BOG ASPHODEL 47 



resemblance to Helleborus, and the second Latin name refers to the 

 length of the leaves. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



290. Helleborine longifolia, Rendle and Britten. Stem tall, leaves 

 lanceolate, bracts shorter than the flower, flowers green, lip white and 

 red and purple, label blunt, crenate calyx purplish-green. 



Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum, Huds.) 



Though a northern bog plant no trace of it occurs amongst the 

 remains of Arctic plants found in North Britain and other parts. It is 

 distributed generally in 

 the North Temperate 

 Zone north of the Alps, 

 Pyrenees, N. Asia, N. 

 America. In Great Bri- 

 tain it is not found in 

 N. Wilts; in the Thames 

 province only in Kent, 

 Surrey, Berks, Bucks; 

 and not in Suffolk, 

 Northants, in Anglia ; 

 but elsewhere in E. 

 Gloucs, S. Lines, Notts, 

 Mid Lanes, S.E. Yorks, 

 Hacldington, Stirling, as 



BOG ASPHODEL (Narthecium ossifragum, Huds.) 



far north as the Shet- 

 lands, and up to 3200 ft. 

 in the Highlands. It is found also in Ireland very generally. 



Bog Asphodel is a characteristic bog plant growing at high eleva- 

 tions in wild morasses on mountain-sides, as well as in more lowland 

 stations. As Watson says: "The drainage and enclosure of bogs and 

 marshes no doubt must gradually banish this plant from many of its 

 localities". It is rare in the south-eastern counties, abundant in 

 Scotland. 



The flowering stem, at first prostrate, is then erect, surrounded at 

 the base with many sword-like leaves, and so having the grass habit. 

 The leaves are half as long as the stem, and have marked ribs. 



The flowers are a rich golden -yellow or deep-orange, large and 

 spreading, with woolly anther-stalks. The slender flowering stem has 

 one bract at the base, and is tapering; the flowers have very short 



