40 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



Britain it occurs in every part of the country except in Mid Lancashire, 

 as far north as the Shetlands. In the Highlands it is found at a height 

 of 3600 ft. It is native also in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



Lady's Mantle is a plant of the uplands, being rarely found at 

 low levels. Whilst it grows in meadows and fields of intermediate 

 altitude, it is more often found on the sides of hills, where such plants 

 as Viola calcarea, Hieracium Pilosella, Salad Burnet, Kceleria, and 

 other plants are found. 



It is an erect plant, with kidney-shaped leaves, plaited, with 6-9 



LADY'S MANTLE (Alchemitta vulgaris, L.) 



lobes, and toothed, the stem and leaf- stalks being smooth, the leaves 

 greenish below and downy. The stipules or leaf-like organs on the 

 leaf-stalks are united at the base and toothed. The leaves are mainly 

 radical leaves, and spring from the rootstock, being large and neat. 

 Such leaves borne on the flowering stems are without stalks. 



The yellowish-green flowers are borne in racemose cymes, which 

 are spiked and panicled. The short flower-stalks are downy, and the 

 texture of the whole plant is more or less silky. The achenes or 

 fruits are few and glandular. 



Occasionally the stem is a foot long, usually less, or about 6 in. 

 June to August are the months when the flowers are in bloom. The 

 plant is propagated by dividing the roots. It is a deciduous, herba- 

 ceous perennial. 



The small flowers have no corolla. Because they are green beetles 



