepals are narrow, of a pale green colour, striped with red or purple; and the petals are white, striped with red at the base. The lower lobe of the lip is blunt and thick; and the bracts are shorter than the flowers.

Rushes and Sedges are so abundant in marshes and other wet places that they form quite a characteristic feature of these localities; and the number of common species is so large that we must necessarily confine our attention to a very small proportion.

The Rushes, which constitute the order Juncaceæ, are stiff, smooth plants, often of such social habits that they cover large patches of wet or watery soil. Their stems are usually erect, and seldom branched; and their stiff, smooth leaves are frequently cylindrical, like the stems, with a soft, pith-like tissue within, but occasionally flat and narrow like those of grasses. The flowers are perfect, with a regular, inferior perianth of six dry segments; and they have generally six stamens, a three-celled ovary, and three slender stigmas. They are very small, either separate or in clusters; and each flower or cluster has a dry, sheathing bract at its base.

The pretty little Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) shall first receive our attention because botanists are not yet in agreement as to its correct position among the monocotyledonous plants. It is certainly allied to the rushes, but on account of its larger and more succulent flowers it is often included among the lilies. It has a creeping rootstock, and stiff, erect stems from six to ten inches high. Its bright yellow, starlike flowers form a stiff, terminal raceme, with a bract at the base, and another one above the middle of each pedicel. The segments of the perianth are about a third of an inch long, yellow above and greenish below. The stamens are a little shorter than the perianth segments; and their filaments are clothed with white woolly hairs. This plant is common on wet moors and in mountain bogs, flowering from June to August.

The Common Rush (Juncus communis) is a very abundant species, to be found in almost all wet and marshy places, flowering during July and August. Its stems are round, leafless, soft, faintly furrowed, solid, with a continuous pith. They are from one to three feet high, and are sheathed at the base by a few brownish scales, but the plant has no true leaves. Most of the stems bear a panicled cluster of green or brown flowers about six inches from the top. These panicles are very variable in form and size, being either loose or dense, and varying from one to three inches in diameter.

The Hard Rush (Juncus glaucus) is a very similar plant, flowering at the same time; but its stem is slender, rigid, deeply furrowed, with the pith interrupted by air spaces. It is generally from one to two feet high; and, like the last species, has no true leaves. The panicle is looser than that of J. communis, with fewer and larger flowers; and it is never more than two or three inches below the top of the stem.

A few of the Rushes form a group known collectively as the Jointed Rushes, because their cylindrical or slightly-flattened, hollow leaves are divided within by transverse partitions of pith which give them a jointed appearance, especially when they are dried. Two or three of the species referred to are very common in wet places. They are very similar in general appearance, and one of them--the Shining-fruited Jointed Rush (Juncus lamprocarpus) is selected for illustration.

Another species is the little pale-coloured Toad Rush (J. bufonis), which grows to a height of only a few inches. It has tufted stems that branch from near the base; and its flowers are either solitary or in clusters of two or three.

As regards the Sedges (order Cyperaceæ), the species are so numerous that it is impossible to do them justice in a work of this nature.

Their stems are solid, usually more or less triangular, not swollen at the nodes as in grasses; and the sheaths of the leaves which surround the stems are not split. The flowers are in little green or brown spikelets that are either solitary at the top of the stem, or collected into a cluster, spike, panicle, or umbel. Each spikelet is in the axil of a scaly or leafy outer bract, and consists of several scales or glumes, each with a single sessile flower in its axil. The flowers have no perianth, but there are often a few very small scales or bristles at their base. They have two or (generally) three stamens; a one-celled ovary; and a style that is more or less deeply cleft into two or three slender stigmas. The fruit is a small, one-seeded nut, usually flattened in the species which have two stigmas, and triangular where the stigmas are three.

The reader should make himself thoroughly acquainted with the above features of the sedges, in order to avoid any confusion with the rushes, on the one hand, and with the grasses on the other; and he must not be led astray by the fact that some of the sedge family are popularly known as rushes.

