248 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



possessing a strong, pleasant odour. Its stem is much branched, 

 generally clothed \^dth soft hairs ; and its leaves are stalked, 

 ovate, serrate, the upper ones passing into bracts which are shorter 

 than the flowers. The latter are hlac, and form dense, terminal, 

 oblong or globular clusters, with, frequently, two or three dense, 

 axillary whorls beneath. The calyx is tubular, about an eighth 

 of an inch long, with very sharp teeth. 



3. The Marsh Whorled Mint 

 [M. saliva). — A very similar plant, 

 common in wet places, flowering 

 during July and August. It grows 

 from two to five feet high ; and its 

 eUiptical, toothed leaves are hairy 

 on' both sides. The flowers are 

 lilac, in dense, axillary whorls, 

 without any terminal cluster. 



There is yet another marsh 

 plant of the Labiatce to be con- 

 sidered, and that is the Marsh 

 Woundwort [Stachys palustris), 

 which is very much hke the Hedge 

 Woundwort described on p. 199. 

 It has a stout, hollow, hairy stem, 

 from one to three feet high ; and 

 narrow, coarsely - toothed leaves, 

 from two to four inches long, the 

 upper ones sessile and the lower 

 shortly stalked. The flowers are 

 pale purple or dull, light red, 

 arranged in whorls of from six to 

 ten in the axils of the upper leaves. 

 The calyx is bell-shaped, with ten ribs and five long, acute teeth ; 

 and the lower Hp of the corolla has its side lobes turned back. 



We now reach the interesting Myosotis genus of the Boraginacece, 

 containing the favourite Forget-me-not and the similar Scorpion- 

 grasses. They are all rather low and weak plants, with small, 

 sessile, narrow leaves ; and small flowers in one-sided, curved 

 racemes without bracts. The calyx is cleft into five ; and the corolla 

 has a short tube, partially closed by five httle scales, and five 

 spreading or concave lobes. The stamens are enclosed in the tubes 

 of the flower. Three species are ppmmpn in wet places. They are — 



The Forget-me-not. 



