Wild Flowers Worth Knowing Part 11

Any one familiar with the Bleeding-heart _(Dicentra eximia)_ of old-fas.h.i.+oned gardens, found growing wild in the Alleghanies, and with the exquisite White Mountain Fringe _(Adlumia fungosa)_ often brought from the woods to be planted over shady trellises, or with the Dutchman's breeches, need not be told that the little squirrel corn is next of kin or far removed from the Pink Corydalis. It is not until we dig up the plant and look at its roots that we see why it received its name. A delicious perfume like hyacinths, only fainter and subtler, rises from the dainty blossoms.

MUSTARD FAMILY _(Cruciferae)_

Shepherd's Purse; Mother's Heart

_Capsella Bursa-pastoris_

_Flowers_--Small, white, in a long, loose raceme, followed by triangular and notched (somewhat heart-shaped) pods, the valves boat-shaped and keeled. Sepals and petals 4; stamens 6; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ 6 to 18 in.

high, from a deep root. _Leaves:_ Forming a rosette at base, 2 to 5 in.

long, more or less cut (pinnatifid), a few pointed, arrow-shaped leaves also scattered along stem and partly clasping it.

_Preferred Habitat_--Fields, roadsides, waste places.

_Flowering Season_--Almost throughout the year.

_Distribution_--Over nearly all parts of the earth.

From Europe this little low plant found its way, to become the commonest of our weeds, so completing its march around the globe. At a glance one knows it to be related to the alyssum and candytuft of our gardens, albeit a poor relation in spite of its vaunted purses--the tiny, heart-shaped seed-pods that so rapidly succeed the flowers. What is the secret of its successful march over the face of the earth? Like the equally triumphant chickweed, it is easily satisfied with unoccupied waste land, it avoids the fiercest compet.i.tion for insect trade by prolonging its season of bloom far beyond that of any native flower, for there is not a month in the year when one may not find it even in New England in sheltered places.

Black Mustard

_Bra.s.sica nigra_

_Flowers_--Bright yellow, fading pale, 1/4 to 1/2 in. across, 4-parted, in elongated racemes; quickly followed by narrow, upright 4-sided pods about 1/2 in. long appressed against the stem. _Stem:_ Erect, 2 to 7 ft.

tall, branching. _Leaves:_ Variously lobed and divided, finely toothed, the terminal lobe larger than the 2 to 4 side ones.

_Preferred Habitat_--Roadsides, fields, neglected gardens.

_Flowering Season_--June-November.

_Distribution_--Common throughout our area; naturalized from Europe and Asia.

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

Commentators differ as to which is the mustard of the parable--this common Black Mustard, or a rarer shrub-like tree (_Salvadora Persica_), with an equivalent Arabic name, a pungent odor, and a very small seed.

Inasmuch as the mustard which is systematically planted for fodder by Old World farmers grows with the greatest luxuriance in Palestine, and the comparison between the size of its seed and the plant's great height was already proverbial in the East when Jesus used it, evidence strongly favors this wayside weed. Indeed, the late Doctor Royle, who endeavored to prove that it was the shrub that was referred to, finally found that it does not grow in Galilee.

Now, there are two species which furnish the most powerfully pungent condiment known to commerce; but the tiny dark brown seeds of the Black Mustard are sharper than the serpent's tooth, whereas the pale brown seeds of the White Mustard, often mixed with them, are far more mild.

The latter (_Bra.s.sica alba_) is a similar, but more hairy, plant, with slightly larger yellow flowers. Its pods are constricted like a necklace between the seeds.

The coa.r.s.e Hedge Mustard (_Sisymbrium officinale_), with rigid, spreading branches, and spikes of tiny pale yellow flowers, quickly followed by awl-shaped pods that are closely appressed to the stem, abounds in waste places throughout our area. It blooms from May to November, like the next species.

Another common and most troublesome weed from Europe is the Field or Corn Mustard, Charlock or Field Kale (_Bra.s.sica arvensis_) found in grain fields, gardens, rich waste lands, and rubbish heaps. The alternate leaves, which stand boldly out from the stem, are oval, coa.r.s.ely saw-toothed, or the lower ones more irregular, and lobed at their bases, all rough to the touch, and conspicuously veined.

