viii IAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



capsule. Leaves obovate, crenate, wrinkled, radical. Flower-stalks 

 springing from one point, each bearing a solitary flower, -lootstock 

 stout and fleshy. Woods, shady hedge-banks, pastures. Flowering 

 throughout the spring. Perennial. 



HYACINTH, AGUAi'His NUTANS. Nat. Ord., LiliacecK. 

 Perianth campanulate, six-partite ; blue, more rarely purple or white. 

 Inflorescence a raceme, each flower having two bracts at the base of 

 the pedicel. Pedicels drooping during flowering, erect when plant in 

 bud or fruit. Stamens six, alternate ones longer. Ovary ovoid ; style 

 filiform. Capsule obtusely three-angled, three-valved. Leaves long, 

 linear, channelled, dark green, glossy. Boot bulbous. Plant one foot 

 high. Hedges and woods. April, May. 



DANDELION, TARAXACUM DEXS-LEOXIS. Nat,Ord.,Compositce. 

 All the florets ligulate, bright yellow, outer ones often marked 

 with purple on the back. Involucre of numerous erect and nearly 

 equal inner bracts surrounded by other and larger ones more ordi- 

 narily lax and drooping. Peduncles radical, leafless, bearing single 

 beads of flowers. Leaves obovate, spatulate, deeply pinnatifid, run- 

 cinate. Pappus pilose. Eoot long, black, thick, very bitter. Flowers 

 almost the whole year round. Waste ground and meadows. Perennial. 

 Abundant. 



BULBOUS CROWFOOT, or BUTTERCUP. UAXUX- 

 CULU& BULBOSUS. Nat. Ord., Ranunculacece. Calyx of five sepals, 

 greenish-yellow, on expansion of flower closely reflexed, hairy. Corolla 

 cup-like, of five petals, bright yellow, each having a nectary and small 

 scale at its base. Stamens numerous. Ovaries numerous. Fruit an 

 achene. Leaves very variable in form, cut into three lobes, or tripar- 

 tite ; upper leaves with linear segments. Stem one foot high, hairy, 

 swollen at the base; peduncles furrowed. Meadows. May, June. 

 Abundant. Perennial. 



COMMON ORCHIS, oscms MASCULA. Nat. Ord., OrcM- 

 dacece. -- Perianth irregular, six-partite, five being very similar in 

 form, the sixth, called the lip, differing both in shape and direction, 

 and spurred, three-lobed; outer sepaloid segments acute and reflered. 

 Flowers in a lax spike, purple, at times fragrant. Spur stout, obtuse. 

 Bracts coloured. Stamens, confluent with the style into a central 

 column, three, two of these abortive. Ovary with three receptacles. 

 Capsule three-valved. Leaves spotted with dai-k purple, narrow, ob- 



