34 



FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



leafy. The leaves are pinnate, with lobes each side of a common 

 stalk, white-felted below or hairless, toothed, with large toothed leaflets 

 and smaller intermediate ones. In the radical leaves the terminal 

 ones are large, the lateral ones egg-shaped, entire, small, alternate. 

 The terminal leaflets are large with acute lobes, palmately lobed, with 

 3-5 segments. The stem leaves are downy below. The stipules are 



leafy, rounded, half- 

 egg-shaped, toothed. 

 The flowers are 

 creamy white, sweet- 

 scented, in corymb- 

 like cymes, which are 

 very compound, with 

 long lateral branches. 

 The lobes of the 

 calyx are turned 

 back. The petals are 

 rounded. The car- 

 pels are hairless, 

 twisted together, al- 

 most horizontal, 5-9, 

 with two pendulous 

 ovules. The stamens 

 are numerous, 20-60. 

 Meadow-sweet is 

 from 2 to 3 ft. high. 

 The flowers may be 

 gathered from May 

 or June to October. 

 The plant is peren- 

 nial and increased by 

 division. 



The Meadow-sweet, as the name implies, is a sweet-scented flower. 

 The compound cymes are conspicuous, and though the flowers clo 

 not contain honey they are much visited by insects, as the stamens are 

 numerous and pollen is therefore abundant. In the first stage the 

 stamens bend over towards the centre completely hiding the stigmas. 

 But they gradually become erect, and bend outwards in succession. 

 They then open and are covered with pollen. The centre of the 

 flower then becomes accessible to insects, either small creeping ones or 

 larger flying insects. When the stigma ripens it is thus open to 



MEADOW-SWEET (Spir&a Ulmaria, L.) 



