Part 51

The same order (Crassulaceæ) includes the House Leek (Sempervivum tectorum)--a plant which has been introduced into Britain, and is now commonly seen growing wild on rocks and on the roofs of country houses. Its spreading offsets give rise to globular tufts of flowerless shoots, and to thick, succulent, flowering stems that grow to a foot or more in height. The lower leaves are ovate, acute, thick, fleshy, edged with red, and arranged in a dense rosette; and the flowering stem, with its sessile leaves, is covered with a short, sticky down. The flowers are of a dull pink or purple colour, and are sessile along the spreading branches of the stem. They have usually about twelve short sepals; the same number of pointed petals, two or three times the length of the sepals; about twice as many stamens; and an ovary of as many carpels as there are petals and sepals. It is interesting to note that half the stamens--those forming the inner whorl--produce no pollen, and that their anthers are often modified into ovaries, the ovules of which, however, do not mature. This plant flowers in July and August.

Our last selection from this order is the Wall Pennywort or Navelwort (Cotyledon umbilicus)--a peculiar plant, common on rocks and walls in the South and West of England. It has a hard stock, producing an abundance of fleshy leaves early in the year, and flowering stems, from six to eighteen inches high, from June to August. The lower leaves are round, wavy, smooth, very succulent and brittle, and depressed in the centre where the long fleshy stalks are attached. Those of the stem have shorter stalks which are more and more removed from the centre from below upwards. The stem is thick and succulent, and bears a long raceme of pendulous yellow-green flowers on short stalks. Each flower has a very small calyx of five sepals; a cylindrical corolla, about a quarter of an inch long, with five short teeth; ten stamens, attached to the tube of the corolla; and a superior ovary.

Several of the Saxifrages grow in rocky and stony places, and four or five species are sufficiently common to demand a notice here. The flowers of this group have a calyx of five sepals that is either quite free or more or less adherent to the ovary; a corolla of five petals; ten stamens, attached with the petals at the base of the calyx; and a two-celled ovary, with two distinct styles, containing several seeds.

Our first species is the London Pride, None-so-Pretty, or St. Patrick's Cabbage (Saxifraga umbrosa), a native of Irish mountains which has been introduced into Britain as a garden flower, and has now become established as a wild flower in many parts. Its flowering stem grows from six to twelve inches high; and the small white or pink flowers bloom during June and July.

The Starry Saxifrage (S. stellaris) is a somewhat similar plant, but much smaller, rarely exceeding six inches in height. It is frequent on wet rocks in the North, flowering in July and August. Its leaves are sessile, oblong or obovate, tapering towards the base, thin, and arranged in spreading rosettes; and the stem is leafless with the exception of little bracts at the base of the pedicels. The starlike flowers, larger than those of the last species, are white, with two yellow spots on each petal, and are arranged in a loose panicle on spreading pedicels. The calyx is adherent to the ovary only at the base, with its segments turned down on the pedicels; and the petals are narrow and spreading.

Another Northern species--the Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (S. aizoides)--is abundant on the wet rocks of mountainous districts, flowering from June to September. It is a tufted plant, with branched, decumbent, leafy stems, about six inches long; and crowded, narrow, fleshy leaves, about half an inch long, fringed with hairs at the base. The flowers are yellow, in a loose panicle. The calyx is yellow, like the petals, but much shorter, and erect; and the ovary is adherent to the short tube of the calyx to about half way up.

The Rue-leaved or Three-fingered Saxifrage (S. tridactylites) is a small species, rarely exceeding four or five inches in height, common on walls in most parts of Britain, flowering from April to July. The whole plant is usually more or less tinged with red, and its erect stem is covered with fine glandular hairs. The radical leaves are very small, stalked, and undivided; those of the upper part of the stem are also small and entire, but sessile; and the intermediate leaves, lower on the stem, are palmately divided into three or five narrow segments. The small white flowers are placed singly on rather long terminal and axillary stalks; and the hairy calyx, which adheres to the ovary, has five blunt lobes less than half the length of the petals.

