Part 10

The partridge-pea is closely related to the wild senna, and a pretty, delicate plant it is, with graceful foliage, and flowers in late summer which surprise us with their size, abounding in gravelly, sandy places where little else will flourish, brightening the railway embankments and the road’s edge. It is at home all over the country south of Massachusetts and east of the Rocky Mountains, but it grows with a greater vigor and luxuriance in the south than elsewhere. The leaves can hardly be called sensitive to the touch, yet when a branch is snapped from the parent-stem or is much handled, the delicate leaflets will droop and fold, displaying their curious mechanism.

COMMON ST. JOHN’S-WORT. _Hypericum perforatum._ St. John’s-wort Family.

_Stem._—Much branched. _Leaves._—Small, opposite, somewhat oblong, with pellucid dots. _Flowers._—Yellow, numerous, in leafy clusters. _Calyx._—Of five sepals. _Corolla._—Of five bright yellow petals, somewhat spotted with black. _Stamens._—Indefinite in number. _Pistil._—One, with three spreading styles.

“Too well known as a pernicious weed which it is difficult to extirpate,” is the scornful notice which the botany gives to this plant whose bright yellow flowers are noticeable in waste fields and along roadsides nearly all summer. Its rank, rapid growth proves very exhausting to the soil, and every New England farmer wishes it had remained where it rightfully belongs—on the other side of the water.

Perhaps more superstitions have clustered about the St. John’s-wort than about any other plant on record. It was formerly gathered on St. John’s eve, and was hung at the doors and windows as a safeguard against thunder and evil spirits. A belief prevailed that on this night the soul had power to leave the body and visit the spot where it would be finally summoned from its earthly habitation, hence the all-night vigils which were observed at that time.

The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide If the coming year shall make me a bride,

is the St. John’s-wort, and the maiden’s fate is favorably forecast by the healthy growth and successful blossoming of the plant which she has accepted as typical of her future.

In early times poets and physicians alike extolled its properties. An ointment was made of its blossoms, and one of its early names was “balm-of-the-warrior’s-wound.” It was considered so efficacious a remedy for melancholia that it was termed “fuga dæmonum.” Very possibly this name gave rise to the general idea that it was powerful in dispelling evil spirits.

ST. ANDREW’S CROSS. _Ascyrum Crux-Andreæ._ St. John’s-wort Family.

_Stem._—Low, branched. _Leaves._—Opposite, narrowly oblong, black-dotted. _Flowers._—Light-yellow. _Calyx._—Of four sepals, the two outer broad and leaf-like, the inner much smaller. _Corolla._—Of four narrowly oblong petals. _Stamens._—Numerous. _Pistil._—One, with two short styles.

From July till September these flowers may be found in the pine-barrens of New Jersey and farther south and westward, and on the island of Nantucket as well.

COMMON MULLEIN. _Verbascum Thapsus._ Figwort Family.

_Stem._—Tall and stout, from three to five feet high. _Leaves._—Oblong, woolly. _Flowers._—In a long dense spike. _Calyx._—Five-parted. _Corolla._—Yellow, with five slightly unequal rounded lobes. _Stamens._—Ten, the three upper with white wool on their filaments. _Pistil._—One.

The common mullein is a native of the island of Thapsos, from which it takes its specific name. It was probably brought to this country from Europe by the early colonists, notwithstanding the title of “American velvet plant,” which it is rumored to bear in England. The Romans called it “candelaria,” from their custom of dipping the long dried stalk in suet and using it as a funeral torch, and the Greeks utilized the leaves for lamp-wicks. In more modern times they have served as a remedy for the pulmonary complaints of men and beasts alike, “mullein tea” being greatly esteemed by country people. Its especial efficacy with cattle has earned the plant its name of “bullocks’ lungwort.”

A low rosette of woolly leaves is all that can be seen of the mullein during its first year, the yellow blossoms on their long spikes opening sluggishly about the middle of the second summer. It abounds throughout our dry, rolling meadows, and its tall spires are a familiar feature in the summer landscape.

MOTH MULLEIN. _Verbascum Blattaria._ Figwort Family.

