82 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS, 



spots it is larger in all its parts. The specimen we selected 

 was fully a foot in height, but then it grew amidst the 

 long grass of a country churchyard, and so got drawn up 

 to the light in the general struggle for existence. The 

 stems are often deeply grooved and rough to the touch ; but 

 here, again, the circumstances of the plant's life largely in- 

 fluence the habit. Like many another denizen of earth, a 

 hard lot furrows and roughens it, while the sunshine of 

 prosperity removes many an angle. The stems, and 

 especially the lower portions of them, are often tinted with 

 reddish -purple, and the whole branches freely, lateral stems 

 being thrown off in pairs at almost every node, and increas- 

 ing in length the lower their position on the main stems. 

 The leaves are placed in pairs opposite to each other, and 

 are borne on short foot-stalks. In form they are what is 

 termed ovate oval, with a more pointed extremity. It will 

 be seen in our illustration that they stand boldly out 

 from the stem : a very characteristic feature in the plant. 

 They are often a little harsh and rough to the touch, from 

 a number of little prominent points on their upper surface, 

 and their outline is either one continuous line, as in the 

 example before us, or they are very slightly indented along 

 their margins. Though our British examples are very 

 much of one character, the self-heal on the Continent is 

 found to vary a great deal in many respects, such as size 

 and colour of the flowers, and more especially in the foliage, 

 the leaves in foreign specimens being sometimes deeply 

 lobed. The flower-spikes are terminal on the branches ; at 

 first very short, compact, and cylindrical, but presently 

 opening out somewhat. It maintains much the same size 

 throughout its length, and does not show the gradually 

 tapering form that we often see in the inflorescence of many 



