Part 6

Loosestrife (_Lythrum alatum_) is a tall, slender, native species growing 1 to 3 feet high, angular and branching. The deep-green, lance-shaped leaves are set oppositely on the lower stem and alternately on the upper branches. The flowers appear sparingly from the axils of the leaves near the ends of the branches. This species grows in moist ground from N. S. to Minn. and southward to the Gulf.

MELASTOMA FAMILY (_Melastomaceæ_)

Meadow Beauty (_Rhexia virginica_) is a pretty little plant that always causes a thrill of admiration to pass through us as we come across it in grassy marshes where other flowers are usually few and far between.

It has numerous buds, two or three of which, only, open at a time, lasting but for a short space, the petals then falling off and the calyx and long stamens becoming withered and brownish; these detract greatly from an otherwise very beautiful plant.

Meadow Beauty or “Deer-grass” is a perennial, has a stout stem, quite branching and sharp-pointed, ovate, toothed, three-ribbed leaves, seated oppositely on the stem. The flowers grow on slender peduncles from the angles of the upper leaves; they have four large, rounded, magenta petals, each with a short, sharp point at the tip. The eight stamens are long and slightly unequal, the anthers being exceptionally large and bright golden-yellow. Meadow Beauty is found blooming during July and August in sandy marshes and shores from Me. to Fla. and in the states bordering the Mississippi.

EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY (_Onagraceæ_)

A family of herbs or shrubs with perfect, usually four-parted flowers, four petals, four sepals, four or eight stamens and a two- or four parted stigma.

(A) Great Willow Herb; Fireweed (_Epilobium angustifolium_) springs up in profusion and attains its greatest growth in clearings or recently burned land.

The tall, upright stem is usually simple, but occasionally slightly branched at the top. It attains heights of from 2 to 8 feet.

The flower spike is long; the flowers, blooming from the bottom upward, leave upright, long, slender pods.

The Great Willow Herb is abundant throughout our range in low ground, blooming during July and August.

(B) Hairy Willow Herb (_Epilobium hirsutum_) (European) has become naturalized and is fairly common in waste places and about old dwellings. It is branchy, hairy, has finely toothed, stemless leaves, and four-parted magenta flowers growing from the angles of the upper leaves.

(A) Evening Primrose (_Œnothera biennis_) is an exceedingly common biennial plant, of nocturnal habits, the flowers spreading wide open at dusk and partly or wholly closing the next morning.

The stem is soft-hairy, quite stout, and often very tall, ranging from 1 to 6 feet in height. Both the stem and the leaves are rather coarse in texture. The flowers are seated in the angles of the upper leaves. The four pale lemon-yellow petals are large and rounded, the flower spreading slightly less than two inches.

The lower buds open first, only a few at a time, so that usually we may find seed-pods seated among the leaves just below the flowers and undeveloped buds and leaves above. Primrose blooms in fields and roadsides, everywhere, from July to September.

(B) Sundrops (_Œnothera fruticosa_) a somewhat similar, diurnal species, with a branched stem, grows 1 to 3 feet high. The pale-yellow flowers measure from ½ to 1 inch across; they are in loose, terminal clusters or from the angles of the upper leaves. The leaves are linear-lanceolate, slightly toothed. Common from Me. to Minn. and southward.

GINSENG FAMILY (_Araliaceæ_)

Wild Sarsaparilla (_Aralia nudicaulis_) has a single, large, compound leaf on a long stem from the creeping, fragrant, aromatic root. The flowers are gathered into three, rounded umbels at the top of a long stem that joins the leaf-stem near its base. Common in moist woodland from Newfoundland to Minn. and southward.

Ginseng (_Panax quinquefolium_) is well known as the plant that is collected and cultivated for its thick, fleshy, branching roots. The plant grows from 8 to 18 inches high. Three compound leaves, each consisting of five ovate-pointed, toothed, short-stemmed leaflets, radiate from near the top of the smooth stem. It is found in rich, cold woods from Quebec to Minn., southward.

Dwarf Ginseng (_Panax trifolium_) is a tiny species from 4 to 8 inches high. It has a spherical root, slender stem, three leaves compounded of three leaflets each, and numerous tiny white flowers in an umbel above them. Common in rich woods from N. S. to Minn. and southward.

