214 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



during June and July. Its leaves are oval or oblong, usually pointed, 

 and tapering towards the base. The flowers are in loose cymes, and 

 imperfect ; the staminate and the pistillate ones being usually on 

 different plants. The calyx is generally more than half an inch 

 long, hairy, with ten ribs and five narrow teeth. It is tubular at 



first, but becomes 

 broadly oval, with a 

 contracted mouth, as 

 the fruit ripens. The 

 five limbs of the 

 corolla are spreading 

 and rather deeply 

 cleft into two parts ; 

 and the fruit is a 

 capsule that splits at 

 tlie top by ten teeth 

 \\hich remain erect 

 or curve only slightly 

 outwards. The plant 

 is found principally 

 in fields and in open 

 waste ground. 



Our fields and 

 |)astures are particu- 

 larly rich in flowers 

 of the Pea family 

 (order Leguviinoscc) 

 during the summer 

 months ; and of these 

 we shall first note 

 1 he pretty Kidney 

 Vetch or Lady's 

 Fingers {Anihyllis 

 Vulneraria), which is 

 common in the dry pastures of most parts of Britain. The whole 

 plant is covered with short silky hairs which lie close agauist the 

 surface ; and the stem, from six inches to over a foot in length, 

 is either erect or spreading. The leaves are pinnately divided 

 into several entire leaflets which are half an inch or more in 

 length, the terminal leaflet of tlie lower leaves being generally 

 much larger tlian the others. The flowers, which bloom from 



The White Cajipiox. 



