EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS 215 



August. Its general appearance is shown in the accompanying 

 plate. The young plant has a main root, but roots also spring 

 from the stem and in older plants only these may be found. The 

 short thick stem grows on year after year, producing a number 

 of long-stalked foliage-leaves each year. The older parts of the 

 stems are clothed with the withered brown bases of the leaves of 

 former seasons. According to its size, the plant may bear one or 

 several erect shoots with a number of foliage-leaves at the lower 

 nodes and flowers above. These shoots stand in the axils of 

 leaves of the preceding season ; usually only the withered base of 

 the leaf can be seen. 



Each of the large leaves has a wide sheathing base of a reddish 

 colour. This is thick in the middle, and thins out into margins 

 fringed by long hairs. To the sides of the leaf-base just where it 

 passes gradually into the leaf-stalk the small green tips of the 

 stipules can usually be made out. The leaf-stalk is chanelled 

 above, convex below, and like the rest of the plant is clothed with 

 short hairs. The leaf-stalk ends in a large, thin, three-lobed blade, 

 and the leaf at first sight appears a simple one. But below this we 

 find one or two pairs of small leaflets, so that it is clear that we 

 have to do with a pinnate leaf, the tip of which is greatly developed 

 while the lateral pinnae are small. The margins of the pinnae and 

 terminal blade are cut into rather wide teeth, each ending in a sharp 

 point. The main veins project on the lower side of the leaf -blade, 

 which is hairy on both surfaces. 



The erect shoots have a stout green stem, marked with pro- 

 jecting ribs extending down from the sides of the leaf -bases. The 

 internodes are elongated and each node bears a leaf, which consists 

 of a leaf -base with a large green leafy stipule to each side, a longer 

 or shorter leaf -stalk, and a leaf -blade consisting of a terminal leaflet 

 and a pair of lateral leaflets. The axillary buds of these lower 

 leaves may give rise to lateral flowering shoots. Higher up on 

 the main shoot the leaves become still simpler in form, and consist 

 of the pair of leafy stipules and a short stalk expanding into the 

 single terminal leaflet. 



The main axis of the inflorescence ends in a flower which is the 

 first to open, and the lateral shoots similarly terminate in flowers. 

 A short distance below the flower a pair of small bracts standing 



