Wild Flowers as They Grow 



killing that unfortunate portion that they have 

 chosen for their embrace. Shortly afterwards these 

 plants, including the Red Rattle, who have lives 

 of only one short season, die themselves, but their 

 seeds, scattering in the neighbourhood, germinate in 

 the following spring, and may even press the same 

 hosts into their service that their parents did. The 

 Red Rattle's nearest relative, the meadow lousewort 

 (P- sylvatica), however, lives for several years and 

 its suckers, after they have killed one portion of 

 root, will lengthen and seek some other portion to 

 prey upon. Hence we often find unusually long 

 suckers upon its roots. These two plants are the 

 only representatives in England of the Pedicularis 

 or Lousewort genus, but they have a large number 

 of foreign relatives which are found even in the 

 Arctic Circle, and likewise grow in all colder parts, 

 such as bogs and mountains of our temperate zone. 



But though it may be true that " this herbe is 

 an infirmitie of the meadows," as an old writer 

 said, yet when we turn to its flowers we cannot deny 



