Part 3

Round-leaved Orchis (_H. orbiculata_) is similar to Hookeri; the lip is oblong, obtuse, and about the same length as the spur. The two basal leaves are almost round. It is common in rich woods from Labrador to Alaska and southward.

(A) Ragged-fringed Orchis (_Habenaria lacera_) does not attract our attention because of its beauty, for its flowers are rather inconspicuous in color. They are, however, remarkable for the peculiarly cut and slashed lip, it being divided apparently with no regard for method or symmetry. The greenish-white flowers are in a dense many-flowered raceme at the summit of a leafy stem from 10 to 20 inches high. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, diminishing in size to the flower bracts as they reach the raceme. This species is not uncommon in swamps from Newfoundland to Minn. and southward.

(B) White-fringed Orchis (_H. blephariglottis_) has a densely flowered raceme or spike similar to that of the yellow-fringed species, but the flowers are pure white; the lip is not divided but is copiously fringed; lateral sepals rounded, upper ones elliptical and concave; spur nearly an inch long. Leaves lanceolate and gradually diminishing in size as they alternate to the top of the stem. In July and August you may find this species flowering throughout the United States.

(A) Large Purple-fringed Orchis (_Habenaria fimbriata_) is the largest and perhaps the most beautiful of the genus. The pale purple flowers are nearly twice as large as those of the last species; the lip is more deeply fringed. The densely flowered spike is about two inches in diameter and often is twelve inches long. The leafy stem attains heights of from 1 to 5 feet. It is a magnificent plant, the sight of which is well worth the inconveniences necessary to visit its haunts. It grows in swamps throughout the U. S. and southern Canada.

(B) Small Purple-fringed Orchis (_H. psycodes_) has pale purplish flowers in a dense cylindrical spike terminating in a leafy stem, about 1 or 1½ feet tall. The spreading flower-tip is 3-parted and fringed; sepals rounded, petals spatulate and slightly toothed. The leaves are lanceolate and, like those of the fringed orchids, grow smaller as they approach the top of the stem. Flowers in July and August in wet meadows or swamps, from Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward.

(A) Calopogon; Grass Pink (_Calopogon pulchellus_) is an exquisite orchid with a loose raceme of four to twelve delicate pink flowers at the top of a scrape ranging from 6 to 15 in. long. The flowers are apparently upside down as the lip is at the top; it is narrow at the base but broadens into a broad hooked tip, crested on the underside. A single grass-like leaf sheathes the flower scape near its base, as it rises from the solid bulb. It grows in deep swamps and bogs, from Newfoundland to Minn. and south to the Gulf, flowering in June and July.

(B) Arethusa; Indian Pink (_Arethusa bulbosa_) has a solitary magenta-pink blossom topping its slender scape that rises from 5 to 10 in. in height. The petals and sepals are similar in shape and in their proper positions at the top of the flower; the lip rises, then abruptly turns downward, broadens and is adorned with three to five yellow and white crests; margin of lip wavy and sometimes spotted with crimson. From Newfoundland to Minn. and south to Pa. and Mo., Arethusa has been found blooming in swamps during May and June.

(A) Pogonia; Snake-mouth (_Pogonia ophioglossoides_). Snake-mouth is delicate, pure pink in color, and slightly fragrant. Its pollen is not in stemmed masses but is showered on the back of a visiting insect as he backs out of the flower. The stem is from 8 to 13 inches high, bearing at its top a single flower; sepals and petals are similar in shape; the lip is spatulate, prominently crested with yellow and white, and toothed and lacerated. About midway of the flower stem is a single oval leaf and just below the flower is a smaller bract-like one. Pogonia grows in swamps from Newfoundland to Minn. and southward to the Gulf of Mexico, flowering during June and July.

(B) Nodding Pogonia (_P. trianthophora_) has a leafy stem from 2 to 8 inches high. From two to eight small oval leaves alternately clasp the stem; the flowers, which number from one to six, appear singly from the axils of the upper leaves, nodding on slender peduncles; they are small, magenta-pink, and with ovate, three-lobed lips. It is locally distributed from Me. to Wisc. and southward.