Of this order the pretty Cotton Grasses (Eriophorum) often form a very conspicuous feature of marshes and other wet places. They are tufted or creeping plants with terminal spikelets, very much like those of the other sedges, but their flowers are perfect, and the bristles which represent the perianth grow to a considerable length as the flowering advances, protruding far beyond the overlapping glumes, and at last forming dense tufts of fine cottony hairs.

Two species are decidedly common and widely distributed, more especially the Common Cotton Grass (Eriophorum polystachyon), which is often so abundant as to give a general whitish appearance to whole patches of boggy land. It is a creeping plant, with solid, rigid, solitary stems, from six inches to over a foot in height; a few shorter, radical leaves; and a few leaves on the stem. Its spikelets, three to twelve in number, form a terminal cluster, the inner ones sessile, or nearly so, and the outer stalked and more or less drooping. They are at first oval or oblong, about half an inch long; but in fruit, usually in the month of June, they form dense cottony tufts from one to two inches in length.

The other is the Hare's-tail or Sheathing Cotton Grass (E. vaginatum)--a tufted species, common on boggy moors, with many stems which are round below and triangular above, at first about six or eight inches high, but lengthening as the flowering advances. At the top of each stem is a solitary oval spikelet, of a dark brownish-green colour, over half an inch long, with many straight bristles that eventually form a dense, globular, cottony tuft about an inch in diameter. This is an earlier species, flowering during April and May.

The large genus Carex contains many common sedges with grass-like leaves springing from the base or the lower part of the stem. Some of them have a solitary spikelet; others have several spikelets in a terminal cluster or spike, with, sometimes, stalked spikelets below; or they are arranged in a compound spike or panicle. The flowers are all imperfect, without perianth; and the male and female flowers are either in separate spikelets or in different parts of the same one. The glumes overlap all round the axis of the spikelet; there are generally three stamens; and the ovary is enclosed in a little vase-shaped covering with a little hole at the top through which the two or three stigmas protrude.

We give illustrations of two of the commonest species; the Common Sedge (Carex vulgaris), which flowers from June to August; and the Marsh Sedge (C. paludosa), that flowers in May and June. The former grows to a height varying from six inches to two feet; and the latter to from two to three feet.

XVI

ON HEATH, DOWN AND MOOR

On the exposed and more or less bleak heath, down and moor we do not meet with many species of spring flowers, and for this reason we have included both spring and summer blossoms in the same chapter.

It must not be supposed, however, from the above statement, that we regard these exposed situations as devoid of interest, or even lacking in flowers, for the small number of species flowering early in the season is often compensated for by the profusion in which their blossoms are produced.

The golden blaze of the Furze or Gorse, aided more or less by the similar flowers of its little relative--the Petty Whin, is alone sufficient to add a charm to the scene, while the large yellow blossoms of the Broom often take the place of, or add to, the glorious display, which is frequently varied by the globular flowers of the Whortle, and the catkins and early leaves of the Dwarf Willow. Occasionally the scene is still further varied by the evergreen, needle-like foliage of the Juniper, intermixed with the little axillary catkins; while among the surrounding grass we see the pretty flowers of the little Eyebright; the brown flowers and hairy leaves of the Field Woodrush, often growing as thickly as the grass itself; and the short, stiff leaves and sessile spikelets of the Spring Sedge.

Among the more gaudy flowers we may note the large purple heads of the Musk Thistle, a common plant on the heaths of some southern counties; and in boggy districts we may see the abundant white, silky tufts of the Hare's-tail Cotton Grass; and the flower-clusters of the Yellow Sedge.

These and the few other spring flowers of heaths and moors are described, in their order, among the summer flowers of the present chapter. Some of them are exclusively spring blossoms, and are to be seen only in their fruiting stages during the summer months, but a few continue to bloom after spring has ended, and even far into the summer. The Furze, which often commences to flower during the first few weeks of the year, may be seen, still in bloom, during July and early August; and the Eyebright may be found in flower even to the beginning of autumn. The Musk Thistle, too, though its first flower-heads may be observed in May, or, sometimes, even in April, will continue producing new flowers well into October.

A good many species are included in the present chapter, and most of these, at least, will be easily identified by the descriptions given.