_Stem._—Tall and slender. _Leaves._—Oblong, toothed, the lower sometimes lyre-shaped, the upper partly clasping. _Flowers._—Yellow or white, tinged with red or purple, in a terminal raceme. _Calyx._—Deeply five-parted. _Corolla._—Butterfly-shape, of five rounded, somewhat unequal lobes. _Stamens._—Five, with filaments bearded with violet wool and anthers loaded with orange-colored pollen. _Pistil._—One.

Along the highway from July till October one encounters a slender weed on whose erect stem it would seem as though a number of canary-yellow or purplish-white moths had alighted for a moment’s rest. These are the fragile, pretty flowers of the moth mullein, and they are worthy of a closer examination. The reddened or purplish centre of the corolla suggests the probability of hidden nectar, while the pretty tufts of violet wool borne by the stamens are well fitted to protect it from the rain. A little experience of the canny ways of these innocent-looking flowers lead one to ask the wherefore of every new feature.

YELLOW FRINGED ORCHIS. ORANGE ORCHIS. _Habenaria ciliaris._ Orchis Family (p. 17).

_Stem._—Leafy, one to two feet high. _Leaves._—The lower oblong to lance-shaped, the upper passing into pointed bracts. _Flowers._—Deep orange color, with a slender spur and deeply fringed lip; growing in an oblong spike.

Years may pass without our meeting this the most brilliant of our orchids. Suddenly one August day we will chance upon just such a boggy meadow as we have searched in vain a hundred times, and will behold myriads of its deep orange, dome-like spires erecting themselves in radiant beauty over whole acres of land. The separate flowers, with their long spurs and deeply fringed lips, will repay a close examination. They are well calculated, massed in such brilliant clusters, to arrest the attention of whatever insects may specially affect them. Although I have watched many of these plants I have never seen an insect visit one, and am inclined to think that they are fertilized by night moths.

Mr. Baldwin declares: “If I ever write a romance of Indian life, my dusky heroine, Birch Tree or Trembling Fawn, shall meet her lover with a wreath of this orchis on her head.”

JEWEL-WEED. TOUCH-ME-NOT. Geranium Family.

_Impatiens pallida._ Pale Touch-me-not.

_Flowers._—Pale yellow, somewhat spotted with reddish-brown; common northward.

_Impatiens fulva._ Spotted Touch-me-not.

_Flowers._—Orange-yellow, spotted with reddish-brown; common southward.

Two to six feet high. _Leaves._—Alternate, coarsely toothed, oval. _Flowers._—Nodding, loosely clustered, or growing from the axils of the leaves. _Calyx_ and _Corolla_.—Colored alike, and difficult to distinguish; of six pieces, the largest one extended backward into a deep sac ending in a little spur, the two innermost unequally two-lobed. _Stamens._—Five, very short, united over the pistil. _Pistil._—One.

These beautiful plants are found along shaded streams and marshes, and are profusely hung with brilliant jewel-like flowers during the summer months. In the later year they bear those closed inconspicuous blossoms which fertilize in the bud and are called cleistogamous flowers. The jewel-weed has begun to appear along the English rivers, and it is said that the ordinary showy blossoms are comparatively rare, while the cleistogamous ones abound. Does not this look almost like a determination on the part of the plant to secure a firm foothold in its new environment before expending its energy on flowers which, though radiant and attractive, are quite dependent on insect-visitors for fertilization and perpetuation?

The name touch-me-not refers to the seed-pods, which burst open with such violence when touched, as to project their seeds to a comparatively great distance. This ingenious mechanism secures the dispersion of the seeds without the aid of the wind or animals. In parts of New York the plant is called “silver-leaf,” from its silvery appearance when touched with rain or dew, or when held beneath the water.

AGRIMONY. _Agrimonia Eupatoria._ Rose Family.

One or two feet high. _Leaves._—Divided into several coarsely toothed leaflets. _Flowers._—Small, yellow, in slender spiked racemes. _Calyx._—Five-cleft, beset with hooked teeth. _Corolla._—Of five petals. _Stamens._—Five to fifteen. _Pistils._—One to four.

