20 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



When cultivated in the garden the flowers are double. Occasion- 

 ally the plant is white-flowered. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



50. Lychnis Flos-ciiculi, L. Stem angular, purplish-green, leaves 

 lanceolate, flowers pink, notched, in a loose panicle, calyx tubular, 

 capsule 5-toothed. 



Meadow Crane's Bill (Geranium pratense, L.) 



The seed-bearing beds have yielded no testimony as yet as to 

 the antiquity (or otherwise) of this fine plant. It is found in the North 

 Temperate and Arctic Zones, in Arctic Europe, and Siberia. It is 

 found in several counties of England and Wales, as well as Scotland, 

 but is absent apparently from N. Cornwall, N. Devon, Isle of Wight, 

 W. Sussex, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Merioneth, Lincoln, Mid Lanca- 

 shire, Isle of Man, Peebles, Selkirk, Stirling, Elgin, Inverness, Mid 

 and N. Ebudes. It is found in the Orkneys. In the N. Highlands 

 it is found only in East Ross. In the Highlands it is found at 1800 ft. 

 In N.E. Ireland it is very rare. 



The Meadow Crane's Bill is a plant of the meadows and fields, 

 growing by the sides of streams, and generally in moist situations, 

 usually in lowland districts, but sometimes at high elevations, under 

 moist conditions. With it grow Meadow Sw r eet, Cowslip, Yellow 

 Rattle, Self-heal, Spotted Orchid, amongst many others. 



The habit of the Meadow Crane's Bill is more or less erect and 

 pyramidal, inversely so, the leaves on long stalks, forming a flat plat- 

 form above, radiating from the rootstock. Thus they present a wide 

 surface to the light and air. The rootstock is blunt. The stems are 

 erect to spreading, branched above, and are glandular hairy above, 

 with the hairs turned downwards. The leaves are all stalked, the 

 radical ones very long-stalked, and are rounded or palmate with seven 

 lobes radiating from a common centre, the lobes cut and coarsely 

 toothed, irregularly lobed, acute. The stipules are awl-shaped to lance- 

 shapecl. 



The flowers are large, i-ij in. across, bluish-purple, veined. The 

 petals are long, inversely egg-shaped, entire or notched, the claw or 

 stalk fringed with hairs, or bearded. The sepals are long-awned, 

 spreading. The filaments are slender, wedge-shaped below, hairless, 

 or hairy at the base. The flower-stalks are 2 -flowered, bent back in 

 fruit. The carpels are smooth, glandular to hairy, the hairs spreading. 

 The seeds are minutely netted. 



