WHITE FLOWERS 23 



22. Shepherd's Purse, Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Cress family. 

 Perhaps the commonest of our weeds, found in fields, gardens, 

 roadsides, and woods, flowering almost all the year round : from 



22. Shepherd's Purse. 



23. Wood Sorrel. 



the rosette of more or less deeply feather-cut leaves springs 

 a stalk about 1 ft. high, with a spike of inconspicuous white 

 flowers : the plant is most readily recognised by its fruits, which 

 are little heart-shaped pouches with the 

 notch turned outwards. 



23. Wood Sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, 

 Wood Sorrel family. One of the prettiest 

 of our woodland plants : there is a knotty 

 underground stem, from the apex of 

 which arise the slender leaf-stalks, each 

 with a leaf composed of three heart- 

 shaped leaflets, the base of the heart being 

 turned away from the stalk: among the 

 leaves there appear in early summer one 

 or two flower-stalks, each with a delicate, 

 drooping, bell-like flower, the white petals < 

 of which are veined with purple: the 

 leaves, which are occasionally used as a 

 salad, have a pleasant acid flavour. 



24. Dutch Clover, Trifolium repens, 

 Vetch family. The stem is more or less 

 prostrate, and gives off leaves on long 



stalks ; these are divided into three serrate leaflets, and possess 

 ovate stipules ; the flower stalks are longer than the leaves, in 

 the axils of which they grow, and bear heads of cream-coloured 



24. Dutch Clover. 