The slender yellow racemes of the agrimony skirt the woods throughout the later summer. In former times the plant was held in high esteem by town physician and country herbalist alike. Emerson longed to know

Only the herbs and simples of the wood, Rue, cinquefoil, gill, vervain, and agrimony.

Up to a recent date the plant has been dried and preserved by country people and might be seen exposed for sale in the shops of French villages. It has also been utilized in a dressing for shoe-leather. When about to flower it yields a pale yellow dye.

Chaucer calls it _egremoine_. The name is supposed to be derived from the Greek title for an eye-disease, for which the juice of a plant similarly entitled was considered efficacious. The crushed flower yields a lemon-like odor.

YELLOW WOOD SORREL. _Oxalis stricta._ Geranium Family.

_Stem._—Erect. _Leaves._—Divided into three delicate clover-like leaflets. _Flowers._—Golden-yellow. _Calyx._—Of five sepals. _Corolla._—Of five petals. _Stamens._—Ten. _Pistil._—One, with five styles.

All summer the small flowers of the yellow wood sorrel show brightly against their background of delicate leaves. The plant varies greatly in its height and manner of growth, flourishing abundantly along the roadsides. The small leaflets are open to the genial influence of sun and air during the hours of daylight, but at night they protect themselves from chill by folding one against another.

SUNDROPS. _Œnothera fruticosa._ Evening Primrose Family.

This is a day-blooming species of the evening primrose, with large, pale yellow blossoms and alternate oblong or narrowly lance-shaped leaves, and of a much less rank habit. In early summer our roadsides are illuminated with these flowers.

_Œnothera pumila_ is also a diurnal species. Its loosely spiked blossoms are much smaller than those of the sundrops.

EVENING PRIMROSE. _Œnothera biennis._ Evening Primrose Family.

Stout, erect, one to five feet high. _Leaves._—Alternate, lance-shaped to oblong. _Flowers._—Pale yellow, in a leafy spike, opening at night. _Calyx._—With a long tube, four-lobed. _Corolla._—Of four somewhat heart-shaped petals. _Stamens._—Eight, with long anthers. _Pistil._—One, with a stigma divided into four linear lobes.

Along the roadsides in midsummer we notice a tall, rank-growing plant, which seems chiefly to bear buds and faded blossoms. And unless we are already familiar with the owl-like tendencies of the evening primrose, we are surprised, some dim twilight, to find this same plant resplendent with a mass of fragile yellow flowers, which are exhaling their faint delicious fragrance on the evening air.

One brief summer night exhausts the vitality of these delicate blossoms. The faded petals of the following day might serve as a text for a homily against all-night dissipation, did we not know that by its strange habit the evening primrose guards against the depredations of those myriad insects abroad during the day, which are unfitted to transmit its pollen to the pistil of another flower.

We are impressed by the utilitarianism in vogue in this floral world, as we note that the pale yellow of these blossoms gleams so vividly through the darkness as to advertise effectively their whereabouts, while their fragrance serves as a mute invitation to the pink night-moth, which is their visitor and benefactor. Why they change their habits in the late year and remain open during the day, I have not been able to discover.

HORSE BALM. RICH-WEED. STONE-ROOT. _Collinsonia Canadensis._ Mint Family (p. 16).

One to three feet high. _Leaves._—Opposite, large, ovate, toothed, pointed. _Flowers._—Yellowish, lemon-scented, clustered loosely. _Calyx._—Two-lipped, the upper lip three-toothed, the lower two-cleft. _Corolla._—Elongated, somewhat two-lipped, the four upper lobes nearly equal, the lower large and long, toothed or fringed. _Stamens._—Two (sometimes four, the upper pair shorter), protruding, diverging. _Pistil._—One, with a two-lobed style.

In the damp rich woods of midsummer these strong-scented herbs, with their loose terminal clusters of lemon-colored, lemon-scented flowers are abundant. The plant was introduced into England by the amateur botanist and flower-lover, Collinson, after whom the species is named. The Indians formerly employed it as an application to wounds.

