270 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



during July and August. It may be identified by reference to 

 Fig. 2 of Plate VI. 



The same order includes the Sheep's-bit [Jasione montana), 

 also known as the Sheep's Scabious. It certainly resembles a 

 Scabious in general appearance (see Fig. 5 of Plate VI), with its 

 dense clusters of blue or deep lilac flowers, but may be readily 

 distinguished from it by the united anthers of its five stamens, 

 and by the absence of the involucel that surrounds the individual 

 flowers of the Scabious flower-head. 

 The dense cluster of flowers, sur- 

 rounded by a whorl of many ovate 

 bracts, might also be mistaken for 

 that of a Composite at first sight ; 

 but here again we find exclusive 

 distinguishing features, for the flowers 

 of the cluster are not sessile on a 

 common receptacle ; and the fruits, 

 instead of being one-seeded achenes, 

 are two-chambered capsules. The 

 plant is from six to twelve inches 

 high ; and its leaves are oblong or 

 very narrow, wavy, blunt, and hairy. 

 The flower-heads are hemispherical, 

 about half an inch in diameter. Both 

 calyx and corolla have five narrow, 

 spreading lobes. The plant is common 

 on heaths, and flowers from June to 

 September. 



We now come to those interesting 

 plants known collectively as Heaths, and which add so much 

 beauty to our heaths and moors. They belong to the order Ericaceae, 

 and are all readily distinguished by their bushy appearance, hard 

 woody stems, and small, simple leaves arranged in paks or whorls. 

 The flowers, too, are very characteristic, each one having an 

 inferior calyx of four sepals ; a bell-shaped or pitcher-shaped, 

 persistent corolla, with five lobes ; eight stamens free from the 

 corolla ; and a foiur-chambered ovary that ripens to a capsule. 



The Cross-leaved Heath {Erica Tetralix) is common all over 

 Britain, especially so in the West. It is a wiry little shrub, from a 

 foot to eighteen inches high, much branched at the base. Its leaves 

 are short, narrow, downy above, fringed with stiff hairs, and arranged 



The Cross-leaved Heath. 



