Flowers Shown to the Children Part 19

The flowers grow on short stalks. You will find a bunch of five flower-stalks rising together at the end of the main stem. Each flower has five pretty pink petals with smooth edges. These pink petals soon fall off, and you then notice a long green spike coming out of the green cup formed by the sepals. Each green spike is supposed to resemble a stork's bill, and from this resemblance the flower gets its name.

When the plant is ready to scatter its seeds, many fine green threads loosen themselves from the spike, and curl round and round like a corkscrew. At the end of each green thread there is a seed. When the seed is ripe, both the seed and the corkscrew-thread separate from the spike and fall to the ground.

The green leaves of the Stork's Bill are cut up into leaflets which are arranged on each side of a centre stalk, but not always exactly opposite each other. There is always a single leaflet at the end of this centre stalk.

PLATE x.x.xIX: 1. REST HARROW. 2. SAINTFOIN. 3. RED CLOVER.

1. REST HARROW

The Rest Harrow is to be found in sandy places near the sea, and blooms all summer.

It belongs to the Pea family, along with the Broom and the Whin. But in this plant the flower-petals are a beautiful rose-pink colour.

The largest petal, which is called the standard, is streaked with veins of deep red. The two side petals, or 'wings,' are pale pink, and the tip of the two 'keel' petals, which are joined together into a little boat and hide the stamens, is also a deep rose-red.

The flowers have scarcely any stalks. They grow close to the main stem, in a green calyx-cup edged with five sharp teeth, and there are small green leaves beside each flower.

These leaves are dark green in front but are much paler behind, and they have tiny teeth all round the edges.

Sometimes, close to the root, you find leaves which grow in threes, but oftenest the plant has single oval leaves, and these are always covered with fine hairs.

The Rest Harrow usually lies close to the ground, but you may find it growing upright like a small bush.

It has long, tough roots, which creep through the soil, and these are said to be so strong they will turn aside the harrow when it is drawn over the field.

2. SAINTFOIN

Some people tell us that this is not a British wildflower, but one which was brought from some other country to grow in our gardens. They say that the wind and the birds carried away the seeds, and the plant learned to grow among our other wildflowers. In any case, you find its handsome flowers adorning chalky banks and cliffs all summer and autumn.

Like the Rest Harrow it is a relation of the Pea family, but its flowers grow quite differently.

In colour they are not such a clear pink. The two petals which hide the stamens are almost purple, and the side wings are so tiny, at first you scarcely notice them.

The flowers grow close together in the shape of a cone; you find twelve or more open flowers with no leaves among them, crowded together near the upper end of a long flower-stalk, and at the top of this flower-stalk there is always a bunch of buds.

The calyx is a green cup with five sharp teeth round the mouth, and it is covered with woolly hairs.

The leaves of the Saintfoin are long and narrow, and the edges are quite smooth. Each leaf is made up of from eight to twelve pairs of leaflets growing opposite each other on a leaf-stalk, and there is always a solitary leaflet growing at the end of the stalk.

3. RED CLOVER

The Red Clover is as well known as the b.u.t.tercup. It grows all summer in every hayfield. Sometimes the flowers are large and showy, and sometimes they are quite small.

The Red Clover is a member of the Pea family, though at first you may not think that the flowers are at all like those of the Broom or the Rest Harrow. These flowers grow in a round head, thirty or forty of them close together at the end of the flower-stalk.

If you pull a single flower apart from the others and separate the petals, you will see that they are shaped in the same way as those of the other Pea plants.

You find one large standard petal which stands erect, rather a long, narrow petal in this plant. Then there are two side petals for the 'wings,' and two front petals joined together so as to form a tiny boat, and in this boat the stamens and seed-vessel are hidden.

These petals are a pale pinky-red, and each flower is set in a green calyx-cup edged with five long teeth.

The leaves of the Red Clover are 'Trefoils'; that means that they grow in groups of three. Each group has a short stalk, and there are curious yellow markings in the centre of each oval leaf. The edges are smooth, and the leaves are covered with fine downy hairs.

PLATE XL: 1. DOG ROSE 2. BURNET ROSE 3. LOUSEWORT OR RED RATTLE

1. DOG ROSE

There are a great many wild roses, pink, white, and crimson, but the pink Dog Rose is the commonest. Every one has gathered it in the sunny June days.

You must notice a curious thing about the seed-vessel of this plant.

Only the top of it rises in the middle of the stamens. But if you look at the back of the flower, you see a small green swelling at the end of the stalk, and the sepals and petals and the stamens stand in a ring round the top of this swelling. This is the seed-vessel, and in autumn, after the flower is withered, it will grow into a round red berry, which is called a hip.

The sepals of the rose are very pretty. They are cut up into many points like small leaves, and after the flower is withered these points fold right back and cover the green berry. Later on they dry up and fall off, leaving the berry bare.

The rose leaves are too well known to need any description. Notice the two narrow green leaves, like wings, which grow at the foot of the leaf-stalk, clasping the main stem.

The Dog Rose is very th.o.r.n.y. There are large hooks all over the main stem, as well as close to the flower, and these hooks are often coloured a bright crimson.

2. BURNET ROSE

The Burnet Rose is different in several ways from the Dog Rose. It grows in early summer on sandy sea sh.o.r.es and on heaths, but not in the hedges, and the flowers are usually white.

It is a much smaller plant than the Dog Rose. Its leaves grow closely crowded together in a small, low bush, and there are no long shoots running out from the plant.

The main stem of the Burnet Rose is a bright pink colour, and instead of having big hooks here and there it is covered from top to bottom with fine sharp p.r.i.c.kles of all sizes.

The green sepals are pointed, but they are not cut up into leafy tips as in the Dog Rose. Neither do they fold back over the seed-vessel after the flower is withered, but remain standing straight up at the top of the berry.

The seed-vessel of this rose is rounder than the hip of the Dog Rose.

When ripe it is a dark purple colour which is almost black.

The leaves are made up of leaflets which grow in pairs opposite each other on a leaf stalk, and there is always an odd leaflet at the end of the stalk. They are small, nearly oval, and the edges are cut all round into fine teeth.

3. LOUSEWORT, OR RED RATTLE

This bright plant is common all over the country. It grows in wet places, such as bogs and damp fields, and it is in flower from spring to autumn.

The Lousewort is a small plant and does not rise very far above the ground. The flowers are bright pink, and they grow singly at intervals up the main stem. The flowers are curiously shaped. The lower part is round, like a narrow pink tube, but at the mouth this pink tube becomes much wider and is divided in two. One half rises straight up and then bends over at the top like a hood.

Inside the pink hood are hidden the yellow heads of the stamens. The other half of the flower is divided at the edge into three pink scollops, which fold back so that you can look inside the tube of the flower. After the pink flowers are withered the calyx-cup swells into a small bladder, and on windy days you can hear the seeds rattling inside this bladder.

The stem of the Lousewort is hairy, and the leaves grow very close to it. These leaves are made up of small fingers with deeply toothed edges, which grow in pairs on each side of the centre leaf-stalk. There are frequently six pairs of these fingers on one stalk, and there is always a single finger at the end of the stalk.