THALAMIFLORi© 153 



also occurs on limestone in the dry parts of ash 

 woods where the ground is stony, on limestone scrub, 

 and in limestone grassland associations. Where the 

 soil is a marl or calcareous sandstone it also occurs in 

 Ash-Oakwood, with Dog's Mercury, etc. By the way- 

 side it is a frequent plant, forming tall, compact tufts. 



The habit is erect. The stem is round, leafy, 

 more or less simple, finely downy, the pubescence 

 curly. The leaves have no glands at the margin, 

 and are blunt, ovate, oblong, eUiptical, borne on 

 short stalks, narrowed at the base, hairy on the 

 veins below, with numerous, pellucid, or nearly trans- 

 parent dots. 



The flowers are pale yellow, in axillary and ter- 

 minal, forked panicles. The sepals are lance-shaped, 

 linear to oblong, more or less acute, narrow, fringed 

 with shortly-stalked glands. The petals are twice 

 as long as the sepals, linear to oblong, with stalked 

 glands. The styles are deciduous. The capsule 

 opens by septa, and the seeds are oblong. 



Hairy St. John's Wort flowers in July and August. 

 It is a herbaceous perennial. The height is from 

 1-3 ft., or usually about 2 ft. 



The floral mechanism is like that of Perforate 

 St. John's Wort. The flowers are not so large, 

 however, and the stamens are not so numerous — 

 seven to nine in a bundle. The flowers are less 

 numerous or crowded, and the number of insect 

 visitors is fewer. The stamens are in isolated bundles, 

 and do not take up so much room, so that the 