BLACK-EYED SUSAN. CONE-FLOWER. _Rudbeckia hirta._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Stem._—Stout and hairy, one to two feet high. _Leaves._—Rough and hairy, the upper long, narrow, set close to the stem; the lower broader, with leaf-stalks. _Flower-heads._—Composed of both ray and disk-flowers; the former yellow, the latter brown and arranged on a cone-like receptacle.

By the middle of July our dry meadows are merry with black-eyed Susans, which are laughing from every corner and keeping up a gay midsummer carnival in company with the yellow lilies and brilliant milkweeds. They seem to revel in the long days of blazing sunlight, and are veritable salamanders among the flowers. Although now so common in our eastern fields they were first brought to us with clover-seed from the West, and are not altogether acceptable guests, as they bid fair to add another anxiety to the already harassed life of the New England farmer.

——— ——— _Rudbeckia laciniata._ Composite Family (p. 13).

Two to seven feet high. _Stem._—Smooth, branching. _Leaves._—The lower divided into lobed leaflets, the upper irregularly three to five-parted. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, rather large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers, the former drooping and yellow, the later dull greenish and arranged on a columnar receptacle.

This graceful, showy flower is even more decorative than the black-eyed Susan. Its drooping yellow rays are from one to two inches long. It may be found throughout the summer in the low thickets which border the swamps and meadows.

GOLDEN ASTER. _Chrysopsis Mariana._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Stem._—Silky, with long weak hairs when young. _Leaves._—Alternate, oblong. _Flower-heads._—Golden-yellow, rather large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

In dry places along the roadsides of Southern New York and farther south, one can hardly fail to notice in late summer and autumn the bright clusters of the golden aster.

_C. falcata_ is a species which may be found in dry sandy soil as far north as Massachusetts, with very woolly stems, crowded linear leaves, and small, clustered flower-heads.

GOLDEN-ROD. _Solidago._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Flower-heads._—Golden-yellow, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

About eighty species of golden-rod are native to the United States: of these forty-two species can be found in our Northeastern States. Many of them are difficult of identification, and it would be useless to describe any but a few of the more conspicuous forms.

A common and noticeable species which flowers early in August is _S. Canadensis_, with a tall stout stem from three to six feet high, lance-shaped leaves, which are usually sharply toothed and pointed, and small flower-heads clustered along the branches which spread from the upper part of the stem.

Another early flowering species is _S. rugosa_. This is a lower plant than _S. Canadensis_, with broader leaves. Still another is the dusty golden-rod, _S. nemoralis_, which has a hoary aspect and very bright yellow flowers which are common in dry fields.

_S. lanceolata_ has lance-shaped or linear leaves, and flowers which grow in flat-topped clusters, unlike other members of the family; the information that this is a golden-rod often creates surprise, as for some strange reason it seems to be confused with the tansy.

The sweet golden-rod, _S. odorata_, is easily recognized by its fragrant, shining, dotted leaves. _S. cæsia_, or the blue-stemmed, is a wood-species and among the latest of the year, putting forth its bright clusters for nearly the whole length of its stem long after many of its brethren look like brown wraiths of their former selves. The silver rod, _S. bicolor_, whose whitish flowers are a departure from the family habit, also survives the early cold and holds its own in the dry woods.

The only species native to Great Britain is _S. Virga-aurea_.

The generic name is from two Greek words which signify _to make whole_, and refer to the healing properties which have been attributed to the genus.

ELECAMPANE. _Inula Helenium._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Stem._—Stout, three to five feet high. _Leaves._—Alternate, large, woolly beneath, the upper partly clasping. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

When we see these great yellow disks peeping over the pasture walls or flanking the country lanes, we feel that midsummer is at its height. Flowers are often subservient courtiers, and make acknowledgment of whatever debt they owe by that subtlest of flatteries—imitation. Did not the blossoms of the dawning year frequently wear the livery of the snow which had thrown its protecting mantle over their first efforts? And these newcomers—whose gross, rotund countenances so clearly betray the results of high living—do not they pay their respects to their great benefactor after the same fashion?—with the result that a myriad miniature suns shine upward from meadow and roadside.

The stout, mucilaginous root of this plant is valued by farmers as a horse-medicine, especially in epidemics of epizootic, one of its common names in England being horse-heal.