PARSLEY FAMILY (_Umbeliferæ_)

(A) Water Parsnip (_Sium circutæfolium_) is a stout, branching herb growing in shallow water. The rather weak stem is from 2 to 6 feet high. The alternating, compound leaves are very variable but usually of from seven to fifteen sharply toothed linear or lance-shaped leaflets. Flat, dome-shaped clusters, or umbels, of tiny white flowers terminate the upper branches. This species is very abundant throughout the country.

(B) Wild Carrot; Bird’s Nest; Queen Anne’s Lace (_Daucus Carota_) (European). While to flower lovers this may appear to be the most beautiful species of the family, it is the most heartily detested weed with which the farmer has to contend. It is very prolific, and each individual plant strikes its roots deep into the ground, as though determined to defy extermination. The fully-opened flower clusters have an exquisite, lace-like appearance, while those half-opened are hollowed suggestively like a bird’s nest; in the centre of the cluster is a tiny purple floret, all the others being white.

DOGWOOD FAMILY (_Cornaceæ_)

(A) Flowering Dogwood (_Cornus florida_) is a tall shrub or tree, ranging in height from 7 to 40 feet. The large, handsome flowers, 2 to 4 inches across, are in full bloom before or just as the leaves commence to appear.

The four large notched segments are not petals, but form the involucre and the real flowers are clustered at the centre; they have four tiny greenish-white petals and numerous little stamens. This Dogwood is common in dry woods from Me. to Minn. and south to the Gulf.

(B) Bunchberry; Dwarf Cornel (_Cornus canadensis_) is really a dwarf as compared to the preceding, for it grows only from 4 to 8 inches high.

The stem is leafless except at the top, at which point four to six leaves radiate.

What appears like a single large blossom seated almost within the whorl of leaves is in reality a cluster of tiny, green-petalled, four-parted flowers surrounded by four large greenish-white bracts. It ranges from Labrador to Alaska south to N. J., Ind., and Minn.

HEATH FAMILY (_Ericaceæ_)

(A) Spotted Wintergreen (_Chimaphila maculata_) is a very handsome plant that we often come across in our rambles through rich woodland. The stalk, rising from 3 to 9 inches high, is of a ruddy color; the leaves are thick, smooth, irregularly toothed, lance-shaped, pointed, and with conspicuous whitish streaks following the veins. In July and August it bears one to five nodding flowers on long, erect peduncles above the topmost whorl of leaves. It ranges from Me., Ontario, and Minn. southward to Ga. and Miss.

(B) Pipsissewa; Prince’s Pine (_Chimaphila umbellata_) grows in similar localities and is generally more common than the last. Its leaves are usually in two whorls about the brownish stem; they are bright shining green, toothed, unspotted, pointed, but broadened toward the end. The flowers are similar to the last and are in a loose 2- to 8-flowered umbel. The style is very short, with a five-parted gummy stigma. This species is found from N. S. to Ga. and westward.

(A) Shin-leaf (_Pyrola elliptica_) is the most common of the Pyrolas. The evergreen leaves are bright green, obscurely toothed, broadly elliptical and narrowing into long stems that clasp at the base. During May a long, smooth scape springs from the middle of the group of basal leaves to a height of 5 to 10 inches, bearing near its top a raceme of several flowers. It is common throughout the United States and southern Canada.

(B) One-flowered Pyrola (_Moneses uniflora_) externally closely resembles the preceding species. The flower scape is from 2 to 5 inches high, and at the summit bears, during June or July, a single nodding flower. It ranges from Labrador to Alaska and south to Pa. and Minn.

(C) Indian Pipe; Corpse Plant (_Monotropa uniflora_) is a very peculiar, ghostly appearing plant found commonly in dimly lighted rich woods. It has no green foliage, just white bract-like appendages on its upright, white, cold, clammy stem. A single white flower nods from the top. It is parasitic, drawing its nourishment from living roots or decaying vegetable matter. Common throughout our range.

Swamp Honeysuckle; White Azalea (_Rhododendron viscosum_) is a most beautiful swamp shrub with handsome, fragrant, white flowers. In low, wet swamps it is very common and blooms very profusely during June and July. The bush is from 3 to 8 feet in height and very branchy. The leaves are long-oval, broadest toward the blunt-pointed tip and narrowing to short stems.

