These leaves are slightly thick and juicy. They grow so close together on the ground that it looks as if it were covered with a green mat.
1. COMMON EYEBRIGHT. 2. WHITE DEAD NETTLE.
3. SPOTTED ORCHIS.
1. COMMON EYEBRIGHT
This humble little plant is to be found everywhere on heaths and meadows and pastures. It blooms plentifully in summer and autumn. The flowers of the Eyebright grow in clusters of four to six at the end of the main stem. They are white, or pale lilac streaked with pink, and they are small and unattractive. The petals are joined together into a tube, with two lips at the mouth. The upper lip has two divisions, and the lower lip is cut up into three. They appear to be five unequal petals standing round the mouth of the tube.
Inside the tube are four purple-headed stamens, two long and two short. You can see them appearing at the mouth of the tube, also the slender white point which rises from the seed-vessel.
The calyx is a green cup with four deeply pointed teeth at the mouth. The tube of the flower goes down into the cup, and the five unequal petals stand round its mouth.
The Eyebright stem varies much in height. Sometimes you find it only about two inches from the ground, and in other places it has straggled eighteen inches high. These stems are very hairy.