; CALYCIFLOR/E 103 
and white beneath. The surface is uneven and 
wrinkled. There are rounded denticulate stipules. 
The lateral stem leaves are entire. 
The flowers are white or creamy white in a com- 
pound cyme or corymb, erect, and downy, with 
lateral branches. The downy calyx is ultimately 
reflexed. The oblong petals have a claw below. 
The stigma is capitate. The five to six spirally 
twisted capsules are glabrous. 
Meadow Sweet grows to a height of 2 to 3 ft. 
Flowers can be found between May and October. 
The flowers possess abundant pollen but no honey, 
and many insects visit them. The flowers are too 
fragile for insects to settle upon them, so that they 
grasp the stigma and in so doing cross-pollinate them, 
though if the flower is not visited self-pollination 
ensues. The stamens bend over to the centre and 
cover the stigma, afterwards becoming erect again, 
bending outwards. When the anthers open they 
are covered with pollen. After the stamens become 
erect insect visitors alight upon them also. Bees and 
beetles are the principal visitors. | 
The follicle splits open and the seeds are dispersed 
at no distance from the plant. 
Bittersweet, Bridewort, Courtship and Matrimony, 
Goat’s Beard, Harif, Honeysweet, Maid of the 
Meadow, Maid-Sweet, Meadow Soot, Meadow Sweet, 
My Lady’s Belt, Queen-of-the-Meadows, Sweet May 
are the names that have been bestowed upon this 
lovely wild flower. 
