74 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



Vinca is the Pervinca of Pliny, and Periwinkle comes from this, 

 the second Latin name denoting that it is smaller than the other 

 Periwinkle. 



The plant is called Blue Buttons, Dicky Dilver, Ground Ivy, Peri- 

 winkle, Sen Green. It was supposed to inspire love, and called Death's 

 flower, being scattered over the graves of children in Italy and 

 Tuscany. It was said to signify early recollections or pleasures of 

 memory. Rousseau was struck with their appearance in a hedge 

 when going to Charmattes, and thirty years afterwards, in company 

 with Mme De Stael he saw the flower, and it reminded him of the 

 occasion again. It is much cultivated in gardens and shrubberies. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



208. Vinca minor, L. Stem procumbent, wiry, with erect leafy 

 shoots, leaves lanceolate, margins smooth, flowers blue, solitary. 



Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis, L.) 



Not being native in this country, Lungwort is not found in any 

 early deposits. It is a member of the Northern Temperate Flora of 

 Europe. It is not an indigenous plant, and is regarded by Watson as 

 an introduction in the thirty odd counties in which it occurs in S. Scot- 

 land and England. 



Everywhere it is rare and merely naturalized, having escaped from 

 cultivation in the garden, and it is usually found in copses and similar 

 woodland habitats close to houses, by the owners of which, in the 

 first instance, it has been dispersed by planting with other plants, 

 such as Periwinkle, Spurge Laurel, and some others equally under 

 suspicion. 



The name Lungwort, translated from the first Latin name, refers 

 to a character of the leaves, which have a spotted appearance. It is 

 an erect, hairy, slender-stemmed plant with alternate leaves, the radical- 

 leaves being egg-shaped or heart-shaped, rough, the stem-leaves stalk- 

 less and egg-shaped. The leaves are spotted with pale-green patches 

 about a quarter of an inch across. 



The flowers are pale purple or pink, and of two forms, long- and 

 short-styled, the short-styled form having larger flowers. The flower- 

 stalks are simple and the flowers in terminal forked cymes. The calyx 

 is as long as the straight tube of the corolla. The corolla, first pink 

 (like others), turns blue later, hence the flowers present a variegated 

 appearance. 



The stem is i foot high. The Lungwort flowers in May and June. 



