divisions again toothed or cleft. _Flowers._—Greenish or sometimes
white, borne on long, upright flower-stalks. _Calyx._—Of five sepals.
_Corolla._—None. _Stamens and Pistils._—Indefinite in number.
These greenish flowers, which may be found in the woods and meadows
throughout the summer, are only striking by reason of their long, erect
flower-stalks. The oblong, thimble-like fruit-head, which is rather
noticeable in the later year, gives to the plant its common name.
CLEAVERS. GOOSE-GRASS. BEDSTRAW.
_Galium Aparine._ Madder Family.
_Stem._—Weak and reclining, bristly. _Leaves._—Lance-shaped, about
eight in a whorl. _Flowers._—White, small, growing from the axils of
the leaves. _Calyx-teeth._—Obsolete. _Corolla._—Usually four-parted,
wheel-shaped. _Stamens._—Usually four. _Pistil._—One with two styles.
_Fruit._—Globular, bristly, with hooked prickles.
This plant may be found in wooded or shady places throughout the
continent. Its flowers, which appear in summer, are rather
inconspicuous, one’s attention being chiefly attracted by its many
whorls of slender leaves.
BITTER-SWEET. WAX-WORK.
_Celastrus scandens._ Staff-tree Family.
_Stem._—Woody, twining. _Leaves._—Alternate, oblong, finely toothed,
pointed. _Flowers._—Small, greenish, or cream-color, in raceme-like
clusters, appearing in June. _Pod._—Orange-colored, globular, and
berry-like, curling back in three divisions when ripe so as to display
the scarlet covering of the seeds within.
The small flowers of the bitter-sweet, which appear in June, rarely
attract attention. But in October no lover of color can fail to admire
the deep orange pods which at last curl back so as advantageously to
display the brilliant scarlet covering of the seeds. Perhaps we have no
fruit which illuminates more vividly the roadside thicket of late
autumn; or touches with greater warmth those tumbled, overgrown walls
which are so picturesque a feature in parts of the country, and do in a
small way for our quiet landscapes what vine-covered ruins accomplish
for the scenery of the Old World.
CULVER’S ROOT.
_Veronica Virginica._ Figwort Family.
_Stem._—Straight and tall, from two to six feet high.
_Leaves._—Whorled, lance-shaped, finely toothed. _Flowers._—White,
small, growing in slender clustered spikes. _Calyx._—Irregularly four
or five-toothed. _Corolla._—Four or five-lobed. _Stamens._—Two,
protruding. _Pistil._—One.
The tall straight stems of the culver’s root lift their slender spikes
in midsummer to a height that seems strangely at variance with the habit
of this genus. The small flowers, however, at once betray their kinship
with the speedwells. Although it is, perhaps, a little late to look for
the white wands of the black cohosh the two plants might easily be
confused in the distance, as they have much the same aspect and seek
alike the cool recesses of the woods. This same species grows in Japan
and was introduced into English gardens nearly two hundred years ago. It
is one of the many Indian remedies which were adopted by our
forefathers.
BLACK COHOSH. BUGBANE. BLACK SNAKEROOT.
_Cimicifuga racemosa._ Crowfoot Family.
_Stem._—Three to eight feet high. _Leaves._—Divided, the leaflets
toothed or incised. _Flowers._—White, growing in elongated wand-like
racemes. _Calyx._—Of four or five white petal-like sepals, falling
early. _Corolla._—Of from one to eight white petals or transformed
stamens. _Stamens._—Numerous, with slender white filaments.
_Pistils._—One to three.
The tall white wands of the black cohosh shoot up in the shadowy woods
of midsummer like so many ghosts. A curious-looking plant it is, bearing
aloft the feathery flowers which have such an unpleasant odor that even
the insects are supposed to avoid them. Fortunately they are
sufficiently conspicuous to be admired at a distance, many a newly
cleared hill-side and wood-border being lightened by their slender,
torch-like racemes which flash upon us as we travel through the country.
The plant was one of the many which the Indians believed to be
efficacious for snake-bites. The generic name is from _cimex_—a bug, and
_fugare_—to drive away.
COMMON ELDER.
_Sambucus Canadensis._ Honeysuckle Family.
_Stems._—Scarcely woody, five to ten feet high. _Leaves._—Divided into
toothed leaflets. _Flowers._—White, small, in flat-topped clusters.
_Calyx._—Lobes minute or none. _Corolla._—With five spreading lobes.
_Stamens._—Five. _Pistil._—One, with three stigmas. _Fruit._—Dark
purple, berry-like.
