This bright blue flower is to be found on banks, and in woods and pastures all over the country. It blooms in spring and early summer.

Many people call this the Forget-me-not, but that is not correct, and you should notice carefully the difference between the two plants. They are not really alike.

The Germander Speedwell is a slender, wiry plant, whose stem sometimes creeps along the surface of the ground before it grows upward.

The flowers have four small petals of the brightest blue, and within the flower at the foot of the petals is a small white circle, like a little white eye looking up.

Two stamens with crimson heads rise from this white circle, and in the very centre of the flower there is a tiny green seed-vessel, with a spike coming out of the top.

The four sepals are very narrow green straps with sharp points.

The dark green hairy leaves are oval, with the edges cut all round like the teeth of a saw. They have no stalks, and they grow in pairs opposite each other. The slender stems, which bear the flowers in loose heads near the top, spring from between the leaf and the main stem.

2. BROOKLIME SPEEDWELL

The Brooklime Speedwell is quite as common as its cousin the blue Germander Speedwell, but it grows in damp places. You find it in ditches and beside slow-running streams, and the flowers are in bloom from spring to autumn.

The plant has a round juicy stem, which is hollow in the middle. It rises straight up from its muddy bed.

The flowers have four small petals which are a dull blue in colour, and are not very attractive.

In the centre of the flower there is a tiny blue ring, and to this ring are fastened the two red-headed stamens.

The seed-vessel is a small green dot with a spike at the top. It is so tiny that you can scarcely see it until the blue petals have fallen off.

Behind the flower there are four small green sepals.

The leaves of the Brooklime Speedwell are smooth and glossy. They are oval with blunt points, and the edges are waved. These leaves grow in pairs opposite each other, and have very short stalks which widen out at the foot so as to clasp the stem.

The flowers grow in loose heads on a long thin stalk, which springs from between the leaf and the stem.

3. GREAT WATER FORGET-ME-NOT

Every child knows the pale blue Forget-me-not with its dainty flowers.

It has many varieties which are found all over the country, but the Water Forget-me-not is one of the loveliest, and grows abundantly in ditches and marshes from spring to autumn.

It is a tall straggling plant, with long flower-stalks which grow singly on alternate sides of the stem. Those flowers nearest the bottom of the stalk come out first, and they soon fall off. The pink buds are always at the very top of the stem, and the full-open flowers are close below them.

Each flower has five small round blue petals which lie open like a wheel, and in the centre of the flower there is a bright yellow eye.

The stamens are hidden from sight in the small blue tube below the petals. So is the seed-vessel. There is a green calyx-cup which is hairy all over, and round the mouth it is edged with sharply pointed teeth.

The leaves of the Forget-me-not are long and narrow, with blunt points and smooth edges. They are as glossy as if they were wet, and they clasp the stem.

The lowest part of the stem is four-sided and hairy, and it creeps along the mud before it rises up to bear the leaves and flowers.

Plate XLVI: 1. COMMON BORAGE. 2. EVERGREEN ALKANET. 3. WOOD HYACINTH.

1. COMMON BORAGE

The Borage is not a very common plant, though it is widely distributed throughout the country. You find it on hedge-banks and in waste places, and it blooms in summer and autumn.

It has beautiful bright blue flowers, with five petals which are gracefully pointed at the tips. These flowers droop either singly or in cl.u.s.ters at the end of stout, hairy stalks.

The stamens of the Common Borage have no thread-like stalks; their purple heads are placed close together in a circle round the slender white pillar of the seed-vessel. Notice the curious purple horns that rise from the back of each stamen. There is a ring of dark purple scales with white blotches on them at the base of the petals. The calyx has five long narrow pointed sepals. These are covered with bristly hairs, and so are the leaves, stalks, and stem.

The leaves of the Borage are a dusty grey-green colour. Wherever the stem forks, you find a large stalkless leaf clasping it. These leaves are usually oval, but they are very varied in shape, and those leaves that rise from the root are frequently quite different.

The stem is light green and is round, with a hollow in the centre.

2. EVERGREEN ALKANET

Some people do not consider this one of our native plants, but it is widely distributed over the country. You find it in hedge-banks and by the roadside in spring and autumn.

The Alkanet is an erect, hairy plant, which is not quite so bristly as its cousin, the Common Borage.

The flowers have small blue tubes, lined inside with white, and there is a deeply waved sky-blue wheel round the mouth. When in bud the flowers are deep pink. These flowers grow either singly or two or three together, at the end of straight stalks which rise from between the leaf and the stem.

There are five purple-headed stamens clinging to the white lining of the tube, and there is also a tiny seed-vessel. These you cannot see until you pick the flower to pieces.

The mouth of the calyx-cup is edged with five blunt points, and it is covered with soft hairs.

The leaves also are covered with soft hairs and have scarcely any stalks, but grow singly on alternate sides of the stem. These leaves are oval, with smooth, regular edges. They are olive-green above and bluey-green underneath.

If you cut the stem across, near the ground, you will see that it is six-sided. It is a juicy stem, with scarcely any hollow in the centre, and it is covered with fine, soft hairs.

3. WOOD HYACINTH

The graceful Wood Hyacinth is one of our prettiest flowers. You will find the woods and hedge-banks covered with its ma.s.ses of pale blue flowers in late spring and early summer.

The leaves appear first,--long, narrow green straps, with a point at the end, and each green strap looks as if it had been folded in the middle and not quite flattened out again.

These leaves spring from a bulb which lies deeply buried in the ground.

Underneath this bulb are a few white thread-like roots.

The Hyacinth flowers grow, all on one side, towards the end of a tall and juicy flower-stalk. This flower-stalk droops when the flowers are in bud, and again when the flowers are faded. But it stands proudly erect when its bells are in full bloom.

Each bell is made up of six long, narrow petals. These petals are really separate, but about half way down, they touch each other and so form a bell. The tips of each petal fold back at the mouth.

There is a yellow-headed stamen clinging to the side of every petal, and in the centre of the bell sits a green pear-shaped seed-vessel, with a short pillar on the top. In the Wood Hyacinth there is no calyx.

Every blue bell hangs from a short stalk of its own, and wherever a flower-stalk joins the main stem there are two narrow pointed leaves.