The Hemlock Stork's-Bill.
The other Tare referred to is the Slender Tare (V. tetrasperma), found principally in the South of England. It owes its specific name to the fact that its pods usually contain four seeds. It is more slender and much less branched than the Hairy Tare, and its leaves have generally only from three to five pairs of leaflets. The flowers are pale blue, appearing from June to August, and are generally solitary or in pairs, on peduncles which are about as long as the leaves. The pods are smooth.
The Bird's-Foot Trefoil.
The same genus includes the Tufted Vetch (Vicia Cracca)—a very common plant on hedgerows and bushy waysides, where it climbs over the neighbouring plants and shrubs, covering them with its dense racemes of bluish-purple flowers from June to August. Its climbing stem is very weak, but it often grows to a length of six feet or more, supporting itself by means of the branched tendrils at the tips of its leaves. The leaves are pinnate, with about ten pairs of narrow, pointed, silky leaflets, usually from half an inch to three-quarters in length; and at the base of each leaf-stalk is a pair of narrow, half arrow-shaped stipules. The racemes are one-sided, on rather long stalks, with from ten to thirty flowers, each nearly half an inch long. The pods are smooth, flattened, about an inch long, containing from six to eight seeds.
The Herb Bennet or Geum.
Of the order Rosaceæ we have several summer wayside flowers, our first example being the Common Avens, also called the Wood Avens and the Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum), which is common on banks and hedgerows. This is an erect, hairy plant, from one to two feet high, with yellow flowers, from a half to three-quarters of an inch across, on erect stalks. The numerous carpels ripen into a head of one-seeded achenes, on each of which the persistent style forms a curved, hooked awn that readily clings to the hair or wool of animals, thus providing an effectual means by which the seeds are distributed. A variety of the Common Avens occurs with drooping flowers.
The Dog Rose.