The Monkey Flower 



busy since then naturalising itself here with con- 

 spicuous success. Unmentioned among British wild 

 flowers in the books of the first half of last century, 

 it finds a place in Bentham and Hooker's " British 

 Flora " of 1887, as " long cultivated in our flower- 

 garden, and now naturalised in boggy places in 

 many parts of Britain," while Lord Avebury, in 

 1905, writes of it as " now thoroughly naturahsed 

 in Britain." So it has pursued a victorious path, 

 and is one of the few weeds we have received from 

 America in exchange for the many that we have 

 sent over there. 



The stems are quadrangular, succulent, and rise 

 about a foot above the damp earth. The leaves 

 are ovate in shape and incUned to be " friUy " with 

 margins cut out into httle sharp teeth, and having 

 usually seven weU-marked veins running from base 

 to apex. They arise stalkless in pairs upon the stem, 

 and the flowers spring on long stalks from their 

 " axils " (i.e. the upper angle that the leaf makes 



with the main stem). 



"5 



