Plants -- Identification; Wild flowers -- Great Britain
Our last example of the wayside Labiates is the Hedge Woundwort
(_Stachys sylvatica_)--a very abundant and pretty plant that grows most
luxuriantly in damp, shady places, such as the borders of ditches, the
edges of woods, and shady banks and hedgerows. Its square stem is solid
and stout, straight and erect, and more or less branched. All the leaves
are stalked, the upper ones being narrow and entire, while the lower are
large, ovate or cordate, with a crenate or toothed edge and a very
pointed apex. The flowers, which bloom from July to September, are in
distant whorls of from six to ten, in the axils of the upper leaves,
forming long spikes. The calyx is bell-shaped, with ten ribs, and five
spreading teeth which are pointed, but not stiff; and the corolla, the
tube of which is longer than the calyx, is of a dark, red-purple colour,
prettily variegated with white on the lower lip. This plant varies from
one to three feet in height and has a very unpleasant odour.
We next take a few examples of the Borage family (order _Boraginaceæ_),
all of which are herbs more or less rough with coarse hairs, having
alternate, simple leaves, and flowers in one-sided spikes or racemes
which are rolled back while in bud. In all of them the calyx has five
divisions or teeth, and the corolla consists of five united petals of
equal or nearly equal size. There are five stamens within the tube of
the corolla, and the fruit consists of four nutlets enclosed in the
persistent calyx.
One of these--the Field Scorpion Grass (_Myosotis arvensis_)--is often
called the Forget-me-not, but it usually grows in dry waste places,
while the true Forget-me-not is found in wet situations. The flowers of
this species are also very much smaller. The stem of the plant is thin,
and bears small, oval, hairy leaves. The small blue corolla has short,
spreading, concave segments, and is surrounded by a calyx that is cleft
to the middle, and covered with hooked hairs. The sepals spread while
the flower is open, but assume an erect position when in fruit. As a
further means of distinguishing between this and other similar species
of the same genus we should note that the peduncle is longer than the
calyx, and that the style is very short. The plant varies from six to
eighteen inches in height, and flowers throughout the summer.
The Gromwell or Grey Millet (_Lithospermum officinale_) is a stout plant
with several erect, branched stems. The flowers are small, of a pale
yellow colour, in leafy racemes. The calyx is hairy and very deeply
cleft into five segments; and the corolla, which is about the same
length as the calyx, is funnel-shaped, with small scales in the throat
of its tube. This plant derives its generic name of _Lithospermum_ from
the nature of its fruit, which consists of white, stony nutlets with a
smooth and polished surface. Its height is from twelve to eighteen
inches; and the flowers appear during June and July.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account