FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 



[As in the case of cornfields, hills, waste places, walls, Sic., the plants that are included here may be found in 

 some other habitats occasionally, since the roadside and the hedge are of modern origin. But the latter are 

 pre-eminently the stations for a number of plants that are especially fond of a hedge-bottom or a bank, and 

 they afford a place of refuge for such species from the attacks of cattle. The shade-lovers also that have sur- 

 vived the cutting down or disappearance of the woods and forests are able to nourish in the hedge.] 



ORDER CRUCIFER. 



Barbarea arena/a, Reichb. The habitat of this 

 plant is roadsides, banks of ditches, cultivated 

 ground. The habit is the rosette habit, the plant 

 having- radical leaves and an erect stem. The plant 

 is yellowish-green. The leaves are much as in the i 

 common Yellow Rocket. The flowers are larger, 

 the petals last longer, are more than twice as long 

 as the sepals, and are in a long looser raceme. 

 The pods are long, spreading (the raceme being 

 arched when young), and are 5-8 times as long as 

 the stalks. The styles are longer. The seeds are 

 smaller, darker, more than twice as long as broad. 

 The plant is similar in height, flowering, and dura- 

 tion to B. -cultraris. 



American Cress (Barbarea prcecox, Br.). The 

 habitat of this plant is roadsides, cultivated 

 ground, and waste places, and it is a garden 

 escape. The plant has the rosette habit. Hooker 

 considered it a cultivated form of B. vulgaris, to ( 

 which it is closelv allied. The lower leaves are 

 divided nearly to the base, with narrow lobes, or 

 lyrate, larger upwards, the upper pair of lobes as 

 long as the nearly heart-shaped terminal lobe. 

 The upper leaves are divided nearly to the base, 

 the lobes entire, linear, oblong. The flowers are ' 

 yellow, medium-sized, in a close raceme, the petals ' 

 3 times as long as the sepals, the flower-stalks j 

 short and stout. The style is short. The pods are j 

 spreading, long, distant, not much broader than ! 

 the flower-stalks, jointed, with a short, thick point. 

 The seeds are longer than broad by one-quarter, 

 twice as broad and ellipsoid as in B. vulgaris. 

 The plant is 9 inches to 2 ft. high, flowering from 

 May to July, and is a herbaceous biennial. 



Bury Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium polycera- 

 tium, L.). The habitat of this plant is roadside 

 paths. The habit is prostrate or erect, and 

 branched. The stem is hairless, leafy. The leaves, 

 with lobes turned back, divided nearly to the base, 

 hairless, or only with a large terminal lobe, are tri- 

 angular and toothed. The flowers are in short, 

 leafy racemes, small, yellow. The style is short, 

 thick, the stigma blunt. The pods are 1-3, in the | 

 axils of leafy bracts, awl-like, spreading, broad I 



78 



below, stalkless, or shortly stalked, the stalks 

 short and thick. The valves of the pods are 

 3-nerved, convex, beaded, blunt. The plant is 18 

 in. high, flowering in July and August, and is a 

 herbaceous annual. * 



ORDER CARYOPHYLLACE^E 



Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis, L.). The habi- 

 tat of this plant is roadsides, hedges, riverbanks, 

 fields, banks of streams on the borders of Wales, 

 &c., in which last case it ma}' be indigenous. The 

 habit is erect. The rootstock is white, fleshy, 

 stoloniferous. The stem is stout, leafy, straight, 

 ascending. The plant is hairless, bluish-green. 

 The leaves are oblong, lance-shaped, 3-ribbed, 

 the upper sheathing, united below. The flowers 

 are in a cyme or panicled corymb, large, pale- 

 pink or white. The petals are inversely heart- 

 shaped, with a long narrow claw, crowned, notched, 

 the calyx cylindrical, not angled. The capsule is 

 egg-shaped. The seeds are kidney-shaped. The 

 plant is 1-3 ft. high, flowering in August and Sep- 

 tember, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Bladder Campion (Silene Cucuba/us, Wib. = 5. 

 injiata, Sm., and S. latifolia, Mill.). The habitat 

 of this species is roadsides, fields, and waste 

 places. The habit is erect. The plant is branched, 

 bluish-green except in the axils, where rain col- 

 lects and is probably absorbed, smooth as a rule. 

 The stem is erect, with no barren prostrate stems. 

 The leaves are hairless, egg-shaped or inversely 

 so, oblong, or elliptic to lance-shaped. The bracts 

 have a membranous border. The flowers are 

 white, terminal, panicled, the branches unequal, 

 numerous, drooping, the petals deeply cleft, rarely 

 crowned, with narrow lobes, the calyx inflated 

 (hence inflatd), netted, the mouth narrower than 

 the base. The capsule is rounded, conical above. 

 The plant is 1-3 ft. high, flowering from June to 

 August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Three-nerved Sandwort (Arenariatrinervis, L.). 

 The habitat of this species is hedgebanks, moist 

 copses, woods, damp shady places. The habit is 

 prostrate. The stem is limp, weak, branched, 

 with spreading- hairs. The leaves are stalked, 



