Part 34

I. Bistort or Snake-root (P. bistorta). Perennial, with large twisted rootstock. Radical leaves long, egg-shaped, the upper part of the leaf-stalk winged. Stem-leaves almost stalkless, broader near the stem. Flowers pink or white, producing honey; moist meadows. June to September.

II. Amphibious Buckwheat (P. amphibium). Perennial, rootstock sometimes creeping in the ground, at others floating in the water. If the plant is floating the leaves have long stalks; if growing on land they are almost stalkless. Stipules tubular, large, smooth in water, bristly on land. Stamens five, styles two. Flowers, rosy-red. July and August; margins of pools and in other wet places.

III. Spotted Knotweed (P. persicaria). Annual. Stem erect; leaves long, narrowly lance-shaped, with a black heart-shaped patch in the centre, downy beneath; the stipules fringed with a few long hairs. Flowers flesh-coloured; stamens six, styles two. July to October, in moist places.

IV. Knotgrass (P. aviculare). Annual. Stems branching from the root, very slender and straggling, smooth. The leaves small and grassy, stipules small, white, torn-looking, red at the base. Flowers very small in the axils, pink. Stamens eight, styles three. Waste places and neglected gardens. May till October. The seeds are much esteemed by birds, and to the entomologist the fresh plant is invaluable as an almost universal food for the caterpillars of geometers.

V. Black Bindweed (P. convolvulus). Annual, with twining stems. The leaves are very similar to those of the true Convolvulus, the lobes more pointed; stipules short. Sepals green, with paler margins. Fields and wastes. July to September.

=Fool’s Parsley= (Æthusa cynapium).

Fool’s Parsley is fond of cultivated ground, and it is no unusual thing for it to make its appearance in the very garden beds that have been set apart for rearing that pot-herb for which fools are said to mistake it. It is an annual, with a spindle-shaped, fleshy root, round, hollow stem, branched, and marked with fine longitudinal lines. The leaves are smooth, compound, and bluish green in tint. The wedge-shaped leaflets are themselves pinnate, and the pinnæ are lobed. The flowers are small and irregular, white, grouped in small umbels, which are again gathered into large umbels of umbels.

The reader is invited to turn back to page 55, where the structure of umbelliferous flowers and fruits is more intimately described. The small umbels in Æthusa are provided with an involucre consisting of three or five little bracts, very narrow and hanging vertically. This feature will serve to distinguish Æthusa from all other umbellifers. The entire plant is evil-smelling, and said to be poisonous. It flowers during July and August, and is the only species. It gets its generic name from the Greek aitho, to burn, from its acrid character, and its specific name is a combination of Kynos, dog, and apion, parsley, which is a further note of its worthless character.

Æthusa cynapium.

--UMBELLIFERÆ.--]

Erica cinerea.

=Heather-Ling.=

Calluna vulgaris.

--ERICACEÆ.--]

=Fine-leaved Heath= (Erica cinerea).

This is the common Purple Heath of our elevated heaths and commons, distinguished from its relatives by its smooth stems and leaves; the latter exceedingly narrow, their edges curled under, and arranged around the stems in whorls of three leaves, with clusters of minute leaves in their axils. The flowers also are in whorls, and either horizontal or drooping. The sepals are four in number, green; the corolla in one, egg-shaped, with four short lobes around the mouth. The stamens are eight, bearing two-celled crested anthers, each cell opening at the side to discharge its pollen, and having a toothed process at its base; the cell-openings of one anther being pressed against those of neighbouring anthers. The style is dilated at the top, and its surface is the stigma. Flowers July to September.

Another common species is

The Cross-leaved Heath (E. tetralix), with downy stems and leaves; the leaves in whorls of four, and fringed with hairs, margins rolled under as in cinerea. Flowers pale-rosy, drooping, gathered into a dense head at the summit of the stem. The corollas are pale, almost white, on their under-sides. The anthers like those of cinerea, but with two longer processes from the base of each. Bees visit the Heath plants for their plentiful honey, and in pushing their long tongues into the flower in search of it touch their heads against the stigma, which partially blocks the mouth of the corolla. The tongue has to press against one or more of the anther processes, which has the effect of dislocating the series of anther-cells, and allowing the pollen to fall through the opening upon the bee’s head, which is thus ready to fertilize the next flower it visits. This species may be found growing with E. cinerea, but usually selects the dampest, boggy spots on the heath. Flowers July to September.

There are two other species, E. vagans and E. ciliaris, but they are confined almost entirely to the county of Cornwall; the former distinguished by its bell-shaped, not egg-shaped, corolla, and anthers and pistil hanging outside; ciliaris marked by its leaves being fringed with hairs, each hair tipped with a gland.

The name is from Ereikh, the ancient Greek name for heath or heather.

=Heather or Ling= (Calluna vulgaris).

The Ling is distinguished from the Heaths by the botanist because its bell-shaped corolla is concealed by the longer, equally coloured calyx leaves, and below these are four bracts which resemble a calyx. Its leaves are triangular, very minute and densely packed, overlapping each other. Like the Heaths its flowers are persistent, and are to be found bleached but preserving much of their original form, nine or ten months after they opened. The anthers are short, and contained within the corolla, but the style is long, and protrudes. The tough wiry stems attain considerable size in the highlands of Scotland, where they serve many useful purposes. It flowers from July till September. C. vulgaris is the only species. The genus gets its name from the Greek Kalluno, to beautify or adorn, an epithet which all who have visited the moorlands in its flowering season will admit is well-bestowed.

=Mistleto= (Viscum album).

Is there a person in these islands above the age of infancy who does not know the Mistleto by sight? Why, then, let it occupy space here? Because it is one of those very well-known things that we only partially know. What percentage of those who took advantage last Yule-tide of the mystic sanctions of the plant, and who consequently think they know it so well, have seen its flowers? or know that it has flowers? True, those of our British Mistleto are not very striking in point of size or showiness; but there are tropical species with flowers both large and brilliant.

In V. album the flowers are of two kinds, male and female, each (with rare exceptions) being borne on separate plants, so that cross-fertilization is imperative. They are both green, and consist of a four-lobed perianth, the male with four anthers attached to the perianth, such anthers opening by a large number of pores. The female flower has the perianth adhering to the ovary, to which the stigma is directly attached, there being no style. The ovary, as all know, develops into the globose white berry, containing the large seed with its viscid coat. These occur usually in twos or threes. The flowers may be found any time between March and May.

Viscum album.

--LORANTHACEÆ.--]

Colchicum autumnale.