Again, if the carpel be placed horizontally on a sheet of rough paper (not fixed), and then alternately treated with moist and drier air, the successive uncoiling and coiling of the spiral, together with the aid of the bent tip and the hairs which give the carpel a hold, will cause it to travel along. Thus, in its natural condition, and influenced by the varying state of the atmosphere as regards moisture, the carpels of the Stork's-bill will not only travel some distance from the parent plant, but the seed end will even be thrust between the particles of soil, and the seed thus naturally buried. There are three British Stork's-bills, of which only one may be described as common. This is the Hemlock Stork's-bill (_Erodium cicutarium_), a very variable plant as regards the form of the leaves and the size and number of flowers, often plentiful in waste places, especially near the sea. Its stems are prostrate and hairy, growing from six to eighteen inches in length; and the flowers, which may be seen throughout the summer, are rose-coloured, or, sometimes, white. The petals are not divided or notched, and they soon fall. Passing now to the order _Leguminosæ_, we deal first with the exceedingly pretty and common Bird's-foot Trefoil (_Lotus corniculatus_), that derives its popular name from the arrangement of the cylindrical seed-pods, which spread in such a manner as to resemble the toes of a bird. Its stems are partially prostrate; and its compound leaves are not composed of three leaflets, as the term _trefoil_ suggests, but of five, two of which occupy such a position that they might be mistaken for stipules. The flowers, which bloom in July and August, are of a bright yellow or orange colour, often tinged with red. They are arranged in umbels of from three to ten, with long peduncles and short pedicels. [Illustration: THE FRUIT OF THE STORK'S-BILL.] The genus _Vicia_, of the same order, includes the plants commonly known as Tares. These are climbing plants which cling by means of tendrils at the tips of their pinnate leaves, and have their flowers in axillary clusters. Their styles are threadlike, with a ring or a tuft of downy hairs near the extremity; and the pods are flattened. Two species may be included among our summer wayside flowers, one of which--the Hairy Tare (_Vicia hirsuta_)--is very common in fields and hedges, flowering from June to August. The stems of this plant are slender, hairy, and are so much branched that they form tangled masses, often mixed up in a confused manner with neighbouring plants. The leaves have from six to eight pairs of leaflets; and the minute, pale blue flowers, in clusters of from one to six, are on long peduncles. The pods have only two seeds, and are hairy and sessile. [Illustration: THE HEMLOCK STORK'S-BILL.]