202 



VIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



{Cynoglossum officinale), which is moderately common on waste 

 ground, flowering during June and July. Tliis is an erect jilant, 

 from one to two feet liigh, with a very unpleasant odoiu-. Its stem 

 is stout, branched and haiiy; and the leaves are thickly covered 

 with soft down. The lowest leaves are oval, with long stalks, 



often ten or twelve inches in length ; 

 but the upper ones become smaller 

 and narrower, with shorter stalks, 

 till towards the top they are very 

 narrow, sessile, and clasp the stem. 

 The flowers are in racemes, with 

 short pedicels, and have no bracts. 

 The segments of the calyx are 

 narrow and pointed ; and the small 

 corolla is of a reddish piii-ple colour. 

 The fruit is covered with little 

 spines and is about a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter. 



On dry waysides the Buck"s-horn 

 Plantain {Planlago Coronopus — order 

 Pkmtaginacece) is common. It may 

 Ije readily distinguished as a plantain 

 by its slender, cylindiical spikes of 

 small flowers, and its spreading tuft 

 of radical leaves. This species has 

 a thick root-stock, and its leaves are 

 either linear and undivided, or, more 

 commonly, cut into very narrow 

 segments. The flowers are green, 

 with broad, hairy sepals, the w hole 

 spike measm'ing from one to two 

 inches in length. They bloom duiing 

 June and July. 

 The plants which form the genus Chenopodvwm, of the order 

 Chenopodiacece, are essentially ))lants of the wayside and waste 

 ground, and of these we shall have to note several species. Most 

 of them are distinguished l)y the dusty mealiness of their leaves, 

 though a few do not possess this feature. In general they are 

 characterised by alternate, flat leaves ; and small, green flo\Ners 

 in little sessile clusters, forming sjiikes in the axils of the upper 

 leaves. The little flowers usually have a perianth of five segments 



TUB UOUNU'S-TONGUE. 



