118 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



The influence of geological formation is often mucn 

 o-reater than many persons who have not stiidied the matter 

 at all would suppose, for we find numerous species attaching 

 themselves, either exclusively or by evident choice, to cer- 

 tain soils; the chalk hills of our downs, for example, 

 whether met with round Dover, or Guildiord, or wherever 

 else they may be, afford a good illustration of this. The 

 salad burnet is a lover of chalk and limestone, and is 

 abundant wherever we get a dry hill-side or high-lying 

 pasturage of this character in the south. It is much more 

 rarely met with in either Scotland or Ireland, than in 

 England. 



The salad burnet is a perennial, and should be looked 

 for during June, July, and August. Inconspicuous as 

 it is, it is not without a certain quaint charm of its 

 own; the foliage is richly cut, and the flower-heads are 

 very curious. Several nearly upright stems, from nine 

 inches to a foot or so in height, are thrown up from the 

 root ; these are somewhat angular, often reddish in colour 

 and smooth to the touch. The leaves spring in alternate 

 arrangement from these stems ; each leaf is composed of 

 numerous lateral leaflets, small, and deeply cut into acute 

 teeth. The necessities of our space have compelled us to 

 be content with showing a leaf having seven pairs of these 

 leaflets, but leaves with twice that number are quite as com- 

 monly met with. The flowers grow in globular heads, the 

 lower flowers in each head being males, and the upper ones 

 females. Hence, at the lower part of each head we see 

 conspicuously the hanging tufts of stamens, while the whole 

 is surmounted by the less noticeable, but delicate and richly 

 coloured stigmas. The staminiferous flowei's are large and 

 spreading, green in colour, and often edged with crimson ; 



