94 



BRITISH FLORA 



at the base, the leaflets much divided, dark-green, 

 with bristle-like segments and spreading, the leaf- 

 stalk as long as the leaf-blade. The flowerhead 

 is a many-rayed umbel, with violet or yellow-white 

 florets, the fruit brown, oblong, nearly round, the 

 carpels with acute ridges, the seeds hollow ven- 

 trally. The plant is from 6 in. to i ft. in height, 

 and flowers in June and July, being a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Knotted Hedge Parsley (Caucalis nodosa, 

 Scop.). The habitat of this plant is dry sunny 

 banks, cornfields, &c. The habit is prostrate. 

 The stem is spreading, slender, wavy, angled, 

 solid. The upper leaves are 1-2 pinnate, the lower 

 2 pinnate, with lobes each side of a common stalk. 

 The leaflets are divided nearly to the base, small. 

 The flowers are small, regular, pink, in dense, 

 stalkless, lateral, small, round umbels opposite a 

 leaf-stalk. There is no general involucre. There 

 are no bracts. The fruit has spreading, barbed 

 bristles, hooked at the tip, egg-shaped, the inner 

 tubercled, the outer with one or more carpels, 

 wtith hooked spines. The styles are very short. 

 The plant is 6-18 in. high, flowering from May to 

 July, and is a herbaceous annual. 



ORDER RUBIACE^E 



Limestone Bedstraw (Galium sylvestre, Poll. = 

 G. asperum, Schreb. = G. pusillurn, L. = G. umbel- 

 latum, Lam.). The habitat of this Galium is dry 

 rocky hills, pastures, limestone hills. The habit is 

 ascending or erect. The stems are rigid, smooth, 

 hairless, or downy below, numerous, slender, 

 square, branched. The leaves are 6-8, in a whorl, 

 narrow, stiffer, awned, with a long, narrow point, 

 slightly rolled back at the margins with a slender 

 prominent midrib, with marginal hairs, spreading 

 or turned back. The flowers are in loose cymes, 

 narrowed above, white, few, erect to spreading, 

 with acute petals. The fruit is granulate. The 

 plant is 6-10 in. high, flowering from June to 

 August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Squinancy Wort (Aspen/la cynanckica, L.). 

 The habitat of this species is dry banks in lime- 

 stone districts, chalk downs, banks, and pastures. 

 The habit is prostrate or ascending. The root is 

 spindle-shaped. The stems are numerous, hair- 

 less, tufted, with ascending branches. The lowest 

 leaves are inversely egg-shaped, the intermediate 

 ones inversely egg-shaped to lance-shaped, the 

 upper lance-shaped, narrowed, mostly linear and 

 unequal, 4 in a whorl, 2 smaller, close set, rigid, 

 blunt-pointed, bent back, not fringed with hairs. 

 The flowers are pink in a loose cyme, the corolla 

 covered with wartlike knobs outside, white within. 

 The fruit is small, warted, wrinkled. The plant 

 is 6-10 in. long, flowering in June and July, and is 

 a herbaceous perennial. 



ORDER COMPOSITVE 



Least Erect Cudweed (Filago minima, Fr.). 

 The habitat of this species is dry, sandy, gravelly 

 soil, dry places. The habit is erect, or prostrate, 



spreading. The stem is slender (the plant greyish), 

 repeatedly forked. The leaves are linear, lance- 

 shaped, acute, flat, small, erect, closely pressed 

 to the stem. The flowerheads are terminal, and in 

 the axils, longer than the leaves, pyramidal, woolly, 

 stalkless. The phyllaries are in 2 series, spread- 

 ing at length, swollen, hollow below, lance-shaped, 

 blunt, hairless, the tips discoloured, the florets 

 yellowish. The fruit is rounded, with wartlike 

 knobs. The plant is 2-8 in. high, flowering from 

 June to September, and is a herbaceous annual. 



Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis, L.). The habitat 

 of this species is dry pastures, commons, especially 

 in the South of England, and it is now on the 

 decrease in the Midlands and northwards. The 

 habit is prostrate, ascending at the extremity. 

 The whole plant is strong-smelling, downy, the 

 stem branched from the base, with numerous 

 leaves. The leaves are twice pinnate, with linear 

 segments. The involucral bracts are blunt. The 

 solitary terminal flowerheads are conspicuous with 

 a yellow disk and white ray, the latter sometimes 

 absent, the florets in the former cylindrical, the 

 ray florets female. Between each 2 florets is an 

 oblong blunt scale. The fruit is round or inversely 

 egg-shaped. There is no pappus. The plant is a 

 foot in height. It flowers in July and August, 

 and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Field Ragwort (Senecio campestris, D.C. = 5. 

 integrifolia, Clairv.). The habitat of this species 

 is dry banks, chalk downs. The habit is erect. 

 The flowering stem is simple, shaggy. The root- 

 stock is short with thick fibres. The radical 

 leaves are egg-shaped, entire (hence integrifolid) 

 or wavy, spreading, leathery, short-stalked, blunt, 

 downy and cottony above. The stem-leaves are 

 small, lance-shaped. The scape is stout or slender, 

 with long, narrow, closely pressed bracts. The 

 flowerheads are pale-yellow, few, in a corymb, on 

 short, erect stalks with bracts below. The in- 

 volucre is broadly bell-shaped, pale, hairless above, 

 woolly below. The ray florets are as long as the 

 bracts, which are blunt and narrow. The fruit is 

 hairy, ribbed. The plant 134-15 in. high, flowering 

 in May and June, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Swine's Succory (A rnoseris pusitta, Gaert.). 

 The habitat of this plant is dry pastures and 

 fields, gravelly and sandy fields, cultivated ground. 

 It disappears after cultivation. The plant is erect, 

 with the rosette habit. The stem is hollow up- 

 wards, swelling, leafless, being a scape, with a 

 small bract below each branch, which overtops 

 the previous one. The scapes are numerous, 

 slender, rigid, with few branches above. The 

 radical leaves are narrow, oblong, inversely egg- 

 shaped to spoon-shaped, or lance-shaped, toothed. 

 The flowerheads are yellow, terminal, solitary, 

 small, or bell-shaped, inclined in bud. The 

 phyllaries are herbaceous, downy, linear to lance- 

 shaped, the tips narrow, blunt. The receptacle is 

 honeycombed at the border. The fruit is small, 

 pale-brown, rough between the ribs, crowned by 

 a minute raised border, 5-angled, narrow below. 

 The plant is 4-12 in. tall, flowering from June to 

 August, and is a herbaceous annual. 