The common elder borders the lanes and streams with its spreading
flower-clusters in early summer, and in the later year is noticeable for
the dark berries from which “elderberry wine” is brewed by the country
people. The fine white wood is easily cut and is used for skewers and
pegs. A decoction of the leaves serves the gardener a good purpose in
protecting delicate plants from caterpillars. Evelyn wrote of it: “If
the medicinal properties of the leaves, berries, bark, etc., were
thoroughly known, I cannot tell what our countrymen could ail for which
he might not fetch from every hedge, whether from sickness or wound.”
The white pith can easily be removed from the stems, hence the old
English name of bore-wood.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXII
BLACK COHOSH.—_C. racemosa._
]
The name elder is probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon _aeld_—a
fire—and is thought to refer to the former use of the hollow branches in
blowing up a fire.
SPURGE.
_Euphorbia corollata._ Spurge Family.
_Stem._—Two or three feet high. _Leaves._—Ovate, lance-shaped or
linear. _Flowers._—Clustered within the usually five-lobed, cup-shaped
involucre which was formerly considered the flower itself; the male
flowers numerous and lining its base, consisting each of a single
stamen; the female flower solitary in the middle of the involucre,
consisting of a three-lobed ovary with three styles, each style being
two-cleft. _Pod._—On a slender stalk, smooth.
In this plant the showy white appendages of the cup-shaped clustered
involucres are usually taken for the petals of the flower; only the
botanist suspecting that the minute organs within these involucres
really form a cluster of separate flowers of different sexes. While the
most northerly range in the Eastern States of this spurge is usually
considered to be New York, the botany states that it has been recently
naturalized in Massachusetts. It blossoms from July till October.
PARTRIDGE VINE.
_Mitchella repens._ Madder Family.
_Stems._—Smooth and trailing. _Leaves._—Rounded, evergreen,
veined with white. _Flowers._—White, fragrant, in pairs.
_Calyx._—Four-toothed. _Corolla._—Funnel-form, with four
spreading lobes, bearded within. _Stamens._—Four. _Pistil._—One,
its ovary united with that of its sister flower, its four
stigmas linear.
At all times of the year this little plant faithfully fulfils its
mission of adorning that small portion of the earth to which it finds
itself rooted. But only the early summer finds the partridge vine
exhaling its delicious fragrance from the delicate sister-blossoms which
are its glory. Among the waxy flowers will be found as many of the
bright red berries of the previous year as have been left unmolested by
the hungry winter birds. This plant is found not only in the moist woods
of North America, but also in the forests of Mexico and Japan. It is a
near relative of the dainty bluets or Quaker ladies, and has the same
peculiarity of dimorphous flowers (p. 232).
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIII
PARTRIDGE VINE.—_M. repens._
]
GREEN ORCHIS.
_Habenaria virescens._
RAGGED FRINGED ORCHIS.
_Habenaria lacera._ Orchis Family (p. 17).
_Leaves._—Oblong or lance-shaped. _Flowers._—Greenish or
yellowish-white, growing in a spike.
These two orchids are found in wet boggy places during the earlier
summer, the green antedating the ragged fringed orchis by a week or
more. The lip of the ragged fringed is three-parted, the divisions being
deeply fringed, giving what is called in Sweet’s “British Flower-Garden”
an “elegantly jagged appearance.” The lip of the green orchis is
furnished with a tooth on each side and a strong protuberance in the
middle. So far as superficial beauty and conspicuousness are concerned
these flowers do scant justice to the brilliant family to which they
belong, and equally excite the scornful exclamation, “You call _that_ an
orchid!” when brought home for analysis or preservation.
BUTTON-BUSH.
_Cephalanthus occidentalis._ Madder Family.
A shrub three to eight feet high. _Leaves._—Opposite or whorled in
threes, somewhat oblong and pointed. _Flowers._—Small, white, closely
crowded in round button-like heads. _Calyx._—Four-toothed.
_Corolla._—Four-toothed. _Stamens._—Four. _Pistil._—One, with a
thread-like protruding style and blunt stigma.
This pretty shrub borders the streams and swamps throughout the country.
Its button-like flower-clusters appear in midsummer. It belongs to the
family of which the delicate bluet and fragrant partridge vine are also
members. Its flowers have a jasmine-like fragrance.
MILD WATER-PEPPER.
_Polygonum hydropiperoides._ Buckwheat Family.
_Stem._—One to three feet high, smooth, branching.
_Leaves._—Alternate, narrowly lance-shaped or oblong. _Flowers._—White
or flesh-color, small, growing in erect, slender spikes.
_Calyx._—Five-parted. _Corolla._—None. _Stamens._—Eight.
