Part 28

Ononis Spinosa.

--LEGUMINOSÆ.--]

=Rest-Harrow= (Ononis spinosa).

The Rest-Harrow or Wrest-Harrow is one of those plants whose presence in the pasture is said to indicate its poverty or the neglect of the cultivator. In Sussex and Hampshire it is known as the Cammock. It is a perennial low shrub, sometimes creeping near the ground, and at others growing more erect. The rootstock often creeps underground, a habit to which the plant owes its popular name, as it is said to be so tough as to wrest the harrow from the even tenor of its way. The more prostrate form is covered with viscid hairs; the more erect-growing plants are spiny. In the latter condition it is said that only donkeys will eat it, and hence its scientific name ononis, from onos, an ass, but it is open to question whether the ass has any fondness for it if he can get other food. The flowers are of the usual papilionaceous structure already described (see pp. 7, 43, 48, 50, 52, 72), and may be borne either singly or in racemes. They are pink in colour; the petal known as the standard is very large in this species, and streaked with a fuller red. The pod is very small, and in the hairy form is not so long as the calyx. The flower does not secrete honey, but in spite of this fact, it seems to be chiefly if not exclusively fertilized by bees, who are evidently fooled by its resemblance to other flowers of the same form that do offer refreshment to insect visitors. The worker-bees, however, get pollen for their pains, but the males are sadly disappointed. Rest-Harrow will be found flowering in dry wastes from June to September.

There is another species, the Small Rest-Harrow (O. reclinata), an annual with spreading hairy, viscid stems, only a few inches in length, stalked rosy flowers not half the size of spinosa, and a hairy pod as long as the calyx, or longer. It is exceedingly local, and has only been reported as occurring on sandy cliffs in Devon, Wigton and Alderney. Flowering in June and July.

=Agrimony= (Agrimonia eupatoria).

One of the prettiest of wayside plants is the golden-starred Agrimony, growing on the waste green flanks of the road and making it beautiful. It is a perennial plant, with a short woody rootstock, and “interruptedly pinnate” leaves, somewhat resembling those of the Silver-weed, the leaflets increasing in size as they near the terminal leaflet. The flowers are borne on that kind of inflorescence called a raceme, in which each flower is attached to the central stem by a stalk of its own. Were these stalks suppressed the inflorescence would be termed a spike, and indeed some authors have so described the flower-clustering of Agrimony. The flowers are little roses, and consist of a top-shaped spiny calyx, tubular, with contracted mouth and five overlapping lobes; five golden petals, ten or more stamens, and two carpels sunk in the calyx-tube, their styles and two-lobed stigmas protruding. They do not secrete honey, and are seldom visited by insects.

As the lower fruits ripen the raceme lengthens, and concurrently the calyx-tubes harden and assume a drooping position, owing to the downward curving of their little foot-stalks.

There is a variety with resinous-scented, larger, more crowded flowers, of local occurrence. Agrimony was formerly held in some repute as a medicinal plant, and from this circumstance it gets its name. The ancient Greeks had a word argema signifying the affection of the eyes to which we apply the term cataract, and a plant which was reputed to cure argema they called argemone, a word which has since been corrupted into agrimony. “Yarb doctors” still give it a place in their pharmacopœia.

Agrimony flowers from June to September.

Agrimonia eupatoria.

--ROSACEÆ.--]

Linum usitatissimum.

--LINEÆ.--]

=Common Flax= (Linum usitatissimum).

Occasionally the rambler will find the Flax in cornfields and wastes, by oil-mills and in the neighbourhood of railway stations. Wherever it may be found it is an escape from cultivation. As a truly wild plant the “most used” flax is not known: in cultivation, as the parent of linen garments, it has been known from the infancy of the human race. To-day the exports of flax and linen from the United Kingdom are worth about £5,500,000 per annum. It is therefore a plant that would be entitled to respectful consideration when we meet it, even if it had no grace or beauty to commend it to us.

Common Flax is an annual plant, with erect slender stems about a foot and a half high. Its narrow lance-shaped leaves are arranged alternately and at a distance from each other. The flowers are large, and purplish-blue in colour. Five is the number dominating the structure of the flower: sepals, petals, stamens, glands, ovary (5 cells), styles--all in fives. It flowers in June and July.

There are three other species that are truly wild in Britain:--

I. Purging Flax (L. catharticum). A smaller species, half a foot high, with white flowers, affecting heaths and pastures. It has opposite, very narrow leaves, and the unopened buds nod. Flowers June to September.

II. Perennial Flax (L. perenne). A very rare perennial plant with exceedingly narrow leaves, alternate on the numerous wiry stems. Plant about 2 feet high. The large bright-blue flowers, which may be found from June to September, are of two forms, long-styled and short-styled, like the Primroses (see p. 2), and for a similar purpose. On chalky soils from Durham to Essex.

III. Narrow-leaved Flax (L. angustifolium). Leaves alternate, as narrow as in the last species, but smaller and not so plentiful. Flowers smaller and paler, petals smaller in proportion to the calyx. Flowers May to September. Sandy and chalky pastures, not farther north than Lancashire.

=Long-rooted Cat’s-ear= (Hypochæris radicata).

Cat’s-ear is one of those plants that are passed by the rambler as being “perplexing hawkweeds which no one but a German botanist understands.” It is not exactly a hawkweed, though it comes pretty close to that family, and roughly may be said to resemble them. Of the Composite flowers we have already dealt with, it will be seen that the Cat’s-ear has a blossom similar in structure to Sonchus (page 114), Taraxacum (page 20) and Tragopogon (page 84). It has a perennial tap-root, from which arises and spreads a circlet of many rough hairy leaves, their edges scalloped; there are no stem leaves. The flower-stem is branched, each branch bearing but one flower-head. The involucral bracts are in several series, laid one over the other like tiles. All the corollas are strap-shaped, toothed at the free end, yellow. The pappus or down that surrounds the fruit consists of a row of feathery hairs, surrounded by an outer row of shorter bristles. The flowers are longer than the involucre. Flowers June to September. There are two other British species:--

I. Smooth Cat’s-ear (H. glabra). An annual plant, found chiefly in dry fields on gravelly soil, but not nearly so commonly as radicata. Its leaves are broader, egg-shaped, and smooth. It has several branched flower-stems. The involucre as long as the florets, the bracts few and unequal. Flowers June to September.

II. Spotted Cat’s-ear (H. maculata). A rare perennial, confined to chalky and limestone pastures in several counties, i.e., the Lizard, Cornwall; Orme’s head, North Wales; Westmoreland, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex. Leaves rough, with hairs, stalkless, egg-shaped, often spotted. Flower-stems seldom branched, usually with several small leaves and one large flower-head (sometimes several). Involucre shorter than the florets; outer row of pappus absent. Flowers July and August.

Hypochæris radicata.

--COMPOSITÆ.--]

Scabiosa arvensis.