218 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



by the persistent, brown corollas. This species flowers from June 

 to August. 



Tiie Lesser Yellow Trefoil {T. rninns) is very much like the last, 

 and flowers at the same time, but is more slender and more 

 procumbent ; and its flower-heads, which consist of from ten to 

 twenty pale yellow flowers, are on stiff peduncles. 



Our last example of the Leguminosce is the Meadow Pea or 

 Meadow Vetchling {Lathyrus ■pratensis), which is a very common 

 flower of moist pastures. The plant is straggling, with a weak, 

 angled stem that supports itself by interlacing with the surrounding 

 herbage, aided by its branched tendrils. Its stipules are large, 

 narrow-oval in form, with an arrow-shaped base. The compound 

 leaf has only one paii' of lanceolate leaflets, the remaining leaflets 

 having been modified into tendrils for the support of the plant. 

 The long axillary peduncles each bear a one-sided raceme of from 

 six to ten yellow flowers, which are followed by rather large, smooth 

 pods. The plant flowers from June to September. 



The order Bosaceoe contains the Great Burnet {Sanguisorba 

 officinalis), the only British representative of its genus. It is very 

 much like the Lesser Burnet (p. 301) in general appearance, but 

 much taller and larger. It is a smooth plant, with an erect stem 

 from one to two feet high, the upper part of which is almost leafless. 

 The leaves are mostly radical or on the lower part of the stem, and are 

 pinnate, with from seven to thirteen oval or oblong, toothed leaflets. 

 The long peduncles each bear an oval head of crowded flowers of a 

 dark purple colour. Each flower has a calyx of four coloured lobes, 

 enclosed within bracts; and four stamens. There are no petal?. 

 The plant is moderately common in the damp meadows of England 

 -and South Scotland, and flowers from June to August. 



The Lady's Mantle [Alchemilla vulgaris) is a common plant in 

 the hilly pastures of North England, but is much less frequent in 

 the South. It varies from six to eighteen inches in height, and bears 

 loose, terminal clusters of small yellowish-green flowers from June 

 to August. The Uttle flowers have a free calyx of eight segments in 

 two whorls of four, the outer ones smaller than the inner ; no petals ; 

 a few stamens ; and an ovary of one or two one-seeded carpels 

 enclosed in the tube of the calyx. 



In moist meadows and other damp places we commonly see the 

 fragrant Meadow Sweet or Queen of the Meadows {Spiraea Uhnaria), 

 of the same order. This is an erect plant, from two to four feet high, 

 bearing densely-crowded cymes of small, creamy-white flowers 



