_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?
[Illustration:
PLATE LIII
PALE JEWEL-WEED.—_I. pallida._
]
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.
[Illustration:
PLATE LIV
EVENING PRIMROSE.—_Œ. biennis._
]
——— ———
_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.
[Illustration:
PLATE LV
BLACK-EYED SUSAN.—_R. hirta._
]
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.
[Illustration:
PLATE LVI
ELECAMPANE.—_I. Helenium._
]
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.
[Illustration:
PLATE LVII
WILD SUNFLOWER.—_H. giganteus._
]
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.
[Illustration:
PLATE LVIII
STICK-TIGHT.—_B. frondosa._
]
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.
_Stem._—Smooth, three to six feet high, usually branching.
_Leaves._—The lower usually deeply incised, the upper narrowly oblong,
incised, or entire. _Flowers._—Yellow, large, in a raceme or spike.
_Calyx._—Five-cleft. _Corolla._—Two inches long, somewhat tubular,
swelling above, with five more or less unequal, spreading lobes,
woolly within. _Stamens._—Four, in pairs, woolly. _Pistil._—One.
These large pale yellow flowers are very beautiful and striking when
seen in the dry woods of late summer. They are all the more appreciated
because there are few flowers abroad at this season save the Composites,
which are decorative and radiant enough, but usually somewhat lacking in
the delicate charm we look for in a flower.
The members of this genus, which is named after Gerarde, the author of
the famous “Herball,” are supposed to be more or less parasitic in their
habits, drawing their nourishment from the roots of other plants.
[Illustration:
PLATE LIX
SMOOTH FALSE FOXGLOVE.—_G. quercifolia._
]
The downy false foxglove, _G. flava_, is usually a somewhat lower plant,
with a close down, a less-branched stem, more entire leaves, and
smaller, similar flowers.
TANSY.
_Tanacetum vulgare._ Composite Family (p. 13).
_Stem._—Two to four feet high. _Leaves._—Divided into toothed
leaflets. _Flower-heads._—Yellow, composed of tiny flowers which are
nearly, if not all, tubular in shape; borne in flat-topped clusters.
With the name of tansy we seem to catch a whiff of its strong-scented
breath and a glimpse of some New England homestead beyond whose borders
it has strayed to deck the roadside with its deep yellow, flat-topped
flower-clusters. The plant has been used in medicine since the Middle
Ages, and in more recent times it has been gathered by the country
people for “tansy wine” and “tansy tea.” In the Roman Church it typifies
the bitter herbs which were to be eaten at the Paschal season; and cakes
made of eggs and its leaves are called “tansies,” and eaten during Lent.
It is also frequently utilized in more secular concoctions.
The common name is supposed to be a corruption of the Greek word for
_immortality_.
WITCH-HAZEL.
_Hamamelis Virginiana._ Witch-hazel Family.
A tall shrub. _Leaves._—Oval, wavy-toothed, mostly falling before the
flowers appear. _Flowers._—Honey-yellow, clustered, autumnal.
_Calyx._—Four-parted. _Corolla._—Of four long narrow petals.
_Stamens._—Eight. _Pistils._—Two. _Fruit._—A capsule which bursts
elastically, discharging its large seeds with vigor.
[Illustration:
PLATE LX
TANSY.—_T. vulgare._
]
It seems as though the flowers of the witch-hazel were fairly entitled
to the “booby-prize,” of the vegetable world. Surely no other blossoms
make their first appearance so invariably late upon the scene of action.
The fringed gentian often begins to open its “meek and quiet eye” quite
early in September. Certain species of golden-rod and aster continue to
flower till late in the year, but they began putting forth their bright
clusters before the summer was fairly over; while the elusively
fragrant, pale yellow blossoms of the witch-hazel need hardly be
expected till well on in September, when its leaves have fluttered
earthward and its fruit has ripened. Does the pleasure which we
experience at the spring-like apparition of this leafless
yellow-flowered shrub in the autumn woods arise from the same depraved
taste which is gratified by strawberries at Christmas, I wonder? Or is
it that in the midst of death we have a foretaste of life; a prophecy of
the great yearly resurrection which even now we may anticipate?
Thoreau’s tastes in such directions were certainly not depraved, and he
writes: “The witch-hazel loves a hill-side with or without woods or
shrubs. It is always pleasant to come upon it unexpectedly as you are
threading the woods in such places. Methinks I attribute to it some
elfish quality apart from its fame. I love to behold its gray speckled
stems.” Under another date he writes: “Heard in the night a snapping
sound, and the fall of some small body on the floor from time to time.
In the morning I found it was produced by the witch-hazel nuts on my
desk springing open and casting their seeds quite across my chamber,
hard and stony as these nuts were.”
The Indians long ago discovered the value of its bark for medicinal
purposes, and it is now utilized in many well-known extracts. The forked
branches formerly served as divining-rods in the search for water and
precious ores. This belief in its mysterious power very possibly arose
from its suggestive title, which Dr. Prior says should be spelled
_wych_-hazel, as it was called after the wych-elm, whose leaves it
resembles, and which was so named because the chests termed in old times
“wyches” were made of its wood—
His hall rofe was full of bacon flytches,
The chambre charged was with wyches
Full of egges, butter, and chese.[4]
NOTE.—The flowers of the American Woodbine and of the Fly Honeysuckle
(p. 228), and of the Golden Corydalis (p. 192) are also yellow.
III
PINK
TRAILING ARBUTUS. MAYFLOWER. GROUND LAUREL.
_Epigæa repens._ Heath Family.
_Stem._—With rusty hairs, prostrate or trailing. _Leaves._—Rounded,
heart-shaped at base, evergreen. _Flowers._—Pink, clustered, fragrant.
_Calyx._—Of five sepals. _Corolla._—Five-lobed, salver-shaped, with a
slender tube which is hairy within. _Stamens._—Ten. _Pistil._—One,
with a five-lobed stigma.
Pink, small, and punctual,
Aromatic, low,
describes, but does scant justice to the trailing arbutus, whose waxy
blossoms and delicious breath are among the earliest prophecies of
perfume-laden summer. We look for these flowers in April—not beneath the
snow—where tradition rashly locates them—but under the dead brown leaves
of last year; and especially among the pines and in light sandy soil.
Appearing as they do when we are eager for some tangible assurance that
—the Spring comes slowly up this way,
they win from many of us the gladdest recognition of the year.
In New England they are called Mayflowers, being peddled about the
streets of Boston every spring, under the suggestive and loudly
emphasized title of “Ply-y-mouth Ma-ayflowers!” Whether they owe this
name to the ship which is responsible for so much, or to their season of
blooming, in certain localities, might remain an open question had we
not the authority of Whittier for attributing it to both causes. In a
note prefacing “The Mayflowers,” the poet says: “The trailing arbutus or
Mayflower grows abundantly in the vicinity of Plymouth, and was the
first flower to greet the Pilgrims after their fearful winter.” In the
poem itself he wonders what the old ship had
Within her ice-rimmed bay
In common with the wild-wood flowers,
The first sweet smiles of May?
and continues—
Yet “God be praised!” the Pilgrim said,
Who saw the blossoms peer
Above the brown leaves, dry and dead,
“Behold our Mayflower here!”
God wills it, here our rest shall be,
Our years of wandering o’er,
For us the Mayflower of the sea
Shall spread her sails no more.
O sacred flowers of faith and hope,
As sweetly now as then,
Ye bloom on many a birchen slope,
In many a pine-dark glen.
· · · · ·
So live the fathers in their sons,
Their sturdy faith be ours,
And ours the love that overruns
Its rocky strength with flowers.