Our last example of this order is the Cut-leaved or Mossy Saxifrage (S. hypnoides), a very variable plant, from three to ten inches high, rather rare in South England, but much more common in the rocky parts of North England and Scotland. It has numerous procumbent, barren stems with tufted leaves; and erect flowering stems bearing a few small leaves and a loose cyme of a few white flowers. Most of the leaves are narrow, pointed, entire, about a quarter of an inch long; but the larger ones, at the base of the plant, are about twice as long, and divided into three or five narrow lobes. The calyx adheres to the ovary to about two-thirds of the length of the latter, and has five lobes about one-third as long as the petals. This species flowers from May to July.

Old walls, ruins, and limestone cliffs are frequently adorned with the pretty flowers of the Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus--order Scrophulariaceæ) which bloom from July to September. The plant varies from one to two feet in height, is tufted and leafy at the base, and has erect stems which bear racemes of large flowers. The leaves are very narrow and entire; and the flowers, which are usually white, pink or crimson, are shortly stalked in the axils of the small upper leaves. The calyx is deeply divided into broad lobes very much shorter than the corolla; and the latter consists of a broad tube and two lips, the whole being over an inch in length. The mouth of the flower is closed by a projecting 'palate,' but is easily opened by pressing the flower at the sides between finger and thumb. There are four stamens on the corolla, two longer than the others; and the fruit is an unsymmetrical capsule that opens when ripe by a few holes near the top.

The Ivy-leaved Toadflax or Mother of Thousands (Linaria Cymbalaria), of the same order, is a pretty little trailing plant very commonly seen on old walls in many parts of Britain, particularly in the South-West. It will grow luxuriantly in places where there is no soil other than that afforded by the crumbling mortar, and will often establish itself even on new walls so compactly built that it is difficult to see how the plant can find the necessary moisture or how its roots can penetrate the hard material to which it is attached. Its slender stems vary from a few inches to two feet in length, often rooting at the nodes; and its little leaves are smooth, with three or five lobes, and generally of a purplish colour on the under side. The little flowers, which bloom from May to September, are of a pale blue or lilac colour. The lipped corolla is very similar to that of the last species, with a yellowish palate closing the mouth, but it has a short spur at the base.

The one remaining flower of this chapter is the Wall Pellitory (Parietaria officinalis), which belongs to the Nettle family (Urticaceæ). It is a somewhat bushy plant, varying from six inches to two feet in height, bearing axillary clusters of small, sessile, green flowers from June to September, and is common on walls and stony banks, more especially in the South of England. Most of the flowers are usually imperfect, and the clusters are surrounded by a whorl of a few divided bracts. The males are few in number, each consisting of a hairy perianth, and four stamens which are jointed and very elastic, springing suddenly and shedding their pollen when touched; the females have a tubular, hairy perianth of four lobes, and a single tufted stigma.

XXI

FIELD AND WAYSIDE IN AUTUMN

From the end of September onward the number of wild flowers is rapidly decreasing, but still there is much to be seen that will be interesting to the observant student of Nature. Many of the summer flowers are quite over, while others continue to bloom till, at last, they succumb to the intensifying frosts; but hundreds of species of the summer-flowering plants are now in fruit, and some of these are almost as interesting in this stage as when in flower. Many plants will have been observed in flower before any of their fruits were fully formed, but autumn is the season when a large number of these may be seen in full fruit, and watched as they make arrangements for the dispersal of their seeds.

We have already given (p. 12) an outline classification of the various kinds of fruits, and if the reader will study this during the autumn months, and examine the field and woodland plants that fall in his way, he will find abundance of work awaiting him on every country ramble.

A large number of wind-dispersed fruits and seeds are ripe long before the autumn sets in, and have already been distributed by the summer breezes; but now, with fewer flowers to attract attention, one can give more time to the observations of the movements of tufted and winged seeds and fruits as they sail through the air. And, as we brush by the hedgerows and the borders of fields in search of various flowers and fruits, we soon become acquainted with a variety of bristled, hooked, and barbed fruits that are effectually dispersed by the agency of animals, quite a large number of these having securely fastened themselves to our clothing.

Many fruits remain attached to their plants long after the last flowers, and even the leaves, have entirely disappeared. Some of these await the gales of late autumn and winter, and being now no longer sheltered from the wind, are carried to the spots where they are to produce new plants in the following spring; while sheep and other animals, wandering farther afield in search of food, carry away numerous hooked fruits in their woolly or hairy coats.

