Part 37

2. CORN COCKLE

The Corn Cockle is common everywhere. It grows in the cornfields, and you find its pink flowers all summer.

The flowers are large and handsome. In shape they are like a Primrose, but the petals are pale pink and each has a tiny notch in the outer edge. On these petals there are tiny lines of dark purple dots, like rays, which run from the centre of the flower almost to the edge of the petal. The heads of the stamens can only just be seen in the centre of the flower where the five petals meet.

Behind the pink flower there is a green calyx-cup marked with ten ridges, and at the mouth of this cup there are five narrow green teeth, which are so long they look like pointed leaves. These sepals are dark green inside, but the outside is pale green and woolly. You can see their sharp points standing out beyond each of the petals of the flower.

The stem of the Corn Cockle is stiff, and it grows very straight. Like the calyx-cup, it is covered with soft white wool.

The leaves grow in pairs on each side of the stem. These leaves are long and narrow, with pointed ends. Each leaf is dark green above, but the back is always pale grey-green and woolly.

3. CROSS-LEAVED PINK HEATH

This waxen Pink Heath is to be found all over the country. It grows best in damp places, and is in flower in late summer and autumn before the purple heather is fully out.

The flowers grow in clusters of from five to twelve at the top of the woody stem. Each cluster is made up of pale pink waxy bells, and the mouth of each small bell is edged with four pointed teeth. If you split open one of these pink bells, you will find inside a round green seed-vessel like a tiny pea.

There is a long green spike growing from the top of this seed-vessel, and you can see its point coming out of the mouth of the pink bell. There is also a ring of yellow stamens hidden inside the bell, and these grow close round the green seed-vessel.

The leaves of this Pink Heath are very small and pointed, and they have hairs along the edge. They grow in fours, and are placed crossways at short distances up the main stem. The edges are usually rolled back on to the woolly underside of the leaf.

The stem of the Cross-leaved Pink Heath is slender and wiry, and this pretty plant is never found growing in large bushes like the common heather. Sometimes the flowers are pure white.

Plate XLIII: 1. BLUE MEADOW CRANE'S-BILL 2. MILKWORT 3. CORN FLOWER OR BLUE BOTTLE 4. TUFTED VETCH

1. BLUE MEADOW CRANE'S-BILL

The Blue Meadow Crane's-bill is one of our handsomest wildflowers. It is to be found by the edge of the fields and in the meadows all over Britain in summer and autumn.

This plant is related to the beautiful geranium which grows in our gardens. The flowers have five large petals. In front these petals are bright blue and are painted with tiny pink streaks. Behind, they are a delicate pale pink.

In the centre of the flower there is a ring of stamens, and within this ring is the seed-vessel.

There is a circle of green sepals behind the pinky-blue petals.

After the blue petals are withered you can see a long spike with a small star at the end coming out from among the sepals.

This spike has five seeds clustered round the bottom, and whenever these seeds are ripe, the spike splits into five fine hairs. Each of these hairs curls up to the top, carrying a seed with it. Then the five seeds are blown by the wind away from the slender hairs.

The leaves of the Blue Meadow Crane's-bill are beautifully shaped. They are like a hand with five thin fingers, and each of these fingers is deeply cut up all round the edges.

The stem of the plant is covered with rough, hairy bristles.

2. MILKWORT

The Milkwort has flowers which are not always the same colour. You may find them either pink, or blue, or white, but I think the blue Milkwort is the commonest. It blooms all summer.

The flowers grow on spikes in which the buds are always at the top, and further down the same spike there are leaves. Each flower has five sepals. Three are only small green strips, but inside these three there are two which are large and broad, and beautifully coloured. These look like petals.

When the flower is withered these two sepals change colour and become green.

The real petals are paler in colour than the sepals. The lowest one is cut up at the end into little strips like a blue fringe, and there are two small side petals as well as two upper ones, which are so tiny that they are merely scales.

The leaves resemble narrow straps. They grow alternately on the stem, and they are dark green above and pale green below.