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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

 

 

 

 

 

 
Cornell University Library
arV19056

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WAYSIDE WEEDS.
 

¥ Pheasant’s Hye.
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WAYSIDE WEEDS

oR,

BOTANICAL LESSONS

FROM

THE LANES AND HEDGEROWS.

WITH A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFICATION.

BY

SPENCER THOMSON, M_D,,

L.B.C,8. EDIN.,

FELLOW OF BOTANICAL SOCIRTY OF EDIN.; AUTHOR OF “THE STRUCTURE AND
FUNCTIONS OF THE EYE,” ETC., ETC.

¥

NEW EDITION,

ILLUSTRATED WITH GOLOURED PLATES AND ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,

LONDON :

GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS
PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCOCLXXII.
av

19056

  

“CORNELL ,
UNIVERSITY
\ LIBRARY 7

a a aa ate rs

  
     

    
CONTENTS.

—_—
INTRODUCTION.

Advantages of Botanical study—LEarly associations—The Founda-
tion for our Lessons—Commonest Wayside Weeds selected—
The Plan . ji : ; ‘ ‘ : ; 1—6

HANDFUL I.

Weeds are Flowers—The Handful—Poppies—Buttercups and ~
Marsh Marigold—Wallflower and- Lady’s Smock—Violets—
Lychnis—Stitchwort—Chickweed and Wild Geranium—Parts
of a Flower generally -considered—Petals or Flower-leaves—
How attached—Their shape and parts—A Corolla—Stamens,
their site, and how distinguished—Pistil or central organ ; its
forms— Calyx; its forms— Position of parts of Flowers in
Handful—Likeness and difference—Buttercups and Crowfoots
—Poppy characters—Wallfiowers and Cruciform Plants—
Regular Flowers—Summary . . - 2 - 7—28

HANDFUL IL

Broom Blossoms, and Gorse or Whin—Clovers and Vetches—Haw-
thorn and Apple Blossoms—Strawberry and Bramble—Hem-
lock tribes—Saxifrage and Willow herbs—All many- petaled—
Distinctions from Handful I.—Characters of Pea tribe—Rose
tribe—Hemlock or Umbel-bearing tribe—Parts of a Flower
specially considered — Calyx — Corolla —Stamens—Pistil—A
perfect Flower . . i é 29—60
vi

CONTENTS.

HANDFUL III.

The Plants of the Handful—Honeysuckle and Bluebell, Daisy,

Thistles, Wild Chamomile, Ragwort, and Colt’s-foot—Elder
Flower—The Bedstraws—The one-pieced, or one-petaled, or
Monopetalous Corolla—Composite Blossoms—The Composite
Family—The Inflorescence or Flower arrangement-—The Scape
and Rachis — The Capitulum — The Spike —The Axillary
Flowers—The Raceme—The Umbel—The Panicle—The Cat-
kin—The Whorl—Glomerulus, Spathe, and Cyme—Bracts

61—90

HANDFUL IV.

A Handful of favourites—They are One-petaled—Distinction from

Handful III.—Our Botanical position in Handful IV.—Free
and Attached Stamens—Primroses and Forget-me-nots—Pim-
pernel and Loosestrife—The Primula tribe—Speedwell and
Figworts—The Labiates or Lipped Flowers—Convolyulus and
Plantain—Leaves—Their Infinite -Variety—Parts of the Leaf
—Ribs and Veins—Netted Veins and Straight Veins—Com-
pound Leaves and Simple Leaves—Leaf Surfaces, ete.—Cut-
ting of Leaves—Stemless or Sessile Leaves—Seed-leaves—Leaf-
buds ‘ so j : 5 ‘ » 91—122

HANDFUL V.

Little of outside beauty in Handful V.—Docks and Knot-grass—

The Spurges—Starwort—Forest Trees—Characters of Hand-
ful—The Blossoms incomplete—Knot-grass or Bistort charac-
ters—Spurge characters—Starwort and Wall Pellitory—Trees
of the Greenwood—Simple character of their Blossoms—
Willow, Hazel, Birch, ete.—Pine tribes—Stem and Root—
Aerial Roots—Herbaceous or green, and Woody Stems—Grass
and Palm Stems— Twining or Climbing Stems—Shape of
CONTENTS. vii

Stems—Winged Stems — Underground Stems—Stems ap-
parently absent-—-Roots — Fibrous and Branched — Fleshy
Roots—Tuberous Roots—Office of Roots, . . 128-149

HANDFUL VI.

Composed of Plants with Straight-veined Leaves—Srowdrop—
Crocus—Tulip—Orchis— Wild Garlic and Black Bryony—The
Perianth—Yellow Iris, or Water-Flag—Petal-like Pistila—Herb
Paris—Structure of Orchis Blossom—Vegetable Structure—
Cells and Vessels—Spiral Vessels—Vascular and Cellular Tis-
sue ofLeaf . . ‘ ag 6 ; . 151—164

HANDFUL VII.

Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Petal Flowers—Plants
with Straight-veined Leaves and Scale Flowers—The Scale
Flowered or Glumaceous Plants—Common Rush—Wood Rush
and Bog Asphodel—Their Characters—Flowering Rush and
‘Wake-robin—Duckweed — The Sedge Tribe— Grasses and
Grass Blossoms—Plant Clothing—The Epidermis or Skin—
Hairs—Breathing Pores or Stomates. : i . 165—185

A BUNDLE OF FERNS.

Ferns well known—Their elegance—Characterized by the absence
of Floral Development—Spores, and Spore or Seed cases—The
varying form of Ferns—Peculiar mode of Early Growth—
Fern gathering—The Male Fern—Lady Fern—Hart’s-tongue
~—Brake or Bracken—Polypody and its spores—Spleenwort—
Moonwort—Horse-tail and Adder’s-tongue—Characters com-
mon to Ferns—Caudex, or Root-stalk— Stipe—Rachis and
Pinne—Sori—Spores and Spore cases—Exceptions to position
ofSpores. . . « +. : : . 187—204
Vill CONTENTS.

A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFICATION,

CLASSIFICATION OR ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS TO BE
LEARNED FROM COMMONEST WEEDS.

The Natural Classification—Plants evidently in Groups—Retro-
spect—Division into Flowering and Flowerless Plants—Flower-
_less Plants— General Characteristics — Flowering Plantse—
Division into Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and with
Netted-veined Leaves — General Distinctions—Plants with
Netted-veins—Divided into three principal Sections—Sub-
division of Sections into Natural Families—Sub-division of
Families into Genera—Genera composed of Species or of indi-
vidual Plants—Advantages of a Natural Classification—Arti-
ficial Classification—Concluding Remarks . . 205—212
tad
a
Q

PON Gee Sy ee

DY YNONNNMRH HEHE EHP eee
SSRESRESSHAAREREES

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Petal of common Poppy.

Blossoms of Bulbous-rooted Ranunculus or Buttercup.
Blossom of common Buttercup.
Section of Buttercup Blossom.
Buttercup Petal.

Seed-vessel of common Poppy.
Cruciform Blossom of Wallflower.
Petal of Wallflower.

Blossom of Lychnis.

Petal of Lychnuis.

Blossom of Wild Geranium.

Petal of Wild Geranium.

Stamen magnified.

Reproductive Organs of Wallflower.
Blossoms of common Charlock.
Flowercup and Stamens of common Lychnis.
Pistil of Lychnis or Catch-fly
Seed-vessel of Stitchwort or Starwort:
Calyx of Stitchwort.

Expanding Flower of Poppy.

Leaf of Buttercup.

.- Blossom of Violet.

Blossom of common Yellow Broom.
Blossom of Yellow Vetchling,

Blossom of common Dog-rose.

Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose.

Section of Blossoms of Trailing Dog-rose.
FIG.
28.
29.
29a,
30.
31,
32.
33.
34,
35.
36.
37.
388.
39.
40,
41.
42.
43.

45.
46,
47,
48.
49.
50.
51,
52.
53.
54,
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62,
63.
64,
65.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Strawberry Blossom.
Blossoms of common Bramble.

Section of Blossom of common Bramble.
Blossoms of common Beaked Parsley.
Petals of common Broom,

Calyx and Reproductive Organs of common Broom.
Pod or Legume of common Broom.
Compound Leaf of Vetch,

Compound Leaf of Rose.

Compound Leaf of Umbelliferous Plant.
Blossom and Seed of Umbelliferous Plant.
Stigma of Willow-herb,

Poppy-bud.

Stamen.

Pistil of Primrose.

Diagram of a perfect Flower.

Blossom of common Wild Chamomile.
Blossom of Ragwort.

Leaves of Woodruff.

Blossom of Honeysuckle.

Blossoms of Harebell,

Fruit Cyme of Elder.

Magnified view of Coltsfoot Florets.
Section of Thistle Head.

Blossom of Hawkweed.

Flower-spikes and Leaves of Plantain.
Spray of Scarlet Pimpernel.
Fine-leaved Heath.

Sprig of Currant-bush.

Panicle of Grass.

Blossoms of Hop.

Red Dead Nettle.

Common Stinging Nettle.

Reproductive Organs of Wake-robin.
Twig of Lime-tree.

Common Self-heal.

Floret of Speedwell.

Floret of Plantain,

Blossom of Primrose. Front view.
FIG,

66,
67.
68.
69.
70,
71,
72,
73.
74,
75.
76.
97.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82,
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.

88...

89.
90.
91,
92.
93.
94,
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103.
104.

ILLUSTRATIONS. xi

Blossom of Primrose. Section.
Blossom of Primrose. Side view.
Common Forget-me-not,

Yellow Loosestrife,

Labiate Floret.

Convolvulus or Bindweed.

Leaf of Nettle,

Leaf of Rose.

Palmate Clover Leaf.

Oak Leaf.

Leaf of Black Bryony.

Leaf of Dove’s-foot Cranesbill,

Leaf of Corn Poppy.

Seedling Plant.

Blossoms of common Knotgrass (magnified).
Petty Spurge.

Stameniferous Blossoms of Starwort.
Magnified Blossoms of Petty Spurge.
Jointed elastic Stamen of Wall Pellitory.
Blossoms of Willow.

Catkiu of Birch.

Culm or Stem of Grass,

Sections of Stems.

Corm of Crocus.

Bulb of House-Leek.

Root of White Sedge.

Root of Early Purple Orchis.

Root of Bird’s-nest Orchis.

Blossom of Purple or Meadow Orchis.
Common Snowdrop.

Blossom of common Tulip.

Essential Reproductive Organs of Tulip.
Pistil of Tulip.

Herb Paris.

Vegetable Tissue.

Spiral Vessels.

Plant of Hairy Wood-rush,

Blossom of Wood-rush.

Arum Spathe,
FIG.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.

113.
114.
115.
116.
117.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Tufted Bog-sedge.

Spikelet of Brome Grass,

Floret of Melic-grass,

Spikelet of Meadow Soft Grass.

Hairs from Plant Surfaces magnified.

Plant Skin or Cuticle magnified.

Frond of common Polypody.

Portion of Frond of Polypody with Sori or collections of
Spores.

Portion of Frond of Hart’s-tongue Fern, with Sori.

Fronds of Asplenium viride, or Green Spleenwort.

Horse-tail, or Equisetum, Fertile Spike.

Moonwort,

Spore Case, or Capsule with Elastic Ring.
Suirobuction.
WAYSIDE WEEDS.

INTRODUCTION.

FLOWERS.

“On mountain and on hill side, in valley and.in glen,
A thousand lovely things spring up to cheer the hearts of
men.”
And if we read aright the lines traced on their petals gay,
‘We never more shall cast a flower with carelessness away.”
“Oh! love them as companions, thou wilt not lonely be,
They'll whisper with their fragrant lips the sweetest thoughts

to thee;
They’ll steal thy senses from the earth, thy thoughts from

themes of pain,
And thou wilt feel with grateful heart they bloom not here in
vain.” Row1aypD Brown.

Tar science of plants, Botany, has this great ad-
vantage over every other department of natural
histoty, that its objects are not only most readily
accessible, but that they have been familiar to most
of us from childhood. The first steps of the en-
tomologist, the geologist, or the mineralogist, are
made, as it were, into a new world, wherein all is

L
4 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

Strange and unknown—to the novice we might say
chaotic—but who does not know the first easy
paths which guide us into Flora’s realms? Are
they not to every child bordered and carpeted with
daisies, and buttercups, and sweet-scented violets ?
Have we not picked in them chickweed and
groundsel for our favourite birds, and looked at
the scarlet poppies somewhat doubtfully as poison-
ous, putting them under the same anathema as
“ hemlock,” which, however, was often not hem-
lock at all? Then, again, are not these paths
overhung with the wild rose and honeysuckle for
our summer shade? And when, after long absence,
it may be, in the smoky town or in some foreign
clime, we return to retread the once well-known
paths again, and see these old familiar faces, do we
not know their names as well as we do our own?

** The cowslip, crocus, columbine,
The violet and the snowdrop fine,
The orchis ‘neath the hawthorn tree,
The blue-bell and anemone,
The wild rose, eglantine, and daisy.”

We know them all, and many another, without any
teaching.

Truly this name-knowledge is no despicable
foundation for our future botanical education—a far
better one than we could find for any other science ;
sounder, too, for it has not only a place in the head
but in the heart; dull and dead must that heart
INTRODUCTION. 5

be, that greets not warmly the old friends of our
first wee toddling days.

On this foundation we purpose to build, and
thus to avoid what so often proves a first and. for-
midable difficulty when subjects are dealt with of
which the learners have no previous knowledge.
We mean to take, both for text and illustration,
the commonest wayside weeds and flowers familiar
to all, and we mean them, being their own inter-
preters, to tell us a great deal. We will try
whether they cannot outline for us, if we may so
speak, the plan of the flowery world, and whether
we cannot gather from their simple teachings some
idea of the great design, in accordance with which
the vegetable kingdom is constructed and ar-
ranged. It may be that many will be content with
learning no more than this; but should some desire
to go farther, and to gain wider knowledge of
the nomberless forms of vegetable beauty and
structure to be met with amid the native plants of
our own land, and still more strikingly, perhaps,
amid those of other latitudes, they will find the
foundation begun upon our common “ Wayside
Weeds,” a solid because a practical one.

We call our chosen subjects common, and, in
one sense, they are so—the sense-in which we
have selected them for illustration; but common
are they in no other, for as surely. and as well as
the most gorgeous exotic do each and all show
6 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

forth the goodness, the wisdom, and the power of
that great Creator, whose

“ Steps are beauty, and his presence light.”

A few words as to our arrangement. Hach of
our prospective. handfuls is intended to embrace a
certain section of plants related to each other in the
natural classification. It is by no means requisite
that all the plants named should be gathered at once,
and, indeed, as they often blow at different periods
of the year, this would be impossible; but enough
may always be found to illustrate our text, not only
as regards the classification of the flowers, but with
reference to the botanical lessons which are ap-
pended to each section. A general summing up
will probably gather our handfuls into one,
BHanhtul 2.

Weeds are Flowers—The Handful—Poppies—BHutter-
cups and Marsh Marigold— Wallflower and Lady’s
Smock— Violets—Lychnis — Stitchwort— Chickweed
and Geranium — Petals or Flower-leaves—- How
attached -—~ Their shape and paris—# corolla—
Stameris, their site, and how distinguished—Pistil
or central organ; its forms—Calyz ; its forms, etc.
—Position of parts of Flowers in Handful the First
—Likeness and difference— The Buttercups and
Crowfoots—Poppy tharacters —Wallflower and the

Cruciforms—FRegular Flowers—Summary.
HANDFUL I.

FLOWERS IN MANY PIECES. ‘‘ MANY PETALED.”

/ “To yon deep wood
With our baskets we will go,
Find where the violet loves to brood,
And the primrose crouching low ;
The gentle anemone shall be ours,
With its delicate pink and white,
And the bright marsh marigold’s gorgeous flowers
Shall give us their golden light.”

Ler us see what we have got. Weeds every one
of them! Weeds we all know them to be, but
flowers they are as well; we will therefore give
them the name indifferently, weeds or flowers, as it
may be. Poppies in their red, from the corn-field
or wayside; bright shining buttercups from the
meadows, with their magnificent cousin the marsh
marigold; a stray wallflower from the old castle
wall, or garden if you will, for it is a true British
wilding ; lady’s smock ; and a charlock—the yellow
flower you always call wild mustard—or, if you like
it better, a water-cress. Do not forget our wee
10 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

blue friends the sweet violets, for, except the fra-
grant wallflower, they are the only scented blossoms
in our bundle. Add to these a scarlet lychnis; one
of the brilliant white stitchworts, or, as they are
* better named, starworts, from under the May hedge-
row, and with it its little sister the common chick-
weed, and the mouse-ear, like a hairy chickweed,
though it is not one; lastly, put in a common way-
side geranium, and we have Handful No. 1, from
which we are to learn a whole heap of botanical lore.
Our paper is headed “ Many-pieced, or many-
petaled flowers,” Unbotanical people call the pieces

\\

Fig, 1.—Petal of common Poppy.

of a flower “leaves ;” but as the same term is ap-
plied to the leaves of the plant generally, the pretty
term “ petal” is more convenient, we therefore, for
the future, shall always speak of petals; albeit, it
gives our first initiament into botanical terms.
Take all the flowers of our handful, or as many of
them as you have got, and look at these petals;
 

Fic. 2.--The Bulbous-rooted Ranunculus, back view. a, petals of expanded
blossoms; 2, reflexed calyx, or flower-cup ; ¢, blossom half expanded, the
flower-cup not yet turned back; @, peduncle, or flower-stem; e, bract or
flower-leaf.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 13

pull them off if you possess a good show of speci-
mens, and, you will.see that they are all uncon-

 

Fie. 3.—Back view of blossom of common Buttercup, or Creeping Ranunculus.
a, petal; b, flower-cup, in five sections ; ¢, peduncle.

nected with one another. First comes the bright
red poppy, with its four petals (Fig. 1), all attached

 

Fra. 4.—Section of Buttercup blossom. a, petal; 5, stamens; c, pistils ;
d, flower-stem, or peduncle ; e, receptacle.

beneath the projection in the centre of the flower
(Fig. 6).
14 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

Put down the poppy and take up the buttercups,
all you have gathered (Figs. 2, 3, 4), and, if it

 

Fra. 5.—Buttercup petal. Fia. 6.—Seed-vessel or pistil of common
x Poppy, a; 4, stamen; c¢, part of petal.

chances to be in the handful, the marsh marigold,
which probably some of my readers. know as the
May blob.” Any and all of these have, as you
see, five petals (Fig. 3), and though the central
organ (Fig, 4 c) is not exactly similar to that of the
poppy (Fig. 6), you may yet observe a likeness in
the attachments of the petals beneath it, Take the
wallflower, another of your bunch of blossoms, its
petals are very different from the petals of the poppy
or the buttercups. The latter you have already seen
are oval and pointed at the base (Figs. 1, 5); in the
instance before us they are prolonged into the claw
(Fig. 8 6), in contradistinction to the broad portion
or limb. A somewhat similar petal you find in the
scarlet or white lychnis (Figs. 9,10), although in
other respects it is diverse. Clawed, likewise, but
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 15

less distinctly so, are the five petals of the wild
geranium (Figs. 11, 12), However, there is no

  

Fig. 7.—Cruciform blossom of Wallflower. Fic, 8.—Petal of Wallflower,
‘dy petal; b, stamens; ¢, flower-cup, or a, limb; 2, claw.
calyx; d, peduncle, or flower-stem.

occasion to go over in succession every plant in our
handful ; you can do that alone, and pulling off the

 

Fie. 9.—Blossom of Lyenis, with pistils Fre. 10.—Petal of Lychnis.
only. a, petal; 3, pistils; c, calyx. a, limb; , claw.

petals compare their varied shape and cuttings, as
well as their attachments and numbers. Having
a

16 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

done this, you will have gained some knowledge of
one of the divisions of the kingdom of botany—the

fh

 

Fic. 11.—Blossom of common wild Gera- Fia, 12,—Petal of wild Gera-
nium (Herb Robert), u, petals; nium. a, limb; 8, claw.
6, calyx,

many petaled (polypetalous) flowers, with their petals
attached beneath what’ botanists call the pistil, but

e

°.
Soe
°

 

A . |
Fig. 13.—Stamen, magnified. Fig, 14,—Reproductive organs of Wallflower.
a, stamens: 5, pistil.

which, till we have formally introduced it, we must
call the central organ of the flower.

In the majority of flowers, however—we shall
see, hereafter, not in all—between the central
organ and the petals we have just been examining
 

PLATE 2.

 

Common Wood Sorrel. Herb Robert.

 

Grass of Parnassus.

) Pasque Flower.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 17

there is a greater or less number of small bodies,
little heads supported on slender stems (Fig. 13).
In the poppy and ranunculus these little bodies are
very numerous, almost too numerous to count
easily (Fig. 4) ; but look into your wallflower, you
have no difficulty there, for six is all you can find
(Fig. 14), only you wonder to see that, in every
blossom you examine, two are shorter than the
others. Put down the wallflower, and take up your
wild mustard (Fig. 15), or your water-cress, and

 

4
Fia. 15.—Blossom of common Charlock, Fic, 16.—Calyx or flower-cup
a, petal; 5, &, calyx sepals; c, stamen ; of eommon Lychnis. a,
d, pistil. calyx; 5, stamens.

you will find the same thing. Be sure you have
got an established fact, and do not forget it. Take
your lychnis, a red one, however, and you will find
ten of these little bodies (Fig. 16) ; but, probably,
no central organ. Try to count them in the violet,
there are only five ; but you have some difficulty, for
they all adhere together, and two of them have
little spurs superadded, which might confuse a
beginner, These little bodies, which we have just
been examining, are called the stamens, but what
G
18 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

they are, what is their structure and functions, we
must tell in a future page ; only remark that, in the
Jlowers you have examined, their attachment, in the
composition of the blossom, is the same as that of
the petals. Put aside the stamens, or pull them
off, and we come, at length, to our friend in the
centre, whose name we have already let out—the
pistil (Figs. 4, 6, 17, 18), and a very varied piece

 

Fig. 17.—Pistil of Lychnis. 4, ovary. Fre. 18.—Seed-vessel and pistils
6, styles; c, receptacle, of common Stitchwort.

of structure it seems, judging by the specimens.
In the poppy it is short, round, and marked or
rayed on the top; in the buttercup it seems made
up of a number of projecting pieces; in the wall:
flower it is prolonged ; in the lychnis,* rounded and

* To prevent confusion, it is necessary again to remark, that the
lychnis, or catch-fly, is one of those plants which usually have
their pistils, or central organs, in one blossom, and their stamens
in another. This our readers must verify for themselves by ex-
amination of the plants,
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 19

oval, crowned by the thread-like styles. Observe, in
all these cases, it rises from a little seat or receptacle,
to which are attached the petals and the stamens. *

You will not, however, have advanced far in
your botanical studies before you discover that this
single mode of attachment is by no means uni-
versal; but one thing you will find constant, the
relative positions of the organs of the flower, which
we have just gone over. Petals, or corolla as the
petals are called collectively, stamens and pistils,
are always placed in the same order, one within the
other. They may not all be present; in some
blossoms they are never all present together, but
you will never find stamens outside the petals, or
pistil outside the stamens.

