138 FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



When chopped up and chewed, the root was considered a cure for 

 toothache. In Chaucer's day it was called Gladdon or Gladyne, and 

 an antidote for poison. The seeds have been used as coffee. The 

 root powdered was used also as snuff. The plant is astringent, and has 

 been used for ink and dye of a black colour. The juice of the root 

 is cathartic, and has been used for dropsy. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



296. Iris Pseudacorus, L. Stem round, leafy, leaves ensiform, 

 flowers yellow, stigmas longer than the perianth, which is beardless. 



Snake's-head Fritillary (Fritillaria Meleagris, L.) 



This choice wild flower has much the same range as other Liliaceous 

 flowers, the North Temperate Zone of Europe (except Greece and 

 Turkey), and West Asia, and is not known before the present day. In 

 Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province only in N. Somerset; 

 in the Channel province only in N. Wilts, Hants; in the Thames pro- 

 vince, not in E. Kent; Anglia, not in W. Norfolk, Hunts, Northants; 

 in the Severn province only in W. Gloucs, Worcester, Warwick, Stafford. 

 Watson thinks it is not indigenous in E = Cornwall, So Devon, Dorset, 

 W. Sussex, Salop, Leicester, N.E. Yorks, Westmorland, Cumberland, 

 and Ayr, and perhaps not even in all of the foregoing. But in 

 Leicestershire it is truly native, growing in the same habitat as in the 

 Thames valley. But it is rare from Norfolk and Stafford to Somerset 

 and Hants. 



This is by no means a common plant, and the only spots in which it 

 is likely to occur are flat meadows on either side of rivers, especially in 

 wide open valleys where recent alluvium occurs. It is a graceful flower 

 with a bulbous rhizome and fibrous roots, growing in scattered clumps 

 here and there. The leaves (4-5) are alternate, channelled, linear 

 lance-shaped, stalkless, not sheathed. The stem is erect, simple, 

 bluish-green, and rounded. 



The flower is chequered, of a purple colour, with white and darker 

 patterns interwoven, or pure white. In shape the flower is like a 

 snake's head, or a dice-box, hence the English and first Latin names. 

 I he flowering stems bear single flowers, which are drooping, and there is 

 no calyx. The petals or petaloid sepals are 6 in number, swollen below. 

 I he 6 anthers are yellow, the stamens being inserted below the ovary. 



The Fritillary is about i ft. high. One may look for the flowers in 

 March, April, and May. Snake's-head Fritillary is a perennial bulbous 

 plant, propagated by offsets, suited to growing under trees. 