_Pistil._—One, usually with three styles.
These rather inconspicuous but very common flowers are found in moist
places and shallow water.
The common knotweed, _P. aviculare_, which grows in such abundance in
country dooryards and waste places, has slender, often prostrate, stems,
and small greenish flowers, which are clustered in the axils of the
leaves or spiked at the termination of the stems. This is perhaps the
“hindering knotgrass” to which Shakespeare refers in the “Midsummer
Night’s Dream,” so terming it, not on account of its knotted trailing
stems, but because of the belief that it would hinder the growth of a
child. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Coxcomb” the same superstition is
indicated:
We want a boy
Kept under for a year with milk and knotgrass.
It is said that many birds are nourished by the seeds of this plant.
CLIMBING FALSE BUCKWHEAT.
_Polygonum scandens._ Buckwheat Family.
_Stem._—Smooth, twining, and climbing over bushes, eight to twelve
feet high. _Leaves._—Heart or arrow-shaped, pointed, alternate.
_Flowers._—Greenish or pinkish, in racemes. _Calyx._—Five-parted, with
colored margins. _Corolla._—None. _Stamens._—Usually eight.
_Pistil._—One, with three stigmas. _Seed-vessel._—Green, three-angled,
winged, conspicuous in autumn.
In early summer this plant, which clambers so perseveringly over the
moist thickets which line our country lanes, is comparatively
inconspicuous. The racemes of small greenish flowers are not calculated
to attract one’s attention, and it is late summer or autumn before the
thick clusters of greenish fruit composed of the winged seed-vessels
arrest one’s notice. At this time the vine is very beautiful and
striking, and one wonders that it could have escaped detection in the
earlier year.
——— ———
_Dalibarda repens._ Rose Family.
_Scape._—Low. _Leaves._—Heart-shaped, wavy-toothed. _Flowers._—White,
one or two borne on each scape. _Calyx._—Deeply five or six-parted,
three of the divisions larger and toothed. _Corolla._—Of five petals.
_Stamens._—Many. _Pistils._—Five to ten.
The foliage of this pretty little plant suggests the violet; while its
white blossom betrays its kinship with the wild strawberry. It may be
found from June till August in woody places, being one of those flowers
which we seek deliberately, whose charm is never decreased by its being
thrust upon us inopportunely. Who can tell how much the attractiveness
of the wild carrot, the dandelion, or butter-and-eggs would be enhanced
were they so discreet as to withdraw from the common haunts of men into
the shady exclusiveness which causes us to prize many far less beautiful
flowers?
STARRY CAMPION.
_Silene stellata._ Pink Family.
_Stem._—Swollen at the joints, about three feet high.
_Leaves._—Whorled in fours, oval, taper-pointed. _Flowers._—White, in
a large pyramidal cluster. _Calyx._—Inflated, five-toothed.
_Corolla._—Of five deeply fringed petals. _Stamens._—Ten.
_Pistil._—One, with three styles.
In late July many of our wooded banks are decorated with the tall stems,
whorled leaves, and prettily fringed flowers of the starry campion.
Closely allied to it is the bladder campion of the fields, _S.
Cucubalus_, a much smaller plant, with opposite leaves, loosely
clustered white flowers, a greatly inflated calyx, and two-cleft petals.
This is an emigrant from Europe, which was first naturalized near
Boston, and has now become wild in different parts of the country, quite
overrunning some of the farm-lands which border the Hudson River.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIV
_Dalibarda repens._
]
COLIC-ROOT. STAR-GRASS.
_Aletris farinosa._ Bloodwort Family.
_Leaves._—Thin, lance-shaped, in a spreading cluster from the root.
_Scape._—Slender, two to three feet high. _Flowers._—White, small,
growing in a wand-like, spiked raceme. _Perianth._—Six-cleft at the
summit, oblong-tubular. _Stamens._—Six. _Pistil._—One, with style
three-cleft at apex.
In summer we find these flowers in the grassy woods. The generic title
is the Greek word for “a female slave who grinds corn,” and refers to
the mealy appearance of the blossoms.
TALL MEADOW RUE.
_Thalictrum polygamum._ Crowfoot Family.
Four to eight feet high. _Leaves._—Divided into many firm, rounded
leaflets. _Flowers._—White, in large clusters; some perfect, others
unisexual. _Calyx._—Of four or five small petal-like sepals which
usually fall off very early. _Corolla._—None. _Stamens._—Numerous.
_Pistils._—Four to fifteen.