In ancient times the elecampane was considered an important stimulant to the human brain and stomach, and it was mentioned as such in the writings of Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” over two thousand years ago.

The common name is supposed to be a corruption of _ala campania_, and refers to the frequent occurrence of the plant in that ancient province of Southern Italy.

FALL DANDELION. _Leontodon autumnalis._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Scape._—Five to fifteen inches high, branching. _Leaves._—From the root, toothed or deeply incised. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers; smaller than those of the common dandelion.

From June till November we find the fall dandelion along the New England roadsides, as well as farther south. While the yellow flower-heads somewhat suggest small dandelions the general habit of the plant recalls some of the hawkweeds.

WILD SUNFLOWER. _Helianthus giganteus._ Composite Family (p. 13).

_Stem._—Rough or hairy, from three to ten feet high, branched above. _Leaves._—Lance-shaped, pointed, rough to the touch, set close to the stem. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

In late summer many of our lanes are hedged by this beautiful plant, which, like other members of its family, lifts its yellow flowers sunward in pale imitation of the great life-giver itself. We have twenty-two different species of sunflower. _H. divaricatus_ is of a lower growth, with opposite, widely spreading leaves and larger flower-heads. _H. annuus_ is the garden species familiar to all; this is said to be a native of Peru. Mr. Ellwanger writes regarding it: “In the mythology of the ancient Peruvians it occupied an important place, and was employed as a mystic decoration in ancient Mexican sculpture. Like the lotus of the East, it is equally a sacred and an artistic emblem, figuring in the symbolism of Mexico and Peru, where the Spaniards found it rearing its aspiring stalk in the fields, and serving in the temples as a sign and a decoration, the sun-god’s officiating handmaidens wearing upon their breasts representations of the sacred flower in beaten gold.”

Gerarde describes it as follows: “The Indian Sun or the golden floure of Peru is a plant of such stature and talnesse that in one Sommer, being sowne of a seede in April, it hath risen up to the height of fourteen foot in my garden, where one floure was in weight three pound and two ounces, and crosse overthwart the floure by measure sixteen inches broad.”

The generic name is from _helios_—the sun, and _anthos_—a flower.

SNEEZEWEED. SWAMP SUNFLOWER. _Helenium autumnale._ Composite Family (p. 13).

One to six feet high. _Stem._—Angled, erect, branching. _Leaves._—Alternate, lance-shaped. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, composed of both ray and disk-flowers, the rays being somewhat cleft.

As far north as Connecticut we see masses of these bright flowers bordering the streams and swamps in September.

STICK-TIGHT. BUR MARIGOLD, BEGGAR-TICKS. _Bidens frondosa._ Composite Family (p. 13).

Two to six feet high. _Stem._—Branching. _Leaves._—Opposite, three to five-divided. _Flower-heads._—Consisting of brownish-yellow tubular flowers, with a leaf-like involucre beneath.

If one were only describing the attractive wild flowers, the stick-tight would certainly be omitted, as its appearance is not prepossessing, and the small barbed seed-vessels so cleverly fulfil their destiny in making one’s clothes a means of conveyance to “fresh woods and pastures new” as to cause all wayfarers heartily to detest them. “How surely the desmodium growing on some cliff-side, or the bidens on the edge of a pool, prophesy the coming of the traveller, brute or human, that will transport their seeds on his coat,” writes Thoreau. But the plant is so constantly encountered in late summer, and yet so generally unknown, that it can hardly be overlooked.

The larger bur marigold, _B. chrysanthemoides_, does its best to retrieve the family reputation for ugliness, and surrounds its dingy disk-flowers with a circle of showy golden rays which are strictly decorative, having neither pistils nor stamens, and leaving all the work of the household to the less attractive but more useful disk-flowers. Their effect is pleasing, and late into the autumn the moist ditches look as if sown with gold through their agency. The plant varies in height from six inches to two feet. Its leaves are opposite, lance-shaped, and regularly toothed.

SMOOTH FALSE FOXGLOVE. _Gerardia quercifolia._ Figwort Family.