42 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



space at our disposal, i our book is to become, as 

 we hope it may, the companion of our readers in their 

 country rambles, only enables us to do scant justice to 

 the plant. The loose-strife attains to a height of some 

 four feet, and throws up numerous spikes, most of these 

 being- at least as long again as the specimen with which 

 the exigencies of our space have compelled us to be con- 

 tented. Each plant may possibly show an average of 

 some half-dozen of these " long purples " flowering simul- 

 taneously. 



The root-stock of the purple loose-strife is perennial, 

 so that when the plant has once established itself it may be 

 looked for regularly year after year, as the localities the 

 plant affects escape the action of the plough or the sharp 

 sickle of the reaper. The root is thick and branched, and 

 widely extends itself. The stems are thrown up to a 

 height of three or four feet, and are more or less branched. 

 Any side-branches that may spring from the central stem 

 preserve its general direction. The general aspect may be 

 described as more aspiring than bushy. The stems are 

 ordinarily four-cornered, but at other times hexagonal, the 

 difference depending upon the arrangement of the leaves. 

 The angles of the stems are sharply defined, and rough to the 

 touch. The lower branches always spring in pairs or threes, 

 but the upper ones seem less bound by law. The leaves 

 are ordinarily opposite, in which case the stem is square in 

 section, but we often find the foliage, as in our illustration, 

 springing in threes ; when this is the case, the stem section 

 is hexagonal. The leaves are stalkless, and their bases 

 more or less clasp the stem. In form they are lanceolate, 

 and their outline is smooth, like that of the privet or the 

 box; they are ordinarily about three inches long. The 



