34 



FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



The flowers are like those of P. sylvatica, but the tube is shorter. 

 They cont:iin honey secreted at the base of the ovary. The corolla 

 has a cylindrical tube with an enlarged throat into which insects thrust 

 the head. The upper lip is 3-toothed, narrow; the lower, 3-Iobed, 

 serving as an alighting-place. The 4 stamens are concealed by the 



upper lip. The two posterior 

 anther-stalks are hairv, and 

 serve to protect the honey 

 from the rain and flies, and 

 the anthers are adherent by 

 the close-set hairs near the 

 base in Common Red Rattle, 

 but not in this plant, as they 

 are close together. 



The seeds, contained in 

 a capsule which splits open 

 above, are dispersed around 

 the plant automatically or by 

 the wind. 



Marsh Red Rattle is a 

 peat - loving plant, and will 

 only grow on a peat soil, or 

 where there is clay with 

 humus. 



A cluster-cup fungus, P71C- 

 ciiiia pahtdosa, attacks the 

 leaves. A beetle, Longitar- 

 sus holsaiicits, infests Marsh 

 Lousewort. 



Pcdicularis, Gerarde, is 

 from the Latin pediculus, 

 louse, because it was said to 

 produce a lousy disease in 

 sheep. The second Latin 

 name refers to the marshy habitat. 



This plant is called Cock's - comb. Cow's - wort. Dead Men's 

 Bellows, Rattle-grass, Lousewort, Moss Flower, Red Rattle, Suckles. 

 The name Rattle-grass, according to Gerarde, is explained because the 

 dry, somewhat inflated calices rattle audibly when .shaken. Lyte 

 e.\[)lains Lousewort as follows: "In Latine Pcdicularis, that is to say 

 Louse herbe, in high Dutch Leuszkraut, by cause the cattell that 



Photo. Flatters & Garnett 



Marsh Red Rattle {Pedicuian's palus/ns, L.) 



