Snow-on-the-Mountain; White-edged Spurge (Euphorbia marginata) is a large, bushy herb often cultivated because of its beautiful, white-margined foliage. The stem is very stout and branchy, and grows from 2 to 3 feet high. The leaves are dark green, large, ovate-pointed, and seated on the stem; the lower ones are quite similar in shape to those of the common Milkweed and are alternated on the stem; those near the end of the branches are crowded, opposite, or whorled about the stem; the terminal ones have the edges of the leaves more or less widely margined with white.
The flowers are rather small, grouped in clusters in the centre of the terminal cluster of margined leaves. The staminate and pistillate flowers are on different plants. The involucre is five-parted and has five white petals.
When broken both the leaves and stems exude quantities of a milky juice. This species of Spurge grows in dry soil from Minn. and Ohio west to Colorado, and is sometimes found in parts of the East.
Jewel-weed; Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens biflora) is a common rank-growing herb with a stout but fragile branching stem. The large, inflated flower-sac, which is really one of the three sepals, is orange-yellow, spotted with brown. Two of these singular flowers droop from the ends of each thread-like peduncle, but only one flowers at a time.
The slim seed-pod is the cause of two very commonly applied names—Touch-me-not and Snapweed. When nearly ripe these pods can scarcely be touched but what they will suddenly, almost explosively, burst and scatter their seeds in all directions. One not acquainted with their ways is always startled when he accidentally brushes against the mature Touch-me-not.
The leaves are very delicate in appearance, and their light, slender stems are almost translucent; they are ovate, round-toothed, dull-green above, and whitish-green below. Common in shady places throughout the United States.
Common Mallow; Cheeses (Malva rotundifolia) (European) is a very common weed about dooryards, especially in the country, and along the edges of cultivated fields. The long stalks spring from biennial roots and creep over the ground, the branches being 6 to 24 inches in length. The dark-green, round leaves are very handsome; they have a shallow-lobed and very firmly toothed edge and are deeply, palmately ribbed. The leaves, their stems and the plant stems are rather rough.
The small, widespread, bell-shaped flowers are clustered close to the stalk on short stems from the axils of the leaves. The five petals have notched tips, are white, delicately tinted with pink or pale magenta, and have veinings of a deeper shade. The seed is hard, flat, and rounded, composed of a dozen or more carpels; it is eaten by children with great relish, these being the “cheeses” that give the species one of its common names.
(A) High Mallow (Malva sylvestris) (European) is a tall biennial with a coarse branching stem, often attaining a height of 3 feet, or even more on waste land. Both the stems and the leaves have a thick covering of hair. The flowers grow in clusters of perhaps a half-dozen from the axils of the leaves; they have five heart-shaped petals of a purplish color, with two or three conspicuous veins of a darker shade.
The Mallows get their generic name of Malva, in allusion to the soothing effect of the mucilaginous juices of the root and stem.
(B) Musk Mallow (Malva moschata) (European) is a similar species with the leaves deeply and palmately slashed and toothed. Several hairy branching stems proceed from the perennial root to heights of 1 or 2 feet. The flowers are peculiar in that the ends of each of the five rose-colored petals are roughly notched, looking as though they had been bitten off.
This species received its name from the fact that when the leaves are crushed they give forth a slight odor of musk. It is quite abundant in northern New England and southern Canada.
Rose Mallow (Hibiscus Moscheutos) is a tall, leafy perennial, bearing flowers that easily rank as being among the largest and most beautiful of any of our wild flowers. The stem is quite stout and inclined to be hairy. The large leaves are ovate-pointed and toothed; they are stemmed, and alternate along the main plant stalk. The lower ones are often three-lobed.
The flowers grow on short stems at the end of the upright stalk. But one usually blooms at a time and there are not a great many buds; what they lack in profusion of bloom this species fully makes up in size, for its blossoms measure 4 to 6 inches across. The five large petals are a delicate rose color, conspicuously veined, and often with crimson bases. The long, slender pistil divides at the tip into five flat-headed stigmas; for more than half its length it is encased in the long stamen column, the sides of which are covered with yellow anthers.
The Rose Mallow grows in swamps and marshes near the coast, from Mass. southward, and along the shores of the Great Lakes to Mich. It blooms from July to September.
Common St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum) (European) is a wanderer from the Old World that, having reached our hospitable shores, proceeded to multiply and overrun the native plants so that it is now regarded by farmers as a pest along with the Wild Carrot and Mustard. If it is true that in the struggle for existence the fittest survive, then surely this species must be one of the fittest; we often see it growing lustily in circumstances under which few plants could exist. It grows promiscuously in fields or along roadsides. Even a generous sprinkling of tarvia, received when the roads were sprinkled, failed to kill this plant, although many other species died from the effects.
It has a slender but tough stem from 1 to 2 feet high; it has numerous short branches, each crowded with tiny, stiff, oval leaves. The upper branches terminate in clusters of five-parted, golden-yellow flowers with numerous long yellow stamens. This species blooms from July until September.
(A) Marsh St. Johnswort (Hypericum virginicum). The stem is slender, erect, and from 1 to 2 feet in height, growing from perennial running rootstalks. The comparatively large leaves are light green with brownish spots and a white bloom on the underside; they are closely set, oppositely, on the stem.
