126 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



our estimate may be considerably exceeded. The general 

 outline of the leaves is almost a circle, though the modifica- 

 tion produced by the two conspicuous rounded lobes at the 

 base has led to the foliage often being rather described as 

 reniform or kidney-shaped. The outline of the leaf is not 

 simple in character, as in the privet and many other leaves, 

 but is made up of a considerable number of rounded lobes 

 or projections. The lower leaves of the plant are often 

 much larger than the others, and are generally on much 

 longer stems ; all the leaves are arranged on the stem in 

 pairs, and have a rough and hairy or downy texture ac- 

 cording as they are old or young. The whole plant has a 

 very perceptible and not altogether agreeable odour; this 

 naturally becomes still more noticeable if the stems or leaves 

 are bruised at all. All the leaves of the ground-ivy are of 

 the same general character; in many plants a very con- 

 siderable difference in many ways may be observed between 

 the upper and lower leaves, the radical or floral forms, 

 but any such difference is very slightly marked in the 

 present example. The flowers are almost always a shade 

 of purple, though, like the heath, hyacinth, and almost 

 all other purple flowers, they are at times found of a 

 pure white. The blossoms are placed in a little semi- 

 circle at the point whence the leaves are given off from 

 the stem ; from three to six blossoms will ordinarily 

 thus be found together, but it is a distinct and noticeable 

 feature in the ground-ivy, as opposed, for example, to 

 the yellow nettle, and many other plants of the order, 

 that the flowers never form a complete ring round the 

 stem, the whorl of flowers is always unilateral, never 

 circular. The flowers are bi-symmetrical in form when 

 seen in front view, not radiate as in the buttercup, and of 



