The leaves of the Blue Meadow Crane's-bill are beautifully shaped. They are like a hand with five thin fingers, and each of these fingers is deeply cut up all round the edges.

The stem of the plant is covered with rough, hairy bristles.

2. MILKWORT

The Milkwort has flowers which are not always the same colour. You may find them either pink, or blue, or white, but I think the blue Milkwort is the commonest. It blooms all summer.

The flowers grow on spikes in which the buds are always at the top, and further down the same spike there are leaves. Each flower has five sepals. Three are only small green strips, but inside these three there are two which are large and broad, and beautifully coloured. These look like petals.

When the flower is withered these two sepals change colour and become green.

The real petals are paler in colour than the sepals. The lowest one is cut up at the end into little strips like a blue fringe, and there are two small side petals as well as two upper ones, which are so tiny that they are merely scales.

The leaves resemble narrow straps. They grow alternately on the stem, and they are dark green above and pale green below.

The Milkwort lies close to the ground among the gra.s.s. You would never notice it, were it not for its beautiful spikes of blue, pink-white flowers.

3. CORN FLOWER

The Corn Flower or Blue Bottle is common all over Britain; you find it in the cornfields and by the roadside, and it flowers all summer and autumn.

This pretty plant belongs to the same family as the Thistles. The flower-heads are made up of a great many flowers grouped together. In the outer row you find a circle of beautiful bright blue flowers, each of which consists of a blue tube which widens out at the mouth like a trumpet, and is edged with seven sharp points.

Inside this outer circle there is a ma.s.s of darker blue flowers, slightly tinged with rose-colour. These flowers are very much smaller, and their pinky tubes are very tiny. So are the strap-shaped teeth at the mouth of the tube. Coming out of the mouth of each tube is the dark purple tip of the seed-vessel.

Underneath this bunch of flowers there is a double ring of green scales with fringed edges. These scales are tightly pressed together in the shape of a cup, but they are not p.r.i.c.kly as in some of the Thistles.

The stems of the Corn Flower are very tough. The plant is tall and straggling, and it has narrow strap-shaped leaves with smooth edges.

These leaves, as well as the stems, are often covered with white woolly down.

4. TUFTED VETCH

The Tufted Vetch is a very common plant, and all summer-time you find its ma.s.ses of bright blue or purple flowers growing up the hedges. It belongs to the large family of Pea-plants, along with the Broom and the Trefoils, and you will find that its bright bluish-purple petals are shaped as curiously as those of the other Pea-plants.

Do not forget to look at the stamens. You will see that there is one stamen whose slender stem is not joined with the others, but has a separate stalk of its own.

The flowers grow in cl.u.s.ters on a stiff stalk; the buds are at the end of the stalk, and the flowers that grow lowest on the stalk always open first. When the flower is withered, the seed-vessel grows into a small green pea-pod which has a curly tail at the end, and when the seeds are ripe, this pod turns brown.

The leaves are made up of short pointed straps, set opposite each other in pairs on each side of a thin stalk. You will often find ten pairs of little straps, and at the end of the stalk there grow curly green threads called tendrils. This Tufted Vetch is one of these climbing plants which are not strong enough to stand alone; so these tendrils curl themselves round the twigs of the hedges, and this helps the plant to rise high above the ground.

PLATE XLIV: 1. WILD SUCCORY. 2. BLUEBELL OR HAREBELL. 3. SEA HOLLY.

1. WILD SUCCORY

The Wild Succory is abundant all over England, but is not so plentiful in Scotland. It grows by the borders of fields, in waste places or by the roadside, and it blooms in late summer and autumn.

The flowers are like large blue dandelions. They have no stalks, but grow from top to bottom of the main stem.

The flowers at the bottom of the stem come out first and the buds are always at the top. Each of these large blue dandelions is made up of a great many tiny tubes grouped together.

In the inner circle there are a great many blue tubes which have no strap, but in the outer circle the flowers have a broad blue strap at one side, and the end of this strap is cut into fine teeth. In the centre of each tube you see the tip of the seed-vessel standing up. It looks like a white thread with two curly points at the end.

The heads of the stamens are placed edge to edge and form a collar close round this white thread.

Behind the blue flowers there is a green calyx-cup of narrow strap-shaped leaves, with reddish-brown tips. There is always a large pointed green leaf where the flower-bud joins the main stem.

The leaves of the Wild Succory are rough and hairy all over, and are a grey-green colour.

2. BLUEBELL OR HAREBELL

The Bluebell or Harebell is one of our prettiest wildflowers. It is common all over the country on heaths and on pastures, and it blooms in late summer and autumn.

The five petals of the flower are joined together into a beautiful bell.

This bell is divided round the mouth into five pointed scollops, and when you look into the mouth of the bell you can see the yellow heads of the five stamens and the three-cornered top of the seed-vessel.

The flowers grow singly, on many very slender stalks which branch from the main stem.

The green calyx-cup behind the Bluebell is curiously marked with raised lines. It is deeply divided into five sharp green points, which stand out like the rays of a star at the back of the Bluebell.

The leaves of the Harebell are of two kinds. Those that grow on the main stem, where the flower-stalks branch from it, are narrow and pointed.

But the leaves that spring from the root are quite different.

They are nearly round, with edges which are cut into large teeth, and each leaf has a stalk.

3. SEA HOLLY

This curious plant grows on sandy seash.o.r.es in England, but it is not common in Scotland, and it will not grow far North.

The flowers grow in clover-shaped heads at the ends of very stiff stems.

These flowers are very small, of a whitish-blue colour, and they are not at all attractive. If you examine one closely you find that the petals stand straight up, and each petal has a pointed beak which bends forward towards the centre of the flower. The stamens also curve inwards.

Outside this cl.u.s.ter of flowers there is a crowded ma.s.s of small green leaves, and each leaf ends in three short points. These leaves are a yellow-green colour, but all the rest of the flower is a beautiful grey-blue.

The stems of the Sea Holly are stiff, with ridges running up them, and the leaves have no stalks of their own, but grow in a circle of three or five, tightly clasping the main stem. These leaves are very smooth and thick. They are grey-blue in colour, with yellow-green patches between the veins, and they have very hard edges which are waved all round. Each of these waves ends in a sharp point.

The Sea Holly is quite as p.r.i.c.kly as the Christmas Holly, and as it grows low down among the sands, bare-footed children must be careful not to stand on it.

PLATE XLV: 1. GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. 2. BROOKLIME SPEEDWELL.

3. GREAT WATER FORGET-ME-NOT.

1. GERMANDER SPEEDWELL