44 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



The flowers are deep-purple or lilac or white, numerous, with a 

 salver-shaped corolla, which is 4-cleft, and fringed with hairs in the 

 mouth, thicker upwards. The calyx is 4-cleft, the sepals acute, two 

 large or wider, and two small, overlapped by the larger ones. The 

 capsule is nearly stalkless. 



The stem is 3-6 in. high. Field Gentian flowers in the autumn 

 in August and September. Being annual it is propagated by seeds. 

 It is worth cultivating in gardens. In alpine regions it is biennial. 



The Field Gentian is adapted for pollination by long-lipped insects, 

 such as humble bees, and the flower is similar in general structure to 

 G. Aniarella^ It is sometimes homogamous, anthers and stigma 

 maturing together; sometimes proterandrous, anthers ripening first. 

 In wet weather the plant may also be cleistogamous. 



The capsule splits open by septa when ripe, containing numerous 

 seeds, which are liberated and fall out around the parent plant. 



As with G. Amarella, this Gentian is a humus-loving plant and 

 requires a humus soil. 



A cluster-cup fungus, Puccinia gentiance, attacks the leaves, as in 

 the case of the Autumn Gentian. 



The second Latin name refers to its habitat, dry pastures. 



The only names by which Field Gentian is known are Baldmoney 

 and Bitterwort. The bitter root is used on account of its astringent 

 properties. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



211. Gentiana campestris, L. Stem erect, branched, leaves ovate 

 lanceolate, flowers lilac, calyx 4-cleft, 2 outer lobes larger. 



Wild Thyme (Thymus Serpyllum, L.) 



Like other Arctic plants, Wild Thyme is an ancient species, found 

 in Late Glacial deposits at Greenock. It is distributed in the Arctic 

 and Temperate regions in Arctic Europe, Siberia, Dahuria, W. Asia 

 as far east as the Himalayas, Greenland, and in N. America it has 

 been introduced only. It is found throughout Great Britain, and if 

 there has been no confusion between this and Th. Chameedrys, up to 

 3500 ft. in the Highlands. 



So familiar and sweet-scented a flower arrested the attention of the 

 poet of human nature, who recalls 



" I know a bank where the wild thyme blows"; 



1 The stigmas are sometimes at the same level as the anthers or lower, or they may project beyond 

 them. Eventually they bend over and the plant may be self-pollinated. 



