ii6 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



below. The garden mignonette is, moreover, a 

 familiar plant in almost every garden. When pre- 

 vented from flowering it becomes perennial, and may- 

 survive the winter, even without this precaution. 

 The Dyer's Weed is distinguished from the White 

 and the Wild Mignonette by its linear leaves, and 

 the last has greenish-yellow petals, leaves with few 

 segments, whereas in the White Mignonette the 

 flowers are white, and the petals all divided with some 

 of them as in Wild Mignonette, and the segments of 

 the leaves are many. 



Wild Mignonette {Reseda lutea). 



Belonging to the Mignonette family, this plant is 

 also called Cut-leaved Mignonette, a name which 

 refers to one of the chief distinctions between this 

 plant and Dyer's Weed or Weld {Reseda Luteola). The 

 Latin name lutea refers to the yellow colour of the 

 flower. 



Wild Mignonette is general in the British Isles, 

 and is found in the Channel Islands. 



Chalky districts or tracts of Oolite, and, as a rule, 

 high ground, with rather a dry soil, are the special 

 habitats of this plant. It occurs also on limestone. 

 On the chalk the subsoil and soil is often sandy, 

 and the plant occurs as frequently in sandy areas — 

 a characteristic of many chalk plants. It is not 

 regarded as a native, and is frequently found on waste 

 ground, or where there is evidence of cultivation. I 



