202 



VIEW AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



{Cynoglossum officinale), which is moderately common on waste 

 ground, flowering dm^ing June and July. This is an erect plant, 

 from one to two feet Iiigh, with a very unpleasant odour. Its stem 

 is stout, branched and hairy; and the leaves are thickly covered 

 with soft down. The lowest leaves are oval, with long stalks, 



often ten or twelve inches in length ; 

 but the upper ones become smaller 

 and narrower, with shorter stalks, 

 till towards the top they are very 

 narrow, sessile, and clasp the stem. 

 The flowers are in racemes, with 

 short pedicels, and have no bracts. 

 The segments of the calyx are 

 narrow and pointed ; and the small 

 corolla is of a reddish purple colour. 

 The fruit is covered with Httle 

 spines and is about a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter. 



On dry waysides the Buck's-horn 

 Plantain {Plantago Coronopus — order 

 Plantaginacece) is common. It may 

 be readily distinguished as a plantain 

 by its slender, cyUndrical spikes of 

 small flowers, and its spreading tuft 

 of radical leaves. This species has 

 a thick root-stock, and its leaves are 

 either Unear and undivided, or, more 

 commonly, cut into very narrow 

 segments. The flowers are green, 

 with broad, hairy sepals, the whole 

 spike measuring from one to two 

 inches in length. They bloom during 

 June and July. 

 The plants which form the genus Chenopodium, of the order 

 Chenopodiacece, are essentially plants of the wayside and waste 

 ground, and of these we shall have to note several species. Most 

 of them are distinguished by the dusty mealiness of their leaves, 

 though a few do not possess this feature. In general they are 

 characterised by alternate, flat leaves ; and small, green flowers 

 in Uttle sessile clusters, forming spikes in the axils of the upper 

 leaves. The little flowers usually have a perianth of five segments 



TUE il0UND'.S-T0XGUE. 



