244 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



marshes and other wet places. They are both smooth ])hvnts with 

 opposite leaves, and hemispherical heads of yellowish flowers 

 surrounded by two or three rows of bracts, the outer of which are 

 spreading. The receptacle is flat, with membranous scales between 

 the florets ; and the fruits are crowned by fi'om two to five stiff, 

 prickly l)ristles. The more abundant of these is the Nodding Bur 

 Marigold {B. ccrnua), a stout ])lant, from one to two feet liigli, 

 distinguished by its narrow, entire, sessile leaves, and its drooping 



flower-heads. The other — 

 the Trifid Bur Marigold 

 [B. tripartita) — has three- 

 cleft, stalked leaves, and 

 heads erect or only slightly 

 drooping. 



The Common Ragwort 

 of waste places, described 

 on p. 187, is represented 

 in marshes and wet places 

 by a very similar plant 

 called the Marsh Ragwort 

 {Senecio aquaticus), which 

 varies from one to three 

 feet in height, and flowers 

 in July and August. Its 

 stem is more slender than 

 that of *S'. Jacobcea, and is 

 usually more branched. 

 The leaves are either 

 deeply toothed, or pin- 

 nately cut into segments which decrease in size towards the base. 

 The yellow flower-heads are not so densely crowded as in the 

 Common Ragwort, and have longer stalks. 



The Scrophuktriaceo} contains three common plants of the 

 Veronica genus that grow in wet places. All three are similar in 

 that they have opposite leaves ; a corolla with a short tube, and 

 four spreading limbs, of which the lowest is narrowest ; two stamens ; 

 and a capsular fruit, flattened at right angles to its partition, opening 

 by two valves, and containing a few seeds. 



One of these is the Marsh Speedwell ( Veronica scutellata), al)imd- 

 ant in the marshes and ditches of most ])arts of Britain. It has a 

 weak, straggling stem, from four to eight inches high, with creeping 



The BROOKiiiME. 



