Wild Flowers Worth Knowing Part 17

_Flowers_--Numerous, very small, variable; bright magenta pink, or almost red, or pale to whiteness, or greenish, cl.u.s.tered in a globular clover-like head, gradually lengthening to a cylindric spike. _Stem_: 6 to 15 in. high, smooth, branched above, leafy. _Leaves_: Alternate, narrowly oblong, entire.

_Preferred Habitat_--Fields and meadows, moist or sandy.

_Flowering Season_--June-September.

_Distribution_--Southern Canada to North Carolina, westward to the Mississippi.

When these bright clover-like heads and the inconspicuous greenish ones grow together, the difference between them is so striking it is no wonder Linnaeus thought they were borne by two distinct species, _Sanguinea_ and _viridescens_, whereas they are now known to be merely two forms of the same flower. At first glance one might mistake the irregular little blossom for a member of the pea family; two of the five very unequal sepals--not petals--are colored wings. These bright-hued calyx-parts overlap around the flower-head like tiles on a roof. Within each pair of wings are three petals united into a tube, split on the back, to expose the vital organs to contact with the bee, the milkwort's best friend.

Plants of this genus were named polygala, the Greek for much milk, not because they have milky juice--for it is bitter and clear--but because feeding on them is supposed to increase the flow of cattle's milk.

TOUCH-ME-NOT FAMILY _(Balsaminaceae)_

Jewel-weed; Spotted Touch-me-not; Silver Cap; Wild Balsam; Lady's Eardrops; Snap Weed; Wild Lady's Slipper

_Impatiens biflora (I. fulva)_

_Flowers_--Orange yellow, spotted with reddish brown, irregular, 1 in.

long or less, horizontal, 2 to 4 pendent by slender footstalks on a long peduncle from leaf axils. Sepals, 3, colored; 1 large, sac-shaped, contracted into a slender incurved spur and 2-toothed at apex; 2 other sepals small. Petals, 3; 2 of them 2-cleft into dissimilar lobes; 5 short stamens, 1 pistil. _Stem_: 2 to 5 ft. high, smooth, branched, colored, succulent. _Leaves_: Alternate, thin, pale beneath, ovate coa.r.s.ely toothed, petioled. _Fruit_: An oblong capsule, its 5 valves opening elastically to expel the seeds.

_Preferred Habitat_--Beside streams, ponds, ditches; moist ground.

_Flowering Season_--July-October.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Oregon, south to Missouri and Florida.

These exquisite, bright flowers, hanging at a horizontal, like jewels from a lady's ear, may be responsible for the plant's folk-name; but whoever is abroad early on a dewy morning, or after a shower, and finds notched edges of the drooping leaves hung with scintillating gems, dancing, sparkling in the suns.h.i.+ne, sees still another reason for naming this the Jewel-weed. In a brook, pond, spring, or wayside trough, which can never be far from its haunts, dip a spray of the plant to transform the leaves into glistening silver. They shed water much as the nasturtiums do.

When the tiny ruby-throated humming bird flashes northward out of the tropics to spend the summer, where can he hope to find nectar so deeply secreted that not even the long-tongued b.u.mblebee may rob him of it all?

Beyond the bird's bill his tongue can be run out and around curves no other creature can reach. Now the early-blooming columbine, its slender cornucopias br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sweets, welcomes the messenger whose needle-like bill will carry pollen from flower to flower; presently the coral honeysuckle and the scarlet painted-cup attract him by wearing his favorite color; next the jewel-weed hangs horns of plenty to lure his eye; and the trumpet vine and cardinal flower continue to feed him successively in Nature's garden; albeit cannas, nasturtiums, salvia, gladioli, and such deep, irregular showy flowers in men's flower beds sometimes lure him away.

Familiar as we may be with the nervous little seed-pods of the touch-me-not, which children ever love to pop and see the seeds fly, as they do from balsam pods in grandmother's garden, they still startle with the suddenness of their volley. Touch the delicate hair-trigger at the end of a capsule, and the lightning response of the flying seeds makes one jump. They sometimes land four feet away. At this rate of progress a year, and with the other odds against which all plants have to contend, how many generations must it take to fringe even one mill pond with jewel-weed; yet this is rapid transit indeed compared with many of Nature's processes. The plant is a conspicuous sufferer from the dodder.

The Pale Touch-me-not _(I. aurea)_--_I. pallida_ of Gray--most abundant northward, a larger, stouter species found in similar situations, but with paler yellow flowers only sparingly dotted if at all, has its broader sac-shaped sepal abruptly contracted into a short, notched, but not incurved spur. It shares its sister's popular names.

