120 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



the enlarged group of carpels borne on the receptacle, from which 

 the sepals, petals, and stamens have fallen. Each separate carpel 

 develops into a fruitlet containing a single seed. When ripe 

 the fruitlets, which do not open to liberate the seeds, become 

 detached from the receptacle and scattered. The seeds do not 

 germinate till the following spring, and the seedling is peculiar in 

 having only a single cotyledon, although the plant belongs to the 

 Dicotyledons which, almost without exception, have a pair of 

 seed leaves. 



THE LADY'S SMOCK, OR CUCKOO FLOWER (Cardamine 

 pratensis, L.). 



This is a very common and abundant plant in damp meadows, 

 to which its flowers sometimes give an almost continuous lilac 

 tint in the later months of spring. It is one of a number of 

 plants which bear the English name of Cuckoo Flower, doubtless 

 because they are in flower at the season when the note of the 

 Cuckoo is heard. The case may be mentioned as an illustration 

 of the disadvantage of only knowing the English name of a plant. 

 There is only one plant to which the scientific name Cardamine 

 pratensis applies, and this makes reference easy and certain. Of 

 the two English names of this plant, Lady's Smock is to be 

 preferred as avoiding the risk of confusion with other Cuckoo 

 Flowers. 



The plant is a perennial, growing up season after season, 

 and a well-grown plant has a thick underground stem upon which 

 the scars of the leaves of former years can be distinguished. 

 In the axils of some of them are buds, which are often developed 

 as lateral shoots. Numbers of fine white roots spring from the 

 stem. At the base of each shoot are a number of closely crowded 

 leaves, the stalks of which are longer than those of the leaves 

 higher up on the stem. In the case of shoots which are not 

 going to flower, and remain short, these are the only leaves present. 

 One or more shoots, however, elongate, and after bearing a number 

 of scattered leaves end in an inflorescence of lilac-coloured flowers. 



If the underground stem is more carefully examined it will 

 be found to bear the marks of the flowering stems of former 



