MARSH RED RATTLE 33 



The capsules on turned-back llower-stalks are margined and iringed 

 with hairs, and adapted mainly for wind dispersal. 



The Bog Speedwell is a peat-loving plant, and requires a peat soil. 



The second Latin name refers to the shape of the capsule, shield- 

 like or salver- shaped. 



This plant is distinguished from other species by the narrow, usually 

 smooth leaves. The leaves are slightly toothed, and the tlower-stalks 

 loose and stragglino-, turned back in fruit. 



E.ssENTi.-\L Spf.ciku: Char.a,cters : — 



236. Vc}-onica scutcllata, L. — Stem slender, glabrous, leaves toothed, 

 linear-lanceolate, sessile, flowers white or pale-pink in alternate racemes, 

 axillary, capsule of two tkit, rounded lobes, fruit-stalk detlexed. 



Marsh Red Rattle (Pedicularis palustris, L.) 



As an Arctic plant the occurrence of this plant in Neolithic beds 

 in Edinburgh and Renfrewshire is quite what one would expect. It is 

 general throughout the Arctic and Temperate Zones in Arctic Europe 

 (but not in Spain or Greece) and N. Asia. It is found in all parts of 

 Great Britain, except N. Somerset, as far north as the Shetlands up 

 to 1800 ft. in the Highlands. It is nati\e in Ireland and the Channel 

 Islands. 



Marsh Red Rattle is a typical hygrophile, growing in wet marshy 

 ground at the sides of pools where thick reed-beds are formed. It is 

 also common to the sides of streams which have overflowed. Growing 

 in true bogs with bog species it merges into the marsh and wet- 

 meadow tvpe of plant. It is a hemi-parasite living on grass roots. 



This plant is bushy, erect, and compact, with several ascending 

 branches springing just above the base. The leaves have lobes each 

 side of a common stalk, and the leaflets are deeply and regularly much 

 divided nearly to the base, giving the plant very much the appearance 

 of a bracken fern. The branches are purple-tinged, a feature of marsh 

 plants. The whole plant is smooth. 



The flowers are large and reddish-purple or crimson. The calyx 

 is much inflated, downy, ovate, egg-shaped, and divided into two 

 deeply-cut lobes. The upper part of the corolla has a short, blunt 

 beak, with a triangular lobe each side. The capsule is curved and 

 longer than the calyx. 



The plant is 2 ft. in height very frequently. It flowers in June 

 and Jul)-. It is annual, and propagated by division. It is cjuite worth 

 placing in the bog-garden. 



Vol. v. 65 