BUCKTHORN FAMILY _(Rhamnaceae)_

New Jersey Tea; Wild s...o...b..ll; Red-root

_Ceanothus america.n.u.s_

_Flowers_--Small, white, on white pedicels, crowded in dense, oblong, terminal cl.u.s.ters. Calyx white, hemispheric, 5-lobed; 5 petals, hooded and long-clawed; 5 stamens with long filaments; style short, 3-cleft.

_Stems:_ Shrubby, 1 to 3 ft. high, usually several, from a deep reddish root. _Leaves:_ Alternate, ovate-oblong, acute at tip, finely saw-edged, 3-nerved, on short petioles.

_Preferred Habitat_--Dry, open woods and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--May-July.

_Distribution_--Ontario south and west to the Gulf of Mexico.

Light, feathery cl.u.s.ters of white little flowers crowded on the twigs of this low shrub interested thrifty colonial housewives of Revolutionary days not at all; the tender, young, rusty, downy leaves were what they sought to dry as a subst.i.tute for imported tea. Doubtless the thought that they were thereby evading George the Third's tax and brewing patriotism in every kettleful added a sweetness to the home-made beverage that sugar itself could not impart. The American troops were glad enough to use New Jersey Tea throughout the war. A nankeen or cinnamon-colored dye is made from the reddish root.

MALLOW FAMILY _(Malvaceae)_

Swamp Rose-mallow; Mallow Rose

_Hibiscus Moscheutos_

_Flowers_--Very large, clear rose pink, sometimes white, often with crimson centre, 4 to 7 in. across, solitary, or cl.u.s.tered on peduncles at summit of stems. Calyx 5-cleft, subtended by numerous narrow bractlets; 5 large, veined petals; stamens united into a valvular column bearing anthers on the outside for much of its length; 1 pistil partly enclosed in the column, and with 5 b.u.t.ton-tipped stigmatic branches above. _Stem_: 4 to 7 ft. tall, stout, from perennial root. _Leaves_: 3 to 7 in. long, tapering, pointed, egg-shaped, densely white, downy beneath; lower leaves, or sometimes all, lobed at middle.

_Preferred Habitat_--Brackish marshes, riversides, lake sh.o.r.es, saline situations.

_Flowering Season_--August-September.

_Distribution_--Ma.s.sachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Louisiana; found locally in the interior, but chiefly along Atlantic seaboard.

Stately ranks of these magnificent flowers, growing among the tall sedges and "cat-tails" of the marshes, make the most insensate traveller exclaim at their amazing loveliness. To reach them one must don rubber boots and risk sudden seats in the slippery ooze; nevertheless, with spade in hand to give one support, it is well worth while to seek them out and dig up some roots to transplant to the garden. Here, strange to say, without salt soil or more water than the average garden receives from showers and hose, this handsomest of our wild flowers soon makes itself delightfully at home under cultivation. Such good, deep earth, well enriched and moistened, as the hollyhock thrives in, suits it perfectly. Now we have a better opportunity to note how the bees suck the five nectaries at the base of the petals, and collect the abundant pollen of the newly-opened flowers, which they perforce transfer to the five b.u.t.ton-shaped stigmas intentionally impeding the entrance to older blossoms. Only its cousin the hollyhock, a native of China, can vie with the rose-mallow's decorative splendor among the shrubbery; and the Rose of China (_Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis_), cultivated in greenhouses here, eclipse it in the beauty of the individual blossom. This latter flower, whose superb scarlet corolla stains black, is employed by the Chinese married women, it is said, to discolor their teeth; but in the West Indies it sinks to even greater ignominy as a dauber for blacking shoes!

Marsh Mallow (_Althaea officinalis_), a name frequently misapplied to the Swamp Rose-mallow, is properly given to a much smaller pink flower, measuring only an inch and a half across at the most, and a far rarer one, being a naturalized immigrant from Europe found only in the salt marshes from the Ma.s.sachusetts coast to New York. It is also known as Wymote. This is a bushy, leafy plant, two to four feet high, and covered with velvety down as a protection against the clogging of its pores by the moisture arising from its wet retreats. Plants that live in swamps must "perspire" freely and keep their pores open. From the Marsh Mallow's thick roots the mucilage used in confectionery is obtained, a soothing demulcent long esteemed in medicine.

ST. JOHN'S-WORT FAMILY _(Hypericaceae)_

Common St. John's-wort

_Hyperic.u.m perforatum_

_Flowers_--Bright yellow, 1 in. across or less, several or many in terminal cl.u.s.ters. Calyx of 5 lance-shaped sepals; 5 petals dotted with black; numerous stamens in 3 sets; 3 styles. _Stem_: 1 to 2 ft. high, erect, much branched. _Leaves_: Small, opposite, oblong, more or less black-dotted.

_Preferred Habitat_--Fields, waste lands, roadsides.