FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



or without long leaf-stalks, opposite, the leaves stiffly hairy, the upper 

 egg-shaped, stalkless, the lower heart-shaped. 



The flowers grow in whorls of from 6 to 12, and are yellow, blotched 

 with red or pink. The calyx is acute and rigid. The corolla has a 

 long, entire helmet, with the lower lip divided into 3 subequal lobes, 

 and entire. The tube is short and swollen at the base below. The 

 lower lip is spotted with red. 



The plant is i foot high. It flowers in May and June, and is 



quickly over. It is worth cul- 

 tivating, and is perennial, pro- 

 pagated by division. 



The anthers and stigma 

 mature simultaneously. The 

 tube of the flower is 8 mm. 

 long, and is expanded above 

 for 2 mm., allowing the 

 entrance of a bee's head. 

 Where the honey is secreted 

 at the base of the ovary it is 

 smooth, but lined with hairs 

 above. The stigma is branched, 

 the lobes wart-like, and they 

 diverge soon after the flower 

 opens, but being mature they 

 do not enlarge, but are more 

 prominent afterwards. The 

 tip of the lower division lies 

 above the lower surface of the 

 anthers. If the bee's back only 



presses lightly against the anthers, the stigma is not covered with 

 pollen; but if it is a large bee, and presses the anthers firmly, the 

 stigma gets covered with pollen from another flower. Afterwards the 

 end of the lower lobe projects below the anthers, and is first touched 

 by the bee. Pollen falls on the lower lobe of the stigma if bees do 

 not visit it. The plant is visited by Bombus and honey-bees. 



The nutlets are free, and when ripe fall to the ground below the 

 parent stem, hence Yellow Archangel grows in wide patches in the 

 woods or hedgerows. 



This is a clay-loving plant growing on clay soil. 

 Yellow Archangel is liable to be galled by Cecidomyia galeobdolontis. 

 Two beetles, Meligetkes symphyti, M. erythropus, are found on it. 



Photo. Dr. Somerville Hastings 



YELLOW ARCHANGEL (Lamium Galcobdolon, 

 Crantz) 



