Wayside and Woodland Blossoms. Step Edward

is a distinct bribe to insects to visit them. It would not be an economical arrangement for a flower to provide honey for all comers without the plant getting a quid pro quo; we therefore find all sorts of “dodges” to ensure a service being done by the honey-seeker. As we have shown in the Bugle, the anther and stigma occupy the arch of the upper lip. As a rule the ripe anthers first occupy the foremost position, so that if a bee alights on the lower lip and pushes into the corolla for the honey his hairy back will brush off the pollen from the anthers. After the honey is shed the stigmas come forward and occupy the former position of the anthers. Should a bee that has got dusted with pollen at an earlier flower now pay a visit the stigmas will collect some pollen from his back and the ovules become fertilized. This is the general plan in the order Labiatæ, but there are modifications in each genus.

Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua), and Cock’s-foot-grass (Dactylis glomerata).

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      In describing the Wall Barley we gave a general idea of the structure of grass flowers, and those of Poa are very similar to those of Hordeum; but the flower-cluster (inflorescence) is very different. In Hordeum (which see) this is a spike, bearing many three-flowered spikelets on each side. In Poa it is more branched and diffuse, and is called a panicle. In P. annua the branches grow two together, and are branched again. The spikelets are not awned as in Hordeum. There are eight British species of Poa, which, however, we have not space to describe. The name is Greek, and signifies fodder. All the species are perennial, with the exception of P. annua, which is an annual, as the name indicates. It flowers from April to September, and abounds in meadows, pastures and by roadsides.

      The Cock’s-foot-grass (Dactylis glomerata) is an ingredient of most pastures, and one of our most familiar grasses. Its long stout stem creeps for a distance, then rises very erectly and gives off horizontal flowering branches. The violet-tinted spikelets are gathered into dense one-sided clusters. Each spikelet contains three or four flowers, which are supposed to be arranged after the fashion of fingers on a hand, whence the Greek name Daktulos, fingers. Each flowering glume ends in a short awn-like point. This is the only British species. It is generally distributed, and will be found in waste places as well as pastures, flowering in June and July. The whole plant is rough to the touch. The leaves are long, flat and keeled.

Cat’s-tail, or Timothy-grass (Phleum pratense), and Vernal-grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum).

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      Timothy is one of the most valuable of our grasses, and forms an important portion of the hay crop, from the fact that it is one of the earliest and most abundant species. The inflorescence is a crowded spike, reminding one somewhat of a miniature reproduction of the Reed-mace (Typha). The spikelets are one-flowered. The outer glumes are boat-shaped, with a stout green keel, fringed with stiff hairs. The flowering glume is glassy, and entirely included within the outer ones, from which, however, the long stamens and feathery stigmas protrude. The anthers are yellow and purple. The plant is perennial, and flowers from June to September. The name Phleum is the classic Greek one for the plant. The figure represents the spike after the anthers have passed their prime; at an earlier period these stand out well from the glumes, and give a very light appearance to the spike. There are three other native species, but they are all more or less local.

      Timothy-grass. Phleum pratense. Vernal-grass. Anthoxanthum odoratum.

      —Gramineæ.—

      Viper’s Bugloss. Echium vulgare. —Boragineæ.—

      The Sweet Vernal-grass is singular among grasses in the fact that it possesses but two stamens. The panicle is spike-like, with short branches. The spikelets are one-flowered. The outer glumes are four in number, one flowering glume, a pale, but no lodicules. In the Linnæan system plants were classified according to the number of their stamens and pistils, and the artificiality of it was strikingly shown when this plant had to be widely separated from all other grasses, because it was one stamen short, though agreeing with them in all other essentials. The species is abundant in most meadows, and were it absent one of the charms of the hay harvest would be gone also; for this is the grass that gives the characteristic odour to ripe new-mown hay. It flowers in May and June. The name is from two Greek words, signifying yellow blossoms.

Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare).

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      Our artist has chosen to delineate a specimen of this striking plant that has passed its prime in a flowering sense. To our mind the Viper’s Bugloss is prettiest when only one or two flowers are open on each cyme. The recurved cymes are then very short, and the unopened flowers packed closely together. As in Lungwort (p. 9), the unopened corollas are purplish-red in colour, when opened bright blue. After flowering, the cymes lengthen until they are as long as shown in our illustration. The parts of the flower, it will be seen, are in fives: calyx five-parted, tubular corolla with five-lobed “limb,” as the free portion is called, stamens five, stigma two-lobed. The lobes of the corolla are unequal, and one of the stamens is shorter than the other four, which protrude from the corolla considerably; in fact, they serve as a platform upon which insects alight. When the flower opens the anthers are ripe and shed their pollen, so that bees or other insects alighting are sure to get their under surface dusted with it. At this period the pistil is short and immature, so that it cannot be fertilized by its own pollen; but as the pollen disappears the pistil lengthens, until its stigmas are in the position where they are bound to receive pollen brought on the under surface of a visiting insect. The leaves are strap-shaped, long, and rough with hairs.

      Much fault is found with scientific names on account of their uncouthness and obscurity. But they are mostly derived from Greek and Latin roots, and reflect some peculiarity of the plant; whereas many of the English or Folk-names are most arbitrary, and require much explaining, which is sometimes not easily done. “Viper’s Bugloss” is a puzzle, and authors have pretended to see likenesses to a viper in the markings of the stem, the shape of the flower and of the seeds; others have taken shelter behind Dioscorides, who said that a decoction of the plant was a protection from the effects of a viper’s bite. If a man knew he was going to be bitten by a viper and took a certain dose of this plant beforehand he was all right! But the word bugloss seems a worse puzzle than the plant’s connection with vipers. Most dictionaries will help to the extent of telling that bugloss is the name of a plant, and no more. The truth is, it is as Greek as any scientific name, being compounded of the words Bous, an ox, and glossa, a tongue, from its leaves being rough, like the tongue of an ox.

      It is common on gravelly and chalky soils, flowering from June to August. It is rich in honey, so that it is much frequented of sweet-tongued insects. The name Echium is from the Greek Echis, a viper.

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca).

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      Well known as the Wild Strawberry is, the Barren Strawberry (Potentilla fragariastrum) when flowering is often mistaken for it. The general resemblance is fairly close, but a botanist can distinguish each at a glance. In each the leaves are divided into three leaflets, the flowers are white and five-parted; but