Wild Flowers as They Grow 



It is a herb whose life is but a season long, though 

 sometimes, if the winter be mild, it will struggle 

 through it and enjoy another speU of summer. It 

 likes dry waste places and limestone cliffs ; for 

 instance, a road high up by the sea wiU often have 

 it growing freely by its side. The leaves are cut into 

 many segments, and the whole plant, as it Ues half 

 sprawling on the ground, tends to have a rather 

 ragged and untidy appearance, especially when the 

 flower is passing into fruit. 



Individually the flowers are nothing to look at, 

 but since they are collected into somewhat dense 

 spikes they make the most of themselves. There 

 is, however, a good deal noteworthy in them, in spite 

 of their insignificance. There are generally six 

 green sepals and six yellowish-green petals (some- 

 times the number is five or seven). The petals are 

 really rather curious, for they are cut into three 

 upper lobes and a lower flap. The honey is stored 

 in a cup-shaped hollow in the disk below the ovary, 



and the flaps of three of the petals form a hd over 



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