There remains yet, for examination, one other
part of the flower. Exterior to all the organs we
have hitherto described, you cannot fail to have
noticed a covering, or set of coverings, to which,
as it holds the blossom generally, botanists have
given the name of calyx, or flower-cup (Figs. 2, 3,
9, 16, 19,20). This calyx, moreover, has its many
differences, even in the limited number of plants we
have as-yet examined. It is divided, in most of our
examples, like the corolla, into separate pieces ; and
as the divisions of the corolla‘are named petals, so
are those of the calyx called sepals. Generally
speaking, the calyx, or flower-cup, is green, but we
see it.in the wallflower.(Fig. 7) more or less deeply
20 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

coloured ; and in the buttercup (Fig. 2) yellowish
in hue. Frequently the number of the sepals, or
‘calyx divisions, corresponds to those of the corolla,
but not invariably, as we seein the poppy (Fig. 20),
in which there are but two divisions, and these
joined at the top, more or less completely. More-
over, this poppy calyx does not, as in the wallflower,
the chickweed, the violet, or the geranium, continue

 

b
&
Fie, 19.—a, calyx or Fie. 20.—Expanding flower
flower-cup of Stitch- of common Poppy, throw-
wort; b, stamens. ing off calyx, a.

attached to the flower, but is cast off in the process
of floral expansion.

Calyx, corolla, stamens, pistils—these, bear in
mind, are the parts of a perfect flower, which always
preserve the same relative positions within one
another. With the exception of the lychnis, al-
ready noticed, you will find it so in every plant in
our Handful. To make sure, look at the bright
white, well-named starwort,. or stitchwort, which
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 21

we have not yet noticed; all the parts are just as
you have seen them in the others. Differing in many
respects, in this all our plants agree—the petals are
perfectly disconnected from one another, and from the
stamens, and with the stamens are fimed to the little
receptacle on which is placed the pistil. Now these
characters, as we call them, though apparently
unimportant to a superficial observer, are far from
being so to a botanist; they mark, in fact, one
division of botanical arrangement—a division,
moreover, which comprises within its limits many
other plants and families of plants, beyond the few
common weeds we have selected as examples, The
buttercup or crowfoot family, or, as it is called
botanically, the Ranunculus genus, is made up of
numerous individual members, all differing from
one another, but yet bearing the general family
face. Some so like that you will not distinguish
them till the difference has been pointed out;
others, though similar, still so different, that you
cannot mistake them for each other.

You have, in all probability, gathered into your
handful, at random, a lot of what you call butter-
cups; they have all flowers about the same size,
with bright yellow shining petals, and look as like
as possible; but take this one, which you gathered
in the meadow—if you have got it up by the roots
(as you ought to do every plant, the size of which in
the least admits it)—you find that it has a bulbous
22 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

swelling root, that its stem is upright and hairy,
and its calyx sepals are turned back (Fig 2) from
the fully-expanded flower. This, which is the
Ranunculus bulbosus, or bulbous-rooted crowfoot,
put beside the other which is in your Handful, and
which, when you gathered it, you thought was
precisely similar. Compare the flower-cup (Fig. 3)
with the last; It spreads—in old blossoms it falls off
—but does not turn down even in the fully-expanded
flower; the root of this plant is not bulbous, and
attached to it are side-stems, scions, which rest on
or run along the ground. This is the Ranunculus
repens, or creeping crowfoot; and no less different
is this third species, the Ranunculus acris, or up-
right meadow crowfoot, which very likely grew
beside the other two, and which, just as likely, you
took into your Handful in perfect innocence of any
difference. It, too, has a spreading, and not a
turned-back calyx, but it has no scions. Make
another comparison of these three near relations ;
their faces are all very similar, are they not?
Look at the little stems, peduneles, which support
the blossoms. In the first two species you ex-
amined, the bulbous and creeping crowfoots, these
stems have little channels or furrows cut on their
surface ; in the last, the upright crowfoot, they are
mostly rounded. Pray look over these little dis-
tinctions again, get them into your memory, and
tell us, could you mistake these plants for one
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 23

another again? Quite impossible, for small as the
marks of difference may be, they are constant,
Lastly, get into your mind an idea of the general
appearance of these plants—the general habit, as
botanists call it—and you will have achieved a prac-:

  
  
   

a

Fig. 21.—Leaf of common Buttercup.

 

tical lesson in plant lore which will not readily. be
forgot. The above are three of the crowfoot family,
with a strong resemblance ; but there are many of
the same family, or, let us designate it properly,
genus, very different; some have comparatively
small flowers, and some are white, as we find in
24 WAYSIDE WIEDS.

the common water ranunculus, which is so common
in every streamlet and ditch that it well deserves to
be called a wayside weed. Look now at the leaves,
not the petals, but the plant-leaves, of the butter-
cup race, with which we have just scraped acquaint-
ance ; they are all divided more or less deeply
(Fig. 21), but we find others with leaves perfectly
undivided : these are the spearwort ranunculuses, and
one of them you may gather at the side of almost
any pond. The buttercup-like flower of the spear-
wort you cannot mistake. One word more about
our friends before we part. The members of the
buttercup genus are most eloquent expositors of
many botanical facts, and you are now in posses-
sion of the key to some of their peculiarities. If
you use your eyes you cannot miss finding species
different from those most common ones upon which
we have founded our first lesson. Gather all you
can; never mind, at first, if you do not know their
names, but put them together, and compare in
every part—leaves on the stem, and leaves spring-
ing from the root-crown, hairs or no hairs on any
part, pistils plain or otherwise. These exercises
will teach you how to look at plants, and make the
very commonest weeds convey as much instruction
as you could get from the rarest exotic. We have
dwelt somewhat upon this ranunculus family, not
only because of the well-marked characters of its
members, but because so many of them are familiar
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 25

to us all from childhood, and meet us in every
country walk. We must now say adieu, and look to
the rest of our Handful.

Take another look at the poppies. You could
not mistake a poppy, putting colour out of the
question, for a buttercup. The petals composing
the corolla are separate; it is true the stamens are
numerous, and both are attached to the flower in
the same manner as in the ranunculus, but here the
resemblance ends. The calyx, as we have seen
(Fig. 20), is entirely different, both in its divisions
and in its development, and the round central pistil,
in one piece, of the poppy (Fig. 6) is abundantly
diverse from the many pistils of the ranunculus
(Fig. 4). There are many other distinctions, which
at present we are not prepared for.

We go to the wallflower (Fig. 7), the watercress,
or the charlock (Fig. 15), all plants of the same
great botanical section as the ranunculus and the
poppy; that is to say, they have many-petaled
flowers, and petals and stamens (Fig. 14) are simi-
larly attached ; but how different are they other-
wise. The petals are clawed (Fig. 8), the stamens
are definite in number, not many, and the central
pistil is altogether dissimilar, as we may see more
clearly if we examine any of these plants when the
seed is well matured. Now, the wallflower, the water-
cress, the wild mustard, and many others similar,
belong to a most important family, called the Cruci-
26 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

ferze, or Cross-like plants, the petals being arranged
in the shape of a cross, as a very little examination
will show. Turning for a moment from wild to culti-
vated blossoms, you will find the characters of the
erucifers well marked in any turnip, cabbage, or
radish, which may chance to run to seed in your
garden. In an economical point of view, there are
few plant families more valuable to man than these
crucifers.

Buttercup, poppy, wallflower, each types of their
own particular family, have regular flowers; you can
divide them in any direction through the centre into

 

Fic. 22.—Blossom of Violet. a, corolla; 4, calyx; ¢, peduncle or flower-stalk
d, bracts; e, spur of corolla.

two equal halves. Not so our sweet little violet
(Fig. 22), which holds its place beside them. It,
too, is many-petaled, and has stamens and petals
attached like the others, but its flower is irregular ;
to divide its five petals equally, you must cut the
centre in one direction only. The stamens and
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 27

pistil, a single glance will show, have their dis-
tinctive marks.

The lychnis, stitchwort, and chickweed bring us
back to the regular flowers. The stamens (Figs. 16,
19) are more than in the wallflower, fewer than in
poppies or buttercups. The petals are clawed (Fig.
10), the shape different, and, specially, the pistil
(Figs. 17, 18) differs from the plants we have
already examined.

Lastly, take the common wayside geranium
(Figs. 11, 12) which we gathered into our Handful.
Still we find the distinct petals attached with the
stamens as before, only, at the base of the latter
we come upon something new, the organs are
united just in the reverse to those of the violet,
The pistil, with its five lobes at the base, and its
long beak, is very different from any we have yet
met with, and with it we have arrived at the end of
our first gathering. Just let us review what we
have learned from it. We began, supposing that
we knew nothing whatever of plants, and that all
the stock of knowledge we had to start with was
the recognition of the very commonest weeds of
the wayside. Those which we selected for our first
lesson were taken because of the one common
character so often alluded to, the attachment of the
distinct petals and the stamens to the organ named
the receptacle, which supports the pistil or central
organ. We have seen that but for this character
28 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

common to all, they differ widely, and we have
learned, at the same time, what are the parts of
which a complete and perfect flower is composed,
namely, the calyx and its sepals, the corolla and its
petals, the stamens and the pistils, and these organs
we now know, and look for in a special order.
Enough here for one lesson, albeit we have a much
better capital of information to start with when we
go forth in search of a Second Handful.
Hanbiul 2,

Broom Blossoms and Gorse or Whin—Clovers and
Vetches—Hawthorn and Apple Blossoms—Straw-
berry and Bramble—Hemlock tribes—Sazxifrage and
Willow herbs—All many-petaled—istinctions from
Handful I.—Characters of Pea tribe—ose tribe—
Hemlock or Umbelliferous tribe—Properties and
Uses— Parts of the Flower—Uses and Arrangement.
' HANDFUL IL.

“ The tribes of early flow’rets,
Like holy thoughts enshrined,
An altar to the unseen God,
They raise in every mind.
The hills and everlasting skies
In grandeur have their birth,
But the early flow’rets only
His image bring to earth.”
. “Bangs.

Hawnprut the second; what have we got? Bright
yellow blossoms of broom (Fig. 23), the bonny
golden broom, which every one knows, or ought to
know ; and equally bright and golden: are those of
the gorse or furze, or, as it is called in Scotland,
the whin, which will make themselves seen on every
common and roadside. Take these, and add to
them the first: of the pea or vetch tribe (Fig. 24)
you meet with, throwing in a few heads of clover to
make up a family party, of which the members,
you quickly discover, all carry the same family face.
Go on with your collecting ; gather hawthorn in its
season, and a crab-apple blossom or two; wild
32 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

roses (Figs. 25, 26, 27) and meadow-sweet in
theirs; with the flowers of the strawberry (Fig.

 

Fie, 23.— Blossom of common Broom. a a, petals; b, calyx; c, stamens;
d, pistil.

28) and bramble (Fig. 29). You have in your hand

 

Fie. 24.—Blotsoms of common Yellow Vetchling. aa, petals; bb, calyx
ec, pedicels; d, peduncle. The flowers are papilionaceous, or butterfly-
like, ‘
WAYSIDE : WEEDS,. 33.

another family ag distinct as the first, Go and
secure some of those plants which you haye been in

 

Fig. 26.—Back view of Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose, @, petals; 6, urn-
shaped tube of calyx, forming -the seed-cup; ¢, upper flivigions of calyx 5
d, peduncle, .

D
34) WAYSIDE WEEDS;,

the habit of calling hemlock, though-ten to- ore if
they are real hemlock ; but let that pass at present,

 

Fra. 27.—Section of Blossom of Trailing Dog-rose. a, petals; 2, calyx, adher-
ing to or forming the ovary or seed-vesselc; d, stamens; ¢, pistils.

 

Fre. 28.—Back view of Strawberry Blossom.. a, petals of corolla; 3, sepals of
calyx; c, peduncle; d, bract.
WAYSIDE: WEEDS, 8D.

we want the ‘kind of plant for our present purs
pose (Fig. 30), and, if you Have no‘other chénce;
go into the kitchen-gardén, and pluck ‘a flowering

. iP) Aa =

 

Fre, 29.—Collection of Blossoms of common Brauble, ‘arranged ‘in a eorymb:
dy petals; b, calyx sepals; c,. stamens ; d,,pistils ; e, pedicels; 7, bracts;

g, sete or bristles ; h, compound leaf.
1 eit

sprig of celery, parsley, or carrot, or fennel, calling
in, if necessary, the aid of the gardener or’ cook:
You have now got a type of family No. 8 of our
36 WAYSIDE WEEDS:

present Handful. . Lastly, the white meadow saxi-
frage and the. willow herbs are so common that
many of our readers may be able to add them to
the company,

 

Fra. 294,—Section of Blossom cf common Bramble,

The vetch tribes, represented by the broom,
gorse, vetch, and clover (Figs, 23, 24), are very
distinct from the rose family, to which the haw-
thorn, apple, strawberry (Fig. 28), and rose itself
(Fig. 25) belong, Equally diverse are our hemlock
friends (Fig. 30), and not less so the saxifrage and
the willow herb, Yet, pull them to pieces, they are
all many-petaled, polypetalous (Fig. 31). Thus far
they resemble the plants of Handful I., and, for
aught you see at present, might be grouped with
them; but we must look further, Different as the
groups of Handful II. may seem from each other,
they have one common point of resemblance in
which they differ from Handful I., and that is in
the mode in which their stamens and petals are
attached to the other parts of the flower. Call to
mind that in the many-petaled blossoms of Handful
I, the petals and the stamens were invariably at-
-WAYSIDE WEEDS. 37

tached (Figs. 4 and 6) to the part called the recep-
tacle, which formed the support of the pistil; you
could detach the calyx, or, as in the poppy and in

 

Fic. 30.—Blossoms of common Beate 1 Farsley, arranged in compound umbels.
@, central point of primary umbel; 2, biacts, or involucel, at ceatral point
of umbellule,

some of the ranunculus genus, it could detach
itself, without, interfering with the other parts of the
blossom. A very few trials with the plants we have
38 .WAYSIDE WEEDS..

now put into your hand will show that with them
this cannot be done. If you take calyx, you take
likewise stamens and petals, for to it they are
attached, and not to the receptacle. All the ex-
amples you have will mot show this equally well,
but in some, such as the strawberry (Fig. 28) and
others, it is very well marked. ‘Perhaps this little
difference in the attachment of the parts may appear
to a beginner a very little difference to say so much
about; and yet, slight as seems the line of demar-
cation, it severs groups of plants by a strictly
natural distinction, which differ widely, not only in
their outward appearance, but in their medicinal
and economical properties. We dwell upon it,
therefore, because it teaches one of the most useful
and well-marked lessons in botanical distinction
which we can lay before a novice, and because it is
one which he can so easily verify for himself by
means of the commonest wayside weeds or flowers.
Here, then, we have the grand distinction between
Handful I. and Handful II., both made up of many-
petaled plants; but in the former the petals and
stamens are attached to the receptacle underneath
the pistil, in the latter to the calyx.

‘We now turn our attention literally to the busi-
ness, or at least to the flowers in hand. We have
found that those we are now examining are many-
petaled, and that petals and stamens by their attach:
ment te the calyx afford’ us a character which is a
WAYSIDE WEEDS. ‘39

common bond of union; but after this, we must
‘confess, we cannot show you any great resemblance.
Veitch or pea tribe, rose or apple tribe, and hemlock
tribe, to say nothing of saxifrage and willow herb,
are not very similar.

Pull this broom to ‘pieces; it is an excellent
example of its order. Off come its petals one by
one (Fig. 31), and an irregular lot they look. In

 

Fre. 31.—Petals of common Broom, separated, a, standard; bb, wing; ¢. keel.

truth, the pea-flowering tribe, in this country at
least, has very irregular flowers, by which we mean
that they can only be divided one way’ into two
‘equal halves. You’ pull off the. petals « ‘and the
‘stamens remain (Fig. 82), amd there they “will re-
40 ‘WAYSIDE. WEEDS,

main, evert long after the flower has withered and
fallen, as we see in the example (Fig. 33). Look
closely at the stamens (Fig. 82) after detaching the

 

Fria, 34.—Calyx and essential organs of common Broom, a, calyx; 4, stamens;
e, curved styles.

petals. “You will perceive they are all joined
together at the base by their filaments, and sur-

 

Fiq, 33:—Pod or Legume of common Broom a, legume; 4, persistent calyx;
ey remains of ‘stamens ; d, remains of stigma,

round, as it were, the pistil which in the broom
(Fig. 82) has a peculiar curve. This pistil enlarges.
into the seed-pod or legume (Fig. 38), and from this
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 41

“form of seed=vessel the whole of these véetch and
pea plants have taken their family name of Legu-
minous Plants; albeit they have another name,
taken from the fancied resemblance of some of the
pea-blossoms. to a butterfly, and hence they are
sometimes called Papilionaceous Plants. The pe-
culiar form of these butterfly-like petals has pro-
cured for them the names which are appended to
the figure (Fig. 81). You can scarcely see one of
these leguminous plants again without knowing its
social status in the botanical world, and recognizing
it as a member of a very important family—quite
one of the most so in Flora’s kingdom. Most im-
portant to man, seeing that from it he draws sucha
number of articles which are almost indispensable to
his comfortable existence. The trefoils or clovers,
the vetches and the lucerne which fodder his cattle,
and the peas, beans, lentils and pulses which feed
himself, all come from the leguminous or pod-bearing
tribe ; the valuable dyes, indigo and logwood, and
the drugs gum-arabic, senna, and catechu are like-
wise its products. Lastly, look at the leaves of our
leguminous friends (Fig. 34) ; but of these we shall
spéak in a future lesson, Suffice it to point out
here that they are what botanists call compound,
that they are characteristic as such, especially
with the superaddition, to many, of the tendrils
(Fig. 34).

With distinct. petals, with petals and stamens
42 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

attached to:the calyx, the rose tribes are grouped.
with our pod-bearing friends the Leguminos ; but -
from them, in other respects, they differ widely.

In the first place, the blossoms are regular ; you
can cut .a strawberry,.a wild-rose, or an ‘apple blos-

 

Fra. 34,—Compound Leaf of Vetch, , tendrils.

‘som through the centre, in any direction, into two
equal halves. Calyx, corolla, stamens, pistil, varying
in divisions, number, etc., are yet all regular. You
‘will have ‘no difficulty with the first three sets of
organs in any we have made you gather; but when
‘you come to put the pistil, or rather pistils, of the
‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. ‘48

‘strawberry and bramble beside those of the apple
or wild rose, you are probably quite thrown out.
‘The strawberry and the bramble (Fig. 28, 29) bear
their pistils relatively to the. other parts of the
‘blossom, in accordance with your previous expe-
‘rience of ‘plant arrangements; but the .rose and
the apple seem to put their calyx and other parts
right on the top of the pistil, or at least of the
seed-vessel. We are too young in our lessons to
consider this subject here; suffice it that the
difference is more apparent than real. It is,
however, sufficient difference to cause divisions
in the great class of the Rosaceous plants; some
claiming to be the true stock, or Roses, whilst
others, including our friends the apples and pears,
rank as the Pome tribe, and a third set take
their places with the cherries and plums. Never-
theless, divided or not, the Rosacez are a most
excellent family, and are not one whit behind the
pod-bearers in the amount of good things they pre-
pare for us. The queen of flowers herself heads the
procession, and though her train includes many a
sweet blossom, the gréat forte of her tribe lies in
the fruits;-strawberries and ‘raspberries, apple and
pear, almond, and plum, and peach all belong to
the clan of Queen Rose; and even.these must be
ushered in with flowers, for truly the blushing
apple-blossom and the ‘snowy clusters of pear and
cherry -bloom. would be. thought. more. of but for
Ad ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS.

the fruits that follow them. Neither must we for-
get that ‘with all the good things they give us,
‘they are also great preparers of prussic acid, and
that bitter almonds, peach kernels, and even apple
pips, contain it in abundance. True Rosaceans,
however, are less given to this manufacture, and

 

Fria. 35.—Compound Leaf of Rose.

offer us astringency in its place. Many members of
the rose tribe, like the rose itself (Fig. 35), have
compound leaves,

Group No. 3, in our hand, greets us with the
very different aspect of the hemlock tribe (Fig, 80),
We find, on examination, the bond of union in the
attachment of the petals and stamens, but almost |
WAYSIDE ‘WEEDS, 45.

all else is different, First, there is the great dis-
tinctive feature which gives. the family name of:
umbel-bearers to this large section of the vegetable
kingdom ; an umbel being that: peculiar disposition.
of the flowers which we see in Fig, 30, and which
we find in all plants. belonging to the order. Ob-
serye how the flower-stems all spring from one
central point. You will seldom gather these hem-

 

Fre, 36.—Compound Leaf of Umbelliferous Plant. a, sheath for stem,

lock-like plants with flowers otherwise than white,
though some have a pinkish tinge, and one or two
are yellow; moreover, we have compound leaves
again (Fig. 36), but compound after ‘a different
mode frém the leaves of the vetch, or of the rose;
the leaf, too, sheaths the stem at its base, and the
stem is more. or less hollow. Look to these things,
46 WAYSIDE WEEDS%.°

for they are part of your lesson, and then. let, us:
see to: the blossoms. themselves. Here, perliaps,.
you do not seé matters quite so-plainly as you did.
in, the large-blossom plants we have hitherto ex+
amined’; a litle more patience is required, and the
magnifying glass.will aid. you. Do not forget. we-
are, still among :the distinct petal flowers. Five:

 

Fie, 37.—A, Blossom of Umbelliferous Plant: a, petal, with inflected point;'
b, stamens; c, pistil with double style. B, Fruit of Umbelliferous Plant:
a, styles; b, stamens ¢, & fleshy disk; d, double fruit. C, Ripe Seeds or
Carpels separating from central axis, D, Section of Seeds:-a, ribs; 3, oil-
channels, or vitta.

little petals have these umbellifers, placed on the
top of what.you will recognize as the seed—seed-:
vessel it is indeed (Fig. 37)—and with a calyx,
more or less minute, adhering closely to the latter:
On, the. summit of this little double seed, you will
more easily make out the double styles, and the five.
WAYSIDE WEEDS: 47

stamens will not tax your patience much. Probably,
before your examination has proceeded thus far, you
will. have made the discovery that the petals of this
tribe of plants are: by no means: equal in size, in all:
eases, and, if you. have examined closely, that they.
have frequently 4 peculiar turning in—inflection—
at the top (Fig. 37).. Wescould say ‘much respect-:
ing the seeds (Fig. 37) of this extensive plant family,.
but that belongs to the fruit: department; only,
if you have opportunity, glance: at them now when
somewhat. advanced towards-ripening: A very cur-
sory examination will show you how different the:
small, double, ribbed, and often aromatic. seed is.
from those which. have hitherto: come under our
notice. The caraway seed.is an excellent specimen..
Many drugs and aromatics, and vegetables such as.
carrot, parsnip, celery, parsley, are’ yielded to us by’
the umbel-bearers..