The beautiful flowers are pure white, or rarely tinged with pink; the tube of the long corolla is covered with very sticky brownish hairs, and terminates in five, large-pointed spreading lobes. The stamens are very long, slender, and white, and tipped with yellow anthers. The five-pointed calyx is very small and inconspicuous.

During the early time of their bloom all the Azaleas bear hanging among the fragrant flowers, peculiar, juicy, pulpy growths that are edible, as any well-bred farmer’s boy knows; he calls them May or Swamp Apples, but they are really modified buds and not fungous growths or caused by insects, as was formerly believed. These beautiful Azaleas are found from Me. to Ohio and southward.

(A) Pink Azalea; Pinxter Flower; Wild Honeysuckle (_Rhododendron nudiflorum_) is one of our most interesting wild shrubs, interesting because the flowers bloom before the leaves appear, or just as they commence to grow, and because of the very beautiful colors its pink flowers impart to our swamps during April and early May. The flowers are practically the same in form as the white varieties, except that the corolla tube is shorter.

Pink Azalea grows in open woods or swamps from Me. to Ill. and southward.

(B) Rhodora (_Rhododendron canadense_) is a beautiful member of this family, immortalized in verse by Emerson. It is a smaller shrub, growing from 1 to 3 feet high. The flowers usually appear before the pale-green, oblong leaves; the corolla is about one inch long, light magenta, and two-lipped. The upper lip is three-lobed and the lower is nearly divided into two distinct linear petals. They grow in thin clusters terminating the branches. Rhodora is found on damp hillsides and in swamps from Newfoundland to Quebec and south to N. J. and Pa., flowering during May and June.

American Rhododendron; Great Laurel (_Rhododendron maximum_) is a large, tall, and very ornamental shrub growing from 5 to 35 feet high. It is one of the most characteristic shrubs of the Alleghany Mountain region, where it grows in such profusion as to form almost impenetrable thickets. As it is a very hardy shrub and not injured by transplanting, it is very often used for decorative effects in parks and about private dwellings.

The oblong leaves are deep, glossy green, tough and leathery in texture, and have a smooth, slightly rolled-under edge. They droop in the winter season but are widespread in summer.

At the ends of the numerous branches, during June and July, are showy clusters of pink or white flowers. Each blossom spreads nearly two inches and is composed of five broad, blunt-ended petals of a pink-white color spotted with golden-orange. They have ten spreading stamens and a small pistil.

Rhododendron is found in rich, hilly, or mountainous woods, commonly from Pa. to Ga. but rarely northward to Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Mountain Laurel; Spoon-wood (_Kalmia latifolia_) is one of the most popular of our beautiful flowering shrubs. In the North it grows from 3 to 8 feet in height, but in the Southern States it often attains heights of 20 to 30 feet.

The leaves are dark, glossy green, pointed at each end and oblong in shape; they are arranged alternately along the branches and in dense terminal clusters. The flowers are very peculiar in their construction, the corolla being deep saucer- or bowl-shaped, with five short, broad lobes; on the outside, around the bottom edge of the “bowl,” are ten small humps, that inside the corolla form little pockets to receive the anthers of the slender white stamens, curving from the centre of the blossom like the spokes of a wheel.

Both moths and bees visit these flowers in quest of the little supply of nectar that is secreted about the base of the greenish pistil. The flower stems are sticky so that only winged insects can get to the interior. Laurel is common from N. B. to Ont. and southward.

Sheep Laurel; Lambkill (_Kalmia angustifolia_) is a small, shrubby species, ranging from 8 to 36 inches high. Besides the common names given above, it is less often known as “Sheep Poison” and “Wicky,” a rather sinister lot of names to be applied to a shrub with such handsome flowers.

All of the Laurels have dangerous properties, the juices of the leaves being very poisonous. It is also claimed that honey made by bees feeding on the nectar from Laurel blossoms is also poisonous. This species gets its many names, referring to its destructive effects on sheep, because it grows in abundance in pastures suitable only for the pasturage of sheep. The leaves of this small Laurel look tempting but are often very fatal to the animals eating them.