The feathered fruits of the Wild Clematis adorn the hedgerows throughout the greater part of the cold season, and form a striking feature of the wayside until they have been dispersed by the winter storms; and the hips of the Wild Rose, as well as the berries and drupes of various shrubs, now rendered more conspicuous by their bright colouring and the absence of foliage, are devoured by birds which afterwards deposit the indigestible and, therefore, uninjured seeds, with their excrement, at some distant spot.

Should the reader be interested in the various ways in which the dehiscent fruits discharge their seeds, he will do well to collect a number of species, as yet unopened, and expose them to the sun in a dry place. He will then be able to note not only the directions and extent of the dehiscence, but also to observe the forcible ejection of seeds by those which split elastically, or which, by other mechanical contrivances, have the power of throwing their seeds a considerable distance.

We may find still another subject for study in the beautiful autumn tints assumed by the leaves of many plants. Such tints are, of course, most conspicuous in the foliage of our forest trees and shrubs; and, when speaking of these, we shall have a word or two to say with regard to the nature of the internal changes that give rise to the beautiful display of colours; but not a few of the hedgerow herbs and shrubs exhibit tints equally rich and varied. Note, for instance, the pretty Herb Robert, still in flower in sheltered places, its blossoms standing out beyond a background of richly-coloured leaves.

The vigorous summer growth of flowery banks and hedgerows is often closely trimmed with the sickle for the greater convenience of pedestrians and vehicular traffic, all the flowers and overhanging twigs being closely cut, and the wayside thus destroyed from the Nature-student's point of view; but the ground so denuded has recovered itself by the autumn, and a second crop of flowers, arising from the old stocks, often later than their normal season, is frequently the result.

A considerable number of summer flowers continue to bloom during the autumn months, while a few are truly autumnal, and are not to be found till the summer has nearly or quite passed.

In corn-fields we may still meet with the beautiful Pheasant's-eye (Adonis autumnalis), and in fields the Hairy Buttercup (Ranunculus hirsutus), the Daisy (Bellis perennis) and the Red Hemp-nettle (Galeopsis Ladanum) are yet in flower, while the Annual Meadow Grass (Poa annua) continues to produce new flowers to the end of the year.

On sunny banks in chalk districts we still see the delicate Rock Rose (Helianthemum vulgare); and on banks almost everywhere the Wild Clary (Salvia Verbenaca), and the still more hardy Milfoil (Achillea millefolium), Knapweeds (Centaurea nigra and C. Scabiosa), Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), Dark Mullein (Verbascum nigrum) and the Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris).

Then, on downs and heaths we find the Yellow Bedstraw (Galium verum), the crimson flowers of the Fine-leaved Heath (Erica cinerea), and the rose-coloured or white blossoms of the Heather or Ling (Calluna vulgaris): also the Carline Thistle (Carlina vulgaris), with its inner involucral bracts broadly spreading while the sun shines, but bent inwards to protect the florets during dull weather when the insects are at rest, the lilac flower-heads of the Devil's-bit Scabious (Scabiosa succisa) and the Small Scabious (S. Columbaria), and the conspicuous flowers of the Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis), all standing out in bold relief against the background of autumnal foliage.

Still more numerous are the autumn flowers of the waysides. By the dry and dusty roadside we see the yellow flowers and silvery leaves of the Silver-weed (Potentilla anserina), the little starlike flowers of the Chickweed (Stellaria media), the yellow flower-heads of the Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), the straggling Knot-grass (Polygonum aviculare), the Spotted Persicary (Polygonum Persicaria), the Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris), the Scentless Mayweed (Matricaria inodora), the Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis), the White Goose-foot (Chenopodium album), and Oraches (Atriplex hastata and A. patula). Where the soil is more generous we find the Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum), the Fleabane (Inula dysenterica), Red and White Dead-nettles (Lamium purpureum and L. album), and the Petty Spurge (Euphorbia Peplus); while on old walls the Pellitory (Parietaria officinalis) is still in flower.

XXII

AUTUMN IN THE WOODS