Wayside and Woodland Blossoms. Step Edward

cæsius). Plate 30.

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      A sub-species of the Blackberry; too well known to require description.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum).

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      The Woodbine or Common Honeysuckle is one of the most familiar of our wild flowers, and as great a favourite as any. It owes its popularity not only to the beauty of its flowers, but also to its strong sweet odour, and in some measure to its graceful twining habit. The tough stem grows to a great length—ten to twenty feet in some cases—and always twines from left to right. The egg-shaped leaves are attached in pairs, the lower ones by short stalks, but the upper ones are stalkless (sessile). The flowers are clustered, the calyces closely crowded, five-toothed. The corolla-tube may be from one to two inches long, the free end (limb) divided into five lobes, which split irregularly into two opposite lips. It is rich in honey, the corolla being often half filled with it, and consequently it is a great favourite with bees and moths, who are bound to bring and fetch pollen from the outstanding anthers of one plant and deposit it upon the equally obtrusive stigma of another. The flowers are succeeded by a cluster of round crimson berries. Widely distributed in hedges, copses, and on heaths.

      Perfoliate Honeysuckle. Lonicera caprifolium. —Caprifoliaceæ.—

      Purple Dead-nettle. Lamium purpureum. —Labiatæ.—

      Perfoliate Honeysuckle (L. caprifolium) is similar to the last, but the upper pairs of leaves are joined together by their broad bases. The corolla-tubes are longer than in the common species, and it therefore becomes impossible for even the longest-tongued bees to carry off much of the honey. Moths with their long trunks can; and consequently they swarm upon it at night, and carry the pollen from plant to plant. This species may be found in copses in Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, but is believed to be only naturalized—not a true native. Flowers May and June. The name Lonicera was bestowed by Linnæus in honour of a German botanist named Adam Lonicer.

Dead Nettles (Lamium).

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      Our forefathers, when giving English names to plants, found it by no means easy work, and the greater number of our native species they left unnamed altogether. Many of the names they did invent were made to serve many times by the simple expedient of prefixing adjectives. Thus, having decided on Nettle as the distinctive name of certain stinging herbs (Urtica), they made it available for the entirely unrelated genus Lamium by calling the species Dead (or stingless) nettles. In a similar fashion they made Hemp-nettle, and Hedge-nettle.

      Apart from the resemblance in form of the leaves in certain species, there is little likeness between Lamium and Urtica, the large and graceful flowers of the former contrasting strongly with the inconspicuous green blossoms of the stinging nettles (see page 103). In the absence of flowers the difference may be quickly seen by cutting the stems across, when Urtica will exhibit a round solid section, whilst Lamium is square and tubular. The flowers, like those of Bugle (page 21) and Meadow-Sage (p. 23) are labiate, and are produced in whorls. The calyx is tubular, with five teeth. The corolla tubular, with dilated throat, whence the name from Laimos (Gr.), throat. The British species are five:—

      I. Red Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum). Leaves heart-shaped, with rounded teeth, stalked. Bases of flower-bracts not overlapping. Corolla purplish-red. Whole plant often purple. Hedge-banks and waste places. April to October.

      II. Intermediate Dead Nettle (L. intermedium). Intermediate between the first and the next species, but more robust. Bracts overlapping. Teeth much longer than calyx-tube, spreading. Cultivated ground, not in S. of England. June to September.

      III. Henbit Dead Nettle (L. amplexicaule). Calyx more hairy than in I. and II.; teeth equal to tube in length, converging when in fruit. Corolla slender, deep rose-colour, often deformed. Bracts broad, overlapping. Waste places. April to August. Above three species are annuals, the remainder perennials.

      IV. White Dead Nettle (L. album). Corolla large, creamy white, upper lip vaulted. Calyx teeth long. Waste places. March to December.

      V. Yellow Archangel (L. galeobdolon). Corolla yellow, the lower lip orange, spotted with brown. Hedges and woods. May and June.

Ground Ivy (Nepeta glechoma), and Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (Linaria cymbalaria).

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      Trailing among the grass of the copse and hedgebank the Ground Ivy is one of the earliest of flowers to appear in spring. It has not the remotest relationship to the real ivy (Hedera helix), but, like the Dead Nettle, is a labiate plant. The slender square stem creeps along, and wherever it puts forth a pair of leaves it sends down a tuft of fibrous roots also. The leaves are roundish, kidney-shaped, deeply round-toothed on the margin. The flowers are borne in the axils of leaf-like bracts. The corolla-tube is long, slender at base, afterwards dilating. Some of the purple-blue flowers are large and perfect, others small and devoid of stamens. March to June. There is a closely allied, but rare, species called the Catmint (N. cataria) which flowers from July to September. This has an erect stem, with leaves approaching more to heart-shape, the teeth sharper; both stem and leaves downy and whitish. Flowers white, marked with rose-colour. The name Nepeta is the classical Latin one, and is said to have been given because the plant was common round the town of Nepet in Tuscany.

      Ground Ivy. Nepeta glechoma. —Labiateæ.— Ivy-leaved Toadflax. Linaria cymbalaria. —Scrophularineæ.—