Part 31

The Heather leaves are very tiny. They have no stalks, and they grow tightly pressed against the tough woody stems. When you look at them closely you see that the edges are rolled back so as almost to touch each other behind. When these leaves are withering they are often a beautiful brown-red colour.

2. BLACK KNAPWEED

This hard-headed plant is common everywhere, in pastures and fields and by the roadside, and it blooms in autumn.

The Black Knapweed is a stiff, soldierly plant, not unlike a small Thistle without prickles.

The flowers grow in thickly crowded heads each at the end of a stout stem. These heads are made up of dozens of tiny purple tubes with the mouth cut into five straps round the edge. You can see the forked end of the seed-vessel coming out of the centre of each tube. The stamens cling to the sides of the purple tubes, hidden from sight inside. This cluster of purple tubes grows on the top of a hard green ball which has a circle of light brown strap-shaped leaves round the top.

This hard ball is covered with row upon row of green leaves pressed tightly one above the other, like the scales of a fir cone.

When the flowers are in bud they are completely hidden inside this hard green ball, and after the flowers are withered you see these balls, which have become dark brown, still clinging to the ends of the stalks.

The Knapweed leaves vary much in shape. Some are narrow and long, with edges that are finely toothed. Some are deeply cut up at the sides. Those that grow clasping the stem are broad, and they are smooth all round the edge.

3. WILD THYME

This sweet-scented little evergreen grows abundantly on all sandy and chalky pastures, and is specially common in mountainous districts. It flowers in summer and early autumn.

The Wild Thyme trails along the ground in a thick tangle of wiry stems and tiny glossy leaves. From this tangled mat some of the stems stand upright, and these bear masses of small purple flowers at the top. Other stems end in a tuft of tiny leaves.

The flowers of the Wild Thyme consist of a narrow purple tube which stands in a deep green funnel-shaped calyx. The mouth of the flower-tube is cut in two, and the upper half has a small notch in the centre. The lower half is divided into three blunt points.

Inside the tube, clinging to its sides, are four stamens. After the flowers are withered you can see the tip of the seed-vessel coming out of the mouth of the calyx.

The calyx is funnel-shaped and has many sharp teeth found its mouth, and there is a fringe of white hairs just inside.

The leaves of the Wild Thyme are very small. Sometimes the edges are rolled back till they almost meet behind. They are dark green and glossy, with smooth edges, on which you can see a line of fine hairs.

Plate XXXV: 1. EARLY PURPLE ORCHIS. 2. PURPLE LOOSE-STRIFE. 3. COMMON BUTTERWORT.

1. EARLY PURPLE ORCHIS

At the same time of year, and in the same places as you find the Blue Hyacinth, you will discover the Early Purple Orchis.

It is a curious plant, and belongs to a family whose flowers are always strangely shaped.

The flowers grow in a cone-shaped head at the upper end of a stout, juicy stalk. Each flower consists of three purple petals and three purple sepals, and you will not be able to distinguish which are which. These petals or sepals are very irregular in shape. One is broad, and hangs open like a lip. This one has a long purple spur behind. Two smaller petals rise straight up above this lip and form a hood. And the others are shaped in varying ways.

Inside the broad lip with its hood you see a slender column, in which the one stamen as well as the point of the seed-vessel are combined.

The flower is placed at the end of what looks like a twisted purple stalk. This is really the seed-vessel, and where it joins the flower-stem there is always a narrow strip of purple leaf.

The leaves have no stalks. They are broadly strap-shaped with blunt ends, and they have long narrow lines running from base to tip. Each leaf is stained all over with purple spots.

The root of the Early Purple Orchis consists of two egg-shaped knobs, and above these knobs grow many white, worm-like rootlets.

2. PURPLE LOOSE-STRIFE

The Purple Loose-strife is common in all parts of England, but you do not find it so abundantly in Scotland. It is a tall, spiky plant, which likes to grow in wet places, and it blooms in late summer and autumn.

The flowers are a rich purple colour which is sometimes almost pink. They grow in circles close round the main stem, and there is always a pair of broad pointed green leaves separating each circle from the one above.

The flowers have six separate petals, which are long and narrow and rather crumpled looking. These petals are placed at the mouth of a green calyx, which is shaped like a thick tube. This tube is ribbed all over, and has six large green teeth and six smaller green teeth round its mouth. If you gently split open this green tube you find two rows of stamens clinging to its sides. These stamens have purply-pink heads, and there are six long ones which stand up in the centre of the flowers, and six which are shorter and hidden out of sight.