The Bugle (_Ajuga reptans_, of the order _Labiatæ_), is a very abundant flower in moist woods and pastures, blooming in May and June. It has a short root-stock, generally with creeping runners; and erect, smooth flowering stems from three to twelve inches high. At the base is a tuft of obovate, radical leaves, from one to two inches long, gradually narrowed into the stalk, with wavy margins; and on the stem are shorter leaves, with very short stalks, the upper ones often deeply tinged with blue or purple. The flowers are blue (occasionally pink or white), and are arranged in whorls of from six to ten in the axils of the upper leaves, the whole forming a leafy spike. They have a five-cleft calyx; a corolla with a short, erect, notched, upper lip; and a longer lower lip with three spreading lobes, the middle one of which is broader and notched.
The stamens, of which there are two pairs, project beyond the upper lip of the corolla; and the four nutlets of the fruit are rough and united.
The Yellow Dead Nettle, Weasel-snout, or Archangel (_Galeobdolon lutea_ or _Lamium Galeobdolon_) of the same order is very much like the White Dead Nettle (p. 102) in habit, but is rather more slender, and less branched. It is not a very common plant, but is abundant in certain localities, forming one of the conspicuous flowers of thickets, copses and shady hedgerows during May and June. Its leaves are opposite, stalked, ovate, acute, and coarsely toothed; and the handsome large yellow flowers are in dense whorls of from six to ten in the axils of the upper leaves. The calyx has five short teeth; and the corolla has a short tube, not much longer than the calyx, and two lips, the upper of which is arched, while the lower is spotted with red, and has three lobes.
Our next example, the lovely Primrose (_Primula vulgaris_ or _P. acaulis_--order _Primulaceæ_), which so beautifully bedecks our woods and banks in April and May, is so well known that a description for purposes of identification is quite unnecessary.
There are two distinct forms of the primrose flower, often called the pin-eyed and the thrum-eyed, the two forms growing on different plants. The former has its stamens at a contracted portion of the tube, about half way down, and a style so long that the stigma is visible at the top of the tube. The latter has its stamens at the contracted throat of the tube, while the style is so short that the stigma is half-way down.