_ Scarcely would it be possible to place in your
hand representatives of orders of plants more: im-:
portant. or:more interesting than the triad of which.
we have endeavoured. to. give you some idea, and
perhaps we could not well select orders possessing”
characters more likely to impress themselves upon
the mind. of a beginner in; the study of botany..
Look, then, again and again at the pea tribe:
flowers, or weeds if you will, at those of the roses.
and of the umbel bearers, for they are most dis-.
tinct and natural in their markings, and well calcu-
48 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

lated to form foundation lines for your future
knowledge,

We mentioned the white meadow saxifrage and
the willow herb as included in our present handful
of weeds, To such as know them by their familiar
names they will offer examples of other, but per-
haps less strongly marked, plant families, which
still have the distinct-petal character and the caly-
cine attachment of stamen and petal. ‘The white
meadow saxifrage is an elegant plant, often found
very abundantly during May, bearing its collection
of white blossoms on a stem from four to six inches
high, and springing from a root which seems made
up of a number of bead-like granules, the size of
small peas, It represents well a plant family, the
Saxifrages, which contains many beautiful mem-
bers, but from which man draws but little that is
useful, The willow herbs are still more common
than the saxifrages, and towards the end of June,
and in July, are to be found by nearly every hedge-
side—at least the lesser species with their small
pink flowers, A little later, the great hairy willow’
herb of our ditches and ponds offers its handsome,
large, rose-coloured blossoms. If you know the
plants, or can find them, you will recognize the
same structural arrangement of petal and stamen
that we have dwelt so much upon, and when
you come to examine the pistil (Fig. 38) you get.
another variety of the organ; for here the stigma
 

Spotted Rock-rose. Hispid Mallow.

 
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 49

is elegantly cleft into four divisions. The fruiting
and seeding of these willow herbs are peculiar ; but
of that hereafter.

The parts of plants to which, in these our early
lessons, we have more especially directed your
attention, are all included in the term Reproductive

 

Fie. 38.—e, Four-cleft stigma of willow herb.

Organs—that is to say, they are such as conduce ta
the formation of the seed upon which the con-
tinuation and reproduction of the plant species
depend. The calyx, the corolla, the stamens, the
pistil, make up what we commonly understand as a
flower, and without a flower there can be no seed;
but a botanist’s flower and a florist’s flower are two
very different things. The florist requires gay
colouring and fine. petals, and cares but little for
stamen or pistil; the botanist looks to the latter
only as the essentials of his flower—in other words,
these organs are all that are required for the prod
duction of seed, and are therefore the essential
reproductive organs; indeed, in some plants we
find no flowering beyond the stamen and pistil
development.
50 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

“ God might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small ;
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.

“He might have made enough, enough,
For every want of ours ;
For medicine, luxury, and toil,
And yet have made no flowers.”

And truth it is that, for aught we can see, we
might have had all essential means of seed pro-
duction without that beauty which He who made
all things has lavished upon the lilies of the field.
Calyx and corolla are apparently non-essential to
seeding, and yet we cannot but imagine that they
subserve some office of greater or less importance
beyond delighting the eye.

THE CALYX

Of a plant has its first office in the protection of
the flower-bud—covering the tender organs within,
until their time for full expansion has come. Then
it assumes various modes of procedure. We have
seen, as in the poppy (Fig. 39), it may be cast off
as the blossom opens, separating in one piece like
an extinguisher, and allowing the petals, which
seem to have been crumpled up within it, to expand
in their full size and beauty.

More generally, however, the calyx remains for
a longer or shorter time after the flower blows, and
in many plants it is still there after the petals of
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 51

the corolla have fallen, either protecting the growing
seed-vessel, or forming part of what people gene-
rally call the fruit itself. The latter we find to be
the case in the apple, the pear, the thorn, the fruit

 

Fia. 39.—Poppy-bud drooping before flowering, and casting off
two-pieced ealyx.

of these being partly composed of the enlarged
calyx. When a calyx falls off early, it is called a
deciduous calyx; when it remains till the fruit has
formed, it is called persistent.

As yet, our calyces have been green or leaf-like
organs, more or less regular, and easy of recog-
nition. You must not, however, expect always to
find them bearing this palpable character; they are
often very irregular in form, sometimes in one
piece, sometimes in two, sometimes in more.
Neither is the calyx always green: of this we have
had some notice in the frequently deep-coloured
flower-cup of the wallflower, or yellow bivalve of
the gorse, though, in these instances, it preserves
its well-marked distinction from the brighter corolla.
But there are cases where, although the corolla
52 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

exists, it is so insignificant as to be entirely eclipsed
by the more brilliant calyx—such we find in the
hellebores or Christmas roses of our gardens; and,
lastly, as in the anemones, the corolla may be
absent altogether, and its place supplied by a calyx
as beautiful as any corolla. In such cases the
calyx is called petaloid or flower-like, The crocus
and the snowdrop likewise offer us examples of the
petaloid calyx, and in such plants the entire flower,
composed of petals and sepals, is frequently called
the perianth, When the calyx is joined together
so as to constitute a one-pieced or monosepalous
calyx, its composition of several conjoined parts is
usually indicated by toothings, foldings, or marking,
as we shall see in the primrose, Lastly, the calyx
is frequently irregular in form; in this respect
generally being coincident with irregularity of form
in the corolla it encloses. Did space permit, we
might enlarge greatly upon the variety of forms to
be found in calyces, but now that our readers can
recognize the part for themselves, it is better that
they should seek out their knowledge by looking at
every plant or weed for that variation—and beautiful
variation too—which they will not fail to find,

One last. word over our flower-cups. You will
not long have examined plants before you meet,
every now and then, with a calyx which looks
yather like a collection of the ordinary leaves of the
plant,-than like. an orderly, well-conducted calyx,
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 53

This is especially remarkable among the roses and
the primrose tribe, and it is, in fact, an effort of
the calyx to metamorphose itself back to its original
leaf-type. This is a subject of plant lore, however,
which, only hinted at now, may engage your atten-
tion at some future time.

COROLLA.

Calyx first, next within comes the corolla,
regular. or irregular in form, in many pieces or
petals, as we have.met with hitherto, or in one
‘piece as we shall come upon it ere long. Now,
‘before we take the flower in its full expanse of
beauty, let us give short attention to it whilst yet
in its baby state, cradled within.its calyx. Take
‘any common flowers or weeds you know, or, for
that matter, that you may not know by name;
open their buds—tear them open if you will, but
also cut them in various directions with a sharp
-knife ; see how beautifully packed within are these
petals, which, next day, or hour even, are to open in
all their expanded pride, without a crease or fold
upon them. These.poppy petals-that we spoke of
a little above, look really and. truly crumpled up,
and yet in the expanded blossom not a trace
remains of such usage. This bud-packing is known,
botanically, as the estivation of flowers, and the
term is applicable to calyx as well as corolla, for
the calyx, you will find, has its set forms of bud-
54 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

ding. Like the calyx, the corolla, when it is joined
up into one piece, as it is in the primrose, the
harebell or bluebell, or in the blue veronica,
indicates its many-pieced origin by the divisions,
more or less deep, which are marked upon it;
these divisions bearing the same position, rela-
tively, to the divisions of the calyx that distinct
petals do—that is to say, the corolla petals or
divisions are placed in alternation with the calyx
sepals, or divisions, not opposite. Mark the fact,
as we shall have to return to it.

The forms of the corolla are exceedingly nume-
rous; the crucifer or cross-like, the papilionaceous
or butterfly-like, and the rosaceous we have already
seen, but to these we must add the labiated, as
we shall see it in the common white nettle, the
bell shape of the bluebell, the wheel shape of the
forget-me-not, and the strap-shaped little florets
of the dandelion, or of the white ray of the daisy.
Moreover, as if height, colour, and varied and
lovely form were not enough, you will find many
a blossom ornamented with other appendages, such
as hairs, glands, coronets, etc., which add to its
beauty. Go and see.

STAMENS.
Within the corolla, and, when definite in num-
‘ber, alternating with its divisions, in the perfect
flower, we have the stamens, those important
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 55

organs which, along with the pistil, constitute the
essential reproductive organs. You have already
examined common plants enough to be aware that
the stamens are not by any means definite in
number, but occur in every proportion, from the
many of the buttercup or rose to the few of the
wallflower or the umbellifer. But if varied in
number, they are far from being so in form (Fig.
40). The filament, or support of the anther, may

   

s

Fie. 40.—Stamen. a, anther ; 4, filament; ¢ pollen.

be absent without injury to the utility of the organ ;
in other words, the anther is the essential part.
Examine the latter attentively, using a lens if
possible. You will quickly see that almost inva-
riably this anther is composed of two lobes; and
if you extend your observations, you will see that
from each of these lobes, which are in reality little,
pouches, is discharged a fine yellow dust. Shake
your flowers over a dark. surface, and if the anthers
56 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

be ripe, this pollen dust will come out in a golden
shower. Dust it looks, but dust it is not; for if
you get it sufficiently highly magnified, you will
find it to consist of multitudes of minute bead-like
grains, generally round, but sometimes oval or
triatigular. When ripe, shaken or not, the anthers
discharge their pollen by a regular. mode of open-
ing, or, as it is called, dehiscence; this opening,
in most cases, taking place along a line of suture,
but in some instances by means of pores or valves.
The very abundance of the pollen contents of these
anthers testifies to its importance; without it, plant
perpetuation does not take place. But before we
get upon that subject, we must make further
acquaintance than we have done yet with the other
essential organ of reproduction, and for this we
must look to the centre of the flower.

THE PISTIL

Is the central organ of the blossom, the seed-
bearer. You will find, indeed you must have found
already, the pistil much more varied in form than
the stamens. In the buttercup it is made up of
many members; in the poppy it consists, appa.
rently, of but one; in the leguminous plants of
one; in the umbellifers of two; in the rosaceans
apparently of one in some cases, of many in others.
In short, there is no end to the varieties of pistil,
and such you will find the case as you go on
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 57

examining blossom after blossom, as of course you
will do. This seed-bearing, seed-developing pistil
is composed of three parts—the ovary or seed+
vessel, the style, and the stigma. Of ‘these, two
are essential, the stigma and the seed-vessel; but
the style, though usually present, may, apparently,
asin the poppy, where the stigma lies close upon
the top of the ovary, be dispensed with. Indeed,
the style, like the filament of the stamen, appears
to be simply a mechanical addition to essential
parts, to fit them for their relative positions in the

Fig. 41,—Pistil of Primrose. wu, stigma; 8, style; ¢, ovary.

blossom. As you will find, in a future lesson, the
entire plant is covered with a thin skin, or epider-
mis, as it is called; and only at one point is this
wanting, that point being the stigma of the pistil,
which, instead of epidermis, is coated with a glu.
tinous matter, to which adhere the grains of pollen
as they are discharged from the anther. The
adhering grains convey to the ovules within the
seed-vessel the power of becoming perfect seeds, °
for it is arule, seemingly without exception, that
if there is no pollen, no seeds are formed. In the
58 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

majority of plants, the stamens and the pistils are
found combined in the same blossom; but in some,
such as the lychnis, which we gathered into Hand-
ful No. 1, they are not only in separate blossoms,
but in separate plants, perhaps widely separated.
Is it not a great chance that the pollen of the one
‘blossom reaches the stigma of the other? If it
depended. on chance it would be; but He who

 

Fic, 42.—Diagram of a perfect flower. a@ a, calycine, or external whorl, of
organs alternating with 5 5, corolline whorl; ¢ c, staminal whorl, opposite
calycine divisions, alternate with corolline; d d, pistiline whorl, opposite
corolline, alternating with staminal and calycine, ‘

separated the blossoms has made also the provision
that they do not bloom in vain. Watch that bee
who is coming away from the stamen-bearing
lychnis flower, and carrying with him a golden
embroidery of pollen; why, the very next thing
he does is to fly off to that blossom which is wait-
ing for it, and rub his spangled jacket against it.
Neither is it bees only which are the pollen carriers,
‘WAYSIDE WEEDS. “59

for other insects, doubtless, are equally useful: and
there exist well-authenticated instances of pollen
thus being carried many miles to its destined use.

Remember, however, that the pollen of a rose
‘will not fertilize a wallflower, nor that of a hem-
lock a poppy; like must to like, and that it will
to like renders it needful for the seed-prower and
nurseryman to be very careful in his way. Allied
plants, such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.,
do intermingle in their fertilization, and, as a
consequence, a choice variety may be deteriorated
or lost by the flowering of other varieties of the
same family in its immediate neighbourhood. How-
ever, this is digression. To go back to the stigma
and its varied forms; we have already alluded to
the four-cleft organ of the willow herb, now look
at the harebell or campanula, and it is three-cleft ;
find it out in the grasses, and it is an elegant
feather ; in the primrose, a little knob like a pin’s
head.

We have already remarked that the organs of
the flower were essential and non-essential with
reference to the production of seed, the essential
being the stamen and pistil. Nevertheless, the
botanist regards that blossom only as the type of
a perfect flower which possesses calyx and corolla,
stamens and pistils fully developed; a lychnis
wanting in one blossom the pistil, in another the
stamens, or the anemones with a petaloid calyx
60 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

instead of corolla, are not perfect flowers, botani-
cally speaking. Be it remarked, too, that not
only must these parts be present, but they must
be developed in a regular series of circles, or whorls,
as they are called, the organs alternating one with
the other; the corolla divisions alternating with
those of the calyx, the stamens with the divisions
of the corolla on the one side, and with the parts
of the pistil on the other (Fig. 42), These relative
positions are, of course, altered by variations in
number and development, but still they afford to
botanists a standard by which to judge in the
determination of doubtful parts.
Hanhinl 224,

The Plants of the Handful—Honeysuckle and Blue-
bell, @aisy, Lhistles, Wild Chamomile, Ragwort,
and Colt’s-foot—Hilder Flower—The Bedstraws—
The one-pieced, or one-petaled or Monopetalous Co-
rolla—Composite Blossoms—The Composite Family
—/Inflorescence—The Scape and Rachis—T he Capi-
tulum—The Spike—Azillary Flowers—The Raceme
—The Umbel — The Panicle —The Cathkin — The
Whorl—Glomerulus, Spathe, and Cyme—Bracts.
HANDFUL III.

Their heads
Flowers raise, to greet the sun; and man, too, lifts
His thankful soul to God for all these summer gifts.”
CatpER CaMPBELL.

Wuart have we? Honeysuckle, certainly, by the
scent, before we see it, and the “ bonny bluebell,”
and the “ wee, modest, crimson-tipped ” daisy, that
Burns wrote of, and that Chaucer well-nigh wor-
shipped as well as wrote of. These are almost
enough to make a handful of themselves. But
mind your fingers, for there should be prickly
thistles amid our gathering this time, and the
great ox-eye, or, as it is called in some places, horse-
daisy, and one of those plants which children call
wild chamomile (Fig. 43), and the yellow ragwort
(Fig. 44), with early spring colt’s-foot, dandelion,
and a bunch of elder flowers. We will not pay our
readers the bad compliment to suppose they do not
know every plant we have just named ; probably,
too, they can tell the bedstraws and the woodruff,
64 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

with their leaves placed round their stems in what
is called a whorl, as shown in Fig. 45. These last
do not add much to the appearance of our Handful ;

 

Fie. 43.—Blossom of common Wild Chamomile, a, disk; 6, ray; ¢, peduncle,
The leaves are divided into capillary or hair-like segments. Inflorescence
definite, .

but should you chance to cast your plants aside for
a few days, you will find that the woodruff has, in
withering, developed its sweet, new-mown hay
odour, more especially so if: you are pressing it in
 

Germander Speedwell. Yellow Bedstraw.

 

  

Wood Hawkweed. Ivy-leaved Bell-fower.
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 65

paper; the other flowers having quite lost their
scent.

 

Fre, 44.—Blossoms of common Ragwort. The inflorescence is definite, and
arranged in a corymb.

You look at the blossoms of the honeysuckle
(Fig. 46), the bluebell (Fig. 47), the elder, and, if
F
66 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

you have a good magnifier, at those of the bed-
straws and woodruff, and you quickly discover that

we have left the domain of the many-petaled flowers,

and reached that section where the corolla is all in
one piece. (See Fig. 46.) If you attempt to re-

 

Fig. 45.—Leaves of common W oodruff, arranged in a Whor!l.

move it, it must either come away all in a piece,
or it must tear; only you cannot understand why
the daisy, the thistle, the ragwort (Fig. 44), and
such like plants, find their place here, for truly they
seem made up of pieces enough. We will get to
them presently.

Now these plants in our hand have one bond of
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 67

connection with those we gathered into Handful II.
They belong to what is called the “ Calycifloral”
section ; in other words, their stamens and corolla
are inserted upon the calyx, and not, like the flowers
in Handful I., upon the receptacle. Moreover, the
plants we are now examining have their corolla and

 

Fie. 46.—Blossom of common Honeysuckle, in one piece, or monopetalous.
a, corolla; 4, calyx; e, stamens; d, pistil.

stamens (Figs. 46 and 47) fixed, as it were, on the
top of the ovary, as in the case of the true roses
and the pome tribe, and also the umbellifers in
many-petaled calyciflore; this being due in all
these cases to the calyx growing up, as it were,
around, and thus inclosing the ovary; to speak
botanically, being “adnate” toit. The corolla and
stamens, however, are just as much inserted into
68 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

the calyx in these cases as they are in the straw-
berry and the bramble (Fig. 294). Thus, then, we
have our present section of plants marked off from

 

Fis. 47.—Blossoms of common Bluebell, or Harebell. The inflorescence is
arranged in @ panicle, aa, leaves of plant; 6 5, bracts.

all others; they are distinct from the many-petaled,
and they are no less distinct from their monopetaled
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 69

or one-petaled brethren, which have corolla and
stamens inserted into the receptacle beneath the

 

Fre, 48,—Fruit of common Elder, arranged in a cyme.

pistil, pistils, or ovary, like the buttercups and

poppies,
Not much is it our honeysuckles do for us in the
70 ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS,

way of the “utile,” but in the “dulce” they are
pre-eminent ; for what would English hedgerows
be in June without their twining woodbines, and
what would Scottish braes be in July without their
own bluebells, that every summer-straying bairn
fills her hands with? How very different from the
honeysuckle are the latter (Fig. 47), but yet how
akin the parts of likeness for which we have taken
them together. Look at one of the flowers from
the bunch of elder blossoms, which is so like your
old friends of the hemlock or umbellifer tribe; its
one-pieced corolla springs from the top of the seed-
vessel, which seed-vessel (Fig. 48) albeit will be a
black elderberry in September, and its juice, may-
hap, form one drop in the cup of hot spiced wine
that good housewives delight in. Now, we give
you credit for understanding the preceding ex-
planations, but we can see that ever and anon you
are puzzling to know what thistles, and daisies, and
colt’s-foot do here, reminded, perhaps, every now
and then, by the prickly remembrances of the
. former as you grasp your flowers.

' Take any one of these last-named plants you
like, say the colt’s-foot, which will probably greet
us first in early spring with its yellow-rayed blossom,
and let out farming secrets. However, “pull the
flower’s head to pieces, and what do youfind? Not
a number of distinct petals, but a numerous com-
pany of little flowers, or rather florets (Fig. 49),
a
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 71

each with its one little ovary or seed, and the little
feathery surroundings which represent the calyx;
for bear in mind that the green covering which
incloses the buds (Fig. 49, d) and holds the ex-
panded flower is not a calyx; but of that more
hereafter. Look at your dissected colt’s-foot blos-

 

Fig. 49.—Greatly-magnified view of three florets of common Colt’s-foot. «@
tubular floret of disk, with both stamens and pistil,e; 6, bud; e, strap-
shaped floret of ray, without stamens, but with pistil, £; d, bracts of in-
volucre; g, seed or achene, surrounded by the feathery calyx or pappus, k ;
k, common receptacle.

som again with your magnifying-lens, or, failing
the blossom, at the figure. The first thing that will
strike you is, that the little florets in the middle
are very different from those at the circumference
(Fig. 49, a, c). The little central flower is as
perfect, aye, and as beautiful, a little flower as can
be, except that its calyx is not quite after the
72 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

usual fashion. Its pistil extrudes from its centre
(Fig. 49, e) and the little stamens form a tube
round it.

Botanically, these little central florets are called

the florets of the disk, in contradistinction to those
at the circumference, which are called the florets of
the ray (Fig. 49, c). These last, as you at once see,
are not regular, symmetrical flowers like those of
the disk, but are long and “ strap-shaped.” More-
over, they have a pistil of their own (Fig. 49, f),
“ovary, and feathery calyx or “pappus,” but no
stamens, their florets depending for their fertili-
zation upon the stamens of the disk, as well they
may.

Now, this colt’s-foot blossom is a most excellent
example of this tribe of plants, the Composites,
which, for all their appearance belied them, have,
you see, one-pieced blossoms after all, only the
blossoms are collected into a close head or capitu-
lum, instead of being spread over a stem or peduncle.
The part on which the florets are placed (Figs. 49,
h, and 50, b), and which represents the peduncle, is
called in these plants the receptacle; and the green
envelope which represents the leaves of the pe-
duncle, or bracts, is called the involucre (Figs. 49, h,
and 51, 6).

You must not run away with the idea, however,
that all our composite heads of flowers are exactly
similar to the colt’s-foot. In the daisy, in the rag-
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 73

wort (Fig. 44), in the wild chamomile (Fig. 43), you
will find them similar; but not so in the hawkweed
(Fig. 51) or in the dandelion, which should not
have waited our special mention until now. In the
latter, the florets are all strap-shaped, like those of
the colt’s-foot ray; whilst in the thistle (Fig. 50),
and other allied composites, they are all tubular,
like those of the colt’s-foot disk.

 

Fie. 60.—Section of Head, or Capitulum, of common Thistle, 4, florets;
b, common receptacle ; c, bracts, or involucre,

It will be an excellent lesson and exercise for
you to gather these composite blossoms and examine
them. You must expect, in doing so, to find con-
siderable variation in the distribution of the stamens
and pistils in the tiny florets. The composites form
such an extensive family, that botanists are fain to
divide them, according to these floret distinctions,
74 ‘WAYSIDE WEEDS,

into tribes, whereof the lettuces, dandelion, hawk-
weed, etc., belong to one, the thistles and burdocks
to another, the daisy, ragwort, colt’s-foot, and many
another to the third.

We have already alluded to-the peculiar form
which the calyx——not the involucre, remember—
assumes in the composite family; feathery in a

 

Fig, 51,—Back view of blossom of common Hawkweed, a, strap-shaped florets

of ray ; 2, bracts, coustituting the:common involucre; ¢, peduncle ; d, scale.
greater or less degree, as familiar to us all, in thistle-
down, and in the dandelion parachute, and botani-
cally called the pappus, it remains after the floret
has withered and fallen off, and until the ripened
seed calls for its aid to transport it far from the
parent plant. Something more of this aérial seed-
sowing may we learn if we give careful attention to
“WAYSIDE WEEDS. 75

these plants when fruiting. It is not all composites,
however, which have these feathery wings; the
‘daisy, the chamomile, the chrysanthemum, and
‘others, have none, or at best a few tiny scales, to
show where they should be.

Both in the way of food and medicine, the com-
posites, of which we have examined these few repre-
sentatives, yield largely to man. The prevailing
principle is a bitter, sometimes, as in the wormwood,
aromatic, or, as in the lettuce, narcotic to an extent
which makes itself known even in the cultivated
vegetables, and is strong in some of the uncultivated
species, Dahlias, asters, cinerarias, purple groundsel,
the everlastings, are a few of the many brilliant
flowers this great family offers to us.

