318 THE LOWER DICOTYLEDONS. 



a special insect- visitor ; the pollen and honey are sheltered 

 from ram, and the honey can only be reached by a large 

 and long-tongued bee. All three flower in midsummer, 

 when humble-bees are most abundant. The limit of dis- 

 tribution of the Monkshoods (Aconitum} over the earth 

 closely follows, and is just within, that of the humble-bee 

 (Bombus). 



327. Greater Stitch wort (Stettaria kolostea). This 

 well-known plant, whose white star-like flowers are produced 

 so abundantly in hedgerows in spring and early summer 

 (April- June) , is a herbaceous perennial, the shoots dying 

 back in winter. The branches produced in spring arise from 

 buds in the axils of last year's leaves on the old parts of the 

 stem. 



The weak slender stems are four-angled, and easily broken 

 across at the swollen " nodes," which bear the leaves in crossed 

 pairs. The stems are not strong enough to grow erect, except 

 when the plants are crowded and support each other, but 

 they often climb or scramble over the hedge- forming 

 shrubs. The narrow leaves (1 to 4 ins. long) are at first 

 erect (parallel with the stem), but as the stem with its long 

 internodes (due partly at least to the plant being shaded} 

 insinuates itself among the branches of the hawthorns, etc., 

 the leaves spread out and thus hook on to the supports, the 

 four rough ridges of the stem also helping in this method of 

 climbing. 



The grass-like form of the leaves is also well adapted to 

 enable the Stitchwort to grow among long grasses and to get 

 its share of air and light in the struggle which is so keen in 

 crowded hedgerows. The leaves are rigid and sessile, their 

 long narrow shape making a stalk unnecessary, and the bases 

 of each pair are joined around the stem, forming a sort of 

 cup in which water can be caught and absorbed by the stem 

 " nodes." Note the hairs covering the younger parts of the 

 stem and the edges of the leaves, and the single well-marked 

 vein (midrib), with indistinct side-veins, of the leaf. 



Most of the shoots end in an inflorescence, which is a good 

 example of the dichasium or biparous cyme, characteristic of 

 this family though found in several others. The stem ends 

 in a flower which grows out on a long thin stalk, then a 