(A) Whorled Pogonia (_Pogonia verticillata_) has a single flower on a long stem, 8 to 12 in. high; the sepals are greenish-yellow, long, linear, with the edges rolled or folded together; the petals are oblong-lanceolate and purple; the lip is also purple, wedge-shaped, three-lobed and with a hairy crest, down the middle. Five lanceolate and stemless leaves are in a whorl about the stem just below the flower. It is a peculiar, inconspicuous plant found locally in moist woods from Me. to Wisc. and southward.

(B) Showy Orchis (_Orchis spectabilis_) is a charming early-blooming orchid found in flower from April to June in moist woods, often under hemlock trees. Two broad, ovate, deeply ribbed, beautiful leaves sheath the flower scape at its base. The four to twelve flowers are loosely racemed at the top of the scape which is from 5 to 10 in. high. The magenta-pink petals and sepals are united to form a hood; the lip, curving abruptly downward, is broadly ovate and white; each flower has a short spur and is bracted. This species is found throughout the U.S.

(A) Rattlesnake Plantain (_Epipactis pubescens_) is a common orchid having beautiful leaves, radiating from the fleshy, creeping rootstalk. The scape is 6 to 15 in. high and carries at its top densely flowered sepals and petals united to form a hood. It is found in the whole of the U. S., flowering in July and August.

(B) Ladies Tresses (_Spiranthes cernua_) is so named because of the braided arrangement of its flowers. The leaves are few, grass-like, sheathing the scape near its base. The scape is 6 to 15 in. high, has several small bracts, and ends in a 2- or 3-ranked spiral raceme of white or creamy flowers; petals and upper sepal joined, lateral sepals lanceolate; lip ovate-oblong with a rough tip. Common in moist fields or woods from Me. to Minn. and southward.

Slender Ladies Tresses (_S. gracilis_) is slender, has its flowers in a single-ranked 1-sided or slightly twisted raceme; lip green, with a white wrinkled margin. Leaves small, ovate basal. Found in dry ground from N. S. to Manitoba and southward.

(A) Heart-leaved Twayblade (_Listera cordata_) belongs to a genus containing five species.

Like most of the orchids, they are largely or wholly dependent upon insect aid for fertilization. The weight or shock of an alighting insect on the broad lip causes a small gland within the flower to rupture and cover the pollen, just below, with a sticky fluid that causes it to adhere to the head or body of the insect and thus be transferred to the next flower.

The stem of this species is from 3 to 10 in. high. At the top is a few-flowered raceme; the sepals and petals are similar and spreading; the lip is drooping, longer, two-cleft and madder-purple in color. This species flowers during June and July in swampy woods from N. J. to Colo. and northward to the Arctic coast.

(B) Twayblade (_Liparis lilifolia_) although having the same common name, is of a different genus. It is a more attractive plant, having two broad basal leaves and larger flowers with a broad ovate lip. It grows in woodland from Me. to Minn. and southward.

BIRTHWORT FAMILY (_Aristolochiaceæ_)

A small family of low herbs or twining vines, with but two genera and few species.

Wild Ginger (_Asarum canadense_) may be found flowering in rich woods during April and May, from Me. to Mich. and southward. It has two large, heart-shaped leaves on long petioles from the base; deep green above and lighter below, soft, wooly, and handsomely veined.

The leaves are very beautiful, but it is the solitary flower that makes this plant so interesting. Small, dully colored, on a weak, short stem that barely raises it above ground and often leaves it concealed by the dead leaves that carpet the woods in early spring.

The flower is bell-shaped, with three short, sharply-pointed spreading lobes; six stamens with short anthers and a thick style with six radiating stigmas. Another species (_grandiflorum_), found in Va. and N. C., has but one leaf and flowers twice as large, or two inches in length.

Pipe Vine; Dutchman’s Pipe (_Aristolochia macrophylla_). The Dutchman’s Pipe is chiefly a southern plant or vine, being found from Pa. and Minn. southward. It has a woody, climbing stem that may attain lengths of from 10 to 40 feet. The very large, deep-green, veiny leaves that alternate along the stem are very beautiful. In the dull, greenish-yellow flowers, however, lies the chief interest of the botanist. Its stigma matures and withers away before the ripening of the pollen, thus making the plant dependent upon insects for its perpetuation.