The elder, which we lately mentioned, belongs
to the same tribe as the honeysuckle, whilst the
woodruff and bedstraws represent to us the madders,
their most remarkable features being the “ whorled”
disposition of the leaves around the stem (Fig. 45).
The bedstraws have some of them white, others
have yellow flowers ; the flowers of the woodruff are
small, but brilliant white, and those of the little
field-madder are pink. Tiny corollas are they all,
but elegantly cruciform in shape. If you have the
patience to dissect them under your lens you will
find the stamens fixed to the corolla, and the corolla
to the calyx. No lens do you need, however, to
look at the bluebells, the representatives of thé
76 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

campanula tribe, and you easily make out that
the same floral structure which has grouped our
Handful prevails with them ; the stamens, however,
are not attached to the corolla, and the stigma is
lobed.

In the lesson which we appended to Handful II.,.
we endeavoured to give you some idea of the parts
of a perfect flower, their uses and arrangement; we
have now to go a step further, and say somewhat of
the methods according to which flowers are arranged
upon the plants which bear them. Perhaps it never
occurred to many of our noviciate readers that flowers
are arranged upon their stems in any definite way.
They know that their mignonette grows in a little
pyramid, their Tom Thumb geraniums and calceo-
larias in sorts of bunches, and so on, and suppose
there is some sort of set fashion for them; but as
to what it is, they have not the most remote idea.
Let us see whether we cannot make our few way-
side weeds give us a clue to unravel, in some
degree at least, flower arrangements, or, as it is
called in botany,

THE INFLORESCENCE.

We need scarcely remark that flowers, and blos-
soms generally, are supported upon a stalk or stem
of some kind. In certain instances there is but one
flower to a stem, as in the primrose, the snowdrop,
etc.; in others, the blossoms are crowded on by
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 77

hundreds and thousands, and in every variety of
form and arrangement, Now this primary or main
flower-stem goes by the general name of peduncle,
and when, as often occurs, other little stems are

 

Fre. 52.—Flower-spikes end Leaves of common Plantain. The peduncle
springing from the root-crown is called a scape. It. might also be called a
rachis, because of its running straight to the extremity of the inflorescence.

given off from it, they are known by the diminutive

of pedicels, or little stems. When the peduncle
springs direct from the root-crown, or root-leaves,
and, unbranched, bears a single blossom, it dg called
78 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

a scape; but it also bears the name of scape when,
as in the daisy, the dandelion, the plantain (Fig.
52), the cowslip, or oxslip, it carries a collection of
blossoms. Indeed, the latter plants, although their
flowers are differently arranged, approach very near
the primrose in their inflorescence, and we have
only to imagine the primrose scapes bound to-

 

Fig. 53.—Spray of common Scarlet Pimpernel. a a, blossoms, solitary,
springing from the axils of the leaves, which are thence called bracts.

gether part way up, to get the first transition to a
compound form of flowering. Again, let us do
away with the pedicels of the cowslip blossoms, and
mass these together upon the top of the scape, and
we get the head, or capitulum, such as we see in
the daisy and other composites, or, reversing the
PLATE 7.

  
   

Cross-leaved Heath,

 

Cranberry. Fine-leaved Heath.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 79

process, prolong the scape, and plant the blossoms
closely along it, still keeping away the pedicels,
and we have the spike such as we see in the
common plantain (Fig. 52), the main stem still
retaining the name of scape. In this case it might

 

; Fre. 54.—Fineleaved Heath. Blossoms disposed in raceme and partly
whorled.
also be called the rachis, another term for a stem,
but. for one which runs in a straight line from their
base through the centre of the inflorescence.
Of course, however, the majority of plants, as
our readers are well aware, have not the stems thus
80 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

rising from amid their root-leaves, and the umbel,
the spike, or the capitulum, and any other forms of
inflorescence may occur in connection with other
peduncles than scapes; and, on the other hand,
solitary blossoms do not necessarily claim scapes for
their supports.

Look at Fig. 58, which represents a sprig of the
common scarlet pimpernel, a common enough weed,

 

4
Fre. 55,--Sprig of common Currant. Blossoms in a pendent raceme.

though we have not yet placed it in your hand; the
flowers spring all the way up the stem, but each is
solitary on its own peduncle, and starts from the
junction of the stem with a leaf, or, as it is called,
from the axilla of the leaf, the blossoms being
described as solitary and axillary. But these leaves,
from the axils of which the flowers spring, might
be greatly: diminished in size, niight be dwindled
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 81

down to little more than scales, and. the peduncles
might be shortened ; in which case we should have
such a form of flower arrangement as we see at
Fig, 54, forming what is called a raceme, The
raceme is one of those most common forms of in-
florescence, and may be erect {as in Fig. 54), or
drooping, as in the currant (Fig. 55), Now sup-
pose, instead of these little pedicels of the raceme
blossoms being all the same length, we have the
upper or central ones short, and the lower or outer
ones prolonged so as to bring the blossoms nearly
to the same level, we have a corymb, as in the
bramble (see Fig. 29, p. 35); but if we take a
corymb, and, as it were, draw it out from the
centre, we again get the raceme—a change of form
of inflorescence which actually occurs in the floral
development of such plants as the wallflower and
other crucifers, only that in these cases the little
scales, or bracts, necessary to the true raceme, are
wanting. Once more let us have all our pedicels
springing from one point, and we have the true
umbel (Fig. 30, p. 37), which may be simple, or, as
in the figure, compound, the secondary umbels. of
the compound form being named wmbellules, or
little umbels, As already alluded to, it is only
requisite to concentrate the flowers of the umbel to
get the head of the composite. When araceme, still
retaining the raceme character, becomes branched,

we get the panicle, which is the common flowering
a
82 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

form of most of the grasses (Fig. 56), differing,.
however, greatly in the compactness or diffuseness
of its arrangement. Many grasses, such as wheat,

 

Fic. 56.—Panicled Inflorescence of Grass_-
 

 
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 85

barley, darnel-grass, etc., have the true spiked form
of flowering, each spike being made up of numerous
spikelets (locustee) ; and these, as we shall see when
we come to examine grasses, are made up of a
larger or smaller number of blossoms. The pe-
duncle of the grass is often called the rachis, and

 

Fic, 58.—Red Dead Nettle; the blossoms disposed in whorls or verticillasters.
.

the stem is a culm. When a spike of flowers
droops, as it does in the poplar, hazel, etc., it is
called a catkin, and the fertile flower of the hop
(Fig. 57) gets the same name. When in our next
Handful you make acquaintance with the mint or
86 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

labiate tribe of plants, to which the common red ‘or
dead nettle (Fig. 58) belongs, you will find a still
different flowering plan ; for the blossoms are col-
lected closely round the stem, in the leaf axils, in

 

Fie. 59,—Common Stinging Nettle. Inflorescence in a glomerulus,

little bundles properly called verticillasters, but
often described as whorls, The stinging nettle
(Fig. 59), not the slightest connection, not even a
“Scotch cousin,” of its namesake, has its flowers—
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 87

some of our readers stare at the idea—in little
clusters, each one of which constitutes a glomerulus.
One of the most unique forms of inflorescence, how-
ever, is the spathe (Fig. 60), which is composed of
an assemblage of blossoms inclosed within a sort of
sheath or hood; as in the wake-robin—lords and
ladies—so common by English hedge-sides in early
spring; most Englsh children know it, and will
readily recognize what is meant. Almost we fear
to bewilder you with these varied names and de-
scriptions, which it is difficult to make attractive
to a beginner, though it is well to get some know-
ledge of them. Only one more, and we have done.
Look at Fig. 48, which illustrates the fruit-cluster
of the common elder ; it is neither umbel, corymb,
nor raceme, but seems a mixture of all three, and
gets the name of cyme. It is most near the corymb,
however, in form, and derives its principal diversity
from the order in which its blossoms become de-
veloped and expanded; albeit this ‘brings us to
another subject connected with inflorescence—the
order of expansion of blossoms, whether definite or
indefinite, whether tending towards the centre of
the floral axis or centre, or tending away from it.
It is, perhaps, better, in these our early days of
weed-gathering, not to puzzle you with this sub-
ject; it is scarcely requisite for our first lessons,
which we are bound in good faith to keep as simple
for you as possible. Look back to Fig. 53, the
88 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

sprig of scarlet pimpernel: the solitary flowers
spring from the axils of what we called leaves, but.

 

Fie. 60.—Reproduetive Organs, or Flower of common “ Wake-robin,” inclosed
in a large bract, called a spathe. u, stamens; 4, pistils.

leaves they are not in the eye of a botanist, for
their proper designation is
BRACTS.

In many instances, as in the one in question,
the bracts are scarcely, if at all, distinguishable
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 89

from the ordinary leaves of the plant. This is more
especially the case with the lower bracts of a flower
series, for the upper ones become less leaf-like.
Nevertheless, whether in every respect like an
ordinary leaf, or whether not more than an insig-
nificant scale, the appendage at. the base of a
peduncle or pedicel is always known as the bract.

 

Fie. 61.—Twig of Lime-tree. a, bract; 6, leaf; ¢, fruit.

Refer back to the various figures with which the
present paper and those preceding are illustrated,
and you will find numerous instances of bracts.

At times, however, bracts, or collections of
bracts, are called involucres, when they envelope
such collections of blossoms as the heads of the
composites, the umbels, etc. The bract of the
common lime-tree is such an excellent example of
bract formation (Fig. 61), that though the lime is
scarcely a “ wayside weed,” we make no excuse for
bringing it forward. If you really do not as yet
90 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

know a lime-tree, you can scarce miss it henceforth
when you know that you cannot go withm many
yards of it in July without being attracted by the
scent of the blossoms, or by the hum of the myriads
of bees which swarm around it. Go, pray, for the
sake of the bract, pluck a twig of the first lime you
meet with, only remember it belongs to Handful
No. L, for it is a many-petaled bloomer.
Hanstul BV.

Handful IV. w Handful of Favourites—-They are One-
petaled—WDistinetion from Handful Iil.—Our Bo-
tanical Position in Handful IV.—Free and Attached
Stamens—Primroses and Forget-me-nots—Pimper-
nel and Loosestrife—The Primula tribe—T he Speed-
well and Figworts—The Labiates or Lipped Flowers
—Convolvulus andPlantain—Leaves— Their Infinite
Variety— Carts of the Leaf—Ribs and Veins— Netted
Veins and Straight Veins—Compound Leaves and
Simple Leaves — Leaf Surfaces, ete. — Cutting of
Leaves—Stemless or Sessile Leaves—Seed-leaves—
Leaf-buds.
HANDFUL IV.

“ By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass.”

Wuew we come to look into Handful IV., we find
we have got in the midst of a whole host of well-
known favourites—regular play-fellows, almost,
which seem to have grown up with us from child-
hood, though many a fair generation of blossoms—
we almost fear to think how.many—has come and
gone since some of us first gathered primroses or
cowslips in May, forget-me-nots in full summer’s
flushing, heather from the purple hills of August,
or holly to deck the rooms in those days when mince
pies and plum-pudding had their special relish
and their special impunity, or before we cared to
know to what division, family, or genus the botanist
assigned our favourites ; but now, that is just what
we want to know, so let us see, in the first place,
what we have got. Heath-flowers and heather ;
the holly, though many of our reader, probably,
know the leaves and berries better than they do the
blossoms ; conyolvulus, or bindweed, or lap-love,
for it has all those names (Fig. 71); forget-me-not
94 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

(Fig. 68), sufficiently well-known to every youth
who has consigned his heart to the keeping of
some fair maid, and, for that matter, sufficiently
well known to the fair maids themselves. Next
have we the veronica, speedwell, or Venus’s looking-
glass, of real heavenly blue. The mint family, with
the red and white dead-nettles, the wild thyme, and
the self-heal (Fig. 62) come next; then our friends
the primrose and the cowslip, and, with them, the
scarlet pimpernel, or poor man’s weather-glass,
which closes its brilliant petals long before the com-
ing storm. Lastly, we have plantain for the bird-
fancier, and the pink-headed thrift of seaside wastes,
but perhaps more familiar as a bordering to old-
fashioned flower-beds. We have a rare Handful
this time, almost the best of our series, and were
we not afraid of increasing its dimensions beyond
our grasp, we might have graced it with more well-
known blossoms still, such as the conspicuously
handsome foxglove race; but we have enough and
to spare for our lesson.

It does not need much dtesitian: of our blossoms
to tellus that we have all monopetalous corollas, and
indeed that bright blue veronica (Fig. 68) does not
wait for our dissecting, but insists on casting off its
corollas all in a piece, with the two stamens adher-
ing. They are thoroughly deciduous corollas. The
rest of our flowers are not. quite so precipitate in
their proceedings, but there is scarce one we have
 

  

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Fic. 62,—Common Self-heal. Blossoms arranged spike-like, in whorls, within
coloured bracts. The irregular, lipped blossoms, the irregular calyx, the
square stem, and the opposite leaves, are all characteristics of the Labiate
leaves.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 97

named which will not at once disclose its mono-
petalous character to the most cursory examination.
One-petaled, therefore, are our present flowers, like
those of our last Handful, but thé attachment of

 

Frq. 63.—One-pieced deciduous corolla of common Speedwell,
@ a, the stamens attached to the corolla,

the corolla is like that of our first-examined blossom
of the many-petaled families—namely, to the recep-
tacle beneath the ovary, and not to the calyx. Our
present plants, therefore, belong to the one-petaled
* Corolliflore ”? section, in contradistinction to the
one-petaled Calyciflore. Now, before going further,
let us get a clear idea where we are in the
botanical world. We made our entrance into it,
as you may remember, by examining plants* which
had blossoms in many distinct pieces, whereof the
buttercups and their relations were prominent ex-
amples, the blossoms having both petals and stamens
fixed to the receptacle just beneath the seed vessel
or vessels. Our next move was to plants which,
still with many petals, had both petals and stamens

* See Handful No. 1,
98 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

attached, not to the receptacle, but to the calyx,*
the rose tribe being the first examples. Another
advance brought us to plants which, instead of
having many-pieced corollas, had them all im one
piece,t but still with the same attachment as the
last named many-petaled, to the calyx; and now in
our fourth step we find ourselves returning to the
receptacle attachment as at first, only with mono-
petalous corollas. To make the above more clear,
we subjoin the following table, which is a slight
simplification of that prefixed to that best of British
Floras, Hooker and Arnott’s :-—

Corolla and stamens inserted on recep-
tacle, represented by buttercups and
poppies.

Corolla and stamens inserted upon
calyx, represented by roses and pea
tribes.

Corolla and stamens inserted upon
calyx, represented by campanulas
and composites.

Corolla and stamens inserted on recep-
tacle, represented by primrose and
mint tribes.

Corolla in Many Pieces

Corolla in One Piece

A glance will now tell our traveller in Flora’s
realms the ground he has already gone over, and,
as we find ourselves in the fourth or last division,
we again return to our primroses and their con-
geners. We should tell you, however, that in this
last division there is yet a sub-division into plants

* See Handful No. 2. + See Handful No. 3.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 99

which, like the heaths and the plantain (Fig. 64),
have their stamens free from the corolla, and into
those, constituting by far the largest portion of this
mortopetalous division, which have their stamens
attached to the corolla, and, consequently, through
it to the receptacle. Take one of these little heath-
bells (Fig. 54), open it up, and you will see the
stamens are all connected directly with the recep-

 

Fig, 64,—Floret of common Plantain. a a, elongated filaments of stamens,

tacle. Now take your primrose flower (Fig. 65),
and you will find the five stamens all inside the
tube (Fig. 66), and so closely attached to it, that
there is scarcely anything you can call a filament.
The heath flower is a good example of what botanists
call the inflated corolla, as the primrose (Fig. 65) is
of the salver-shaped, the flat expanded portion con-
stituting the limb, which merges into. the tube at
the throat (Fig. 67). Compare the forget-me-not
in your hand with these ; it is somewhat like the
100 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

primrose, but more wheel-shaped ; the tube you will
find is much shorter than that of the primrose or

 

Fig. 65.—Salver-shaped blossom of common Primrose. ¢, globular
stigma showing at mouth of cylindrical tube.

cowslip, and yet it includes the stamens, which are
attached to it. Moreover, the little tube is partly

 

Fig. 66.—Flower of common Primrose laid open. a, limb of corolla;
6, tube of corolla; e¢, calyx; d, pistil; ¢, stamens.

closed over with scales or valves. ‘There are many

species of the forget-me-not—mouse-ear it is some+
times called—but we are now presuming that you
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 10t

have got, the largest and handsomest—the water-,
plant (Fig. 68), the true forgot-me-not which. the:
drowning troubadour cast ashore to the feet,of his
lady-love. The forget-me-not, or Myosotis genus,
as botanists call it, belongs to the Borage tribe, the

 

Fie, 67.—Blossom of common Primrose. a, tube of corolla;
4, tubular campanulate calyx.

members of which are remarkable. for being more
or less clothed with stiff, rigid hairs. The primrose,
from which we digressed to compare corollas with
our little Myosotis friend, gives its own name to
the tribe, the Primulaceew, to which it belongs.
More noted for the. beauty than for the useful pro-.
perties of its members, the tribe offers us most
excellent examples of blossoms, regular in form.
First take a glance at the leaves-of, the primrose,
as we shall refer to them. shortly, and now. take up
the. scarlet pimpernel (Fig. 53), and, if you know it,
102 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

the yellow wood loosestrife (Fig. 69). Both these
plants are classed under the primulas. You, per-
haps, do not think them very like, but just take the
general description of the primrose family, as you

 

Fi1a. 68.—Common Water Forget-me-not. The corollas rotate, or wheel-shaped,

find it in the Flora, remembering the general divi-
sion into which we have already got our flowers;
namely, one-pieced corollas, attached to the recep-
tacle. The description says, “Stamens inserted
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 103

upon the corolla, distinct’”—that is, not connected
one with another—“ corolla coloured. Style ter-
minal’”’—that is, springing from the top of the
ovary—“ ovary entire, one-celled ; corolla regular ;

 

Fre. 69. caved of common Yellow Loosestrife. a a, blossoms
springing from the axils of the flower- leaves or bracts.

stamens opposite the lobes of the corolla, and as
many, equal. Style 1.” Such is a description
which, taken along with the general ‘classification,
104 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

is sufficient to distinguish the primula family from
any other family of British plants.

Consider it well, for it is a good lesson ;, the
family is exceedingly distinct, and the characters
given can be easily made out, even by a beginner.
How the members of the primula family—the pim-
pernels, the loosestrifes, and the primroses them-
selves—are distinguished from each other, we must
leave to our lesson on classification.

Our blue veronica, or speedwell (Fig. 63), itself
a pretty little plant, has many relatives with more
strongly-marked properties—among them the fox-
glove; moreover, most of its tribe have irregular
corollas. You may at first have thought the veronica
a regular flower, but a moment’s inspection will
show you it is not, and that the divisions of the
corolla are far from being equal. Indeed, the
irregular blossoms of the figwort tribe, which in-
cludes our veronica, closely resemble those of our
next tribe, the labiate plants, to which the dead-
nettles, the mint, and the thyme, all of which you
have in your Handful, belong.

The figworts and the labiates have, as you see,
both of them irregular, two-lipped flowers ; in other
respects they are very different. Take one of your
dead-nettles (Fig. 58), and examine it. First,
there is a square stem; then there are opposite
leaves, which hold clusters or verticilli of blossoms
in their axils; the calyx has an upper and lower
 

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WAYSIDE WEEDS. 105

hip, and of the four stamens contained within the
upper hood-like lobe of the corolla (Fig 70), two
are long and two short. Lastly, pull out this
corolla, which comes away, stamens and all, and
you will see, at the bottom of the tube-like calyx,
what look like four little square seeds, but which
are really four little seed-vessels, each with its, own,
single seed within. Go over again these charac-
ters of the labiates, and you cannot but see what

 

Fie. 70.—Floret of a Labiate plant. a, Stamens contained within upper or
hood-like division of the corolla; 8, lower lip of corolla; c, calyx, which is’
slightly irregular.

strong family features they carry withthem. Many,
like the mints, thyme, marjoram, and lavender, are
characterized by the, abundance of their fragrant
essential oils.

There yet. remains for you to examine the holly,
the conyolvulus (Fig. 71), the sea-thrift, and the
plantain. The convolvulus requires no lens to
bring. out its peculiarities, amid which the plait-
ing of the unexpanded corolla is, conspicuous. As
106 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

you advance in botanical knowledge, you will find
the convolvulus tribe noted for many medicinal
members, with which, possibly, you have made
acquaintance under less agreeable circumstances ; it
‘is sufficient to name ipecacuanha and jalap as pro-
ducts of the Convolvulace, to give you an interest
in them replete with painful reminiscences, which
‘may, however, aid in fixing your lesson in your
mind,

We need not detain you with the thrift,
further than to bid you examine it for characters
similar to the rest of your Handful. Our spiked
plantain is not so flower-like as the rest of its
companions, that is to say, its blossoms want the
size of some, and the bright colours of others of
its associates; but each little floret of the spike is
a perfect little flower, symmetrical and complete in
every way, only it hasa strange mode with its
stamens, which have filaments so long that they
require double folding (Fig, 64) in the unopened
bud.

Once more review your Handful, for it is an
interesting and instructive one, seeking in each
separate plant the general characters which bind
its apparently diverse elements together.

The botanical lesson with which we terminated
_our third Handful of Wayside Weeds, left us look-
ing at the bract of the lime-tree (Fig. 61), and a
very distinct and well-marked specimen of a bract
“padays-rvads 10
<f9LPSBY ,, SABI] aq} f pozr]d ro esaid ouo ut ‘render sE[[oIDN OY, “SNMAjoaMog Jo paenpulg voMUIOQ—TZ “BIT

 
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 109

it is; but you remember, probably, that many
bracts were not by any means so readily distin-
guishable from the leaves ; indeed, that in numerous
cases they were, to all appearance, leaves and no-
thing else, but for the fact of being supplementary
to the peduncles or pedicels of the blossoms, as
we see in Figs. 53, 69, and 71, where the flower-
leaves or bracts are indistinguishable from ordinary
leaves. The transition then is natural from a lesson
on bracts to a lesson on leaves.