Their shapes, forms, and mechanisms are about like those of the Mountain Laurel, but the color is a beautiful, deep pink; little red anthers fit snugly in the ten little pockets formed for them in the surface of the corolla. Sheep Laurel is common from Lab. to Ont. and southward, blooming in June and July.

(A) Wintergreen; Checkerberry (_Gaultheria procumbens_). I doubt if there is a country boy or girl within the range of this plant, and it extends from Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward to the Gulf, who is not perfectly familiar with it.

The leaves are all clustered at the top of the ruddy stem that grows from 2 to 5 inches high; those of adult plants are deep, shining green, ovate-pointed, and very sparingly toothed. Usually two white tubular, 5-notched flowers hang on slender peduncles, just beneath the spreading leaves, during July and August.

(B) Trailing Arbutus; Mayflower (_Epigæa repens_). Arbutus is a creeping plant; the stems are tough, hairy, and branched; they spread out along the ground for 6 to 15 inches from the root. The evergreen, alternating leaves are tough, oval, slightly heart-shaped at the base, net-veined and toothless. The flowers are in terminal clusters, opening in April and May. They are five-parted, delicate pink, and have a fragrance similar to that of the Water Lily. Arbutus grows throughout the eastern half of our continent on shady, rocky hillsides.

(A) Labrador Tea (_Ledum grœnlandicum_) is an erect shrub growing from 1 to 3 feet high. It is not uncommon in suitable places in the eastern half of Canada, and is found rarely in mountains south to Conn., Pa., and Minn.; its habitat is in bogs or damp thickets. The narrowly oblong leaves are green above, have the edges rolled back, and are covered beneath with a rusty wool.

DIAPENSIA FAMILY (_Diapensiaceæ_)

(B) Pyxie; Flowering Moss (_Pyxidanthera barbulata_). Pyxie is a very attractive moss-like shrub found commonly growing in the pine barrens of the Southeastern States, from N. J. to N. C. The branches are prostrate and creep along the ground for 6 to 10 inches from the roots.

Each branch is very thickly set with tiny, stiff, lance-shaped leaves less than half an inch in length. The numerous tiny white or pink flowers are seated on the stem, growing from the angles of the leaves; they have five broad-ended petals and attached between each of them is a curious, short, stout stamen.

LEADWORT FAMILY (_Plumbaginaceæ_)

Seaside plants with perfect, regular flowers in one-sided racemes or spikes; five-parted and with plaited calyx.

Marsh Rosemary; Sea Lavender (_Limonium carolinianum_) is a very characteristic plant of the seashore; it is found very commonly in salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador to Florida, and along the Gulf of Texas.

The plant has a thick, woody, very astringent root, from which grows a single naked stalk. This stem divides into numerous branches and branchlets, all destitute of leaves and spreading out so that the appearance of the whole plant is that of a very diminutive tree. The leaves all radiate from the root at the base of the flower stalk; they are spatulate-shaped, thick, almost smooth-edged, and are on long stems.

At the end of each branchlet is a slender one-sided raceme of tiny buds. From July until September these open out into tiny lavender flowers with five tiny petals, each coming from a five-toothed, ribbed calyx.

PRIMROSE FAMILY _Primulaceæ_

(A) Yellow Loosestrife (_Lysimachia terrestris_). Yellow Loosestrife has a tall, slender, simple stem from 8 to 24 inches high. The leaves are pointed-lanceolate, stemless, and crowded along the stem, either oppositely or alternately. The flower spike is long and contains many buds on slender pedicels; they open from the bottom of the spike upward. Each flower has five-pointed golden-yellow petals, each with two small reddish-brown spots near the base; the stamens and pistil project in a cone-like cluster. This Loosestrife is abundant from Newfoundland to Hudson Bay and southward.

(B) Four-leaved Loosestrife (_Lysimachia quadrifolia_) is a very common species found in low land in about the same range. The flowers are very similar but each petal has a single large spot of reddish-brown at its base instead of a double one; the flowers appear from the axils of the upper leaves. The pointed, lanceolate leaves are whorled about the stem usually in groups of fours, occasionally more or less.

(A) Shooting Star; American Cowslip (_Dodecatheon Meadia_) is a western species that grows in open woodlands and on prairies from Pa. to Md. to Manitoba and southward through the Mississippi Valley.