The throat is filled with tiny hairs, all pointing inward, so ingress is easy but egress impossible. Entering insects are held prisoners, living upon the nectar, until the stigma withers and pollen ripens; after this the hairs in the throat lose their rigidity and the pollen-dusted and well-fed prisoners are allowed to escape. Their memories are poor or the pollen feast is well worth the imprisonment, for they usually immediately hie to another blossom and force their way in, of course pollenizing the flower in so doing.

BUCKWHEAT FAMILY (_Polygonaceæ_)

This family is divided into seven genera and many of these are further divided. They are all inconspicuous in flower. The genus Rumex, to which our common Sorrels belong, contain seventeen species: that of Polygonum, which contains the Knot-weeds, has 32 species included in its six sub-genera.

(A) Lady’s Thumb; Persicaria; Knotgrass (_Polygonum persicaria_) (European). This is a very common weed everywhere in damp places, especially about farmhouses. The small, crimson-pink flowers are in dense spikes terminating the branching stems that are from 1 to 3 feet high. The lanceolate pointed leaves, that alternate along the angled and sheathed stem, are rather rough and usually have a dark triangular spot in the middle.

(B) Common Smartweed; Water Pepper (_P. hydropiper_) has similar shaped flowers of a greenish color. The leaves are lanceolate and very acrid. It is very abundant in wet places throughout our range.

PINK FAMILY (_Caryophyllaceæ_)

(A) Common Chickweed (_Stellaria media_) (European). Although this is an introduced weed, so hardy and prolific is it that probably it now exceeds in numbers any of our indigenous plants. It grows profusely about dooryards and along roadsides everywhere. The corolla consists of five white, very deeply cleft petals, and the calyx of the same number of larger and longer green sepals. The leaves are ovate, small, opposite, on small stems about the length of the leaves. The plant stem is either simple or branched and ranges from 2 to 10 in. in height.

(B) Long-leaved Stitchwort (_S. longifolia_) has larger flowers than the last, but the petals are very narrow and so deeply cleft as to appear to be ten in number instead of five. The sepals are nearly but not quite as long as the petals. The stem is weak and usually supported by surrounding grasses or vegetation. The leaves are small, linear, and pointed at both ends. Common everywhere in wet places.

(A) Corn Cockle (_Agrostemma githago_) (European). The Corn Cockle is very closely related to the Campions (genus Lychnis). It is an annual with an erect and rather downy stem; it branches but slightly, each branch being terminated by one or two large handsome magenta flowers with an expanse of one to two inches. The calyx is densely hairy, as are also the lanceolate leaves that grow oppositely on the stem. We find it as an escape from gardens or in waste places near grain fields.

(B) Ragged Robin (_Lychnis Flos-cuculi_) (European). This species, which is also known as Meadow Lychnis, is noteworthy because of the slashed appearance of its five crimson petals. The flower calyx is deeply ribbed and is of a brownish-purple color, as is also the upper part of the flower stem; both are sticky and hairy. It is sometimes found in waste land or moist places where it has escaped from cultivation.

(A) Bladder Campion (_Silene latifolia_) (European). We have several Campions, some natives and some introduced. The present species was brought to us from Europe. It has very unusual blossoms, in that the calyx is very inflated, almost globular and handsomely marked with darker green, so as to often give it a very similar appearance to that of the citron melon. The five white petals are cleft in twain for nearly their whole length.

It is a common escape from gardens and may be found blooming from June to August along roads or in dry waste places from Quebec to Minn. and south to Va. and Mo.

(B) Evening Lychnis; White Campion (_Lychnis alba_) (European). This is another attractive species introduced from Europe. The petals are white, deeply cleft, and crowned at the base with little petal-like divisions; the calyx is inflated and often deep pink on the ribs. The leaves are smooth edged and oppositely on the stem that grows from one to two feet high. Escaped from gardens, from Me. to N. J. and west to Ohio.

Bouncing Bet (_Saponaria officinalis_) (European). This is probably the most hardy and the most widely distributed of our adventive members of the Pink family. It increases very rapidly by means of underground runners as well as by seed. It is very commonly known as “Soapwort,” because of the fact that the mucilaginous juice from the crushed leaves will form a lather if they are shaken in water; it is said that it was, in olden days, used for washing purposes.