The flowers are in small clusters terminating the branches; the five petals are of a pinkish, flesh color and surround three groups of golden-yellow stamens. Common in moist places.
(B) St. Johnswort (Hypericum ellipticum) has a simple usually four-angled stem, sometimes with a single branch near the top. It grows from 8 to 20 inches high and is quite leafy. The leaves are comparatively large, about the same shape as those of Marsh St. Johnswort. At the top are a few five-petalled flowers with bright golden-yellow stamens. The ovoid pods succeeding the flowers are brownish. This species is found in damp places or along streams from Me. to Minn. and south to Pa.
(A) Frostweed: Rockrose (Helianthemum canadense). This little perennial is very remarkable and unique, because late in autumn crystals of ice form about the cracked bark of the root. It is also remarkable for the fact that it has two sets of flowers, the first ones in June and later ones in July or August.
The leaves are small, oblong-lanceolate, hoary with white hairs on the underside, alternating along the stem that rises from 10 to 18 inches high. Both the early and late flowers are fertile. Frostweed grows in sandy, dry soil from Me. to Minn. and southward.
(B) Hudsonia (Hudsonia tomentosa) is a low-branching, little shrub rising only 5 or 10 inches above ground. Its branching stems are closely crowded with tiny, scale-like oval leaves about one half inch long.
The small yellow flowers that are crowded along the ends of the branches open only in sunshine; the five tiny yellow petals surround numerous stamens and a long, slender style. Hudsonia is found on sandy shores from N. B. to Va., and along the Great Lakes.
(A) Bird-foot Violet (Viola pedata) is a well-known and very characteristic Violet. The flowers of this species are the largest of the blue Violets; they are blue-violet or purple-violet and have a bright orange centre, formed by the large anthers.
The leaves grow on long petioles, in dense tufts, from the root; each leaf is cut into five to eleven parts, all sharply pointed, and the middle and lateral ones with their ends notched or cleft.
(B) Early Blue Violet; Palmated Violet (Viola palmata) has slightly smaller blue flowers with bearded side petals.
The basal leaves are very variable in shape, ranging from heart-shaped with rounded teeth and an unbroken edge to palmately cleft ones with five or seven rounded lobes. Both of these Violets are common in dry ground, the former in fields or the borders of swamps, and the latter usually in thin woodland, from Me. to Minn. and southward.
(A) Common Violet (Viola cucullata) is the commonest and best known of all the Violets. It grows in low land everywhere—in woods, meadows, marshes, or along roadsides. It is a very beautiful and variable species both as to size and color of blossoms and to shape of the leaves.
The flowers are sometimes a deep purple and again may be a light blue, or even nearly white. The two upper petals are usually darker near the throat; the three lower ones shade to white at the throat, the side ones being beautifully fringed or bearded. The leaves are usually heart-shaped, round-toothed, and concave or furled; they are on long stems from the base.
(B) Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) is the most common of the leafy-stemmed blue Violets. You will notice that the preceding species all had their leaves from the base, and the flowers nodding on slender scapes, while this one has leaves growing on the slender stem and flowers above them on peduncles, springing from the angles of the leaves. This species is quite common in woods throughout the United States.
(A) Sweet White Violet (Viola blanda) is the most fragrant of our wild Violets, regardless of color. It is a most charming plant, but very diminutive, in fact, it is probably the smallest of the entire family. Occasionally we may find them in some exceptionally favorable locality growing to a height of perhaps 6 inches, but the usual height will barely exceed 2 inches. The plant is stemless, that is, the leaf stems and flower stalks all spring directly from the root.
The leaves of the common White Violet are rounded heart-shaped with slightly scalloped or round-toothed edges. It is very common in swamps and moist woods throughout the United States and southern Canada.
(B) Lance-leaved Violet (Viola lanceolata) is a taller, more slender species growing from 3 to 8 inches high. Its leaves are lance-shaped, scallop-edged, and on long stems from the root. The white flowers are only slightly fragrant; the three lower petals are strongly veined with purple and the two side ones are rarely bearded. It is commonly found in swamps and moist ground from N. S. to Minn. and southward, flowering from April to June.
Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens) is a large, very handsome Violet that prefers, for its habitat, dry, hilly woods, often by the side of rushing brooks, but not usually where the soil is moist.
The Yellow Violet is one of the tallest members of the family, its stem ranging from 6 to 18 inches in length. Both the stems and the leaves are wooly-hairy. There are from two to four leaves growing from the stem near its summit; they are heart-shaped, pointed, and either toothed or scalloped. The flowers, rising on slender peduncles from the axils of the leaves, are rather large and bright yellow; the two lateral petals are heavily bearded and the lower one is handsomely veined with purple. These beards compel visiting insects to brush against the stigma and then against the anthers before reaching the nectar in the short spur.
Most of the Violets, during the summer, have apetalous or cleistogamous flowers on short peduncles from the root; these never open, but are fertilized in the bud. Common from N. S. to Manitoba and southward.
Purple or Spiked Loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria) (European). Undoubtedly this species, which came to us from Europe, is the most beautiful of the genus.
The plant grows from 2 to 4 feet high and branches toward the top. The many purple flowers, making up the spike, each have six long petals and are trimorphous, that is, flowers on the same plant, have, relatively, three different lengths of stamens and pistils. Purple Loosestrife is found locally in swamps and on marshy borders of streams from Me. to Del. and westward.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
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.
(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.