Part 29

In open, dry, stony ground and slopes throughout the Rockies; flowering in June and July.

EMPETRACEÆ

Crowberry Family

Low evergreen shrubs with narrow nearly sessile leaves jointed to short pulvini, channelled on the lower side by the revolute margins and small monœcious, diœcious or rarely polygamous flowers; sepals, petals, and stamens each 3, fruit a black, berry-like drupe.

Smooth or the young shoots hairy, usually much branched, the branches diffusely spreading, 2—10 inches long. Leaves crowded, dark green, linear-oblong, thick and obtuse, about ¼ of an inch long with strongly revolute, roughish margins. Flowers very small, purplish; stamens exserted; berry nearly ¼ of an inch in diameter, black.

Frequent throughout the Rockies in damp woods, especially those of the “Jack Pine” where it frequently forms a considerable part of the forest floor, in dense, close mats.

CELASTRACEÆ

Staff-Tree Family

Shrubs with simple evergreen leaves, and regular perfect flowers, sepals, petals, and stamens each 4 in our species.

Low evergreen shrub, densely branched or nearly simple, 1—3 feet high. Leaves opposite, smooth, ovate to oblong or lanceolate, cuneate at the base, the upper half serrate or serrulate ½—1 inch long on very short petioles. Flowers small in axillary cymes; petals 4, stamens 4, inserted at the edge of the broad disc.

In gravelly and stony situations extending from the Valley of the Columbia River at Beavermouth, westward throughout the Selkirks, the minute blossoms appearing in the latter part of May; a pretty but very variable shrub in habit and leaf form.

ACERACEÆ

Maple Family

Trees or shrubs with watery often saccharine sap, opposite, simple and palmately lobed leaves and axillary or terminal, cymose or racemose, regular, polygamous or diœcious flowers; fruit of 2 long-winged samaras, joined at the base.

A shrub or small tree 6—30 feet high, 2—8 inches in diameter, smooth throughout except the scales which are densely soft, hairy inside. Leaves round-cordate with shallow sinus, 2—4 inches broad and nearly as long, more or less deeply 3-lobed or parted, the ovate-acuminate lobes doubly serrate with slender teeth; conspicuously veined. Flowers greenish-yellow, somewhat corymbose on short 2-leaved branchlets appearing after the leaves. Fruit smooth with slightly spreading wings about an inch long.

One of the few deciduous trees of the region, growing on slopes with the other forest trees and in the moist valleys.

HYPERICACEÆ

St. John’s-Wort Family

Herbs in our species with opposite, black-dotted leaves, and cymose yellow flowers; sepals and petals 5, twisted in the bud; stamens many.

Simple or sparingly branched above often with numerous small branchlets from running rootstocks, 1—2 feet high. Leaves thin, shorter than the internodes, about an inch long, mostly obtuse, more or less clasping and usually black-dotted along the margin. Flowers bright orange, ½—1 inch in diameter in more or less panicled cymes, sepals oval or oblong, much shorter than the petals, stamens numerous in three fascicles.

In moist gravelly soil in the Selkirks at Glacier; flowering in July.

VIOLACEÆ

Violet Family

Herbs in our species with basal or alternate simple leaves and solitary or clustered perfect irregular flowers; sepals 5, petals 5, the lower one larger or with a posterior spur.

Acaulescent; rootstock short and thick. Leaves long-petioled, smooth or more or less hairy, slightly fleshy, cordate with a broad sinus, acute or acuminate, crenately toothed. Flowers large, blue or violet, scapes 2—10 inches long, equalling or surpassing the leaves; petals narrow, ½—¾ of an inch long, all villous at the base, the 3 lower strongly so.

In moist shaded ground, on stream banks and in marshes, frequent throughout the Rockies; flowering in May and early June.

Acaulescent, smooth, petioles and scapes arising from a very slender, creeping or horizontal rootstock, the scapes mostly exceeding the leaves. Leaves thin, cordate, broadly ovate, orbicular or reniform, 1—2½ inches wide, crenulate. Flowers pale lilac or nearly white with darker veins; petals broad, ⅓—½ an inch long, spur short.

In marshy places among moss in the Selkirks near Glacier; flowering in June; not a common species in the region.