Part 26

The stem is very delicate and wiry, and at the end it bears a spreading rosette of six long pointed leaves. These leaves are smooth and shiny: in autumn they are often tinged with purple.

You may find one or two solitary leaves lower down on the stem; if so, these leaves are quite small, and they are rounded at the ends.

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, and all you can see is a small green ball with a yellow dot on the top of it.

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 green pointed leaves, and each little bundle of green leaves and pink tubes has a short stalk of its own.

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 ball if you wish to find the flowers.

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.