228 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES L— AS PERU LA ODOR AT A. Linn. 



Plate DCLX. 



Reich. Ic. FI. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCLXXVIII. Figs. 2, 3. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1493 (bis). 



Perennial. Pootstock creeping. Stems solitary, erect, simple, 

 glabrous, with a hairy ring below each node. Leaves G to 9 in a 

 whorl, all those in each whorl equal, elliptical or oblanceolate- 

 elliptical, sub-cuspidate, glabrous, ciliated. Flowers in 1 to 5 

 terminal stalked corymbose cymes, arranged in a sub-unibellate 

 manner. Corolla bellshaped-funnelshapcd, the tube about as long 

 as the limb. Pruit thickly clothed with soft white bristles hooked 

 and black at the apex. 



In woods and shady hedge-banks. Common, and generally 

 distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Pootstock slender, pale-red, sending up at intervals solitary 

 stems, and frequently stoloniferous. Stems 6 to 18 inches high, 

 brittle, sharply quadrangular, simple or very slightly branched. 

 Leaves firm, in rather distant whorls, the lowest ones small and 

 usually in a whorl, those in the whorls in the middle of the stem 

 8 or sometimes 9, and 1 to 1^ inch long. Peduncles few, long, naked, 

 generally all terminal and umbellate, but occasionally additional 

 ones lateral below the umbel; cymes dichotomous or trichotomous. 

 Flowers on short pedicels, \ inch across, white ; corolla-segments 

 oblong, obtuse, slightly recurved. Fruit about the size of a rape- 

 seed, blackish, but this colour completely concealed by the very 

 numerous thick flexible bristles. Plant green, shining. 



Sweet Woodruff. 



French, Aspcrule Odorante. German, Waldmeier, Wahlmeister. 



This plant is known by the names of VToodrose or "Woodrowd. Gerarde calls it 

 Woodrowe and Woodroofe : Parkinson mentions it as Woodroofe. By some of the 

 older herbalists it is spelt curiously by the repetition of double consonants, which form 

 a puzzle in themselves if read aright — Wooddrowffe. The pleasant haylike scent of 

 the Woodruff has caused it to find favour in village nosegays, although it is not until 

 it becomes dry that the perfume is exhaled with any power. Gerarde says : " When 

 being made up into garlands or bundles and hanging up in houses in the heat of summer, 

 it doth very well temper the aire, coole and make fresh the place, to the delight and 

 comfort of such as are therein." He adds : "It is reported to be put into wine to 

 make a man merry, and be good for the heart and liver; it prevaileth in wounds, as 

 cruciata and other vulnerary herbes do." 



