MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 251 



HEDGE NETTLE 



Stachys pahistris. Mint Family 



Stems : erect, strict, simple, retrorse-hispid on the angles. Leaves : firm, 

 lanceolate, oblong, almost sessile, acute at the apex, subcordate at the 

 base, dentate. Flowers : in clusters, forming an elongated interrupted spike. 



The Hedge Nettle has from six to ten reddish-purple 

 flowers in each of the whorls that encircle its stem at inter- 

 vals, and also bears a terminal cluster at the top. Stachys 

 means ''a spike," and refers to its elongated flower-spikes, 

 while pahistris signifies "growing in swamps," and is there- 

 fore peculiarly appropriate to this plant, which frequents very 

 moist places. Probably it was called Hedge Nettle because 

 the leaves resemble those of the true Nettle, but without 

 the stinging properties of the latter. The Hedge Nettle is a 

 very hairy plant, its leaves and stems being all covered with 

 quantities of fine hairs. 



BLUE-EYED GRASS 



Sisyrinchiuvi august if olimn. Iris Family 



Stems: two-edged, slender, erect, rigid. Leaves: commonly all basal, 

 linear, rigid, almost setaceous ; bracts two, very unequal, erect, the lower 

 one twice as long as the upper one. Flowers: six segments of the peri- 

 anth spreading, aristulate. 



" For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, 

 But it withereth the grass. 

 And the flower thereof falleth. 

 And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth." 



Was it of this tiny yet brilliant purple-blue flower that the 

 Apostle Saint James wrote the above verse .? Did he espy it, 

 as he w^alked abroad, nestling amongst the sedges that fringed 

 the streams 1 It is a very fragile little blossom, and as it 

 resents being picked to the extent of immediately shrivel- 

 ling up and dying, travellers had better be content to admire 

 it where it flourishes in the moist low-lying meadows, and 



