The leaves grow opposite each other in pairs up the stem. They have no stalks, and the edges are cut all round into blunt teeth. They are rather hairy leaves, and are dark green and crinkled. In shape they are oval with a blunt point at the end. 2. WHITE DEAD NETTLE The White Dead Nettle is fairly common everywhere except in the North of Scotland. You find it in waste places, by the roadside, and on ditch banks, and it blooms from spring to autumn. This is a much more attractive plant than the Stinging Nettle we have all learned to avoid. The flowers grow in beautiful whorls or circles round the stem. In this plant the flowers are snowy white, tinged with green, but in other Dead Nettles you find them rose pink or deep purple. There are often as many as eighteen flowers on one whorl. The flower petals are joined together into a tube which stands in a shallow calyx-cup, edged with five very long, sharp teeth. The mouth of the white flower-tube is cut very irregularly. The upper part bends over like a hood, and underneath this hood are hidden the four long stamens. The lower part of the flower-tube hangs down like a tongue, and it is fringed and rounded at the end. Amongst the stamens you see the slender forked point which rises from the seed-vessel. The leaves of the White Dead Nettle are very similar in shape to those of the Stinging Nettle; but they are a paler shade of green. They grow in pairs close to the stem, with a good space in between each pair, and the ring of stalkless flowers clusters round the stem beside them. 3. SPOTTED ORCHIS This Orchis is common all over the country, where it grows in damp woods, on chalky banks, and in meadows and pastures. You find it in summer. The leaves are stained with purplish-black blotches as in the early Purple Orchis, but they are narrower and taper more to a point. Notice the small leaves which cling at intervals to the flower-stalk all the way up. The flowers grow in a dense cone-shaped head at the top of the flower-stalk. The petals are pale lilac or nearly white, and are spotted or streaked with purple. They are curiously shaped. The broad petal, which folds back like a hanging lip, is deeply waved round the edge, and behind it there is a long lilac spur. Two petals stand erect, and form a hood which covers the stamens and the slender column of the seed-vessel. There are also three small lilac or white sepals which you will scarcely be able to distinguish from the petals. The flower sits at the top of what looks like a swollen stalk, but is really the seed-vessel. Where this stalk-like seed-vessel joins the main stem there is always a tiny purple or green leaflet. PLATE XXVII: 1. RED BERRIED BRYONY 2. CHICKWEED WINTERGREEN 3. CUCKOOPINT OR WAKE ROBIN 1. RED-BERRIED BRYONY