i 2 6 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



Gipsywort is a peat-loving plant and requires a peat soil, or a 

 clay-loving plant and grows on clay soil. 



Three beetles, Scirtes hemisph&ricus, Longitarsus lycopi, L. abdomi- 

 nalis, are found upon it. No fungi infest the plant. 



Lycopus, Fuchs, is from the Greek lukos, wolf, and pous, foot, from 

 the shape of the leaves; and the second name (Latin) refers to its 

 supposed range. 



The plant is known as Gipsy-herb, Gipsy-wort, Marsh Horehound, 

 Water Horehound. It is called Gipsy-herb on account of its use by 

 "those stroling cheats called gipsies" to give themselves "swart 

 colour such as the Egyptians and the people of Afrike are of" 

 (Gerarde). 



This plant yields a black dye, and a permanent colour to wool, linen, 

 and silk. There are 82 flowers in a whorl. The leaves vary much in 

 the degree of hairiness, and may be smooth or slightly downy. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



248. Lycopus eiirop&its, L. Stem erect, branched, leaves petiolate, 

 acute, serrate, opposite, flowers small, white, sessile, in dense whorls, 

 axillary, calyx 5-fid. 



Skull-cap (Scutellaria galericulata, L.) 



This is another marsh plant which is one of the Arctic species not 

 found in early deposits as yet. It is found to-clay in the Arctic and 

 Temperate Zones in Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. Asia, as far east as 

 X.\Y. India, and N. America. In Great Britain it does not grow in 

 N. Somerset, Monmouth, Carmarthen, Mid Lanes, Hadclington, Mid 

 Perth, S. Aberdeen, Easterness, Caithness, or Northern Isles, except 

 the Isle of Harris. It is rare in Scotland and local in Ireland. 



The Blue Skull-cap is a familiar waterside plant, which is distinctly 

 hygrophilous, occurring by the side of most tracts of water, such as 

 ditches, streams, rivers, and also by the margins of pools, ponds, and 

 lakes. It is found also in damp places in woods in the shade, and is 

 frequent in bogs and marshes. 



It grows in small clusters or groups, with an erect, quadrangular, 

 concave or hollow stem, with oblong, heart-shaped, blunt, stalked leaves, 

 scalloped, acute at the top, and serrate or coarsely toothed. 



The flowers are blue, in pairs, all turned one way, axillary, softly 

 and loosely hairy, and whitish below. The calyx has a blunt mouth, 

 with a scale acting as a lid, and the first Latin name refers to its shape, 

 the second having reference to the corolla, which is white inside, much 