A first look around you upon the varied foliage
of a summer landscape in England, or even a
cursory glance over that of the first meadow or
hedge-row you come to, will give some ‘notion of
the infinite variety of leaf forms; and it may seem a
formidable task in prospect to acquire a knowledge
of them, but the interest will repay the labour, and
the latter is not really great when the general rules
are mastered which botanists employ to reduce the
apparently heterogeneous collection to order and
classification. "We do not seem to have moved from
the vicinity of the lime-trees, so pluck one of its
bright green shining leaves; or failing the lime-tree,
gather a nettle-leaf (Fig: 72), which will do as well ;
or, if you fear the sting, look for the red dead-
nettle, which will not sting, or for a violet-leaf, or
indeed for the first broad-looking leaf you can find.
Lest, however, you should not be in the way of any
other leaves than those of the present number of
110 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

“ Recreative Science,” * we furnish you with a spe-
cimen (Fig. 72), from which we must learn our
lesson. One thing is very evident, that the broad
expanded portion or limb or blade of the leaf is
composed of two structures, the ribs or veins, and
the green pulp lying between. In most leaves one

 

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Fia. 72,—Leaf of common Nettle. u, Limb or blade; 2, petiole; ¢, stipules ;
d, axil; ee, margin; f, base; g, apex,

main or mid rib runs up the centre of the leaf, and
from this the veinings of the leaf branch out, inter-
lacing with one another. In some leaves, however,
there are more than one rib to the leaf, as you may
see in the common plantain (Fig. 52), if you either

* The periodical in which these papers were originally published.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 111

examine the plant itself, or turn to the illustration.
Again, as partly exemplified in the lime leaf, and
also in the nettle, other ribs or veins frequently
start from the base of the leaf as well as the midrib.
This leaf ribbing or veining has much to do with
determining the form of the leaf, and you cannot do
better than compare its variations in any broad
leaves you may gather,

But now take the long thin leaf of grass (Fig.
56), of sedge, or of water iris; or, if you prefer
garden flowers, take hyacinth, tulip, or lily of the
valley ; you will find no branchings in these leaves,
nothing but straight lines or veins running all the
length of the leaf. You see at once we have our
leaves divided into two distinct classes—netted-
veined leaves and straight-veined leaves. The
former greatly preponderate in our northern regions,
the latter occurring only in the form of grasses or
small flowering plants; but in the southern and
tropical climates this is reversed, and. then the
straight-veined leaf is found on the loftiest trees, on
the palm, the banana, the arborescent if still grassy
bamboo, whilst it characterizes also the beautiful or
quaint orchid. You will find, when we come to
our lesson on classification, that these two kinds of
leaves mark with great exactness the two great
divisions of the flowering and seeding members of
the vegetable kingdom.

Let us go back to the leaves with netted veins.
112 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

We have, it is true, severed them from a mass of
straight-veined neighbours ; but, even now, when
we come to look into them, their number and form
seem endless. We do not look long, however, be-
fore we find another line of distinction among them-
selves. You know the leaf of the wild rose (Fig.

 

Fic, 73,—Compound Pinnate Leaf of Rose. The segments of the leaf, a, ovate,
with an acute apex and serrated margin; 4, stipules; c, seta or prickle.

73), of the bramble (Fig. 29), of the clover (Fig.
74), of some of our old friends of the umbel-bearing
class (Fig. 36), and perhaps of the ash-tree, and
lastly of the vetch (Fig. 34). Put any or all of
these beside the leaf of the oak (Fig. 75), of the
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 113

bryony (Fig. 76), of the lime; or, to go to more familiar
plants, of daisy, or dandelion, or wild geranium (Fig.
77). The difference is evident between the com-
pound or many-pieced leaves of the first set, and
the simple one-pieced leaves of the second. We

 

Fic, 74.—Compound Palmate Leaf of Clover. a, stipules; 6, petiole.

begin with the latter, but do not confine yourselves

to the examples we have given you, but collect in as

great variety as you can. When you have done so,

we doubt not that you will find the majority of the
I
114 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

leaves you gather are made up of two parts, the
broad blade or limb, or leaf part proper (Fig. 72, a),
and the supporting stem, or petiole (b). In a cer-

 

Fic. 75.—Leaf of Oak. Form obleng ovate; the margin sinuate.

tain number you will find a third part—or parts, for
there are two (Fig. 72, c)—at the base of the
petiole, called the. stipules. In our example, the
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 115

nettle leaf, the stipules are small, but at the base of
the petiole of the compound rose leaf (Fig. 73), or
in many vetches, and in the clover (Fig. 74), you
will find the stipules much more fully developed.
The point of junction of the leaf-petiole with the
stem of the plant from which it springs (Fig. 72, d),
is called the axil or axilla, and from the angle,
formed by the two, frequently spring leaves, flowers,
or buds (Fig. 69, etc.) As the ribs and veins of a
leaf give it form, and govern, likewise, its irregu-
larities, the intervening green pulp, or, as botanists
call it, parenchyma, makes up its substance, both
being covered over with the skin, or epidermis, of
the plant. Much is there to tell of the beautiful
and important functions performed by leaves, through
their veins, parenchyma, and epidermis ; but we have
too much to say of their outside forms to enter into
these things now.

It seems superfluous to remind the reader that a
leaf has two surfaces, but we do so to direct the
attention to the difference in these surfaces in every
leaf you examine, that difference being, of course,
much greater in some than in others. The chief
appendages attached to leaves are hairs of very
varied form, from the softest down, or the satiny
lustre of the mountain lady’s-mantle, to the sting
of nettle, which is a glandular hair, or the prickle,
or seta, of. the rose-leaf, or rose or bramble stem
(Fig. 73); the seta being in reality hardened hair.
116 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

Remember, here, that holly prickles, with all their
Christmas associations, are not hairs, but the
hardened extremities of our old friends the veins.

_ Remark, again, that a leaf has margin, base,
and apex (Figs. 72, 76, e, f, and g), and you have

 

Fia. 76.—Leaf of common Black Bryony. a, blade, or limb; 8, petiole
¢, stipule; d, axil; ¢, margin, entire; f, base, cordate, or heart-shaped ;.
Js apex, acute,

got the general outline of the leaf. But from the

margin we get a whole lot of distinctive marks ;

for it may be entire, as in Fig. 76; serrated, or

saw-toothed, as in the rose leaflet (Fig. 78), or in
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 117

the lime (Fig. 61, etc., etc.), more deeply cut or
toothed, as in the nettle (Fig. 72); or sinuate, that
is, cut in a wavy fashion, as in the oak (Fig. 75);
lobed, as in the leaf of the common little soft=
leaved geranium (Fig..77); or deeply cut, forming

fe

\

Re. 77.—Rounded, or kidney: shaped Leaf of eats Dove's-foot Cranebill,
eut in rounded lobes,

the pinnatifid leaf, as in the common epi (Fig.
78). The apex of the leaf takes many forms ; for,
though pointed in the majority of leaves, the form
of the pointing varies much, and at times there is
no point at all, the leaves being either blunted in
some way, or rounded as in Fig. 77, or as in the
well-known Indian cress; or kidney-shaped, as in
118 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

the marsh violet. The base of the leaf, likewise,
has many forms; and thus, according to margin,
including both base and apex, we get the diversified
shapes of foliage, which not only vary so much in
different species, but are even so modified in the
leaves of the same tree,
“That two were never found
Twins at all points,”

Thus the leaf of the black bryony (Fig. 76) is aptly
described as heart-shaped from its base, acute from
its apex, and with an entire margin ;* that of the
lime (Fig. 61) as less distinctly heart-shaped, but
with serrated margin. The leaf of the plantain
(Fig. 52) is a broad ovate; and each individual leaf
of the woodruff (Fig. 45) is lanceolate, or lancet-
shaped, but approaching the linear, or line-shaped,
leaf which we see in the harebell (Fig. 47), or in
the grass (Fig. 56).

Each leaflet of the rose (Fig. 73) is ovate, acute,
and serrated; ‘of the vetch (Fig. 34) ovate and
entire, In the leaf of the poppy (Fig. 78) we find
the cutting so deep that it almost approaches the
compound leaf, and the same occurs in the leaf of
the ragwort (Fig. 44), in which also we see the
example of the lyrate leaf, which is, however, still

* The black bryony, a very common wayside weed in England,
found twining among the hedges, is an exception to the rule of

netted and straight-veined leaves. It belongs, in everything but its
leaves, to the straight-veined section of the vegetable world.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 119

better exemplified in the leaf of the common turnip ;
and this cutting up into: segments, without'the leaf
being compound, appears. strongly in the wild
chamomile (Fig. 43). - Then we have shield-shaped,
and arrow-shaped, and: spear-shaped leaves (as in

 

Fra. 78,—Leaf of Corn Poppy, deeply cut, pinnatifid, not compound.”

Fig. 71), ‘lobed leaves of all varieties, and many
others which it would not come within the scope of
these papers to enumerate and illustrate, and which
will best be studied from the cullings of the way-.
120. WAYSIDE WEEDS.

sides, referring the leaves of each plant to the
description given in the Floras.*

The rose, the vetch, the ash-tree, have truly
compound leaves, that is, are composed of a number
of leaflets arranged upon a central petiole, and
jointed more or less distinctly to it, forming what
is called a pinnate leaf, in distinction from the
radiating or palmate compound leaf of the clover
(Fig. 74), of the strawberry, etc., etc. The umbel-
bearers, among others, offer us a large variety of
compound leaves.

You will call to mind that, in describing a
perfect leaf, the petiole, or footstalk, was given as
one of the parts; but long before this we expect
you have discovered that there are many leaves
which have no petiole at all, but are directly attached
to the main stem. These are called sessile, or
sitting leaves. When the attachment is a simple
one, when the leaf is not only closely attached to
the stem, but is prolonged down it, as you will find
in the thistle, it gets the name of decurrent, or
running down leaf; or when it more completely
envelopes the stem, it becomes sheathing, as in the
grass (Fig. 56). In the common teazle, the pairs
of opposite leaves join, or grow completely round
the stem, and then are called connate; whilst a
perfoliate leaf is one which the stem seems, as it

* A “Flora” is a book giving the description and classification
of the plants of any particular district or country.
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 121

were, to perforate. Lastly, some leaves appear to
have no stem whatever to be attached to, as in our
friend the plantain, and then get the name of
radical, or root leaves. Whorled leaves are those
which are arranged round the stem, as in the wood-
ruff (Fig. 45). As yet the leaves we have been
dealing with have all been true leaves, but many
‘plants show, in the first stage of their growth, a

 

Fig. 79.—Seedling Plant, «a, cotyledonary, or seed-leaves; 3, true leaves.

leaflet, or pair of leaflets, which are totally distinct
in form’and appearance from all that succeed them.
These first leaves are the cotyledonary, or seed-
leaves of the plant. If you have ever planted a
lupin-seed, and watched its growth, or carried your
horticulture so far as to sow some mustard-seed,
122 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

you will know what is meant; but if hot, you may
soon do so, either by trying the above, or using
your eyes in your next spring walk, when you will
find, under every hedge, crowds of little seedlings
throwing up their first seed, or nursing leaves, and
pushing out from between them their true leaves,
as you see in Fig. 79.

One more point connected with leaves, and we
have done, fearing almost that you are already tired
of us. You have not forgot that in our talk about
blossoms, it was mentioned that botanists took dis-
tinctive plant-characters from the folding of the
flower in the bud, before opening—from the esti-
vation, as it is called. In the same way are
characters taken from the leaf before expansion—in
this case named vernation. It is sufficient here to
mention the fact.
Hanhtul Me.

Little of outside beauty in Handful V.i—@ocks and
Knot-grass—The Spurges—Starwort—Forest Trees
Characters of Handful—The Blossoms incom-
plete—Knot-grass or JBistort characters—Spurge
characters—Starwort characters—Wall Pellitory—
Trees of the Greenwood—Simple characters of their
blossoms— Willow; Hazel; Birch; ete-—The Pine
tribes—Stem or Root—ferial Roots—Herbaceous or
green, or Woody Stems—Compound Stems—Simple
Stems—Grass and Palm Stems—(Qirection of Stems
—Twining or Climbing Stems—Shape of Stems—
Winged Stems—Underground Stems—Stems Appa-
rently fibsent— Roots—Fibrous or Branched—Fleshy
Foots—Tuberous Roots— Office of Roots.
HANDFUL V,

“Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above ;
But not less in the bright flowrets under us
Stands the revelation of his love.”
LoneFEtiow.

Ir is but little in the way of bright colour or sweet
scent we have to offer you in this our Fifth Handful,
and therein lies a difficulty, as far as the plan of our
lessons on ‘Wayside Weeds” is concerned; for
whilst the gayer or more conspicuous weeds and wild
flowers we have hitherto discoursed upon are known
to all, the less attractive and scentless plants are
but little recognized by the inattentive passer-by.
However, let us try, and do not turn away because
we bid you gather unattractive weeds; they have
only to be looked into and examined, to exhibit that
beauty and that perfection which is never wanting,
even in what may seem to man the lowest of the
Creator’s handiworks.

Begin with picking one of the common dock
tribe, the usual, and certainly not handsome, repre-
sentatives of vegetation which are found most com-
126 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

monly about building rubbish and on neglected
ground ; add to it one of the nettles which usually
keep it company, and put alongside the nettle, if
you can, its relative the common hop (Fig. 57),
establishing what seems to you a strange relation-
ship. Keeping still to our rubbish-heap, or search-
ing any roadside, where weeding is neglected, you
gather an insignificant-looking little plant, truly a
wayside weed, with stems so weak that they rest

 

Exq. 80.—Blossoms magnified of common Knot-grass. A, Side view; a, peri-
anth ; 4, membranous bracts. B, Front view; a, triple styles. C, Style
much magnified.

much on the ground, and with numerous little pink
blossoms (Fig. 80) fitting closely into the axils of
the leaves. This, the common knot-grass, has a
close family connection with the buckwheats. These
knot-grass, bistort, and buckwheat weeds are near
relatives of the docks, as you will find out on exami-
nation ; moreover, their little pink flowers are very
pretty indeed when minutely looked into, and even
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 127

without the magnifier give some amount of lively
colour to our otherwise sombre handful, especially
if we gather some of the larger flowered bistort*
species. For our next plant you probably need not

 

 

Fig, 81.—Petty Spurge. The blossoms arranged in umbels.

go further than the first neglected garden where
“weeds do grow,” for there, or on some neglected
bank outside the garden, the spurge or euphorbia
family are, most ,apt to take up their quarters.

* The knot-grass, bistort, anid buckwhéat, all a to the same
batanical genus, Polygonum. +.
128 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

Every school-hoy, who has applied their milky juice
as a cure for his warts, knows the spurges (Fig. 81) ;
they are curious in their flowering, and puzzling
enough to an incipient botanist. But more of them
presently, And now go to therunlet, or to any ditch
of clear water, for a handful of those very bright
green, floating, star-like leaves, which characterize
the water starwort ; you see no flowers, but never
mind that, we shall find those for you presently,

It seems quite a jump from this little water-
plant to the forest-trees, to the oak, the birch, the
hazel, and the willow, such a jump that all con-
nection appears wanting between these and the lowly
weeds we have just been directing you to; never-
theless we shall see, although, confessedly, we
have brought together an apparently heterogeneous
handful, and one not quite so attractive to a be-
ginner as those we have already passed. The trees
you must know well enough, even if you never
thought of their having blossoms, but you must look
for their flowering in spring and early summer.

But it is time we looked for that character in
common which connects together plants so appa-
rently diverse. We have, you are aware, hitherto
found the flowers we examined, whether many-
petaled, or one-pieced blossoms, perfect; that is to
say, possessing both calyx and corolla,. the plants
now in your hand are all distinguished by having
incomplete flowers; the calyx and corolla seem
PLATE 6.

 

Red Bartsia. Smooth Sea-heath.

 
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 129

merged into one, forming what is called the perianth,
as in the knot-grass (Fig. 80), and in many of the
division there is not even an attempt to develop
what we usually consider a flower, but as in the
hazel, the birch (Fig. 86), the willow, or the little
starwort (Fig. 82), a simple scale is all that is left to
represent the gay corollas and green flower-cups of
our well-known blossoms. By some this division of

 

Fie, 82.—Magnified view of Barren or Stameniferous Blossoms of common
Starwort. A: a, leaf, partly embracing the stem ; 6, stamen with one-celled
anther ; v, scale which represents the perianth. B, Star-like arrangement
of leaves,

flowering plants is called the Apetalous, or petal-
‘wanting, in contradistinction to the Monopetalous
and Polypetalous ; by others the families are classed
ag the Monochlamydew, or those with but one floral
covering. It is not, however, simplicity alone which
we meet with in some of these flowers under notice,
but, as in the spurges (Fig. 83), extreme peculiarity
of structure.
K
180 -WAYSIDE WEEDS.

Now as the compass of our paper will not allow
of a minute explanation of the structure of all the
certainly dissimilar plants to which it has introduced
you, let us take three, at first, as unlike as possible,
the knot-grass and buckwheat (Fig. 80), as most
resembling our ordinary notions of a flower; the
spurge (Figs. 81, 83) as a specimen of the curious,
and the starwort (Fig. 82) of the simple; for all
three you will need your magnifier.

The knot-grasses or buckwheats you will find
have a perianth of five coloured segments (Fig. 80),
doing duty for both calyx and corolla, though most
resembling the latter ; a definite number of stamens,
and a central ovary, at least in the common species
we have pointed out to you, crowned with three
little knobs or styles; and if you examine further
some of the blossoms which are more advanced,
you will see that the ovary thus tipped has de-
veloped into a three-cornered little fruit, or, as a
botanist would call it, achene. You remember we
told you that the docks of the rubbish-heap were
family connections of the buckwheats; examine
both flower and fruit of the former, and you will
find, with certain differences of course, how many
points they have in common.

We turn to our friend with the milky juice, the
dwarf spurge (Figs. 81, 83); not one of the umbel-
bearers properly so called, although its blossoms
are arranged in umbels; these same. blossoms
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 131

being very odd concerns. The illustration (Fig.
83) represents a single set of flowers of the dwarf
spurge in two positions, and magnified of course,
‘You observe a set of flowers, nota single flower,
for that which seems to occupy the position of
perianth is ranked as the involucre, containing
several barren or stamen flowers (Fig. 83), and
one fertile or pistil flower, which has its germen

 

Fig. 883—Mugnified Blossoms of Petty Spurge. A, front view: a, glands of
involucre; 5, stamens; ce, ovary; d, pistile. B, side view: a, involucre ;
d, glands; ¢, ovary; d, pistile.
crowned with three forked or bifid styles, and is
conspicuously extruded. In addition, however, to
the stamens and pistils, the involucre contains a
set of remarkable “horned glands;” the real
perianth, which might be expected to lie within
the involucre, is scarcely, if at all, present, in the
form of a minute scale.
The starwort, third 3 in our group ee 82), is
132 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

the essence of simplicity ; so much so, indeed, that
you will find it almost as difficult to realize its
flower, as you may have done in the singularity of
the spurge blossom. If you examine with your
magnifier the axils of the starwort leaves, which
partly ‘embrace the stem, you will soon discover,
but not together, either the single stamen or the
little ovary, with the two wee white bracts at the
base, which is all this little bright plant has ‘to
“boast of in the way of floral appendage ; little
enough, but yet the flower is a real flower, having
its essential organs of reproduction, if not the
organs calyx and corolla, which, as we have already
explained in a former lesson, constitute a perfect
flower.

We might say much more of these insignificant
flowers which go to make up our Handful: of the
nettle, which, common and despised as it is, has
flowers which repay examination, and of the wall
pellitory, too, a first cousin of the nettle, which
finds root at the base of old dry walls: the situa-
tion, the general reddish tinge about it, its incon-
spicuous flowers, and its loosely hung leaves, will
tell you the plant, and it is worth a few minutes’
examination with the lens to make out the beautiful
structure of the jointed filaments of its stamens
(Fig. 84).

But we have kept these tall trees of the green-
wood, mentioned before time, waiting so long,

a
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 1338

that.we must not stay longeramid the weed class—
real true weeds they are, most of them, but with
@ curious minute beauty of their own which well
repays examination; haying shown you the way,
we leave you to work out your further acquaintance
with. the docks, the nettles, the goosefoots, and
their congeners. And now for our trees. We
give you our list, and you must pick out as many
as you know, or as many as you can find. The
birch, oak, alder, poplar, the numerous willows, the
hazel, the elm, the beech, and the fir, and various
others, all fall into our category, and are connected

e

~,

7s i:
Fic. 84—Jointed elastic stamen of Wall Pellitory.
both with one another, and with the weeds of our
Handful already noticed, for, being dicotyledonous
plants, they are at the same time destitute of the
double and complete floral envelopes, such as we have
hitherto been accustomed to. Some of our trees, such.
as the elm, have their flowers so far regular that they:
have both stamens and pistils in the same blossom,
but in most the stamens and pistils are separated,
either on the same or on different plants, and
in many the flowers, such as they are, cluster
together in what is called an amentum, or catkin,
134 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

that is, a succession of little blossoms surrounding
a stem, pendant or otherwise, each little blossom
being composed of a scale with two or more sta-
mens attached. Such little scale-formed blossoms
we have in the case of the common willow, and
the birch has a very similar arrangement. In the
hazel, the catkin of male flowers, the “ pussy-cat’s
tails” of our early days, are very conspicuous ; but
not so the pistil-bearing flowers, which indeed few
know but those who have had a botanical introduc-

 

Fie. 85.—Single Blossoms of Willow: a, pistil-bearing, or fertile blossom, with
seale; b, stamen-bearing, or barren blossom, with scale.

tion to them, for the Jarge stameniferous catkin,
shaking out its showers of golden yellow pollen in
early spring, quite eclipses the little bud-like fertile
blossoms, which you will find not far from their
more conspicuous mates, albeit you would scarcely.
distinguish them from buds, but for the protrusion,
from their extremities, of a number. of brilliant
red filaments; these are the styles, and within the
little bud lies the ovaries, which, in due time,
become the clusters of autumn; the ovary expand-
ing into the nut, and the scales of the bud into.
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 135

what people call the husk, but a botanist the in-.
volucre. The oak, too, has its barren and deciduous,
or quickly-falling stameniferous catkins, but its
fertile flowers are solitary within a cup-shaped
scale, or rather aggregation of scales, which at
length become the “acorn cups” of fairy lore.

Lastly, we have mentioned the fir. It, too, has
its barren catkins, but the fruit, as all know, is in
the fir cone, which generally we see when it has
dropped seedless and dry from the tree; the ovules,
the seeds, which lay naked at the base of the scales
in the dry cone, having disappeared, wings and all.
The naked: seeds of the firs or pines, that is, seeds
without proper pistils, and their many cotyledonary,
or seed-leaves, in contradistinction to the two seed-
leaves of the plants hitherto examined, place this
pine tribe by themselves, even were there not other
distinctive characters in leaf, wood, etc.; but these
are not for our beginners to enter into.

With the simple incomplete flowers of our wood-
land trees, we come to an end of the first great
division of the vegetable kingdom, that which in-
cludes plants with two seed-lobes, or seed-leaves, or
cotyledons, hence named the dicotyledons, and which,
having netted veined leaves, also grow by the de-
posit of annual rings of wood on the outer circle of
their stems, beneath the bark, and hence are fre-
quently called exogens, or exogenous plants. . After
our next lesson on.stems and roots, we reach the
136 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

second great division of plants, the Monocotyledons.
or Endogens, and get again amidst gay colours and
handsome flowers.

