146 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 



A hedgerow plant, Herb Robert is one of the unfailing signs of 

 spring with its characteristic scent, which is perceptible in the middle 

 of a lane. It grows where one also finds Red Campion, Winter Cress, 

 Garlic Mustard, Hedge Parsley, Cow Parsnip, Cleavers, Nipplewort, 

 and many another hedgerow flower. It is also a common woodland 

 species, forming big clumps where there is open space, and is always 

 a shade-lover. But another habitat is waste ground, where it is 



commonly accompanied by 

 Hedge Mustard, Nipple- 

 wort, and wayside thistles. 

 1 1 is a straggling, spread- 

 ing plant, with many diverg- 

 ing branches, slender, shin- 

 ing, but stiffly hairy, and 

 vinous red, with swollen 

 nodes. The leaves are 

 opposite, 3-5-parted, with 

 lobes divided into three 

 parts at the back and nearly 

 to the midrib, the segments 

 having a small terminal red 

 spine. There are paired 

 stipules or leaflike organs 

 at the nodes. The flowers 

 are streaked red and white, 

 or white. The flower-stalks 

 are 2-flowered, the sepals 

 closely united, the petals 

 entire and as long as the 

 calyx, which has long awns, 

 and is slightly glandular. The capsules are transversely wrinkled. 



The plant grows to a height of 2 ft. The flowers are in evidence 

 for six months from April onwards. Herb Robert is a perennial. 



The honey is not protected by a fringe of hairs from the rain in this 

 plant, as in the Meadow Crane's Bill, and the flowers are not so ex- 

 panded or large as in the latter, but are partly drooping in wet weather, 

 and the corolla is tubular, the petals smooth. The 5 stigmas are 

 adjacent when the plant is in flower, and the 5 outer stamens are quite 

 near them in the centre, and thus protect the honey. The anthers 

 project above them and become covered with pollen. The 5 inner 

 stamens remain bent outwards, and are not in an insect's way. The 



HKRB ROBERT (Geranium robertianttiH, L.) 



