214 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



duiing June and July. Its leaves are oval or oblong, usually pointed, 

 and tapering towards the base. The flowers are in loose cymes, and 

 imperfect ; the staminate and the pistillate ones being usually on 

 different plants. The calyx is generally more than half an inch 

 long, hairy, with ten ribs and five narrow^ teeth. It is tubular at 



first, but becomes 

 l)roadly oval, with a 

 contracted mouth, as 

 the fruit ripens. The 

 five limbs of the 

 corolla are spreading 

 and rather deeply 

 cleft into two parts ; 

 and the fruit is a 

 capsule that splits at 

 the top by ten teeth 

 which remain erect 

 or curve only slightly 

 outwards. The plant 

 is found principally 

 in fields and in open 

 waste ground. 



Our fields and 

 pastures are particu- 

 larly rich in flowers 

 of the Pea family 

 ( order Leguminosce ) 

 during the summer 

 months ; and of these 

 we shall first note 

 the pretty Kidney 

 Vetch or Lady's 

 Fingers {AnthyUis 

 Vulneraria), which is 

 common in the dry pastures of most parts of Britain. The whole 

 plant is covered w ith short silky hairs w^hich lie close against the 

 surface ; and the stem, from six inches to over a foot in length, 

 is either erect or spreading. The leaves are pinnately divided 

 into several entire leaflets which are half an inch or more in 

 length, the terminal leaflet of the lower leaves being generally 

 much larger than the others. The flowers, which bloom from 



The Whtte Campiox. 



