248 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



possessing a strong, pleasant odour. Its stem is much branched, 

 generally clothed with soft hairs ; and its leaves are stalked, 

 ovate, serrate, the upper ones passing into bracts which are shorter 

 than the flowers. The latter are lilac, and form dense, terminal, 

 oblong or globular clusters, with, frequently, two or three dense, 

 axillary whorls beneath. The calyx is tubular, about an eighth 

 of an inch long, with very sharp teeth. 



3. The Marsh Wliorled Mint 

 {M. sativa). — A very similar plant, 

 common in wet places, flowering 

 ^^jTSj-i. during July and August. It grows 



"'^^^"•' from two to five feet high; and its 



cllii)tical, toothed leaves are hairy 

 on both sides. The flowers are 

 lilac, in dense, axillary whorls, 

 without any terminal cluster. 



There is yet another marsh 

 plant of the LabiatcB to be con- 

 sidered, and that is the Marsh 

 Woundwort {Stachys palustris), 

 which is very much like the Hedge 

 Woundwort described on p. 199. 

 It has a stout, hollow, hairy stem, 

 from one to three feet high ; and 

 narrow, coarsely - toothed leaves, 

 from two to foiu: inches long, the 

 upper ones sessile and the lower 

 sliortly stalked. The flowers are 

 pale jjurple or dull, light red, 

 arranged in whorls of from six to 

 ten in the axils of tlie upper leaves. 

 The calyx is bell-s]iaj)ed, with ten ribs and five long, acute teeth ; 

 and the lower lip of the corolla has its side lobes turned back. 



We now reach the interesting Myosotis genus of the Boraginacece, 

 containing the favourite Forget-me-not and the similar Scorpion- 

 grasses. They are all rather low and weak plants, with small, 

 sessile, narrow leaves ; and small flowers in one-sided, curved 

 racemes without bracts. The calyx is cleft into five ; and the corolla 

 has a short tube, partially closed by five little scales, and five 

 spreading or concave lobes. The stamens are enclosed in the tubes 

 of the flower. Three species are coumion in wet places. They are — 



The Fouget-me-not. 



