46 PLANTS'. THEIR NATURAL GROWTH 



When the fruit is ripe, the seeds rattle within their husky capsule ; hence the familiar English 

 name. It is in some districts known as Cock's-crest ; in France, Creste du Coq. The Rattle is a 

 very variable plant, both in the form of the leaves and the size and number of the blossoms ; on these 

 accounts, the earlier botanists distinguished three or four supposed species ; but further observation 

 of these variations of form does not confirm the ideas of our predecessors, as these peculiarities are 

 neither constant in themselves nor sufficiently marked to justify the creation of additional species ; 

 and, as the plant is parasitic, adhering to the living roots of the grasses, and other plants of the 

 meadow, by means of little suckers, there is but little doubt that these trifling variations arise from 

 greater or less nourishment, and what we may here term accidental or external circumstances, and 

 do not point to any specific differences in the various plants observed. The plant flowers during 

 May, June, and July. 



The Red Rattle (Pedicularis palustris), an allied species, is another plant well deserving 

 of the ornamentist's regard, its crimson flowers and very richly cut pinnate leaves rendering 

 it a very handsome plant. It will be found figured in Curtis and several of the other books we 

 ventured in our opening remarks to direct the attention of the student to (see pp. 12, 13); or 

 better still, in all its natural beauty, in marshy land and watery ditches from May to September. 



Both the plants named are to be met with over a very large area of country, being found 

 throughout Russian Asia and Europe, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic regions. In 

 Sweden, the farmer judges that the fit time for gathering in his hay has arrived when the seeds of 

 the Yellow Rattle are heard in their capsules. In looking through a Flora of Iceland for 

 another purpose, we found the Rhinanthus mentioned, and being at the same time struck with the 

 great number of other familiar English plants, that enter into the nosegays of the little 

 Icelanders in their chilly northern home, we make but slight apology for mentioning a few of those 

 that will be familiar to our readers, viz. — Dog-Violet, Marsh-Marigold, 'Shepherd's Purse, four 

 kinds of Buttercups, Water-Cress, Blue Meadow Crane's-bill, Bird's-foot Trefoil, Silverweed, 

 Tormentil, Wild Strawberry, Water-Avens, Stone-crop, Ivy, Goose-grass, Yellow Bed-straw, 

 Daisy, Dandelion, Milfoil, Groundsel, Harebell, Forget-me-not, Foxglove, White Dead-nettle, 

 Purple Dead-nettle, Stinging-nettle ; to these, did ovjr space seem to justify it, we might add 

 many others. 



In figs. 235, 239, 240, 241, 243, we have suggestions of the use of the plant in design. 

 The ornamental treatments that we have from time to time introduced are not by any means the 

 best of which the plants are capable, as we are here of necessity placed under limitations of space 

 and simplicity of colour that narrow the scqpe afforded; still, in the hope that these simple treat- 

 ments may at least prove suggestive tq the designer, we insert them. No. 240, for instance, would 

 produce a richer effect, if, while preserving the two greens, the ground were made a deep maroon, 

 the outlines and veins of the leaves being given in gold. Figs. 235, 239, are intended as simple 

 forms for stencilling; the reader will easily perceive that, in the first of these, the limited space has 

 prevented our making it bi-^symmetrical. Stencilling affords a simple and effective means of 

 decorating surfaces where great delicacy is not imperative, and where the forms are removed at 

 some little distance from the eye. The modus operandi is as follows : the design selected is cut 

 out in a sheet of thin metal, the parts cut away being those that enter into the ornamental form, 

 so that, on placing the plate on the surface to be decorated, the perforations are brushed over with 

 a stiff brush, primed with the required colour, and the design is thus transferred at once to the 

 wall or other flat surface. Copper is the metal ordinarily employed, as it lies more flatly than 

 brass (which being cheaper is sometimes used), as closeness of contact is an essential point, or the 

 hairs of the brush will get beneath the edges of the plate, and destroy the sharpness that is so 

 indispensable in this kind of work. The design is either cut out by the graver, or etched with acid ; 

 very frequently both processes are employed, as the pressure necessarily used with the graver has a 

 tendency to warp and stretch the plate, while, on the other hand, the acid leaves a ragged edge : 

 by first etching the forms, however, and afterwards sharpening them by the graver, the maximum 

 of advantage is gained. 



In the designs figured 240, 241, the natural arrangement of the leaves in pairs is the feature 

 introduced. In fig. 240, the cross-like arrangement of the foliage, as seen in plan, each pair of leaves 

 being at right angles to the pair above it, is the point utilised, while, in fig. 241, single pairs are 

 worked up into a diaper, the central spots representing the section of the stem, and the sessile 

 leaves being seen thrown off on either side. In works on ornament a certain amount of confusion 

 seems to exist as to what constitutes a diaper, that term and powdering being often used as 

 synonyms. It appears to us, however, that there is a marked distinction between typical examples 

 of these two treatments, though undoubtedly there are debatable instances that, partaking of 

 some of the characteristics of both, are hard to assign rigidly to either : thus, Pugin says that the 

 term " diaper" signifies a continuous pattern of varied colour, in contradistinction to a detached or 



