The same order includes the Cuckoo Flower, Lady's Smock, or Meadow Bittercress (_Cardamine pratensis_), which is certainly one of our prettiest spring flowers, growing in abundance in most moist meadows, and flowering from April to June. It has a short rootstock, with small, fleshy scales, often so much swollen as to resemble tubers; and the stem is erect, either simple or branched, and a foot or more in height. The leaves are pinnately divided, the leaflets of the lower ones being ovate or round, and those of the upper ones very narrow. The flowers are rather large, white or lilac in colour, with stamens about half as long as the petals, and yellow anthers. The fruits are usually more than an inch in length. [Illustration: THE RAGGED ROBIN.] One of the common weeds of cultivated fields is the pretty Wild Pansy or Heartsease (_Viola tricolor_), of the order _Violaceæ_. The plant may be easily recognised by its resemblance to the Garden Pansy, which is a variety of the same species. It is very variable, both in regard to its general build, and to the colour and size of the flowers. The plant is either smooth or slightly downy, and its branching stem varies from four to ten inches in length. The leaves are oblong or cordate, with crenate edges; and each one has a large, leafy stipule which is divided into oblong or very narrow lobes. The flowers are coloured with varied proportions of yellow, white, and purple; and the lower petal, which is the broadest, is usually purple at the base. This species flowers from May to the end of the summer. In damp meadows, and especially near ditches and in marshy ground, we meet with the Ragged Robin (_Lychnis Flos-cuculi_ of the order _Caryophyllaceæ_). This is an erect plant, from one to two feet high, with a viscid stem that is slightly downy and never much branched. The leaves are few and small, the upper ones sessile and the lower stalked. The pretty red or rose-coloured flowers are arranged in a very loose terminal panicle, and have no scent. The petals are each divided into four very narrow lobes, of which the two middle ones are longest; and the fruit is a broad oval capsule, which opens, when ripe, by five teeth. The flowers appear first in May, and continue to bloom till the end of June or the beginning of July.