PITCHER-PLANT FAMILY _(Sarracenaceae)_

Pitcher-plant; Side-saddle Flower; Huntsman's Cup; Indian Dipper

_Sarracenea purpurea_

_Flower_--Deep reddish purple, sometimes partly greenish, pink, or red, 2 in. or more across, globose; solitary, nodding from scape 1 to 2 ft.

tall. Calyx of 5 sepals, with 3 or 4 bracts at base; 5 overlapping petals, enclosing a yellowish, umbrella-shaped dilation of the style, with 5 rays terminating in 5-hooked stigmas; stamens indefinite.

_Leaves:_ Hollow, pitcher-shaped through the folding together of their margins, leaving a broad wing; much inflated, hooded, yellowish green with dark maroon or purple lines and veinings, 4 to 12 in. long, curved, in a tuft from the root.

_Preferred Habitat_--Peat-bogs; spongy, mossy swamps.

_Flowering Season_--May-June.

_Distribution_--Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, south to Florida, Kentucky, and Minnesota.

"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 suns.h.i.+ne sweet; They shouldn't eat Or do aught so degrading!"

There must always be something shocking in the sacrifice of the higher life to the lower, of the sensate to what we are pleased to call the insensate, although no one who has studied the marvellously intelligent motives that impel a plant's activities can any longer consider the vegetable creation as lacking sensibility. Science is at length giving us a glimmering of the meaning of the word universe, teaching, as it does, that all creatures in sharing the One Life share in many of its powers, and differ from one another only in degree of possession, not in kind. The transition from one so-called kingdom into another presumably higher one is a purely arbitrary line marked by man, and often impossible to define. The animalcule and the insectivorous plant know no boundaries between the animal and the vegetable. And who shall say that the sundew or the bladderwort is not a higher organism than the amoeba?

Animated plants and vegetating animals parallel each other. Several hundred carnivorous plants in all parts of the world have now been named by scientists.

It is well worth a journey to some spongy, sphagnum bog to gather clumps of pitcher-plants which will furnish an interesting study to an entire household throughout the summer while they pursue their nefarious business in a shallow bowl on the veranda. A modification of the petiole forms a deep, hollow pitcher having for its spout a modification of the blade of the leaf. Usually the pitchers are half filled with water and tiny drowned victims when we gather them. Some of this fluid must be rain, but the open pitcher secretes much juice, too. Certain relatives, whose pitchers have hooded lids that keep out rain, are nevertheless filled with fluid. On the Pacific Coast the golden jars of _Darlingtonia californica_, with their overarching hoods, are often so large and watery as to drown small birds and field mice. Note in pa.s.sing that these otherwise dark prisons have translucent spots at the top, whereas our pitcher-plant is lighted through its open transom.

A sweet secretion within the pitcher's rim, which some say is intoxicating, others that it is an anesthetic, invites insects to a fatal feast. It is a simple enough matter for them to walk into the pitcher over the band of stiff hairs pointing downward like the withes of a lobster pot, that form an inner covering, or to slip into the well if they attempt crawling over its polished upper surface. To fly upward in a perpendicular line, once their wings are wet, is additionally hopeless, because of the hairs that guard the mouth of the trap; and so, after vain attempts to fly or crawl out of the prison, they usually sink exhausted into a watery grave.

When certain plants live in soil that is so poor in nitrogen compounds that proteid formation is interfered with, they have come to depend more or less on a carnivorous diet. The sundew actually digests its prey with the help of a gastric juice similar to what is found in the stomach of animals; but the bladderwort and pitcher-plants can only absorb in the form of soup the products of their victims' decay. Flies and gnats drowned in these pitchers quickly yield their poor little bodies; but owing to the beetle's hard sh.e.l.l covering, many a rare specimen may be rescued intact to add to a collection.

A similar ogre plant is the yellow-flowered Trumpet-leaf (_S. flava_) found in bogs in the Southern states.

SUNDEW FAMILY _(Droseraceae)_

Round-leaved Sundew; Dew-plant

_Drosera rotundifolia_

_Flowers_--Small, white, growing in a 1-sided, curved raceme of buds chiefly. Calyx usually 5-parted; usually 5 petals, and as many stamens as petals; usually 3 styles, but 2-cleft, thus appearing to be twice as many. _Scape:_ 4 to 10 in. high. _Leaves:_ Growing in an open rosette on the ground; round or broader, clothed with reddish bristly hairs tipped with purple glands, and narrowed into long, flat, hairy petioles; young leaves curled like fern fronds.

_Preferred Habitat_--Bogs, sandy and sunny marshes.

_Flowering Season_--July-August.