Where a stream trails its sluggish length through the fields of
midsummer, its way is oftentimes marked by the tall meadow rue, the
feathery, graceful flower-clusters of which erect themselves serenely
above the myriad blossoms which are making radiant the wet meadows at
this season. For here, too, we may search for the purple flag and
fringed orchis, the yellow meadow lily, the pink swamp milkweed, each
charming in its way, but none with the cool chaste beauty of the meadow
rue. The staminate flowers of this plant are especially delicate and
feathery.
WHITE AVENS.
_Geum album._ Rose Family.
_Stem._—Slender, about two feet high. _Root-leaves._—Divided into from
three to five leaflets, or entire. _Stem-leaves._—Three-lobed or
divided, or only toothed. _Flowers._—White. _Calyx._—Deeply
five-cleft, usually with five small bractlets alternating with its
lobes. _Corolla._—Of five petals. _Stamens._—Numerous.
_Pistils._—Numerous, with hooked styles which become elongated in
fruit.
The white avens is one of the less noticeable plants which border the
summer woods, blossoming from May till August. Later the hooked seeds
which grow in round burr-like heads secure wide dispersion by attaching
themselves to animals or clothing. Other species of avens have more
conspicuous golden-yellow flowers.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV
TALL MEADOW RUE.—_T. polygamum._
]
MEADOW-SWEET.
_Spiræa salicifolia._ Rose Family.
_Stem._—Nearly smooth, two or three feet high. _Leaves._—Alternate,
somewhat lance-shaped, toothed. _Flowers._—Small, white or
flesh-color, in pyramidal clusters. _Calyx._—Five-cleft. _Corolla._—Of
five rounded petals. _Stamens._—Numerous. _Pistils._—Five to eight.
The feathery spires of the meadow-sweet soar upward from the river banks
and low meadows in late July. Unlike its pink sister, the steeple-bush,
its leaves and stems are fairly smooth. The lack of fragrance in the
flowers is disappointing, because of the hopes raised by the plant’s
common name. This is said by Dr. Prior to be a corruption of the
Anglo-Saxon _mead-wort_, which signifies _honey-wine herb_, alluding to
a fact which is mentioned in Hill’s “Herbal,” that “the flowers mixed
with mead give it the flavor of the Greek wines.”
Although the significance of many of the plant-names seems clear enough
at first sight, such an example as this serves to show how really
obscure it often is.
WHITE WATER-LILY.
_Nymphæa odorata._ Water-lily Family.
_Leaves._—Rounded, somewhat heart-shaped, floating on the surface of
the water. _Flowers._—Large, white, or sometimes pink, fragrant.
_Calyx._—Of four sepals which are green without. _Corolla._—Of many
petals. _Stamens._—Indefinite in number. _Pistil._—With a many-celled
ovary whose summit is tipped with a globular projection around which
are the radiating stigmas.
This exquisite flower calls for little description. Many of us are so
fortunate as to hold in our memories golden mornings devoted to its
quest. We can hardly take the shortest railway journey in summer without
passing some shadowy pool whose greatest adornment is this spotless and
queenly blossom. The breath of the lily-pond is brought even into the
heart of our cities where dark-eyed little Italians peddle clusters of
the long-stemmed fragrant flowers about the streets.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVI
MEADOW-SWEET.—_S. salicifolia._
]
In the water-lily may be seen an example of so-called
_plant-metamorphosis_. The petals appear to pass gradually into stamens,
it being difficult to decide where the petals end and the stamens begin.
But whether stamens are transformed petals, or petals transformed
stamens seems to be a mooted question. In Gray we read, “Petals
numerous, in many rows, the innermost gradually passing into stamens,”
while Mr. Grant Allen writes: “Petals are in all probability enlarged
and flattened stamens, which have been set apart for the work of
attracting insects,” and goes on to say, “Flowers can and do exist
without petals, ... but no flower can possibly exist without stamens,
which are one of the two essential reproductive organs in the plant.”
From this he argues that it is more rational to consider a petal a
transformed stamen than _vice versa._ To go further into the subject
here would be impossible, but a careful study of the water-lily is
likely to excite one’s curiosity in the matter.
WHITE VERVAIN.
_Verbena urticæfolia._ Verbena Family.
Three to five feet high. _Leaves._—Oval, coarsely toothed.
_Flowers._—Small, white, in slender spikes, otherwise resembling
Purple Vervain.
It almost excites one’s incredulity to be told that this uninteresting
looking plant, which grows rankly along the highways, is an importation
from the tropics, yet for this statement the botany is responsible.
ROUND-LEAVED SUNDEW.
_Drosera rotundifolia._ Sundew Family.
