250 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



its flowers are only about half the size, of a sky-blue colour, with 

 narrow calyx teeth almost as long as the corolla. It is of a paler 

 green colour, and the stems are tufted by a free branching at the 



All three of these flower at the same time, and grow in similar 

 situations. Several intermediate forms occur, and thus it is often a 

 difficult matter to distinguish between them. 



We must here mention the Butterwort {Pinguicula) as a 

 summer-flowering plant of marshy places ; but this is a carnivorous 

 species ; and as such is described, together with other plants of 

 similar habits, in Chapter XXIV. 



In most parts of Britain we may meet with the pretty little 

 Bog Pimpernel {Anagallis tenella) of the Primulacece. It is a 

 delicate, creeping plant (see Plate V, Fig. 7), only about three or 

 four inches long, with a slender, decumbent stem ; and very small, 

 opposite, rounded leaves on short stalks. Its flowers are funnel- 

 shaped, of a pale pink colour, on long, slender, erect, axillary 

 peduncles. The calyx is cut into five pointed lobes ; and the corolla 

 is deeply cleft into five segments which are much longer than the 

 calyx. The fruit is a globular capsule that splits transversely into 

 two hemispheres, like that of the Scarlet Pimpernel. 



Ditches are frequently quite overgrown with the Water Pepper 

 or Biting Persicaria {Polygonum Hydropiper), which is very much 

 like the Spotted Persicaria (p. 205) of the same order [Polygonacece), 

 but is much more slender, is creeping and rooting at the base, and 

 more or less biting to the taste. Its stem is freely branched, from 

 one to three feet high ; its leaves narrow and wavy, with mem- 

 branous stipules much fringed at the top ; and the little pinkish- 

 green flowers are in slender, drooping, interrupted spikes, leafy at 

 the base. 



Of the Orchidaceoi we shall note here but one species — the 

 Marsh Helleborine {Epipactis palustris), which is widely distributed, 

 and really abundant in places, flowering during July and August. 

 It is very much like the Broad-leaved Helleborine described on 

 p. 308, and represented on Plate II, but is not so tall, being only 

 about a foot high, and its leaves are narrow. The flowers, too, are 

 fewer than in the Broad-leaved Helleborine, and the raceme is not 

 one-sided. The sepals are narrow, of a pale green colour, striped 

 with red or purple ; and the petals are white, striped with red at 

 the base. The lower lobe of the lip is blunt and thick ; and the 

 bracts are shorter than the flowers. 



