THE TIME OF ELOWEKING SHOULD BE OBSEETED. 45 



common wild briar of our hedges, and may be distinguished with 

 ease from the not uncommon Rosa arvensis, trailing rose, by its 

 coarser and more robust habit, its stronger prickles, and its more 

 loosely compacted flowers, which are either rose-coloured or shim- 

 white, not cream-white, as in Bosa arvensis. Any other rose which 

 is likely to occur will have glandulose leaves, and either a sweet or 

 resinous scent ; or will approach Hosa arvensis in character. 



27 and 28, Epilohium hirsutum and montayium, the great haiiy and 

 broad wiUow-herbs. The former is a largo plant with soft downy 

 leaves and large purplish flowers, growing usually in streams and 

 ditches, and from its size not likely to be confounded with any other 

 plants of the same family. U. angustifolium, it is true, equals it in 

 size, but its firm well-cut leaves and cruciform flowers do not 

 allow it to be mistaken for the other. The broad willow-herb is a 

 much smaller plant than either of the above, common on banks, 

 with broad ovate leaves, and a round slightly downy stem; the 

 flowers are small, pale purple, and the stigma is four-cleft. It may 

 be easily distinguished from -C. roseiim, which somewhat resembles 

 it, by the longer leaf-stalks and uncleft stigma of the latter plant. 



29 and 30 are the only representatives in the list of a large 

 British family, the Umbellifers. Avgelica sylvesfris, wild angelica, 

 is a tall plant, common in moist woods and by the sides of streams, 

 with a round, hollow, jointed stem, and handsome hi- or tri-pinnate 

 leaves. The umbel is generally compact and symmetrical, and the 

 flowers have frequently a slight prakish tinge. Anthriscus syJvestris, 

 the wild chervil or cow parsley, so common in all our hedges, may 

 be known from somewhat similar plants by its larger, more glossy, 

 and rather coarser cut leaves, and by its coming into flower a month 

 earlier than its congeners. 



32 and 33 represent the Madder tribe, which is known by whorled 

 leaves, and which are often armed. Galium Aparine, goose grass 

 or cleavers, can be no stranger to any of you. Galium verum, 

 yellow bedstraw, is abundant in dry pastures and on banks. Its 

 leaves are linear with revolute edges. The plant bears a profuse 

 panicle of tiny yellow flowers. 



34, Dipsacus sylvestris, wild teasel, is a plant not to be mistaken. 

 It has some resemblance to some of the thistles, and is, like them, 

 armed with spines ; its flowers are also gathered together in heads, 

 but each flower is enveloped in a separate sheath and inserted in 

 the axil of a spinous bract and arranged round a central column. 



35, Scabiosa siiccisa, devil' s-bit scabious, is found towards the 

 end of summer, or in early autumn, in moist pastures. Its flowers 

 are collected in a hemispherical head, and are usually darkish blue, 

 or violet, in colour. This plant is noted for its premorse root, ap- 

 pearing as if bitten ofl^, which is attributed to the great enemy of 

 mankind, who was fearful that its virtues should become known to 

 men, and therefore maliciously destroyed it. 



36 to 46 are the representatives of our largest family of British 

 flowering plants, the Composites. Petasites vulgaris, butter-bur, 

 our largest-leaved British plant, is found in moist groiind, generally 



