Part 21

There are five other British species of Centaurea, of which several are rare or extremely local in their distribution. The more frequent species are:--

I. Black Knapweed (C. nigra). Leaves rough, entire or lobed, the lower ones with stalks. The heads large and globose, as much as an inch and a half in diameter. Involucral scales circular, brown, toothed. Florets purple. Common in meadows and pastures. June to September.

II. Greater Knapweed, or Hard Heads (C. scabiosa). The leaves are deeply pinnate, like the lower ones of Bluebottle. Heads as much as two inches diameter. Involucral scales cottony, with dark brown, almost black, margin, and paler fringe. Florets rich purple. Waste places. July to September.

=Round-leaved Mallow= (Malva rotundifolia).

The Round-leaved or Dwarf Mallow is not so well known as the Common Mallow (M. sylvestris), though it is nearly as common. Its flowers are small, and not nearly so conspicuous as those of sylvestris. Like that plant it is found growing by the wayside and on waste places where garden refuse, etc., is dumped. Our three species of Malva are all perennials, and all possess tough fibrous stems. Those of rotundifolia are downy, and lie along the ground and bear many lobed, often toothed, leaves, whose general outline is circular. The flowers are clustered in the axils, and consist of a five-parted calyx, to which is attached a kind of involucre of three bracts, and five distant petals, their tips with a central notch. There are ten styles, the inner surfaces of which are stigmatic; they curl about in various directions, mingling with the numerous anthers, and so ensuring self-fertilization. The fruit consists of a large number of one-seeded carpels arranged in a circle, but easily becoming detached after ripening. Flowers June to September.

Centaurea cyanus.

--COMPOSITÆ.--]

Malva rotundifolia.

--MALVACEÆ.--]

The other species are:--

I. Common Mallow (M. sylvestris). Its stems are erect, somewhat hairy. Leaves more distinctly lobed. Flowers large, the petals heart-shaped, pale purple (mauve). The anthers mature before the stigmas, unlike M. rotundifolia, where both organs mature at the same time. This brings out an interesting point in their relations to insects, as shown by H. Müller. The styles, instead of mingling with the anthers, hold themselves strictly above the drooping stamens, and self-fertilization is impossible. To secure cross-fertilization the flowers are large, and more showy than in rotundifolia, and attract many insects, which bring and carry pollen. June to September.

II. Musk Mallow (M. moschatus). Flowers not quite so large as the last, rosy, clustered at end of erect stems. Leaves divided into five to seven segments, which are nearly pinnate. Very slight odour of musk when the leaves are passed through the hands. Dry meadows and hedgerows. July and August. The Marsh-mallow belongs to another genus (Althæa).

=Chicory or Succory= (Cichorium intybus). Plate 69.

The Wild Chicory is peculiarly a plant of the dry roadside, especially in chalky districts, where it is a striking feature. The rigid erectness of its stems is not pleasing, but the bright, pale-blue flowers, attached to the stem without the intervention of flower-stalks, arrest attention. Its thick, fleshy tap-root is the substance that, when roasted and ground, bulks so largely in “The finest French Coffees, as sold in Paris,” of our grocers. For this purpose it is cultivated on a large scale in Germany and Belgium.

If reference be made to the figure of the Dandelion on page 20 it will be seen that there is considerable resemblance between the leaves of the two. The radical leaves of Chicory spread themselves out, rosette fashion, upon the ground; the few that are scattered alternately up the somewhat hairy stem clasp the latter with the two lobes at their base. The flowers are usually in pairs. The involucre consists of two series of bracts, the outer row being reflexed, and shorter than the inner. The tubes of the ray-florets are split open, so that the rays are broad and strap-shaped, with a straight end notched into five teeth. It flowers from July to October.

The generic name is from an old Greek name for the plant, and a similar word is in use in nearly all the languages of civilization.

=Vernal Wood-rush= (Luzula vernalis).

The Rushes as a whole (Juncus and Luzula) form a group of plants that is generally despised, except for weaving into mats, and, in other days, for providing wicks for rush-lights. We have in the one genus cylindric, in the other flattened grass-like, leaves, and inconspicuous flowers of green or brown; and yet the evolutionists tell us on the evidence of those flowers that the rushes are descendants of a noble family--the lilies--who have in the struggle for existence taken to a less showy rôle in life, in order that they might be included in the list of the surviving “fittest.” The truth of this will be apparent if we take the flower of a present-day lily--a tulip or a tiger-lily will do--and compare it with this Vernal Wood-rush. We shall find every part of the lily reproduced in the rush-flower on a small scale, with the greatest economy of materials.

The Wood-rushes (Luzula) are all perennial plants. Their leaves are like the blades of soft grass, the edges fringed with long white silky hairs. The floral leaves (perianth) are six in number, in two series, and are chaffy in texture. Stamens six. The ovary is broad, narrowing to the summit, upon which is the style, ending in three long stigmas covered with minute raised points. The fruit is a one-celled, three-valved capsule, containing three seeds at the bottom. In L. vernalis the flowers are chestnut brown, with the perianth-segments shorter than the blunt-topped capsule, and pointed at the tips; clustered in twos and threes and grouped in lax cymes. The radical leaves are broad (¼ inch), soft and sparingly hairy. Woods and shady places, flowering March to May. Other members of the genus are:--

Cichorium intybus.

--COMPOSITÆ.--]

Luzula vernalis.

--JUNCEÆ.--]

I. The Great Hairy Wood-rush (L. maxima) is much larger, the leaves sometimes half an inch broad and a foot long, sparsely hairy. Flowers paler, three or four clustered; cymes large, compound. Woods and heaths. May and June.

II. Narrow-leaved Wood-rush (L. forsteri). Similar to L. vernalis, but more slender and taller. Capsule pointed. Shady places on chalk or gravel, not farther north than South Wales and Oxford. April to June.

III. Field Wood-rush (L. campestris). Rootstock creeping. Leaves very hairy. Perianth segments longer than the broad rounded and spiked capsule. Flowers in dense clusters of three or four, in short cymes. Heaths and pastures. April to June.

IV. Spiked Mountain Wood-rush (L. spicata). This and the next are purely mountain species, restricted to an altitude of one to over four thousand feet for spicata, and from three to over four thousand for arcuata. The leaves are narrow, leathery, and the hairiness is confined to the lower end. Flowers smaller than the silvery, chaffy, awned scales (bracteoles) below them. The perianth segments end in awns, and are longer than the abruptly-pointed capsule. The cymes are densely flowered, drooping and spike-like. Flowers in July.

V. Curved Mountain Wood-rush (L. arcuata). The smallest, rarest, and most distinct of our native species. The stems do not exceed about 4 inches, and are proportionately stout. Rootstock creeping. Leaves short, narrow, leathery, slightly hairy. Flowers dark brown, three to five in a cluster, in lax cymes; the perianth segments extended into a point. Bracteoles pointed, not awned, not silvery. Mountains in Scotland only. July.