The plant stem is quite stout, smooth, erect, and sparingly or not at all branched. At the top is a corymbed or flat-topped cluster containing many flowers; petals, notched or sometimes quite deeply cleft, and with an appendage at the top of the long claws that, bent at right angles, enter the long, tubular, veined, greenish, 5-notched calyx.

From July until September Soapwort blooms profusely in waste places along railroad beds and beside dusty roads where few other flowers are able to flourish. It was one of the first of foreign flowers to be introduced into this country.

(A) Maiden Pink (_Dianthus deltoides_) (European). A handsome rose-colored Pink that has become naturalized along the Atlantic Coast and is quite abundant in some localities, in fields and waste places. The flowers grow singly, or in pairs, at the ends of the branching stem; the petals are broad, wedge-shaped, and finely toothed.

(B) Fire Pink; Catchfly (_Silene virginica_) is one of our most brilliantly colored wild flowers, the petals being either deep crimson or scarlet; the five petals are oblong, 2-cleft, long-limbed, and five in number. The lower leaves are thin and spatulate, the upper ones oblong-lanceolate. Both stem, leaves, and calyx are rather hairy. This species is found in open woods from southern N. J., western N. Y., and Mich. southward.

Wild Pink (_Silene pennsylvanica_) is another beautiful native species, with bright pink flowers and a low, sticky stem; the upper leaves are small, and the numerous basal ones lance-shaped. It is rather common from Me. to N. Y. and southward.

PURSLANE FAMILY (_Portulacaceæ_)

(A) Spring Beauty (_Claytonia virginica_), although very delicate in appearance, is among our earliest flowering plants.

The weak stem is usually very crooked and is often prostrate on the ground; two linear-lanceolate leaves clasp it oppositely about halfway up. The opened flowers, somewhat less than an inch across, have five petals, two sepals, and five golden stamens that mature before the stigma. It is found in moist woods from Me. to Mich. and south to the Gulf.

(B) Purslane (_Portulaca oleracea_) (European) has a prostrate, juicy stem and thick, fleshy leaves; the latter are wedge-shaped with rounded ends. The stem is very branching and spreads or radiates from the root. The flowers are tiny, solitary, and yellowish, seated in the whorls of leaves that terminate the branches. Found in waste places anywhere and possibly indigenous in the Southwest.

WATER LILY FAMILY (_Nymphæceæ_)

(A) Cow Lily; Yellow Pond Lily (_Nymphæa advena_) is not unattractive and is interesting in its makeup. The leaves are thick, rough, ovate, slit or lobed to the stem, which is long and hollow. The flower is raised above the surface of the water on a long, hollow stem. What appear to be six large green and yellow petals are in reality sepals; the real petals are numerous, stamen-like, inserted with the very numerous stamens under the golden-yellow rayed disk that forms the stigma. Very common in still or stagnant water.

(B) Water Lily; Water Nymph (_Castalia odorata_) needs no introduction to our readers. To my mind, it leads all other flowers in beauty, grace, purity, and fragrance. It is composed of four sepals, greenish on the outside and whitish within, and numerous pure, waxy-white petals. They sometimes are gigantic in size, often spreading five or six inches across. It flowers from June to Sept. in ponds or slow-moving water.

RANUNCULUS FAMILY (_Ranunculaceæ_)

(A) Water Plantain (_Ranunculus laxicaulis_) is a rather common marsh-inhabiting Buttercup, with five to seven narrow yellow petals. The stem is stout but rather weak and angled, at each joint sending out a clasping lanceolate, almost toothless leaf. The flowers, which are about ¾ in. broad, are on long peduncles terminating the branching stem that rises from 1 to 2½ feet. It is found in bogs, ditches, and muddy places from Me. to Minn. and south to the Gulf.

(B) Marsh Marigold (_Caltha palustris_) is the very common marsh herb usually, but erroneously, called “Cowslip.” Its leaves are very commonly used and marketed for food. The flowers are perfect, have no petals but from five to nine (usually the former) golden-yellow, shining sepals, and numerous brighter stamens. The stems are hollow and furrowed. The leaves are round, kidney-shaped, usually with scalloped edges. Marsh Marigold is abundant in swamps or wet meadows from Newfoundland to Alaska and southward through the United States, flowering in April and May.