From the leaves and flowers which have hitherto
formed the subjects of our botanical lessons, we
naturally look to the stems by which both are sup-

 

Fie. 86.—Catkin Blossom of common Birch,

ported. By stems we do not mean the peduncles
and petioles. For we trust our readers haye not
forgotten that these are not the main stem or axis
which forms the plant centre, and from which
flower-carrying peduncle and leaf-supporting petiole
alike sprig. With the stem, we by consequence
WAYSIDE WIEDS. 137

connect the root, and treat of both together. Were
we to ask our novitiate readers what parts they
would consider most necessary for the existence.
and individuality of a plant, they would be much
inclined to name root and stem, and yet there are
plants apparently destitute of one or other of these
parts. Some of the orchis tribe have no roots at
all, except such as are air planted, or aérial, and
the’ familiar primrose, the plantain (Fig, 52), the
stemless thistle, etc., etc., seem equally destitute
of stem: seem, be it remarked, for no plant which
bears a leaf can be said to want a stem of some
sort, be it ever so short, no more, perhaps, than.
what is called the root crown, but still it is stem,
for though so intimately connected, the two parts
root and stem claim to be essentially distinct from
the first moment of their seedling birth, when the
root will go down, and the stem will go up as by
most unerring instinct. If any reader could tell
us why all roots tend to strike downwards, away
from the light, and towards the centre of this
terrestrial ball of ours, they would answer a very
puzzling question. Many experiments have been
tried, and germinating seeds have been placed in
all positions and circumstances, but yet down go
the roots, up go the little seedling stem, and all
we can say is that so it has been ordered by God.
Of stems we have many varieties; you have
only to use your eyes in the first walk you take in
1388 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

field or garden to learn that. This green stalk of
groundsel, or of chickweed, or even the young
shoot of rose, bramble, or honeysuckle, breaks off
easily enough in your hand, and gives you a speci-
men of the herbaceous stem, but try some of the
older second year’s growths of the last-named
plants, and you will find them tough enough, they
are no longer herbaceous, but woody. You have
here a practical example of the two kinds of stems
and plants ; the first herbaceous, green, succulent,
and easily broken, such as are formed by one
summer’s growth; the second, brownish, tough,
and woody, such as we find in shrubs and trees in
or after their second year of existence. Between
the well-marked herbaceous stem of the quick-
growing weed, and the hardened heart-wood of
the oak, we have, of course, every grade of dis-
tinction..

Compound or branched stems, and simple
stems, give us another division. The first are so
common, and comprise such a large proportion of
our trees and shrubs, that to cite example would
be superfluous; as to the latter, the grasses, such
as wheat, rye-grass, the sedges, etc., give us good
examples, and the common foxglove, amid others,
an excellent one. The simple unbranched stem
which supports the head of the dandelion, the
umbel of the cowslip, or the spike of the plantain,
and which is known as the scape, is more properly
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 1389

a peduncle than a stem. In examining compound
or branched stems, it will be as well to note that
plants which have their leaves placed alternately,
as a rule, give off alternate branches, and vice versd ;

 

Fre. 87.—Portion of culm of a grass which is hollow or fistulous : a, leaf, which
at b forms a sheath for the sten or culm; c, knot, where the stem is divi-
ded by strengthening partitions. a, culm split, to show at ¢ the knot or
diaphragm,

and having already learned that branches take.

their first commencement from buds in the. leaf

axils, this is no more than we might expect..

Having drawn your attention to the simple stem.

of the grasses, known as the culm, we must bid
140 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

you remember the division of vegetables to which
the grasses belong—those with one-lobed seeds
and straight-veined leaves, but which also bear the
name of endogenous plants, from the peculiar mode
of growth of the stems, which have their annual
additions of new material made to the centre.
This mode of growth we cannot see exemplified
in the herbaceous grass, or indeed in any of our
native endogens, but the giant palms of the tropics,
could we get at them, would show not only this
peculiar stem structure, but the noblest specimen
of the simple, unbranched stem. Call to mind the
pictures you have seen of some palm-clad island of
the Southern Seas, and you will remember the
simple stem of these beautiful and stately trees.
To return to the grass stem (Fig. 87), examine it
further. It is hollow, hence called fistulous; its
hollow column, strong in itself, considering the
amount of material, is further strengthened by
knots or thickenings, at which a partition or
diaphragm is thrown across the tube (Fig. 87, 4).
Moreover, the exterior of the green grass tube
is smooth and shining from its coating of silex
or flint substance. A wonderful combination of
strength, lightness, and slender grace have we in
the simple grass stems. The sedge of the water-
side has also a simple stem and straight-veined
leaf, but the stem is sharply triangular (Fig. 88, F),
and has no knots, We go back to stems generally ;
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 141

if we want an erect stem, this upright meadow
ranunculus or buttercup gives us an excellent ex-
ample, but for that matter we need be under no diffi.
culty in finding many a wayside weed, which stands
as erect as any volunteer rifleman. The reverse of
upright we find in many another wee plant. The
ground ivy, which shows its bright blue blossoms
under every hedgerow in early spring, rests its
procumbent or flat-lying stems on the ground; and
almost similarly placed we find those of the ivy-

a b : a
©Oog
BA

Fig. 88,—Section of Stems: a, round, as in the majority of plants: 4, furrowed,
as in many umbel-bearers ; c, compressed, as in flat-+temmed meadow-
grass; d, square, as in labiate plants; e, angular, as in common wallflower;

J, triangled, as in sedges.
leaved speedwell, in which, howeyer, the decum-
bent stems gradually merge into ascending ones.
‘The decumbent stem does not rest so completely
‘on the ground as the procumbent one. The pros-
trate, or trailing, or creeping stems, such as we
find in the common yellow moneywort, root at
‘various points as they go on, ina different way,
however, from the long weak runners or branches

of such plants as the strawberry, the common
creeping buttercup, or the creeping cinquefoil,
142 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

These runners carry at their extremities buds or
scions, which rooting, form new plants, and these,
in time, become independent of the parent root by
the withering of the connecting runner, a process
which does not, asa rule, take place in the true
creeping and rooting stem. Again, some stems
tend upwards, but are so weak themselves that
they must depend on their neighbours for support,
such are the twining stems of the honeysuckle, the
convolvulus, the bryony, or the bistort; others of
these weak plants do not twine, but climb, as vines,
peas, or vetches do by their tendrils ; or as the now
well-known canary-creeper and others, by hooking
their stems and leaf petioles upon any supporting
object. While looking at stem directions, do not,
in your searchings, overlook stem forms ; most,
perhaps, are round, but not all (Fig. 88). Some,
as in the hemlock-like umbellifers, are furrowed,
others are flattened, as in the flat-stemmed meadow-
grass (Fig. 88), many, as in our sweet-smelling
friends the labiates, are square, the wallflower has
its stem strongly angled, and the water sedges are
many of them so sharply triangled that they will
cut your fingers if you are not mindful. Winged
stems occur, as in the thistles, where the leaves are
decurrent or prolonged down the stems. The
surface covering of stems is not less varied than
their forms, the usual green has frequent spots
and stainings. It carries hairs of all sorts and
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 143

degrees of stiffness, from the softest down ta the
stiff bristles of the viper’s bugloss and its con-
geners, or the setze or spines of rose or bramble;
these, however, belong to the subject of plant-
covering generally, of which hereafter. Our stems,
hitherto, have been all honest aboveground stems,
but we must notice some which, although claiming
to be, and really being, true stems, yet hide them-

 

Fie. 89.—Root, etc., of common Crocus: a, rootlets; 6, root-crown; ¢, solid
underground stem, usually called the bulb; d d, leaf and flower-buds pro-
ceeding from underground stem.

selves under the surface of the soil. Such, most
familiarly, are the corms, or underground stems,
roots or bulbs they are often erroneously called,
of the common crocus (Fig. 89). If you look at
our illustration you will see that the rootlets are
attached to the root-plate which underlies the mass
that is generally called the bulb, and which is really
rather an appendage to the stem than the stem
itself. "The scaly bulb of the white lily is a true
144 “WAYSIDE WEEDS.

bulb, and is also classed as an underground stem.
The common house-leek (Fig. 90), which delights
to grow on old thatch, and delights the old lady of
the thatched cottage by so doing, is essentially a
bulb-stem with open scales, but it grows above-
ground as an honest stem should do. The hya-
cinth, likewise a true bulb-stem, will grow either
above or underground, it seems not to care which,

 

Fic. 90.—Fleshy-leaved aboveground bulb of common House Leek, correspond-
ing to the bulbs of the common white lily or .of the hyacinth, which are
intended to grow underground, all being alike stems.

and the onion seems scarcely decided what to do,

growing partly in and partly out of the soil; the

latter another true bulb-stem, only with extended
coats instead of scales. There is yet another form
of underground stem, the rooting rhizome or root-

‘stock, from which we have a succession of stems,

as in the lily of the valley, the asparagus, some

sedges and ferns, in the mints, and, to the farmer’s
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 145

.

sorrow, in the twitch, or couch-grass. Lastly, we
have /plants like the primroses, the plantains, the
dandelion, and many others, which offer us an
apology for a stem, in a thickened neck, just above
the root, from which is given off the crowd of leaves
and flower scapes. :

Now, with all these various forms of dee

 

Fie, 91.—Root of White Sedge; mixed branched, and fibrous.

ground stems, we fear, our uninitiated readers will
begin almost to think they will not know a root
when they see one, and perhaps have doubts
whether the familiar radish, whose very name
means root, is really a root.

As we might expect, roots share many of the stem
characters : they are annual, biennial, triennial, and

L
146 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

perennial ; they are simple and branched, and their
structure is very similar to the stem. Many roots,
as those of the grasses, composed solely of fibres, are
fibrous roots. We will not give you an illustration,
for you have only to pull up the first tuft of grass
you see to get one. Other roots have, in addition
to their fibres, their caudex, or root-stem, which

 

Fie. 92.—Root of Early Purple Orchis: @, exhausted tuber ; 0, fresh tuber ;
e, fibres of root.

may be simple, or branched, or fleshy. Fig. 91,
which is the root of one of the sedges, shows a
main root-stem, partly branched, from which the
rootlets proceed. Fleshy roots, such as the carrét,
‘parsnip, turnip, and radish, have their rootlets
attached to the central fleshy catdex, chiefly at the
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 147

e

lower part; and according to the shape of this
caudex they are classed as conical, spindle-shaped,
globular, etc. In the last-mentioned cases, the
fleshy portion of the root forms part of the central
root-stem, or axis; but im tuberous-rooted or tuber-
bearing plants, as the orchis (Fig. 92), the dahlia,
some ranunculuses, etc,, the fleshy portions are

 

Fig, 93.--Root of Bird’s-nest Orchis: «, fibre-like tubers;
&, fibres or rootlets.

attached as appendages or tubers, and the rootlets
enter the plant above them, and not at their lower
end. The fascicled root, such as we find in the
bird’s-nest orchis (Fig. 93), is simply a tuberous
root, only the tubers are long, thin, and numerous,
148 . WAYSIDE WEEDS.

instead of thick and limited in number. The last
roots we have to speak of are the aérial; we do not
mean roots like those of the well-known banana,
made still better known by Moore’s lines, “‘ They
tell us of an Indian tree,” or of the tropical orchids;
but rootlets such as the ivy throws out to the wall
against which it clings, using them as supports, but
ready also to convert them into rootlets should
occasion offer.

We need scarcely tell our readers that roots
(except the aérials) serve first the purpose of fixing
the plants to which they belong to the soil, and,
secondly, that of absorbing moisture along with
gases and salts for the nourishment of the plant.
This absorption is effected not by the whole root
surface, but by the extremities of the fibres or
rootlets, these extremities forming what are called
spongioles, being so constructed as to admit of
more ready absorption of the nutritious fluids.
Lastly, a few words are requisite respecting those
fleshy masses which we have, for the first time, met
with in the form of the turnip or the radish root,
the tuber of the orchis, the corm of the crocus, etc.
What is their intended use? They are simply
stores of nutriment laid up for aiding the future
growth of the plant itself, in its flowering and
seeding, or for the nutriment of a new generation
of younger plants. Throughout the vegetable
kingdom we find this providential storing up for
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 149

future use often in the root, but sometimes in the
stem, as in the crocus, in the fleshy scales of the
lily bulb, or in the actual stem of the turnip-
stemmed cabbage; also, as in the well-hearted cab-
bage itself, in the leaves. Perhaps our readers have
never reflected why a cabbage hearts, or a turnip
forms its globe, or a carrot its long fleshy cone:
they will not now forget that He who “ opens his
hand” and “ fills” all ‘ with good,” thus doubly
provides for the well-being and food of man, and
for the due development of his “ lower works.”
Hanhitul We.

Composed of Plants with straight-veined Leaves—
Snowdrop— Crocus—Tulip—Orchis— Wild Garlic
and Black Bryony—TLhe Cerianth—Yellow Iris,
or Water-flag—Cetal-like Pistils—Herb Caris—
Structure of Orchis blossom—Vegetable Structures
—Cells and Vessels—Spiral Vessels—Vascular and
Cellular Tissue of Leaf.
HANDFUL VI.

“ April smiles, and April tears,
Welcome them together.”

Wirs our Fifth Handful of “ Wayside Weeds,” and
real veritable weeds most of them were, we also
said adieu to the plants with netted veined leaves.
As we have already remarked, in these our tempe-
rate zones, the netted leaf-veins characterize by far
the largest proportion of our vegetable products,
and, excluding the cereal and pasture grasses, by
far the most important. They have accordingly
engrossed the lion’s share of these light sketches
of Flora’s kingdom; that they do not, however,
monopolize all the beauty, our next Handful. of
their straight-veined relatives fully testifies. Nay,
so much beauty do we find in the collection, that
we expect our readers will demur at the word weeds
at all. Weeds or flowers, whichever they be, they
are probably more familiar to the town dweller than
many more common flowerets; the most unmiti-
gated townsman knows the snowdrop, the crocus, the
hyacinth, the tulip, and the lily of the valley, those
154 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

bright and cheerful blossoms which meet us every-
where in early spring; in the woodlands, where the
first of the company pushes up its pure white bells
through the withered leaves of the gone-by year, or
the snow of the present one, in the plot of the
“town garden” or of the suburban dwelling; in
drawing-rooms on stand or mantelpiece, or giving
brightness to every shop or market where vegetable

 

Fic. 94.—Blossom of common Purple or Meadow Orchia: 1 1, pieces of the
perianth ; 2, pollen pouches ; 3, stigma; 4, spur; 6, twisted ovary support-
ing blossom ; 6, bract. 7, Waxy pollen masses.

produce is sold, these bright-coloured blossoms
proclaim that spring has come.

Take, as your first specimen of the second great
division of flowering plants, those we have just
named, only be careful that your tulips and
hyacinths are single and not double blossoms,
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 155

observing the same rule if you add a narcissus or a
jonquil to the bouquet. But, leaving the garden,
let us seek in the meadows for the bright purple
orchis blossoms (Fig. 94), which every child knows
and gathers in early summer ; these are really way-
side weeds, and waterside weeds are these bright
yellow iris blossoms, which few can be so unobser-
vant as to pass without remark. Possibly all may
not know the wild garlics, but they are pretty
flowers, especially the commonest of them, the
white-flowered, broad-leaved species. Its smell
certainly does not warrant its introduction into the
company we have already given you, so take or
leave it as you like. Other plants you may find
with straight-veined leaves, and it is well to examine
all; and, last addition to the Handful, if you are
gathering in midland or southern England, we give
you the black bryony, which thrives so luxuriantly
amidst the hedgerows, with its very bright, shining,
and characteristic heart-shaped leaves, mentioned,
you may remember, in one of, our late lessons, as
being exceptional in their veinings. It is the
British representative of the yams of warmer
climates.

Without again referring to the leaves of our
collected plants, we pass to the blossoms, and you
will at once observe the peculiarity which all possess
of having their parts in threes or sixes. We must
here premise that in the present division of plants,
156 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

the old familiar terms calyx and corolla give place to
that of perianth, which is applied to the floral cover-.
ings, even although they appear external to, and
distinct from one another, as in the snowdrop
(Fig. 95). In the latter flower, observe, there are

 

Fic. 95.—Common Snowdrop: 1, outer pieces of perianth ; 2, inner pieces
perianth ; 3, ovary; 4, bract; 5, straight-veined leaves.

three external divisions of the perianth, and three
within these; there are six stamens and three lobes
to the stigma ; lastly, the leaves are straight-veined,
so that altogether the pretty little snowdrop is a
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 157

perfectly orthodox and representative snpedbee of
the monocotyledons, or one-séed-lobed plants. Not
less so the tulip (Fig. 96), with its six-pieced
perianth, its six stamens (Fig. 97), and its three-
‘lobed stigma (Fig. 98). Need we remind ‘an unini-

 

Fig. 96.—Blossom of common Tulip, with its six perianth pieces and
straight-veined leaves.
tiated reader that if they look for wild tulipsp—they
are rare to be met with, and only in a few special
places—they must not expect to find the bright
colours of the cultivated flower, but a plain yellow
158 - WAYSIDE WEEDS.

blossom, which, however pretty in itself, has no
claims to brilliant tinting. The lily of the valley—
surely we need not try to describe the sweetest of
woodland plants—has its six deep cuttings in its
pure white bell blossoms, and the crocus, you will
find, keeps up the family characters. Again, in the
jonquil or narcissus we have the marked distinction
between the internal and external perianth. The
bright yellow, large, and handsome blossoms of the
common iris or water-flag might well claim their place
with any flowers, however gay, but they may also

2

 

Fre, 97.—Essential reproductive organs Fig, 98.—Pistil of Tulip with three-
of Tulip: 1, stamens; 2, pistil. lobed stigma.

claim to be really wayside plants, so common are they
by river and pond side in the bonny month of June;
they well carry out the ternate characters of the
petaloid division of the monocotyledons. But this
we have had so well exemplified in the members of
this class, in the snowdrop, tulip, crocus, etc., already
adverted to, that we might have rested content with
merely indicating the iris as a further example, had
it not more to show us. You count the six divisions
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 159

of the perianth, thrée alternately being longer than
the other three, but within these again there are
three other flower-like parts, what are they ? Just
raise one of them, for they are arched, and under-
neath you discover a stamen, and then it may
probably occur to you, what really is the case, that

 

Fig. 99.—Herb Paris : with involucre of four whorled leaves or bracts.
these arched petal-like organs, being in the centre
of the flower, must be the styles ; and truly they are
‘petaloid or flower-like styles.

As a contrast and anomaly to the extreme
regularity of the ternate blossoms and straight-
160 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

‘veined plants of the petaloid monocotyledons, we
should mention that singular-looking plant the
Herb Paris (Fig. 99), which those who have. the
chance of exploring damp moist woods may find ‘in
blossom in the month of May. The straight stem,
the four, sometimes five ovate leaves arranged in 4
whorl or circle, from the centre of which springs the
flower scape, and the flower not beirig composed of
three or six pieces, are characters which combine to
give us avery odd but interesting member of the
present set of plants, and one which cannot be mis-
taken for any other member of the British Flora.
Oddities, too, in their way, are the members of the
next family, the bright and beautiful but very
singular orchids. These plants have been so exten-
sively and successfully cultivated of late years, that
most of our readers must know some of the forms
and appearances of foreign members of the tribe,
even if they know not by sight the common “ king-
cups,” or purple orchis of our meadows, the sweet-
scented white butterfly orchis of our hill pastures, or
some of the rarer and more singular forms, such as
the bee and spider orchis, which abound in certain
localities, more particularly in the south of England,
and on chalky soils. Without digressing into many
interesting particulars, we must confine ourselves to
get the essential characteristics of the order, from
the common early purple orchis, the Orchis mascula,
which purples many of our meadows in the month
PLATE 3,

 

Bee Ophrys. Monkey Orchis.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 161

of May. We take one of its handsome spikes of
flowers and pluck off a blossom (Fig. 94). You
observe there is a bract ai the base (Fig. 94, 6),
and from the bract axil springs a twisted-looking
stem or pedicel (Fig, 94, 5), this twisted support
being the ovary or future seed-vessel- of the plant,
with its stigma spot (Fig. 94,3) at its apex, sur-
rounded by the six irregular pieces. of the perianth,
These also inclose two little pouches (Fig. 94, 2),
which contain, not stamens, but little masses of
waxy pollen (Fig. 94,7). If you understand the
above arrangement tolerably clearly, it will give
you a clue to the construction of the beautiful and
often grotesque blossoms of the orchis tribe.

All the plants which we have now placed in your
hand belong to the petaloid division of the mono-
cotyledons—a division which claims many of the
brightest ornaments of our gardens; but yet all
the petaloids, as we shall see in another Handful—
we must make another—are not quite so beaks in
their clothing,

The flower and its parts, leaves, stems att roots,
have each in succession claimed our brief notice and.
explanation ; there but remains to be appended to
our sixth and seventh Handfuls a few words upon
the internal structures, as well as upon the outer
covering or clothing of plants. As the point is one
which you cannot very well verify for yourselves in

this present early stage of your botanical learning,
M
162 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

you must take on trust the fact that vegetable
structure generally is made up of cells and vessels ;
or, if the latter be regarded merely as elongated
cells, it may be said, even of the forest tree, that it
is simply an aggregation of innumerable vegetable
cells. However, the distinction into cell, and into
fibre and vessel is more appropriate and con-
venient. The lowest tribes of plants, such as the
seaweeds, the mosses, and the fungi or mushrooms,
are really and truly made up of cells only. But we
are talking of cells, when, perhaps, simple as the
thing is in itself, few of our readers have formed
any idea upon the subject. A cell isa very minute

AN Yl ,
eat

Fic. 100.—Vegetable tissue magnified, showing cella and spiral vessels.

bag or vesicle, with very thin walls of vegetable
tissue ; thin comparatively, but varying in the thick-
ness of their walls considerably among themselves.
‘These minute little cells differ much in shape,
being round, oval, six sided, etc., and fitting closely to
one another, or leaving interstices, or “ intercellular
spaces ” between. Moreover, cells may be flattened,
as we shall see in the cuticle or skin of the plant, or
they may be elongated more or less, when they
become vessels or fibres; and as there are varieties
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 163

among the cells, so do they likewise exist amid the
vessel or vascular tissue. There are vessels which
are simply tubes, or it may be long cells with taper-
ing ends; others are like series of shorter cells
placed end to end, some are plain, others are dotted
and marked. But the most remarkable and inte-
resting to a beginner, as well as the most easily

 

Fra. 101.—Rose leaf torn asunder to show @, a, spiral vessels.

observed, are the spiral vessels of plants. Take
almost any leaf, a strawberry or rose leaf if you can,
and tear it very gently across the leaf-veins. Ob-
serve as you do so, that you draw out some extremely
fine, cobweb-like filaments, a few of which stretch
entirely across the rent (Fig. 101); these are the
164 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

spiral vessels, which, although drawn out in this
instance like an uncoiled spring, lie, in their ordi-
nary condition, with their coils close together,
mingled with the tube-like and other vessels, the
cells being disposed amongst or around them in
various ways. Fine as these vessels seem, yet are
they sufficiently strong, if carefully drawn out, to
support the one half of the severed leaf (Fig. 101),
when retaining no connection with the other half
beyond that afforded by the almost invisible spiral
coil. In the leaf the distinction between the vessel-
tissue and the cell-tissue is so strongly marked,
that even the beginner cannot fail to note the
former as making up the veins of the leaf, and the
latter as filling up all the intermediate spaces. As
you may suppose, the use of the cells and vessels of
plants is chiefly to permit and promote the circula-
tion of the sap, or of the fluids generally ; but the
former especially are also destined to serve as
store-bags for the secretions peculiar to the tree or
plant.
Hanhtul MBB,

Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Petal-flowers
—Plants with Straight-veined Leaves and Scale-
flowers—T he Scale-flowered or Glumaceous Plants—
Common Rush—Wood FRush and Bog Asphodel—
Their characters—Flowering Rush and Wake-robin
—Duckweed—The Sedge Iribe—Grasses and Grass
Blossoms—Clant Clothing—The Skin or Epider-
mis—Hairs—Breathing Pores or Stomates.
HANDFUL VII.

