The Dogwood.
The second species is the Pale Smooth-leaved Willow Herb (E. roseum), an erect plant, seldom more than two feet high, found principally in the damp copses of the southern counties, flowering in July and August. Its stem is four-angled, two opposite angles being much more prominent than the other two; and its leaves are opposite, with longer stalks, lanceolate or elliptical, pointed, toothed, smooth, usually about two inches long. The flowers are not nearly so numerous as those of the last species, are only a little over a third of an inch in diameter, and in a short, leafy panicle, drooping while in the bud. The calyx is deeply divided into four sepals about a sixth of an inch long; the corolla consists of four notched petals, a little longer than the sepals; the stamens, ovary, fruit, and seeds correspond in number and character with those of the last species; but the stigma is either entire or divided into four very short lobes.
In the same order we have the Enchanter's Nightshade (Circæa lutetiana), distinguished at once from the Willow Herbs by having only two sepals, two petals, and two stamens. It is an erect, hairy plant, from one to two feet high, flowering from June to August. Its stem is slender; and the leaves are opposite, long-stalked, ovate and coarsely toothed. The flowers are very small, white, in terminal, leafless racemes, with deeply-notched petals, and pink stamens. The fruit is a little two-lobed capsule with stiff, hooked hairs.
The Wood Sanicle.
The Cornel or Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), of the order Cornaceæ, is a common shrub in woods and thickets, and is often employed in the making of hedgerows. It grows from five to eight feet high, and flowers during June and July. Its leaves are covered, when young, with fine, silky hairs that lie close on the surface, but these almost entirely disappear later; and towards the end of the summer the leaves assume a deep crimson or purple colour. The flowers are very abundant, of a yellowish white colour, and are arranged in dense cymes, about two inches across, without bracts. The four-toothed calyx and the peduncle are both clothed with a mealy down; and the four petals, about a quarter of an inch long, are narrow and pointed. The fruit is a purple-black, globular, berry-like drupe, containing a stone with one or two seeds.
In very dense woods, where the light is so much reduced that but few flowers will grow, we may generally find the Wood Sanicle (Sanicula europæa), a smooth umbelliferous plant with a short, hard rootstock, and a simple stem from one to two feet high. The leaves, which are all radical, are on long stalks, and are palmately divided into three or five shining lobes that are themselves cut and sharply toothed. The flowers are sessile, in little rounded heads; the whole inflorescence forming an irregular umbel or a loose panicle. They are very minute, of a pinkish white colour; and the outer ones of each head usually have no pistil. They bloom during June and July, and are followed later by little prickly fruits about a sixth of an inch long.
The Alexanders.