_Scape._—A few inches high. _Leaves._—Rounded, abruptly narrowed into
spreading, hairy leaf-stalks; beset with reddish, gland-bearing
bristles. _Flowers._—White, growing in a one-sided raceme, which so
nods at its apex that the fresh-blown blossom is always uppermost.
_Calyx._—Of five sepals. _Corolla._—Of five petals. _Pistil._—One,
with three or five styles, which are sometimes so deeply two-parted as
to be taken for twice as many.
What’s this I hear
About the new carnivora?
Can little plants
Eat bugs and ants
And gnats and flies?
A sort of retrograding:
Surely the fare
Of flowers is air,
Or sunshine sweet;
They shouldn’t eat,
Or do aught so degrading!
But by degrees we are learning to reconcile ourselves to the fact that
the more we study the plants the less we are able to attribute to them
altogether unfamiliar and ethereal habits. We find that the laws which
control their being are strangely suggestive of those which regulate
ours, and after the disappearance of the shock which attends the
shattered illusion, their charm is only increased by the new sense of
kinship.
The round-leaved sundew is found blossoming in many of our marshes in
midsummer. When the sun shines upon its leaves they look as though
covered with sparkling dewdrops, hence its common name. These drops are
a glutinous exudation, by means of which insects visiting the plant are
first captured; the reddish bristles then close tightly about them, and
it is supposed that their juices are absorbed by the plant. At all
events the rash visitor rarely escapes. In many localities it is easy to
secure any number of these little plants and to try for one’s self the
rather grewsome experiment of feeding them with small insects. Should
the tender-hearted recoil from such reckless slaughter, they might
confine their offerings on the altar of science to mosquitoes, small
spiders, and other deservedly unpopular creatures.
_D. Americana_ is a very similar species, with longer, narrower leaves.
The thread-leaved sundew, _D. filiformis_ has fine, thread-like leaves
and pink flowers, and is found in wet sand along the coast.
POKEWEED. GARGET. PIGEON-BERRY.
_Phytolacca decandra._ Pokeweed Family.
_Stems._—In length from six to ten feet high; purple-pink or bright
red, stout. _Leaves._—Large, alternate, veiny. _Flowers._—White or
pinkish, the green ovaries conspicuous, growing in racemes.
_Calyx._—Of five rounded or petal-like sepals, pinkish without.
_Corolla._—None. _Stamens._—Ten. _Pistil._—One, with ten styles.
_Fruit._—A dark purplish berry.
There is a vigor about this native plant which is very pleasing. In July
it is possible that we barely notice the white flowers and large leaves;
but when in September the tall purple stems rear themselves above their
neighbors in the roadside thicket, the leaves look as though stained
with wine, and the long clusters of rich dark berries hang heavily from
the branches, we cannot but admire its independent beauty. The berries
serve as food for the birds. A tincture of them at one time acquired
some reputation as a remedy for rheumatism. In Pennsylvania they have
been used with whiskey to make a so-called “portwine.” From their dark
juice arose the name of “red-ink plant,” which is common in some places.
The large roots are poisonous, but the acrid young shoots are rendered
harmless by boiling, and are eaten like asparagus, being quite as good,
I have been told by country people.
Despite the difference in the spelling of the names, it has been
suggested that the plant was called after President Polk. This is most
improbable, as it was common throughout the country long before his
birth, and its twigs are said to have been plucked and worn by his
followers during his campaign for the Presidency.
WHITE FRINGED ORCHIS.
_Habenaria blephariglottis._ Orchis Family (p. 17).
About one foot high. _Leaves._—Oblong or lance-shaped, the upper
passing into pointed bracts. _Flowers._—Pure white, with a slender
spur and fringed lip; growing in an oblong spike.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXVII
POKEWEED.—_P. decandra._
]
This seems to me the most exquisite of our native orchids. The fringed
lips give the snowy, delicate flowers a feathery appearance as they
gleam from the shadowy woods of midsummer, or from the peat-bogs where
they thrive best; or perhaps they spire upward from among the dark green
rushes which border some lonely mountain lake. Like the yellow fringed
orchis (Pl. LII), which they greatly resemble in general structure, they
may be sought in vain for many seasons and then will be discovered one
midsummer day lavishing their spotless loveliness upon some unsuspected
marsh which has chanced to escape our vigilance.
RATTLESNAKE-PLANTAIN.
_Goodyera pubescens._ Orchis Family (p. 17).
_Scape._—Six to twelve inches high. _Leaves._—From the root in a sort
of flat rosette; conspicuously veined with white; thickish, evergreen.
_Flowers._—Small, greenish-white, crowded in a close spike.