The leaves are all in a tuft radiating from the base; they are oblong, bluntly pointed, and taper into trough-like stems. From the centre of this cluster of leaves rises a bare flower stalk, 8 to 20 inches tall, branching at the summit into several slender, curving peduncles, each supporting a single nodding flower.

The stamens project from the throat of the flower, the five golden anthers forming a conspicuous cone. Shooting Star blooms in April and May.

(B) Moneywort; Myrtle (_Lysimachia Nummularia_) (European) is a very dainty and beautiful trailing or creeping vine, often spreading over large surfaces of ground. It is a most beautiful plant for rockeries and does well in the house in hanging pots. The leaves, that grow oppositely all along the stem, are almost round; it is from their shape and the fact that they are about the size of the English twopence that they originally received the name of Moneywort.

Fringed Loosestrife (_Steironema ciliatum_). Fringed Loosestrife is a very branching herb not at all like the other varieties. The smooth stem rises to heights of from 12 to 24 inches. The species receives its specific name Fringed (_ciliatum_) because of the fine hairs on the upper side of the leaf stems, the rest of the plant being smooth.

The smooth light-green leaves are lance-shaped and pointed on short petioles or stems growing oppositely on the plant stem. The flowers grow on slender pedicles from the axils of the terminal leaves; the golden-yellow corolla is divided into five ovate lobes, each terminating in a sharp, twisted, or mucronate point; round the centre of the corolla is a reddish-brown ring, formed by the small spots at the bases of the five lobes. The pale-green pistil in the centre is surrounded by ten stamens, five being fertile and the other alternating ones being abortive.

Fringed Loosestrife is common in low ground and thickets from Newfoundland to British Columbia southward to the Gulf of Mexico.

(A) Star Flower (_Trientalis americana_) is a very dainty little plant often called the “Star Anemone.”

The perennial rootstalk is long and horizontal and throws up a single, smooth, slender stalk from 3 to 9 inches high; at the top of this stalk is a whorl of from five to ten thin, smooth, veiny light-green leaves; they are lance-shaped and sharply pointed. During May and June a solitary blossom (rarely two) appears above the whorl of leaves on a very slender pedicel. The delicate white petals are sharply pointed and range from six to eight in number. The Star Flower is found in thin woodland from Labrador to Manitoba and south to Va., Ill., and Minn.

(B) Pimpernel; Poor Man’s Weather-glass (_Anagallis arvensis_) (European) is a flower readily identified; in the first place there are very few red flowers to be found and no others with the shade of red of this one, a salmon or coppery-red. The square stem is smooth, slender, and rather weak, often lying prostrate on the ground. It is found in waste, sandy places especially near the coast.

LOGANIA FAMILY (_Loganiaceæ_)

(A) Yellow False Jessamine (_Gelsemium sempervirens_). This beautiful vine is very common in the Southern States where it may be found climbing the trunks of trees, trailing over bushes, or even creeping over the ground. During March and April large, handsome yellow flowers appear in one-sided spikes. The blossoms are tubular-funnel form and range from 1 to 2 inches in length.

The ovate-pointed leaves, that grow oppositely on short petioles, are evergreen; the short flower spikes grow from their axils. The stem is smooth, woody, and twining. This species ranges from Va. to Fla. and Texas.

(B) Indian Pink; Pink-root (_Spigelia marilandica_) is an erect herb found in rich woods from Ohio and Ky. to Fla. and Texas. It is a perennial with a simple stem rising from 1 to 2 feet high. The flowers grow in a short, one-sided spike; the corolla is tubular-funnel form, five-lobed at the end, and about 1 or 2 inches in length.

GENTIAN FAMILY (_Gentianaceæ_)

(A) Rose Pink (_Sabatia angularis_) is the most widely distributed of the Sabbatias. Whereas the rest of the tribe are confined in a range very close to the seacoast, this species is commonly found in rich ground in all the states from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic. Its period of bloom is during July and August.

The ovate-lanceolate leaves are stemless and seated oppositely on the stem. The branches usually divide near their ends, each division bearing a beautiful flower about an inch across. At the centre of the five-parted, pink corolla is a yellow-green star, a feature that is quite characteristic with members of this family.