VII 



WAYSIDES AND WASTES IN SPRING 



In the present chapter we shall consider a number of wild flowers 

 that are to be found by the waysides, including banks and hedge- 

 rows, and in waste places, during the spring months. 



Our first example is the Celandine {Chelidonium ma jus), of the 

 Poppy family (order Papaveracece), generally spoken of as the 

 Greater Celandine in order to distinguish it from the Lesser Celandine 

 (p. 108), which belongs to the Banuncidacece. This plant is 

 moderately common in shady hedgerows and waste places, grows to 

 a height of from one to two feet, and flowers from May to July or 

 August. It has a yellow, pungent, poisonous sap. The leaves 

 are pinnate, ^\dth an odd leaflet at the tip, of a glaucus green colour ; 

 and all the leaflets are bluntly lobed. The flowers are yellow, from 

 three-quarters to an inch in diameter, and are arranged in long- 

 stalked umbels. As in the poppies, there are two sepals which fall 

 early, and four petals which are crumpled in the bud. There are 

 numerous stamens, attached below the superior ovary ; and the 

 latter ripens into a pod-hke capsule of one chamber, about an inch 

 and a half in length, which spUts, when ripe, into two valves. 



The Order Cruciferce is well represented by the wayside and on 

 waste ground during the spring months, and the reader will do well 

 to note the general characters of the flowers of this order (p. 17), 

 unless already acquainted with them, before attempting to identify 

 the species here described. Our first example — the Shepherd's 

 Purse {Capsella Bursa-pastoris) is a well-known weed, often trouble- 

 some in our gardens, and may be seen in bloom from February to 

 October. It is an erect herb, from six to eighteen inches high, which 

 may be identified at once by reference to our illustration. The small 

 white flowers are in lengthening racemes, and are often made less con- 

 spicuous by the conversion of the four petals into stamens. This 



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