Page:Wayside and Woodland Blossoms.djvu/63

Rh the spike after the anthers have passed their prime; at an earlier period these stand out well from the glumes, and give a very light appearance to the spike. There are three other native species, but they are all more or less local. The Sweet Vernal-grass is singular among grasses in the fact that it possesses but two stamens. The panicle is spike-like, with short branches. The spikelets are one-flowered. The outer glumes are four in number, one flowering glume, a pale, but no lodicules. In the Linnæan system plants were classified according to the number of their stamens and pistils, and the artificiality of it was strikingly shown when this plant had to be widely separated from all other grasses, because it was one stamen short, though agreeing with them in all other essentials. The species is abundant in most meadows, and were it absent one of the charms of the hay harvest would be gone also; for this is the grass that gives the characteristic odour to ripe new-mown hay. It flowers in May and June. The name is from two Greek words, signifying yellow blossoms.

Our artist has chosen to delineate a specimen of this striking plant that has passed its prime in a flowering sense. To our mind the Viper's Bugloss is prettiest when only one or two flowers are open on each cyme. The recurved cymes are then very short, and the unopened flowers packed closely together. As in Lungwort (p. ), the unopened corollas are purplish-red in colour, when opened bright blue. After flowering, the cymes lengthen until they are as long as shown in our illustration. The parts of the flower, it will be seen, are in fives: calyx five-parted, tubular corolla with five-lobed "limb," as the free portion is called, stamens five, stigma two-lobed. The lobes of the corolla are unequal, and one of the stamens is shorter than the other four, which protrude from the corolla considerably; in fact, they serve as a platform upon which