126 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



The Marsh Pennywort or White Rot [Hydrocotyle vulgaris) is a 

 pecuHar umbelHferous plant, common in marshes and bogs, with a 

 slender stem that creeps in the mud, rooting at every joint ; and 

 tufts of long-stalked leaves which rise above the surface of the 



water. The latter 

 are round, with 

 waved margins, 

 about an inch in 

 diameter, glossy, 

 and stalked in 

 the centre. The 

 minute white 

 flowers are col- 

 lected into little 

 five-flowered um- 

 bels, on stalks 

 much s h o r t e i- 

 than those of the 

 leaves, each in- 

 dividual flower 

 having a very 

 short pedicel, and. 

 five spreading 

 petals. This plant 

 flowers from May 

 to August. 



In the marshes 

 of South Britain 

 we may often 

 meet with the 

 pretty Marsh 

 Valerian ( Valeri- 

 ana dioica) of the 

 Valerianacece. It 

 gro\AS from six to 

 eight inches high, and its flowers, which bloom during May and 

 June, are of a pale rose colour, in a terminal corymb. They are 

 mostly unisexual, the male and female flowers growing on dift'erent 

 plants. All have a tubular corolla, pouched at the base, with 

 five spreading lobes ; but the female blooms are more densely 

 crowded than the males, and are of a deeper colour. The former 



The Mahsh Valerian. 



