On [Plate I], we also represent the Wood Melic Grass (Melica uniflora), a slender, graceful species which may be seen in woods, often in bloom as early as the beginning of May.
[VI]
THE SPRING-FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS OF WOODS, THICKETS, AND HEDGEROWS
Having considered the principal low-growing flowers of the woods, we must now give some attention to the trees and shrubs of the same localities.
This portion of the field-naturalist's work will be found at least as fascinating as the observation of the herbaceous plants, for although the flowers of trees are often small and very inconspicuous, many are really beautiful blossoms, and all present features of more or less interest to the botanist. Moreover, the observations of these flowers will always be coupled with those of the appearance and expansion of the leaves, for while some trees produce their flowers shortly before their leaves, and others after, leaves and flowers often come about the same time, and the period of the year covered by the present chapter—from about March to April or early June—will include the bursting of the leaf-buds and the expansion of the leaves of all our deciduous trees and shrubs. Opportunities should be made at this season to observe not only the parts of the trees just named, but to note all other characters presented by the trees, such as the nature of the trunk and its bark, the mode of branching, the appearance of the young twigs, and the nature of the soil and situation in which each species is found.
Our first example is the Barberry (Berberis vulgaris)—the only British representative of its order (Berberaceæ)—a smooth, pale-green shrub, from four to seven feet high, often seen in woods, thickets, and hedgerows, flowering in May and June. Its branches generally droop at the tips, and have triple spines at the base of each leaf or cluster of leaves. The latter are obovate, sharply toothed or even prickly, and often reduced to a cluster of spines. The flowers are pale yellow, in hanging racemes. Each has several yellow sepals, the outer of which are very small; six petals, in two whorls, with nectaries at their bases; and six stamens. The stamens at first lie on the petals; but they are very sensitive, and when the filaments are touched by an insect as it seeks the nectar at their bases, the stamens immediately spring upward, throwing off their pollen, and often depositing some on the insect's back. It is thus possible that the cross-pollination of the flowers is greatly aided by the insect, especially as it will often happen that the same part of its back which has been touched by the elastic stamen will come in contact with the stigma of another flower.
The Barberry.
The Sycamore, also called the Great Maple and the False Plane (Acer pseudo-platanus—order Aceraceæ), although not really a British tree, has probably found a home here for nearly five centuries. It has been named the False Plane on account of its having been mistaken for, and called, the Plane, which tree it somewhat resembles in the form of the leaf, as well as in the character of the smooth, thin bark that peels off, giving the tree a patchy appearance. It should be noted, however, that the leaves of the Plane are arranged alternately, while those of the Sycamore are in opposite pairs; also that the fruits of the former are in pendulous balls while those of the latter are winged, and generally in two parts.