Part 42

The Red Poppy has two green sepals. These are very thin and hairy, and they drop off almost as soon as the flower opens.

Each Poppy grows on a long slender stalk which is covered with hairs. The leaves are divided into many narrow fingers, and they are rough and hairy.

2. SCARLET PIMPERNEL

This fragile plant is very common. You find it in cultivated fields as well as by the roadside and in waste places. It blooms in summer and autumn.

This Scarlet Pimpernel is one of our few red flowers. It has five round scarlet petals, which are joined together like a wheel. In the centre of the wheel there is a seed-vessel, the size of a tiny green pea, and closely clustered round its thread-like pillar are five yellow-headed stamens. The slender stalks of the stamens are covered with hairs, and so are the edges of the scarlet petals.

The calyx consists of five narrow green sepals, with sharp points: these you can see appearing between the edges of the petals as you look down into the flower.

Each flower grows singly on a short, fine stalk, and these flower-stalks always rise between a leaf and the stem. The stem is four-sided, and it is very easily broken. It is a very feeble stem, and straggles along the ground.

The leaves of the Scarlet Pimpernel are small and oval, with smooth edges and blunt points. They have fine lines running from base to tip, and underneath they are a blue-green colour, with little dots all over them.

3. COMMON SORREL

You find the dull crimson Sorrel everywhere. It grows in meadows and pastures and open woods, and it is abundant all spring and summer.

The flowers are small and unattractive. They grow on a spike in whorls or circles, with five to eight flowers in each circle, and these circles are separated at short distances.

Each flower droops from a tiny stalk. It has three narrow green sepals, which fold back close to the stalk when the seed is ripening. Inside these sepals are three dull crimson petals, also small and narrow. But when the flowering time is past, these three petals grow broad and oval, and become thicker, and at the base of each petal you see a tiny swelling, which is the seed.

The stem of the Common Sorrel is tinged with pink. It is ribbed all over, and is very juicy. Both it and the leaves are acid to taste and are often eaten in salads.

The leaves are quite smooth, with the edges uncut. They are dark green above, but much lighter underneath. Each leaf is shaped like an arrow-head, and those close to the root have a long stalk.

INDEX

Agrimony, Common, 23.

Alkanet, Evergreen, 144.

Anemone, Wood, 47.

Angelica, Wild, 56.

Asphodel, Bog, 39.

Aster, Sea, 147.

Autumnal Hawkbit, 25.

Avens, Common, 15.

Avens, Water, 99.

Bedstraw, Yellow, 32.

Bethlehem, Star of, 73.

Bindweed, Small, 128.

Birdsfoot Trefoil, 17.