“Then think I of deep shadows on the grass,—
Of meadows where in the sun the cattle graze,
Where as the breezes pass,
The gleaming rushes lean a thousand ways.”
; Russzrg LOWELL.

Just let us remind our readers that we are among
the straight-veined monocotyledons or one-seed
lobed plants, and that this second great division
of the vegetable kingdon is itself divided into two
sections, the petaloid plants and the glumaceous
plants, or those in which the floral envelopes are
more or less corolla or flower-like, and those which
have only chaffy scales to inclose and protect their
essential organs of reproduction—the stamens and
pistils.

With respect to the petaloids, we need scarcely
say that the: beautiful blossoms we reviewed in
Handful VI. all belong to the section, but there
are a good many other genera also claiming to be
admitted within the petaloid boundary, which are
by no means so flower-like. Indeed, some of them,
because they cannot show a proper flower, seem as
168 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

if they would not show any, and have nearly naked
blossoms. Nevertheless, we shall find some of the
less conspicuous of the petaloids sufficiently interest-
ing. The glumaceous or scale-flowered division of
British plants is composed of two tribes only, the
sedges or Cyperacece, and. the grasses or Graminec,
The former are comparatively unimportant; of the
importance, or rather necessity of the latter, to
man and animals, it is scarcely requisite to speak.
We fear the glumaceous section of Flora’s family
is often shirked by the novitiate botanist; partly,
at least, from an exaggerated idea of the difficulties
which attend its study, and partly from the com-
paratively unattractive exterior of its members.
Let us assure our readers that the difficulties are
not so great, and that the interest well repays the
trouble of surmounting them, such as they may be.
But to these we shall return, Space compels us
to bid you gather in one “ handful” certain examples
of the petaloids left unnoticed in our last Handful,
and with them the glumaceous plants too. We
shall find you plenty of both falling within the
category of ‘‘ Wayside Weeds,” and none more so
than, as the child’s hymn speaks—

“The rushes by the water
‘We gather every day.”

What plant so familiar as that with which we began
ourfirst experiments in textilemanufacture—whodoes
 
WAYSIDE WEEDS: 171

not remember it ?—-copying the nurse-maid or elder
sister: as she wove rush caps, baskets, and all the’
varieties of rush handicraft. Every one knows
rushes, so get afew; but; remember, in blossom,
that is, with the loose bunch of flowers protruding
from the side of the straight round stem. There
are many different species of the rush proper, but
we fear to confuse by trying to distinguish between
them, so simply gather the rush in flower. The
wood-rush, especially the field species, is a Wayside
Weed too, but it is a chance whether its reddish
brown heads of blossoms, and bright yellow sta-
mens, which show abundantly in spring, have at-
tracted the attention of learners; nevertheless, look
out for the plant, or for the greater hairy wood-
rush (Fig. 102), which grows in woods. These
wood-rushes, with their flat hairy leaves, are very
different from the common rush, as you may see.
If you are in a moor country you should put beside
them the bog-asphodel, really a pretty flower,
which from its abundance may well be called a
weed. It, too, belongs to the rush tribe. The
water plantain you must often have seen, its broad,
long-stalked leaves, and diffuse panicles of small
pale rose-coloured blossoms standing up from some
pool in summer, or from ditches by the side of
railway embankments, which are favourite sites for
it. It, too, is a wayside petaloid, and so likewise, in
some places, is the arrow-head, with its beautifully
172 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

shaped leaves. Then into the same section come
crowding a large following of pond-weeds; you
know these plants with dark olive-green leaves,
floating on most pond surfaces, from which the
little flower spikes shoot up in early summer; and
lastly, there is the duckweed of our stagnant waters,
which all summer long covers and protects them
with its brilliant green fronds, till the ice covering
surprises and supersedes it. If we have not already

 

Fre. 103,.—Blossom of Wood-rush, showing perianth in six divisions, and
style with three stigmas.

filled your hands too full, make way for a few glu-
maces. If you can recognize a sedge or two, get
them, and any grass, from oats to meadow grass,
which you can find in blossom, will do well to illus-
trate what we wish to say. You look distrustfully -
at your handful, the members of it seem so different
from the plants you have been all along examining,
Let us see? Do not forget the trine numbers of
the straight-veined division, and go back to your
rushes, Take a wood-rush blossom (Fig. 103), and
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 178

examine it through your. lens, A three-stigma
capped style in the centre is surrounded by six
stamens, and these again by six segments of peri-
anth or floral envelope, which are, as you will see,
not petals exactly, but approaching thereto. The
blossom of the rush proper you will find is not very
different, but in some examples the stamens number
three only,

The bog-asphodel, a first cousin of these rushes
and wood-rushes, which has come out in bright
yellow, and which holds itself half a foot high, or a
little more, on the wet moorland on which it grows,
has very much the same characters as its relatives ;
moreover, the capsules or seed-vessels of all are
either quite three-celled, or imperfectly so, and
three-valved; thus you see the ternate divisions of
the monocotyledons are kept up.

A rush, and a flowering one, but not a ee sch
either, we omitted to bid you gather, but itis com-
mon enough in some places to make it at least a
pondside weed. The handsome umbels of the tall
 floweriug rush” would indeed set off your hand-
ful, and well illustrate, in all its characters, our
present divisions. Knowing these characters, it is
sufficient to bid you compare the water plantain
and the arrow-head—if you have got them—with
the same standard. There is one plant, the arum
or wake-robin (Fig. 104), common enough in
England, and commonly ‘known, which belongs to
174 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

this our petaloid section, We have already quoted
it in Handful VI. for its singular and conspicuous
bract or spathe, but it is so very diverse in appear-

 

‘Fie. 104.—Arum Spathe, including essential organs of plant reproduction ;
@, stamens; 6, pistils.

ance and structure from the usual types of the sec-

tion, we have forborne to add it to your collection,

fearmg confusion. Remember, however, at some
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 175

future day that the wake-robin is a petaloid mono-
cotyledon ; but all ternate division of organs is
lost, the stamens and pistils (Fig. 104) are indefinite
in number, the perianth is wanting, and its place
is supplied by-the enveloping bract or spathe.

Quite as abnormal in its way, from our type,
is this funny little duckweed which puzzles you
altogether ; you see a little leaf or a series of little
leaflets—fronds they are often called—all conjoined,
with a little water-root depending from each, but
where the flower is, or even should be, is past. your
comprehension, The fact is, this little duckweed, so
called because it affords frequent food to water-fowl,
chooses rather to increase by means of little buds
which take the place of the stamens and pistils, and so
each little leaf throws out other little leaves on
each side, but does not throw them off, for they
remain attached to their parent, and these again,
when they are old enough, send out their own little
leaflets, and so on they go covering the surface of
the pool from the fierce heat of summer, giving
shelter and houseroom to myriads of water-bred little
beings, and offering at. the same time a wonderful
example of a most attached family. Nevertheless,
examine closely, and in some of the little fronds, or
frondose leaves, you may find the two little stamens,
and the wee little seed-vessel which is all this duck-
weed, or, as the botanist calls it, Lemna, has to
offer. Do not confuse yourself by trying to connect
176 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

this curious and beautiful little plant with the
other petaloids generally, but look at it simply as
one of our wayside weeds, well-deserving in itself
your attention. Moreover, do not omit to examine
the delicate sheaths which tip the root fibre of each
little leaflet.

Passing on to the glumaceous or second section
of the British monocotyledons, we find it divided
between the Cyperacez or sedge tribes, and the
Graminez or grasses, As regards the former, we
much fear that few of our uninstructed readers will
recognize them as wayside weeds, common as they
are. The cotton grass, it is true, attracts attention
when its many heads of white, cottony, almost
silky fibre, whiten the moorland in summer, but
then, all the flowering characters are gone, The
bull-rushes or club-rushes may be known to some,
but the sedge proper, or Carex family, is the most
numerous in the division, numbering almost seventy
British species. We must rest content with one
illustration (Fig. 105), which may lead yon to recog-
nize the first sedge you meet with by land or water.
The barren spike (Fig. 105, a) consists of stamens
only, with a single scale (Fig. 105, c) at their base.
‘These wither up after flowering. The fertile spikes
(Fig. 105, b) consist of pistils only, each pistil like~
wise supported by its scale (Fig. 105, d), which
finally protects the fruit (Fig. 105, e). The stems
are of well-marked triangular form (Fig. 105, f).
WAYSIDE WEEDS, 177

With some little resemblance to the grasses, the
sedges are yet very different, as the descriptions
prove, and more diverse still in their useful import.
Comparatively, the sedge has rarely any economical
yalue: the grass tribes, directly or indirectly, are
the staple of man’s material life,

 

Fre, 105.—Carex stricta, or Tufted Bog-sedge : a, barren spike; b 4, fertile
spikes ; c, d, scales of perianth; ¢, fruit, or seed ; Ff, section of stem.
Important, however, as the second or gramineous

division of the British Glwmacee may be, we must
dismiss it with but short notice. It would be quite

useless to attempt to discriminate for a beginner the
N
178 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

differences between the tribes or genera of grasses ;
it must suffice to point out the parts of the grass
blossom, or the peculiarities of the grass plant, and
leave those who wish, to confirm them for themselves:
Take any grass you chance to meet with, but a large
species, with what you probably call the seeds
large too, will be best. Observe, first, the narrow
straight-veined leaves, and next, the cylindrical
hollow stem with joints and knots at intervals, the

 

Fig. 106.—A, Spikelet of Brome Grass; a a, glumes, or involucre, inclosing
grass florets. B, Single floret of Brome Grass; d, glumelle, or perianth ;

e, stumens; e, awn.
leaves sheathing the stem. The seeds or blossoms
are disposed in spikes, as in the case of wheat or
barley, which, perhaps, it is unnecessary to say are
real, true grasses, or more loosely in panicles, as in
oats. Now take one of these grass blossoms (Fig.
106), and if the plant really be in blossom, you will
observe, hanging out, the loosely-attached stamens
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 179

—“ versatile” is the proper botanical term—three
in every distinct species of British grass, but one,
the sweet-scented meadow grass, which has only two
of these organs ; you will, probably, also observe the
little feathery stigmas protruding beside them. The
scales, or palezw, or valves, for they have all these

 

Fre. 107.—Floret of Melis Grass, showing feathery stigmas.

names, which include the stamens and styles, are, as
you will observe, generally in pairs (Figs. 107 and

Fig. 108,—Spikelet or Locusta of Meadow Soft Gruss; a a, glumes
or involucre, inclosing florets.

108) ; a number of pairs making up a little spikelet
(Fig. 108}. From the extremities of the scales,
generally from the outer one, and often from its
back, arise long, thread-like projections, which
have the name of awns. Barley, rye, and the
beautiful feather-grass afford us some of the best
180 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

examples of the awn in full development, Of course
these awns give valuable characters in distinguishing
the various species of grass from each other, but if you~
will examine the diverse scales which compose the
spikelet, or locusta, as it is called, you will find they
have many distinctive marks besides ; some are more
or less covered with hairs ; some have many or few
veins or nerves; and whilst some are pointed at the
apex, others are blunted, and others “ bifid,” or
‘ forked.”

We have yet, however, to speak to you of the
structure of this flower spikelet asa whole, The
outer and lower pair of scales or glumes (Figs, 106
and 108) were at one time regarded as equivalent to
a calyx, but as in many grasses they inclose a con-
siderable number of florets, they are now more
properly regarded as bracts, constitutimg an invo-
lucre, such as we remember in our old friends the
composites, consequently the pairs of scales inclosed
by the glumes, instead of being equivalent to a
corolla, must be looked on as the perianth of the
blossom. These inclosed scales are often called

palee. The grass stem gots the distinctive name of

culm.
PLANT CLOTHING,

“If God so clothe the grass of the field.”
A. very varied wardrobe have these “lilies
of the field.” The richly coloured petals, some-
times brightly coloured calyx or bract, the
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 18]

leaves of every surface variety, the bright shining
stems of the grasses, or of the smooth, richly.
spotted “hemlock, the bark of birch, beech, oak,
or pine, are all portions of our plant clothing.
True it is that much of the colour which varies the
plant exterior belangs rather to the colour cells just
below the plant covering or cuticle, than to the
cuticle itself, but still we may legitimately regard all
as part of the array which God has given. <A cover-
ing which permits. the free transmission of colour
must, necessarily, be extremely thin and transparent,

 

Fra. 109.—Plant Cuticle magnified, showing outlines of cells,
@, a, a, Stomates or breathinz pores.

and this :any one may see who will take the trouble
to carefully strip the cuticle from a leaf; pat under
a tolerably good microscope, it will exhibit that
appearance shown in Fig. 109, the irregular lines
marking the boundaries of the flattened cells which
form the cuticle. These cells, which are in one
or more layers, although generally transparent, are
occasionally coloured, and in many instances. contain
waxy or siliceous (flint substance) deposits, the latter
substance is found particularly in the stems of the
182 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

grass tribes, and more especially in those of the
horse-tails, or “ jointed ferns,” we do not, however,
yet number the latter among our acquaintance.

Tn these plants the cells of the cuticle contain the
silex grains so abundantly, and withal so symmetri-
cally arranged, that it is possible for all the real
vegetable substances to be removed, and still the
stem will retain its form. Moreover, the presence of
this crystalline sand, for it is nothing else, fine and
minute as it must necessarily be, renders these com-
paratively unvalued plants of some commercial
importance as polishing agents to the cabinet-maker,
the whitesmith, and others.

It is not, however, colour only which the
plant cuticle allows to pass, but, what is much
more important to the vegetable economy, it per-
mits the free ingress and egress of moisture, and of
air or gases, not indeed through its entire surface,
but by means of the little breathing pores or
stomates (Fig. 109 4), which are so thickly
scattered over the plant exterior; in most, on the
under surfaces of the leaves chiefly, the principal
exception to this being in the case of floating leaves
of aquatic plants, where, obviously, the stomates
would be useless on the under surface, and, conse-
quently, we find them on the upper. Hach little
stomate, as represented, is composed of a couple of
oblong cells, with an opening between them commu-
nicating with the cell tissues which compose the sub-
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 183

stance of the leaf. These little cells are the door-
keepers, for, being hygrometric, that is, affected by
the presence or absence of moisture, in dry weather
they contract, and by shutting up the little opening
between them prevent the plant losing more
moisture by evaporation than it can afford; in
moist weather the reverse takes place. It would be
out of place here to enter into a consideration of
plant respiration and digestion, which go on in
the leaves mainly by the communication effected
between the plant tissues and the atmosphere
through these sensitive little pores; suffice it for us
that we see how this cuticle of the plant, the epi-
dermis it is called by some, contributes essentially
to a function on which not only the health and
growth of the vegetable world depend, but also,
by the purification of the air, effected by vege-
table respiration, the health of the animal creation
likewise. The stomates have been alluded to with
reference only to the leaves; they occur, however,
but not so abundantly, on most other parts of vege-
tables, varying greatly in number upon different
plants. On the roots underground, where mani-
festly they would be of little or no use, the stomates
do not occur.

Beautiful, however, as may be the plant cover-
ing, whether in its own bright polished surfaces, or
in the transparency which permits the passage of
the brilliant colours which tinge the cells beneath
184 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

it, we find its beauty and variety wonderfully
augmented by the manifold differences of its hair
appendages. Hairs have we of every form, simple
as in most plants, stellate or star-shaped (Fig:
110 8), beaded, forked (Fig. 110 a), gland-bearing
(Fig. 110 c), and soft as down, satiny, as in the
mountain lady’s-mantle, or stiff and rough, until
they go a step farther and become hardened into
the prickles of our roses and brambles ; venemous,

 

Fie. 110.—Hairs from plant surfaces magnified. A, Forked hair; B,
Stollate or star-shaped ; O, Branched and gland-bearing hair; D, Tubular
hair of nettle with poison-gland at its base.

too, are some hairs, as the nettle frequently reminds
us, whilst some of the glandular kind secrete an
oily, sticky fluid; lastly, we have the chaffy scale
clothing of the young ferns, another cuticular ap-
pendage. It would be superfluous to offer our
readers many examples of a plant character so
easily accessible as the hair appendages of the
cuticle, and we would not deprive them of the
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 185

pleasure of examining, as they can so easily do,
for themselves, by merely plucking not only leaf
after leaf, but plant after plant, in their walks,
and using their lens. We mention plant as well as
leaf, because the arrangement of the hairs on plant
stems is often interesting and characteristic, as in
the common speedwell, common chickweed, etc. We
must not forget to mention that one little spot, and
one only of the entire plant, the stigma of the
blossom, is left uncovered by the cuticle.
X Bunch of Sens.

Ferns well known—Their elegance—Characterized by
the absence of floral development—Spores, and
Spore or Seed cases—The varying form of Ferns—
Peculiar mode of Early Growth—Fern gathering—
The Male-fern —Lady-fern — Hart’s-tongue—Brake,
or Bracken—Polypody and its spores—Spleenwort—
Jfoonwort — Horse-tail and Adder’s-tongue —Cha-
racters common to Ferns—Caudez, or Root-stalk—
Stipe—Rachis and Pinne—Sori—Spores and Spore

cases—FHzceptions to position of Spores on back of
Frond, ete.
A BUNCH OF FERNS.

“Barren tracts are colonized by ferns long before many other
tribes could vegetate thereon, and on sterile soils where other plants
would perish for want of food the hardy ferns find sustenance
enough.”—Buryerr’s “ Borany.” ,

THERE are few, perhaps, in the present day, who
do not know what is meant by a fern, or who do
not know an ordinary fern by sight, and, possibly,
the town resident is even more familiar with these
elegant but withal flowerless members of the floral
world, than he is with many more common wayside
weeds. Ferns and fern-cases in houses, fern-covered
rock, and ferns in Crystal Palace and winter gardens,
have become fashionable and favourite objects of
interest ; and well they may, for there are few more
elegant forms in nature than those presented to us
by ‘fern fronds” as the leaves are called. True,
many of the most elegant—no other adjective so
well expresses fern beauty—are not of the number of
our British Wayside Weeds, but still we have many
a fern which may rank as such among forty or fifty
British species, and some of the commonest, such as
the male and the lady-fern, and even common brake,
190 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

boast of much beauty. We cannot pretend to make
our bundle a large one, and before we attempt to
form it at all, we must make sure you know a
fern when you see it. The first characteristic,
moreover, is a negative one—the entire absence of
those floral organs which have engaged so much of
our attention hitherto. The second character is the
presence, on the back of the fronds, of those collec-
tions of seed-cases and spores that represent the
“fern seed,” so famed in olden time (Figs. 112, 113,
114), which stand in the place of flowers and their
essential organs of reproduction. This character
you will of course find only when the plants are
somewhat advanced in age, and even not then upon
all the fronds, varying too in appearance (Figs. 112,
1138, 114) from the round “ sori” covered by their
kidney-shaped involucres, as in the male-fern, to the
naked sori of the common polypody (Fig. 112), the -
prolonged sori of the hart’s-tongue (Fig. 113), or
the marginal covered spore collections of the com-
mon brake, or elegant maiden’s-hair of the fern-case.
For another character we must look to the very
earliest stage of fern growth, and it is so peculiar,
that having once recognized it you cannot be
deceived as to the nature of the plant which is
springing into its vegetable existence. Ferns for
the most part come up in what botanists call a
“ circinnate,” or “gyrate” form, the future frond
being curled up in the most curious and wonderful
  
 

FIG: 4112.

FIG: M1. FH

Fig. 111.—Frond of common Polypody : a, frond 38, rachis ;
o, stipe ; d, caudex, or root-stalk.
F1@. 112.—Portion of Frond of Polypody, showing naked Sori.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 193

manner, in some cases, as in the common bracken,
looking more like a brown caterpillar than an
embryo plant; and not only is it the mass of
the frond which is thus curled upon itself, but
every minute division of the many-cut leaf is like-
wise curled, so that there is curl within curl, and, if
you will look for them in the month of May, you
will find the fern fronds in every stage of uncurling,

 

Fie. 113.—Portion of frond of Hart’s-tongue Fern, showing oblong
sori, or spore collections,

eommencing like a caterpillar, shooting up into the
likeness of a pastoral staff, and finally imparting
the full form of its leaf-beauty. And how full and
beautiful are the coronas of the male fern, which

almost seem to attempt the tree forms of more
oO
194 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

southern climes; the elegant drooping clumps of
bright green lady-fern, and the miniature forests of
the bracken, that offer a leafy curtain and good
concealment to the crouching deer.

With the characteristics pointed out, and with
the idea that you either have some notion of a fern,
or can get some one to show you, we start you in
search of your bundle, and bid’you gather every-
thing you meet with, by hedgeside, rock crevice,
or wall, which you think resembles what you are
seeking for. Probably you will get the very common
male fern, Lastrea jilix mas, its handsome fronds
often exceeding three feet in length, and, as already
observed, when growing undisturbed, taking the
form of a circle or corona springing from the
common root-stock. You may get the lady-fern,
Athyrium filix femina, for, loving shade and
moisture, in some localities it is very abundant,
growing along with the male fern, but distinguish-
able from it, with a very little attention, by its much
more delicate and elegant, almost feathery, forma-
tion, with tendency to droop, and by the sori being
of a more elongated kidney-shape. There are other
minute differences, but of these it would be useless
to speak here, In the same shade and clump as the
lady-fern loves, if there is rock or stone wall, there
will probably be for you a specimen of the hart’s-
‘tongue (Fig. 118), only here there is no finely-cut
leaf, but a long; plain, and yet elegant withal,
 

Fra. 114,—Fronds of Aspleuium viride, or Green Spleenwort : a, stipe:
6, rachis; c, pinne of frond ; d, sori; e, caudex.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 197

riband-like frond, with the true fern curl im its
young state, and with very long sori (Fig. 113) on
the back. Occasionally you will find the hart’s-

 

 

 

 

 

¥rq. 115.—Horse-tail, fertile spike. a, fructification.

tongue fronds forked at the extremity, and very
variable in length, from one foot to three. The
bracken or brake cannot escape you, as itis perhaps
398 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

the commonest of all, fringing the hill-sides and
wood-sides, and wide-margined country lanes, with
its tall growth, the stipe or stem supporting the
three-divisioned and much-cut fronds well above
the earth, and the entire plant reaching a height
of three, four, or more feet. The sori are what are
called “marginal,” and are as it were covered
by the edges of the frond turned over them.
Lastly, on some bank you will come upon the
common polypody (Fig. 111), certainly one of the
plainest of its family, but a very characteristic fern,
with its boldly marked and bright yellow sori (Fig.
112), presenting their spore cases without either
the involucres of the male fern or the marginal
foldings of the bracken,

Of course, according to situation, you will get
other ferns besides these—it may be some one of
the aspleniums or spleenworts (Fig. 114) ; but those
already mentioned will suffice for our purpose, more
especially as we would have you add a moonwort (Fig.
116), a horse-tail or two (Fig. 115), and an adder’s-
tongue if you can, from the damp meadow. Queer
names these two last, but they are all of them near
relatives of our fern friends, and our bundle would
be incomplete without them, and indeed is scarcely
complete now without a club moss or two; but as
these do not quite come under the category of
““ Wayside Weeds,” we may venture to omit them.

