4.2 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



Europe, N. and W. Asia. In Great Britain it is found throughout 

 the Peninsula province, in Wilts and Dorset in the Channel province, 

 in the Thames province not in Kent or Essex, throughout Anglia, 

 Severn, S. Wales and Montgomery, Carnarvon, Anglesea, and Flint, 

 in N. Wales, in the Trent, and in the Mersey province except in 

 Mid Lanes, H umber province, Tyne and Lakes provinces except in 

 the Isle of Man, in the whole of the West Lowlands except Renfrew 

 and Lanark, and in Roxburgh, Berwick, and Forfar. It is found in 

 Yorkshire at 1500 ft. It is native in W. and N. Ireland and the 

 Channel Islands. 



Great Burnet, with its tall purple flowerheads, is a conspicuous plant 

 in most meadows laid to grass in the summer. In meadows, fields, 

 and pastures it grows side by side with Yellow Rattle, Sorrel, Saw- 

 wort, Field Scabious, Ox-eye Daisy, &c. 



Quite a familiar sight in the meadows in summer, the tall erect 

 stems of the Great Burnet are branched, with egg-shaped, half-heart- 

 shaped leaflets, the leaves smooth, the lobes one each side of the 

 common stalk, and distant or few. 



Deep purplish-brown, the heads of flower are conspicuous amid 

 the green sea of wild flowers and grasses in a meadow. The spike 

 is egg-shaped or oblong, with calyx and stamens of the same length, 

 the latter not shorter than the sepaloid calyx, which is smooth. In fruit 

 the calyx is four-winged in the upper part. 



Two to three feet is the height of this species. It flowers from 

 June to August. A deciduous, herbaceous perennial, it is propagated 

 by means of seeds. 



The flower has no corolla, and the calyx does duty for petals. 

 This in the lowest part (and the middle belongs to the tube of the 

 receptacle) surrounds the ovary, and the middle part, a fleshy ring 

 round the base of the style, secretes honey, while the upper part 

 spreads out into four dark-purple, sepal-like lobes. The anthers and 

 stigmas develop together. The plant is monoecious, the sexes being 

 on the same plant. The flowers are pollinated by insects, unlike P. 

 sanguisorba, though the stigma is divided as in a wind-pollinated 

 flower, and the character is doubtless inherited from a wind-pollinated 

 ancestor resembling Poterium. 



The fruit is dispersed by wind, the calyx is four-winged and 

 encloses the achenes or fruits, helping to disperse them by the wind. 



Being addicted to a sand soil it is sand-loving, or clay-loving, and 

 found on a clay soil, but it usually grows on sandy loam. 



Burnet leaf -spot, Xenedockus carbonarius, is parasitic upon it. 



