47 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



I. The Stinking May Weed (A. cotula}. Ray-florets usually without pistils. The 

 plant is smooth or hairy, not downy, but the leaves are quite smooth, and covered 

 with minute glands, which secrete a foetid-smelling and acrid juice, causing 

 swelling of the hands in persons clearing fields of this weed. The flower-stalks 

 are more slender than in arvensis, and the involucral bracts are narrower at their 

 tips. Fields, wastes and roadsides ; very common in South of England, rare in 

 the North. Flowers June to September. 



II. The Chamomile (A. nobilis.) Perennial. Branches spreading from the root, 

 teafy and furrowed, hollow. Leaves woolly, aromatic. Flower-stalk long and 

 slender ; involucre downy and chaffy. The ray-florets are sometimes wanting. In 

 great favour as a remedy for indigestion. Gravelly pastures and dry wastes in 

 England and Ireland. Rare. It is not a native of Scotland. Flowers July to 

 September. 



St. John's Wart (Hypericum perforatuni). 



There are no less than eleven native species of St. John's 

 Wort, all characterized by a neat habit, clean-cut leaves with- 

 out stalks, yellow flowers in cymose clusters, and a multitude 

 of stamens, which are more or less joined in several bundles. 



The species represented on our plate is one of the 

 commonest, and occurs in copses and hedgebanks throughout 

 the kingdom, as far north as Sutherland, flowering from July 

 to September. It is very erect in habit, the stems two-edged, 

 pale brown and smooth, two or three feet high. If the leaves 

 are held up to the light it will be found that the veins (but not 

 the reticulations] are pellucid, and that the leaf is thickly 

 dotted with pellucid glands. The flowers are i to ij inch in 

 diameter. The calyx, corolla, and sometimes leaves are more 

 or less marked with black dots and lines. The sepals and 

 petals are each five in number ; the ovary large, pear-shaped, 

 surmounted by three long styles, which are longer than the 

 ovary. The stamens joined in three bundles by their bases 

 only. Sepals glandular. 



Among the other British species are : 



I. Square- stalked St. John's Wort (H. tetrapterum\ Stem with four narrow 

 wings, i to 2 feet, leaves broader than in perforat^^1n^ but the glands, veins and 

 reticulations are pellucid. Styles shorter than the ovary. Flowers dense, 3 to f 

 inch, across. Moist places, July and August. 