(A) Creeping Buttercup (_Ranunculus repens_) is, as per its name, a creeping plant. The stem is prostrate, creeping along the ground and striking new roots from the junctions of the leaf and flower stems with the main one. The flowers are large and broad-petalled, both the petals and stamens being a deep shining golden yellow. This species is indigenous in the West, but probably introduced from Europe in the East, where it is found chiefly near the coast, in ditches or along the edges of marshes.

(B) Common Buttercup; Crowfoot (_R. acris_) (European). Even though we have quantities of native Buttercups, it is this handsome foreigner that is the most abundant; this is the species that is found in fields everywhere, the one that delights the little folks and figures in many of their childish games.

The leaves and stem of the Crowfoots are very acrid, but not poisonous; on this account they are shunned by cattle and horses. This accounts in part for their abundance in most fields and pastures.

(A) Tall Meadow Rue (_Thalictrum polygamum_) is one of the characteristic plants of swamps and edges of streams. Should its neighboring plants be three or four feet high, we find the plume-like flowers of this species triumphantly waving above them on stems of five, six, or even seven feet tall.

The stalk is rather stout and grooved, pale-green, stained with maroon. The long-stemmed leaves are many times compounded into small, lobed leaflets of a pale, dull, blue-green color. The flowers are in feathery clusters; each individual flower having numerous white filaments, no petals, but usually four or five early-falling sepals.

From June to September we may find the mist-like flowers of Meadow Rue in swamps, from Labrador to Manitoba and south through the United States.

(B) Pasque Flower (_Anemone patens_) has a solitary erect flower with five to seven purplish sepals. Leaves divided and cut into narrow, acute lobes. Both stem and leaves covered with silky hairs. This species is found on prairies from Wis. and Montana southward.

(A) Wood Anemone; Wind Flower (_Anemone quinquefolia_). The stem is slender and from 4 to 8 in. high. Three leaves radiate from a point about two thirds up; each on a long stem and divided into three to five, toothed, ovate leaflets, The solitary flower rises on a slender peduncle from the junction of these three leaves with the stem proper. It has four to seven sepals, most often five; white inside and purplish white on their outer surface. The flower has an expanse of slightly less than one inch, but is rarely seen fully expanded. The Wind Flower is common in woods or thickets from Nova Scotia to the Rockies and southward.

(B) Rue Anemone (_Anemonella thalictroides_) has four to nine sepals (usually six), numerous orange-tipped stamens and a broad stigma. There are several flowers on exceedingly slender peduncles, rising from the whorl of leaves. The latter are on slender stems, have heart-shaped bases and three-lobed ends; rather small, pale-green above and with a whitish bloom below. It is found in the same localities and the same range as the last species, with which it associates.

(A) Purple Virgin’s Bower (_Clematis verticillaris_) is probably the most rare species of Clematis. It grows in rocky, hilly, or mountainous woods, most abundantly in northern portions of its range, which is from Quebec to Hudson Bay and south locally to Del. and Pa. It is a climbing woody vine, supporting itself by the bending or clasping of the leaf stalks. The flowers grow singly, on long stems from the axils of the leaves or from the end of the vine. They are large and handsome, the four thin, purple, pointed, translucent sepals spreading from two to four inches when fully expanded. The leaves are divided into three leaflets, ovate, pointed, with a heart-shaped base.

(B) Virgin’s Bower (_Clematis virginiana_) is a beautiful, graceful, climbing, twining vine found throughout our range. The small greenish-white flowers, with four or five petals, grow in clusters from the leaf axils; staminate and pistillate ones are on separate plants. In fall, the beautiful silky plumes of the seed pods gives this species the name of “Old Man’s Beard.”

(A) Wild Columbine (_Aquilegia canadensis_) is one of our typical, early woodland plants, graceful in form and beautiful in flower. It grows in rocky woodland throughout our range, flowering from April to June.

The stem is very slender, wiry, and graceful, quite branching, and attaining heights of one to two feet. The flowers are heavy, which causes them to nod from their slender, thread-like peduncles. A quantity of nectar is secreted in the base of each red spur, serving to attract butterflies, moths, and often the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, for those birds are very partial to red colors.