And now let us survey our collection, and gather-
 

Fre. 116,—Moonwort. a, frond; 2, fractification,
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 201

if we can, their common characters. In the first
place, we have the fern itself constituted by the
frond (Figs. 111, 114), this frond being supported by
a central stem, or, as it is called, the “stipe,” and
this again springing from a root stock, “ caudex,”
or rhizome (Fig. 111), from which the true root
fibres are developed. When the stem or stipe of
the fern frond passes into the frond itself it takes
the name of “ rachis; and passing through the
centre of the frond, becomes, as in the hart’s-tongue
fern, as it were, a central midrib ; in others, as the
polypody (Fig. 111), the spleenwort (Fig. 114), etc.,
it forms the central support from which the lateral
divisions, or, as they are called, “‘ pinne,”’ are given
off. The frequent presence, especially in young
fronds, of “chaffy” scales upon both stipe and
rachis will scarcely escape the observation even of a
beginner, and we need only again refer to the pecu-
liar mode of the springing of the young fronds to
‘secure attention.

Lastly, we come to the most peculiar character-
istic of the fern tribe, the means of propagation,
or what people generally would call seeds, but
which for special, reasons botanists term spores
(Figs. 112, 118, 114, 117). These it is almost
superfluous again to remark are produced without
anything, resembling the flower of the vegetable
kingdom generally, and are for the most part col-
lected upon the back of the fronds, ’the collections
902 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

getting the name of “ sori,” and varying greatly in
shape, as already mentioned. And now, to go
further, you will need a good magnifying-glass or
small microscope to enable you to see that each
sorus, whether round, or naked as in the polypody
(Fig. 112), or covered with an indusium or involucre,
as in the male or lady ferns, hart’s-tongue (Fig,
118), and spleenwort (Fig, 114), or with the frond
margin as in the brake, is made up of a number of
minute membranous cases (Fig, 117), each sup-

 

Fra. 117,—Spore Case, or Capsule, magnified.

ported on its tiny stem, and surrounded by an
elastic-jointed ring. In each spore case are con-
tained, fine as dust, the true fern spores—‘ fern
seed,” if you like it better—und when fully ripe
the elastic surrounding ring (Fig. 117) tears open
the little treasury. It is difficult to imagine a more
beautiful little arrangement, and marvellous indeed
would it seem to us, were it not that the continued
never-ceasing marvels, the continued never-ceasing
creations of His hand, who made both heaven and
 

WAYSIDE WEEDS, 203

earth, are so constantly before us that we almost
forget that each and all are miracles, We can
scarcely realize that, every unfolding of a blossom,
every springing into growth and beauty of the tiny
seed, and microscopic spore, is as much an act of
creation as that which took place when

“The morning stars sang together.”

Although, for the most part, the fern fructifi
cation or spore development is upon the back or
margins of the frond, it is not invariably so; in one
or two instances, even in Britain, the spore collec-
tions are concentrated, as in the Osmunda, or Royal
Fern, or, as it is often and erroneously called, Flower-
ing Fern. In the case of this truly splendid fern,
the tallest of our British natives of the tribe, the
sori capsules are so thickly clustered at the ex-
tremity of the frond, as quite to obliterate its leafy
character, forming to it a brown branched apex,
which some stretch of imagination might convert
into masses of unopened flower buds, Another,
rather a relative of the ferns than a fern itself, the
curious-looking moonwort (Fig, 116), has a barren
frond, that is, one free from fructification, and,
springing as it were from it (Fig. 116), a branched
fertile panicle of spore capsules, ‘These capsules
‘are without elastic ring. If you chance to know
or to find the adder’s-tongue in your bundle, you
will have a plant closely related to the moonwort,
204 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

but with its fertile. spike unbranched, and its plain
barren frond still less fern-like than that of its
near relative just mentioned.

In the same category of flowerless plants, but
still further diverging from the ferns, both in
appearance and habit, and yet so common in some
of its species that it is truly a ‘“‘ Wayside Weed,”
we have the horse-tail tribe (Fig. 115). The hol-
low, black jointed, creamy~-coloured, fertile stems,
crowned with their black masses of spores, can
hardly . escape observation in spring, although
an inexperienced observer would scarcely associate
these with the later showing barren spikes, rough
and wiry, and many jointed, and many branched.
X Chapter on Classitiration.

—o—

CLASSIFICATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS TO BE
LEARNED FROM COMMONEST WEEDS,

The Natural Classification—Planis evidently in groups
—RFetrospect— Division into Flowering and Flower-
less Plants—Filowerless Plants—General Gharac-
teristics—Flowering Plants—Qivision into Plants
with Straight-veined Leaves and with Netted-veined
_Leaves—Importance of (Qistinction—Clants with
Netted-veined Leaves—Qivided into three principal
Sections — Subdivision of Sections into Natural
Families—Subdivision of Families into Genera
Genera composed of Species or of Individual Plants
—Advantages of a Natural Classification—Artificial
Classification—Concluding Remarks.
A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFICATION,

Step by step have we traversed the highways and
byways of Flora’s kingdom, and as we have kept
tolerably close to the beaten track, we have
encountered for the most part that which we came
to look for, the ‘Wayside Weeds” in all their
common and most familiar aspects, and yet these
have served, in accordance with our plan laid down
at the outset, to teach us a few, at least, of the
principles according to which the floral realms are
regulated. We have learned why certain forms
of plants are grouped together, and why they are se-
parated, by lines of natural demarcation, from others,
and thus we have, it is hoped, got some idea of

CLASSIFICATION,

Moreover, the classification we have learned is
“natural,” it associates for us groups of plants
which, even to an unpractised eye, have points of
“natural affinity.’ The most superficial examina-
tion cannot fail to shew that the leguminous or pea
tribes, the umbellifers or hemlock-like plants, the
rosaceous families, the composite or daisy and
208 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

dandelion connections, are each made up of certain
numbers of individual members or “ species,” which
are intimately related to each other. Bearing
these facts, and others of the same kind, in remem-
brance, we look back over the ground we have
traversed, and first we see the two great divisions
into

Plants with Flowers,* and

Plants without Flowers.

The latter of these divisions it is true has re-
ceived but scant share of our attention, but it must
not on that account be deemed unimportant: from
the magnificently elegant tree ferns of southern
climes, to the mould which covers the damp sur-
faces of decay, or the crimson vesicles which stain
the snows of the arctic regions, the flowerless tribes
include a vast collection of vegetable entities each
and all fulfilling their purposes in God’s creation,
and not one'of them devoid of interest, or unen-
dowed with its own peculiar beauty; but yet, with
exception of the ferns and a few of their nearest
connections, the study of the flowerless tribes is
neither very attractive, nor perhaps likely to be
well understood by a novitiate learner in botan-
ical science,

In accordance with our simple plan, the flower-
less plants we have noticed, the ferns, the horse

* Our readers it is hoped have not forgotten the definition of
what a true flower is essentially.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 209

tails, the club mosses, have been known to us only
as “flowerless plants ;” but itis right we should
know them also under their more scientific name of
“Cryptogamia’’ of the artificial classification of
Linneeus, or of “ Acotyledons” of the natural classi-
fication, which has been followed in the foregoing
sketches. The name Cryptogamia, literally, “ hidden
marriage,” was given by Linneus in accordance with
his ingenious; and, we might say, beautiful theory
respecting plant-nature; the term Acotyledon is
applicable because of the absence of the cotyle-
donary bodies, which, either singly, or in pairs,
characterize the flowering plants. Hither name
indicates a marked distinction between the repro-
ductive organs, and apparent mode of propagation
of the. flowerless, and the flowering plants. There
is, however, yet another distinction, not so apparent
to the eye, but yet well marked, in the inner struc-
ture of these plants, and this too gives to the
flowerless plants generally the name of Cellulares,
and to the flowering plants that of Vasculares ; for,
although the higher ranges in the flowerless division,
such as the ferns, etc., contain their own peculiar and
characteristic vessels, the lower ranges, from the
mosses and fungi downwards, are little more than
masses of cells. To enter further into these divisions
would be beyond the scope and design of our work.

We retrace our steps still further along the
paths of flower-land, and again we come to two

P
210 WAYSIDE WEEDS.

great divisions, into which plants possessing
essential flower organs are divided :—

Plants with one seed-lobe, or cotyledon, mono-
COTYLEDONS ; plants with two seed-lobes, pI-cory-
LEDONS.

Also, from the mode of growth peculiar to each,
callod endogens and exogens: that is, plants the
yearly growth of which takes place by additions to
the centre of the stem, the endogen; or, by addi-
‘tions between the bark and the stem, the exogen.
The latter represents the great mass of plants which
make up the larger vegetation of our temperate
zones, including our forest trees; the former the
tropical vegetation, the palms, the bananas, the
bamboos ; but also the grasses and grains, the lilies,
snowdrops, and crocuses of northern regions. Our
readers may remember that these endogenous or
mono-cotyledonous plants are those characterized by
straight-veined leaves, and for the most part by a
ternary division of the parts of the flower; the
exogens, or di-cotyledons, by leaves with interlac-
ing veins, and no fixed division of the flower organs.

Leaving behind us the great section of straight-
veined, one-seed-lobed, central growing flowering
plants, we find the netted-veined, two-seed-lobed
exogens, once more divided naturally into three
groups :—

Plants which have the corolla in many pieces,
represented by our old friends the ranunculuses,
poppies, etc.
WAYSIDE WEEDS. 211

Plants which have the corolla in one piece, repre-
sented by the primroses, dead nettles, etc.

Plants in which both corolla and calyx are
resolved into one floral covering, represented by the
buckwheats, docks, etc.

Again these groups have, as already pointed out,
their own subdivisions, dependent chiefly upon the
attachment of the stamens and pistil, till at length,
by tracing other differences, we reach the natural
families of plants so frequently alluded to, as the
Ranunculacez, Rosaceze, Umbelliferz, etc.

But a “natural family” is itself only a group of
other smaller groups, the number of the latter
varying greatly. Hach of the smaller groups is
known as a “ genus,”* and, lastly, each genus is
but an aggregation of individual plants, each of
which is called a species. For example, it may be
remembered that in our opening chapter, where the
ranunculus or buttercup genus is cited, mention
is also made of various kinds of buttercup, which,
although bearing an unmistakeable family likeness,
were yet found to offer minor differences, such as a
turned back calyx, a bulbous root, a furrowed.
peduncle, which marked them as essentially different
from each other. These, therefore, are different
kinds or “species” of the Ranunculus genus; but
the Ranunculus genus, though representative of the
‘natural family” of the Ranunculacee, also associates
with itself in that family a number of other genera,

* Plural, “Genera.”
212 WAYSIDE WEEDS,

such as the anemones, columbines, etc.—associates
them by reason of certain family relations, but
distinguishes them from each other by well-marked
generic distinctions. A little observation, and the
use of a “ Flora’’* will soon familiarize any one with
the nature of these specific, generic, and family dif-
ferences, although it may be long before the actual
distinctions are fixed in the mind. Neither must a
learner expect to find all plant families as strongly
marked out and as easily recognizable as those
which we have chosen as illustrations, because of
their distinctness ; but the interest will not be less,
or ought not be less, because of a little difficulty.
It may be the artificial classification offers an easier
path at first, and in some respects presents un-
doubted advantages, but the knowledge it gives is
often more apparent than real. On the other hand,
the natural groupings cannot be studied without ac-
quiring much real information illustrative of those na-
tural bonds of connection, which, extending through-
out the wholevegetable world, combine it into a perfect
whole, all the more perfect because of the wonderful
number and variety of the tribes and: families, the
genera and species of which it is-composed.

* A Flora is a work devoted to the description, in a classified
form, of the plants peculiar to any district or country.

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Fe tig yr Goon
CONTENTS.
coe Ad General, ee eee Minin vous
Fern Collectin, e Ar plying erns.
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Cultivation of Rock Ferns. . Cultivation of Greenhouse Stove Ferns,
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CONTENTS: —
The Families of Wild Boses.,, Piktay -Roses:.
The Families of mula eaed Roses. Yellow Roses,
Summer Roses, Roses in Pots.
Forming the Rosarium. Roses in Bede,.
Culture of Roses in the Open Ground, Roses in Great Downs.
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devoured by the youth of both sexes.”—Somerset County Herald, a

 

GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
SHIELING GIFT BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

Each Book sent: Post: Free for 12 Stamps.

 

THE GAPTIVE’S: DAUGHTER ; ano oTHeR stories.

BY W. HEARD HILLYARD.
Illustrated with 15 Wood Engravings, Foolscap 80, cloth gilt, 1s.

“Tf one were asked'to select & series.of stories most suitabte for presents to
children, and affording real pleagure in their perusal:to ‘children of a larger
growth, very few would hesitate to name titis series a5 the very first and best of
‘the class.”—@oventry Herald.

THE ORPHANS OF ELFHOLM ; ano otter stories:
BY FRANCES BROWNE. —
Illustrated with-15’ Wood Kagravings. Foolscap 8vo, cloth gilt, 1s.

“4 pook to be prized by. the. young, for its several tales are.well writton.and
full of touching interest.”—Qity Press, .

WHEN ‘WE WERE YOUNG: dnp ote stories.
BY THE AUTHOR OF “A TRAP TO CATCH A SUNBEAM.”
Illustrated with 15 Wood Engravings, Foolscap Svo, cloth gilt; 1s.

“The precept of moral courage: which ‘it inouloates, coupled with ite excellent
tone throughout, stamps it at once as being of the tigWt-sort.”—-Enylich Churchman,

NOT GLEVER; ano otHen stories:

BY FRANCES M. WILBRAHAM.
Tlustrated with 15 Wood Eiigravings. ‘ Woolscap Sve, cloth pilt, Ys.
*Pure-in tone, full of interest, well got up, and cheap.”— Hereford Ttmea,

DEAR CHARLOTTE’S BOYS; ano otner stories.

BY EMILY TAYLOR..
Illustrated with 15 Wood Engravings. Yoolscap 8v¢, cloth gilt, 1s,

“We are glad to receive a volume of these pretty stories. There is something
refreshing in them, scarcely to.be found in any, other publication,” —City Press.

THE STORY OF NELSON; ano ornen stories.

_ BY W. H. G. KINGSTON.
Tilustrated with 15 Wood Engravings. Foolscap 8vo, cloth gilt, 1s.

* > Bo . node Ae aM

“ Mr, Kingston, with great skill, brings out the ‘stirring events of the great
Admiral’s life from the lips of‘an old Greenwich pensioner. The story is told with
all the enthusiasm of a'true ‘Salt,’ and has the further merit of capital descrip.
tive Writing,’ —Plymouth Journat. -

GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,
SHILLING GIFT BOOKS: FOR YOUNG PEOPLE,

Each Book sent. Post Fyee for 12 Stamysi

BLIND URSWLA* ano orner stories,
BY' MES. WEBB.
Tustrated with 15 Wood. Engravitrgs. Boolseap 8¥0, cloth gilt, 1s.

. ‘A domestio tale of humble life, whichwil wellrepay perusal: There is an
excellent tone, moral and religious; throughout-the narrative,’~—Liceds Intelligencer.

SEA-SHELL ISLAND; av otHer: stores.
BY G BE. SARGENT.
Tdustrated with 15. Wood, Engnavings.. ‘Faolacap vq, cloth, gilt, 1s.
An exceeding pretty story.” —Semersatshire County Heralds:

WHICH WAS THE BRAYESE-P ano oTner stories.
BY L A..HALL,

Tlustrated ‘with 15 Wood! Hagravings.- Foolseap-8vo; cloth gilt, fs.
“ A tale of the Christmas holidays.on the ‘bhamiles- of the- Shannon, ‘intended to
_ Bhow, by the conduct of a party of. young peopte, that rasHness mud disobedience
are no proofs of courage. It should: ba widely sptead, for thb apiit idf the: little
book is excelent, . ‘Thp , engravings, axe/. appropriate and pleasing.'’—-Binouth

Journal,

THE CLOCKMAKER OF LYONS; ano oren stomtes.
_ BY E. M. PIPER.
Illustrated with 16 Wood Engravings. Foolscap So, cloth gilt, 1s.

‘(An interesting tale, forming one of Messrs. Groombridge’s Series: of Gift
Books, and by no means the worat.of the serias.”-—Gheltenkam Journal,

THE ANGEL UNAWARES'; ano otneR stories,
‘BY MARY HOWITT.
_ Illustrated with 15 Wood Hugravings, Fuolseap-8vo, cloth gilt, 1s.

“A pretty story of kindness rewarded by success, The principal actors are
children, and the teaching of the story, while it is full, of ppint: for older learners,
is adapted especially to the capacity of youth.”=—Plymouth and Devonport Journal.

ae Tae

' By THE AUTHOR OF “THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE.”
Tilustrated with 15 Wood Engravings.. Foolscap 8vo, cloth gilt, Ls.
« Combines. amusement with instruction in a way that must please the rising
generation,”"—Renyfrewshire Independent,

 

GROOMERIDGE & SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
GROOMBRIDGE’S
SHILLING PRACTROAL MANUALS.

5. SINGING MADE EASIER FOR AMATEURS,
explaining the pute Italian Method of Producing and
Cultivating the Voice; the Management of the Breath;
the best way of Improving the Har; with much other

-valuable information. equally valuable to Professional
Singers and Amateurs.

6. MARKET GARDENING, giving in detail the
various methods adopted by Gardeners in growing the
Strawberry, Rhubarb,’ Filberts, Harly Potatees, Aspa-
ragus, Sea Kale, Cabbages, Cauliflowers,Celery, Beans,
Peas, Brussels Sprouts, Spinach, Radishes, Lettuce,
Onions, Carrots, Turnips, Water Cress, etc. By James
Coram, F.R-HS.

7. CLERK’S DICTIONARY OF COMMERCIAL
TERMS ; containing Explanations of upwards of Three
Hundred Terms used in‘ Business antl Metchants’ Offi-
ces. By the Author of “(Common Binnders in Speak-
ing and Writing Corrected.”

“ An indispensable ‘book for all yoang men entering
a counting-honse for the firat time.”

8. THE CAT, its History and Diseases, with Method
of Administering Medicine. By the Hon. Lapy Cust.

9, ELOCUTION MADE EASY for Clergymen, Pub-
lic Speakers, and Readers, Lecturers, Actors, Theatri.
cal Amateurs, and all whe wish to speak well and
effectively in Pablic or Private. By Caannes Harriuy.
Contents : Cultivation of the Speaking Voice, Manage-
ment of the Voice, Pausing, Taking Breath, Pitch, Ar-
ticulation, Pronunciation, The Aspirate, The Letter R,
Emphasis, Tone, Movement, Feelmg and Passion,
Verse, Scriptural Reading, Stammering and Stutter-
ing, Aetion, Acting, Reciting, etc.

GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, Paternoster Row, London.
-GROOMBRIDGE’S

SHILLING PRACTICAL MANUALS.

10.

11,

Each Book sent post free for 12 stamps.

ORATORY MADE EASY, A Guide tothe Com-
position of Speeches. By Csanuns Harrier. Con-
‘tents: Introduction, Power of Art, Various Kimds of
‘Ovatory, Prepared’ Speech, Construeting a Speech,
Short Speeches, Command of Language, Reading and
Thinking; Style, Hasty: Composition, “Forming a
Style, Copiousness and Qonidiséness, Dietion ot Lan-
mage, Purity and Propriety, Misapplied Words,
Monosyllables, Specific Terms, Variety of Lahxuage,
Soo Great ‘Care about ‘Words, Epithets, Precision,

nee, ‘Pexspienity,;‘Lom and Shot Seittences,
-Fropes and Figtres, Metaphor, Similey dc, -' ©

THE GRAMMATICAL REMEMBRANCER;
or, Aids for Correct Speaking, Writing, ‘and Spelling,
for Adults. By Cuartus Hanriny. Oontents: Intro.
duction, Neglect of Hnglish Grammar, Divisions of
Grammar, Parts of Speech, The Article, The ‘Silent
H, Nouns, Formation of:the Plural, Gemders of Nouns,

- Cases of Nouns, Cémpdrisoh of Adjectives, Personal

12,

13.

‘Pronouns, Relative Pronouns, Demonstrative Pro-
nouns, Regular and Irregular Verbs, ‘Shall and Will,
The Adverb, Misapplication of Words, Division of
Words, Capital Letiers, Rules for Spelling Double /
‘andy, A Short Syntax, Punctuation, de.

THECANARY : Its History, Varieties, Manage-
ment, and Breeding, with Coloured Frontispiece. By
Brcwarp Avis. Contains, History of tho Canary,
Varieties of ‘the Canary, Food amd General Manage-
ment, Cages, Breeding, Education of the Young,
Muiles, Diseases, die.

BIRD PRESERVING and Bird Mounting, and

the Preservation of Birds’ Eggs, with a Chapter on
Bird Catching. By Ricwarp Avis.

GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, Puterncster Rew, London.
GROOMBRIDGE’S
SHILLING PRACTICAL MANUALS.

Hach Book sent post free for 12 stamps.

14. WINE GUIDE; or, Practical Hints on the Pur-
chase and Management of Foreign Wines, their His-
tory, and a complete catalogue of all those in present
use, together with remarks upon the treatment of
‘Spirits, Bottled Beer, and Cider. To. which is ap-
pended Instructions for the Cellar, and other informa-
tion valuable to the Consumer as well as the Dealer.
By Freprrice OC, Minzs.

15. PIGEONS: their Varieties, Management, Breed-
ing, and Diseases, with Coloured Frontispiece. By
H. Pierre. Contains full instructions upon Lockers,
Pole-houses, Dovecotes, Pigeon Lofts, Traps, Nesting
Places, Choosing Stock, Mating, Eggs and Hatching,
Young Ones, Food, Water, Salt Cat, Parasites, Dis-
eases, Pigeon Law, Varieties.and Origin, The English
Carrier, Messenger, or Homing Pigeons, The Horse-
man, Pouting Horseman, Dragoon and Skinnum,
The Question of Instinct in Flight, Training Messen-
ger Pigeons, The Ponter, The Old English Tumbler,
The German Tumbler, The Common Flying Tumbler, :
The Short-faced Tumbler, The Almond Tumbler,
Training Tumbler, é&e. ,

16, POULTRY. A Practical Guide to the Manage-
ment of Domestic Poultry, describing the different
varieties with full instructions upon Management,
Breeding, and Diseases, with Coloured Frontispiece.
By H. Pirrr Contents: Houses and Runs, Choosing
Stock, Feeding and Management, Nests, Eggs and
Hatching, Chickens, Rearing and Fattening, Diseases
and Varieties, Brahma Pootras, Cochin-chinas, Malays,
Spanish, Dorking, Game, Hamburgh, Polands, Ban-
tams, Aylesbury and Rouen Ducks, dc.

17. DOG AND GUN; or, Hints to Young Sportsmen.
By Captain Fexiowss. Illustrated with Wood En-
gravings.

GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, Paternoster Row, London,