The flowers are a pretty rose pink colour, but the tips are often
purple, especially before the flower is fully out. The petals are
curiously shaped. They are joined together into a tube which is curved
at the end, and inside this tube the stamens and the seed-vessel are
hidden. You will notice that there is a tiny piece of one petal which is
not joined to the others. It stands out by itself and looks like a small
pink tongue, which broadens at the end. You can always recognise the
Fumitory by this pink tongue.
There are two tiny green sepals with edges cut like the teeth of a saw,
and the pink tube lies in between these sepals. After the pink tube
falls off, the seed-vessel, which is inside, grows into a little green
knot. You can see many of these little green knots on the lower part of
the stem where there have once been flowers.
The green leaves of the Fumitory are very delicate and pretty. They are
finely cut up into many little divisions, and each division is a
beautiful shade of grey-green.
2. RAGGED ROBIN
This untidy plant likes to grow in damp places; it is very common in
meadows and in marshes, and it blooms all summer.
The flowers grow in twos and threes, on short stalks which branch
opposite each other near the end of a long slender stem.
The petals are a delicate pale pink, and they are very much cut up into
narrow ragged pieces. You will easily know the Ragged Robin by these
pink petals.
The sepals are joined together into a cup which is cut into teeth all
round the mouth. They are dark green tinged with red, and have many
purple veins running from top to bottom.
The leaves of the Ragged Robin are shaped like a lance. They are long
and narrow with smooth edges, and they grow opposite each other in
pairs, closely clasping the stem. Those leaves that grow close to the
ground have sometimes short stalks.
The upper part of the sticky stem is dark red in colour, and it is
usually rough.
3. RED CAMPION
This pretty summer plant is fond of damp places like its cousin the
Ragged Robin.
It has pink flowers, which usually grow in pairs at the end of slender
stalks branching from the main stem. Sometimes you may find a single
flower growing on a small stalk in between two pairs on much larger
stalks.
There are five petals, each with a deep nick in the centre, as if a
three-cornered piece had been cut out. These petals lie flat open round
the rim of the reddish-green cup formed by the sepals; and if you pull
the sepals apart, you find that the petals have long strap-shaped ends
which go right down into the cup.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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